Excuse my over optimism but...

[Ringmer bha]

I don’t see any problems with the way the season is panning out. And certainly not with the way Gus is handling himself. Sure he contradicts himself a lot, but that is part of his appeal and I wouldn’t change him for any other manager right now.

I feel sorry for him really as he is having to operate without his entire first choice midfield. Let’s face it if everyone was on form and fully fit his midfield would probably be: Lua Lua, Buckley, Vincente & Bridcutt. Right now they are all missing.

His forward line would probably have included Hoskins and his defence, last year’s Player of the Season, El Abd.

So there are 6 first team starters missing. Throw into that the loss of form of Harley and (questionably) Calderon, Painter, Ankergren and now Dunk and that is pretty much (bar CMS) his preferred 11 screwed.

It’ll come. We just need a bit of luck and a goal off Billy Paynter’s shin and we’ll be back.

We’re not going to win the league - that was never going to happen – but mid table with the dream of 6th place is not so bad.

For me anyway...

 

[The Terminator]

Gus poyet is the best thing that has happened to this club in a long long time , all great managers go though bad spells . All we need is a decent performance and 3 points and we will be back . mid table finish looks realistic and i for one would be happy with that .

 

[Medwayseagull]

I don’t see any problems with the way the season is panning out. And certainly not with the way Gus is handling himself. Sure he contradicts himself a lot, but that is part of his appeal and I wouldn’t change him for any other manager right now.

I feel sorry for him really as he is having to operate without his entire first choice midfield. Let’s face it if everyone was on form and fully fit his midfield would probably be: Lua Lua, Buckley, Vincente & Bridcutt. Right now they are all missing.

His forward line would probably have included Hoskins and his defence, last year’s Player of the Season, El Abd.

So there are 6 first team starters missing. Throw into that the loss of form of Harley and (questionably) Calderon, Painter, Ankergren and now Dunk and that is pretty much (bar CMS) his preferred 11 screwed.

It’ll come. We just need a bit of luck and a goal off Billy Paynter’s shin and we’ll be back.

We’re not going to win the league - that was never going to happen – but mid table with the dream of 6th place is not so bad.

For me anyway...

Amen to that but for goodness sake it is VICENTE!!!!!!!

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

Agree with you. We haven't got huge squad depth so still to be competing at this level (we haven't been hammered out of sight in a game yet anyway), is quite an achievement. I must admit I got carried away with the start and thought we would definitely be play off material, but have gone back to my pre season hopes/expectations of mid table. With a signing or two in January and then another summer of strengthening next season should be a more realistic shout for a sustained playoff push.

Still loving this season and looking forward to every game as much as I did at the start of the year

 

[Daffy Duck]

Agree with you. We haven't got huge squad depth so still to be competing at this level (we haven't been hammered out of sight in a game yet anyway), is quite an achievement. I must admit I got carried away with the start and thought we would definitely be play off material, but have gone back to my pre season hopes/expectations of mid table. With a signing or two in January and then another summer of strengthening next season should be a more realistic shout for a sustained playoff push.

Still loving this season and looking forward to every game as much as I did at the start of the year

Absolutely this!

Some positive posts as opposed to all the negative crap that's been posted on here today.

 

[Frutos]

Please stop being so rational and sensible around here...

 

[jessiejames]

Agree with all the above

 

[rockypaul]

What a breathe of fresh air for once on NSC...
all that seems to be posted of late seems to start off with good intentions with good constructive comments and views
then the doom merchants get stuck in...
lets be positive.. support your team through thick & thin, Gus will get it right...
great post 'Ringmer bha' someone else who has the same passion for the mighty seagulls

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Did any of you go to the game yesterday?

 

[Randsta]

Bring back Barry Lloyd

 

[chucky1973]

finally a thread of realism...hip hip hooray

 

[TerryT]

Amen to that but for goodness sake it is VICENTE!!!!!!!

100% agree

 

[pasty]

Let's face it if everyone was on form and fully fit his midfield would probably be: Lua Lua, Buckley, Vincente & Bridcutt. Right now they are all missing.

His forward line would probably have included Hoskins and his defence, last year's Player of the Season, El Abd.

So there are 6 first team starters missing. Throw into that the loss of form of Harley and (questionably) Calderon, Painter, Ankergren and now Dunk and that is pretty much (bar CMS) his preferred 11 screwed.

That does kinda put things into perspective somewhat doesn't it.

 

[APACHE]

Sadly we live in the age of Sky TV where everyone gets to see the Barcelona, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Man.Utd, etc. The Albion are none of these, yet, but many of our fans think they should be playing like them. Only 1 team gets to win the title each year, last year it was us, I'm pretty sure this year we won't. I can live with that as the team will improve and no team stays at the top for ever.You take the good with the bad and move on.

 

[Eastleigh Northstander]

I'm already dreading listening to the moaners that sit behind me in the north stand, their patience goes as far as our first attack, if we don't score from it they then spend the rest of the game moaning and calling Poyet a twat. Does anyone else have to put up with this elsewhere or is it just in the north stand ?

