I understand after watching us against Derby why people think we are in an "Unrealistic place" of 4th. But that fact is that we will play a blinder in one of our next 2 games. People say that how we are playing (that has us in 4th) will not continue. But think about it. Are you happy with Newcastles performances? No, because we are getting some very bad results. Surely we can only get better after that Derby game, especially as Dyer is coming back. So the way we are playing will continue! We have played 1/3rd of the season and haven't played as well as we can. If we play the same crap one game amazing the next why shouldn't we maintain 4th? Because the other big clubs will win nearly every game? I'm sure we would of said the same about the Manure at the start of the season. And look at how they're doing and Chelsea for that matter. So if we play the same and get similar results for the next 2/3rds of the season then we could finish 6th. But I think we've got more chance of improving than maintaining this crap/good system. So is it really so unrealistic that we could make Europe or Champs league?

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

Answers

I think quite a few of us have thought similar things, but were afraid to say (superstitions and all that)

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

It is our lack of consistency that has everyone so frustrated Jim. The argument is that if we can play as we played against Man U and Villa - I also thought we played well at Bolton - how can we descend to the depths we showed against WHU, Spurs and yet again yesterday.

IMO, we have a few very good attacking players (plus a decent goaly) who can - and have - turned games, but that overall our squad is not good enough. We lack energy, drive and creativity in m/f, and still cannot defend professionally, particularly at set-pieces. On top of this we are tactically naive. All this is an ideal recipe for inconsistency.

It seems difficult to see this changing in the short term. However, given the lack of any really dominant teams in the PL, and the committment of Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal to the CL, it looks as though the PL will stay an open competition this season. I would say we are too inconsustent to qualify for the CL, but UEFA qualification could be a realistic hope - particularly if we invest in one or two more players to strengthen the squad a little further.

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

Agree Clarky, even a player like Robert, who played awful yesterday, has the ability to turn a game. Yesterday he won a penalty, last week he won a penalty again.

He is still a great free kick taker but to my memory has only taken 3 free kicks (scored from two of them)

A centre midfielder like Vieira would seriously help our team.

However, the fact that we won yesterday has to be a good sign, last season I can remember a few games when we played well but lost, so it's nice to do it the other way round now.

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

There's a long way to go lads and lasses: we could conceivably go the whole of December without getting a point. To my mind, our best bet for Europe is one of the Cups although we need to aim as high as possible in the PL. This is why Bobby and the players saying we can forget a really high placing is so annoying - aim for the league title lads, and Europe will take care of itself.

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

Really what I'm saying is... We're paying badly and we're 4th. Therefore the way we're playing at the moment is the 4th best in the league. So why should our position get any worse when our team can only eally improve. It's not as if we've payed all the easy teams in our first 3rd. So i'ts not going to get any touher. So if we play like we are for another 3rd of the season we should remain 4th. But surely we are a lot better than the way we have been playing?

Lets go for the title!!! ;)

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention this but did anyone see Acuna's Goaty on Saturay as he warmed up? He looks so f**king hard now. I know it's hard to imagine but trust me. He has to get into the 1st team now. Did any1 else see it?

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

Problem is our inconsistency becomes glaringly obvious when we play the middle/lower teams in the PL, so really it only gets tougher. As we've shown over the last few seasons. Really no change, and no reason to get overly optimistic. Though it does seem like we are starting to grind our results where in the past we just laid down and died, so there is a glimmer of hope. We still need to learn to battle in every match, not just the big ones. They're all big as far as we're concerned. We have a team that is more than capable of qualifying for Europe providing we play as a team, consistently

Anyway Dougal, we'll get a few points in December. I've yet to see us lose all our matches when I'm over at the holidays. Then again, there's a first time for everything. ;-))

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

Being the eternal pessimist, this fairly good start to the season just gives the lads a bigger excuse to say "job well done" and sit on their arses once we get knocked out of the Cups. This season they've got the added excuse of their exhaustion after such an early start to the season with the Inter Toto.

Apologies, rose tinted specs were mislaid some time ago.

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2001

John Gregary said something interesting in the Observer (No he did!) He said that teams like Man U and Arsenal have so much quality in the squad that they can play at only 74% and still win. He said Villa need to play pretty much at 90% to keep winning consistently especially against the 'big' teams. I think that goes for us. We play at the top of our game sometimes but we can't maintain that as we don't have the quality or strength in depth. In saying that though, this 'false position' is annoying. We are there through getting a certain number of points not just by accident!

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2001

Spot on Lynda - that post sums up my thoughts. I think I'd say that the top 3/4 teams can play at ca. 90% to win consistently, whereas we have to perform at 95%+ - something that is virtually impossible, hence the 'inconsistency'.
Hate to admit to agreeing with the Prince of Darkness, but this makes good sense to me.

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2001

Surely the season so far has shown that even the Manu, Chelseas and to an extent Arsenals, Liverpools and Leeds' of the premiership are struggling with consistency - because a below par performance these days is liable to lose you the match, pretty much regardless of who it's against. If the players of any team go into any match thinking a 75% performance should win it, probability is they'll lose.
It's the curse of talent that even allows people to think along these lines. Players go in and out of form. Consistency is achieved by teamwork and hard graft to paper over those fluctuations of form. There aren't enough teams showing this at the moment, hence the inconsistency. Getting a nice comfortable feeling by eying up the strength of your squad on paper means sweet fa whne the whistle blows.

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2001

Sorry clarky and Lynda, (nice name by the way Lynda), but I disagree. The so called top teams mentioned can play with 6 or 7 changes to a team and still win. We put the same 11 - 13 players out every week and get good and bad games out of them, results are immaterial.

Everyone will say we are lucky to be where we are because the games that count to them are the ones where we play badly. We on the other hand dwell on the good performances.

Playing well consistently should have nothing to do with winning or losing and more to do with desire skill commitment and luck.

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2001

what is more worrying is our home "form". With the stadium expanded it should be a house of horrors for opposing sides, but I get the feeling there are times that when we are not putting out our best, the place turns into a mausoleum. If we take care of the home matches, and win even 50% of our away ones, this would not be an issue at all.

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2001

One of the oldest footballing cliches in the book is that 'the league tables never lie'. We're 4th because there are only 3 teams who have consistently been better than us so far this season. We might not be playing brilliantly, but it seems neither is anyone else. 7 points from our next 3 games is a very realistic target, then the real fun starts!

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2001