 

[Brownstuff]

I don’t see any problems with the way the season is panning out. And certainly not with the way Gus is handling himself. Sure he contradicts himself a lot, but that is part of his appeal and I wouldn’t change him for any other manager right now.

I feel sorry for him really as he is having to operate without his entire first choice midfield. Let’s face it if everyone was on form and fully fit his midfield would probably be: Lua Lua, Buckley, Vincente & Bridcutt. Right now they are all missing.

His forward line would probably have included Hoskins and his defence, last year’s Player of the Season, El Abd.

So there are 6 first team starters missing. Throw into that the loss of form of Harley and (questionably) Calderon, Painter, Ankergren and now Dunk and that is pretty much (bar CMS) his preferred 11 screwed.

It’ll come. We just need a bit of luck and a goal off Billy Paynter’s shin and we’ll be back.

We’re not going to win the league - that was never going to happen – but mid table with the dream of 6th place is not so bad.

For me anyway...

Good post
I'm not too worried also
West Ham will win the league and their fans booed them last night and they are 2nd in the league
We also outplayed West Ham, I know we hardly had any shots but the potential was there
I was really pissed off after that game but soon got over it as I will do after last night's poor performance
At present there is not a major difference between top of the league and bottom and everyone will take points off each other
The good thing is that we are only losing by the odd goal and the 3 quick goals scenario against us like the Palace and Ipswich games seems to have been erased
We will be building from a solid defence and I think when we eventually score 2 goals in quick succession in a game the confidence will come back and the goals will flow once more
Am looking forward also to when Buckley returns to full fitness and Hoskins gets a proper run out

 

[HH Brighton]

Good post
I'm not too worried also
West Ham will win the league and their fans booed them last night and they are 2nd in the league
We also outplayed West Ham, I know we hardly had any shots but the potential was there
I was really pissed off after that game but soon got over it as I will do after last night's poor performance
At present there is not a major difference between top of the league and bottom and everyone will take points off each other
The good thing is that we are only losing by the odd goal and the 3 quick goals scenario against us like the Palace and Ipswich games seems to have been erased
We will be building from a solid defence and I think when we eventually score 2 goals in quick succession in a game the confidence will come back and the goals will flow once more
Am looking forward also to when Buckley returns to full fitness and Hoskins gets a proper run out

Another good post. Admitedly our recent run is not ideal but a couple of wins and we are still up there. Before the season started I siad I would be happy with mid table and I still think thats where will finish. The trouble with starting so well is people have unrealistic expectations. In some ways it would have been better to have started the season winning some and losing some so people keep themselves grounded. As it is we get this completely OTT hysterical reaction, seems to be from people newly registered to.....

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

Last night was frustrating to watch but I too remain optimistic while we have such a strong group of players to come back from injury and squad rotation. There are not many teams that could suffer from our injury list and the disruption brought by lack of match time for our strongest team. No one has yet seen Vicente, Buckley, Reyes and Hoskins all play together (or with Paynter). Plus El Abd to return. If we are not much stronger after that lot have played a few games together then I will start to get seriously concerned. Until then Gus can only play the fit players and use tactics to suit their strengths. Sadly the latter went wrong last night.

Probably the most significant absentee was Reyes who would have tightened up the defence and injected a bit more vision into our movement. I think the whole balance of the game would have been been better - Watford would not have got off to such a good start and we would have played less like numpties. The die was then cast when Bridders was taken off and poor old Tanno had to cover up the cracks.

Harper aimed several of his kicks towards Billy Paynter - presumably because he is our target man. I thought Paynter got in a few decent flicks from these but CMS / AN Other were not on his wavelength.

No one looks to put CMS in when he is on the shoulder of a defender. There was only one example last night and immediately CMS skinned his marker and tore into the box but just slightly over ran it. This seemed to cause panic among the defence but none of our boys repeated the tactic. To his credit CMS still put a big shift in - but must be getting frustrated.

Couldnt understand why Harley and Sparrow were reluctant to shoot when in space close to their penalty box and defenders were backing off. Only Nooney seemed willing to have shots but even he faded out of the game. It was the same against West Ham when we had good possession but didnt test the keeper on a greasy pitch.

My biggest concern is that in the second half last night we gained a lot more space and had chances to break at speed but were painfully slow to switch attacks across the pitch whilst Watford were out of position. When we did it seemed that Painter was unable to play an early ball to capitalise on our movement. Virtually every time he checked back and played a sideways ball which gave their defence time to regroup. I am very supportive of the squad but do feel that Painter is lacking defensively and in his ability to get the ball forward at critical times. If Dunk had played we may have coped better with Watfords big boys and Calde might have had more freedom.

Lets get the full strength squad fit and get the tactics right - then see how good we really are before writing off our chances. We have a cracking set of players even compared to 3 months ago.

 

[marshy68]

Did any of you go to the game yesterday?

absolutely this

 

[clippedgull]

Some good points made above.

As for the injured players, yes, they may be first choice but Gus has assembled the squad not to have any weak points. Even he himself refused to take the easy route last night and blame the abject performance on his growing injury list.

It's just that the players that are there by default are not taking instructions from training into matches. Let's hope that the missing players will make a difference when they return, because, if not, then where do we go from there?