Have we had an easy start?

[JJB]

Leicester, arn't a unit. The reason we lost to them was purely down to starting slowly and getting punished for it. If you get to halftime level I expect you'll beat them, we absolutly battered them and it took several saves from Schmeichel to keep us out including an absolute worldy from lallana that will probably be save of the season.

They line up 4-1-2-1-2, not sure how this will work against yourselves but against us it had very little effect once we woke up, our play is all about getting it out wide and getting the ball into the box, with 4 central midfield players, we just by-passed them and should have got a victory.

I'll stick my neck out and go for a 1-1 draw.

 

[JJB]

Also yes, on paper you have had an easier start, but you still have to bet what' infront of you and in this league you're not going to have an 'easy' game, you will be mde to work, and if you work hard enough, you will win.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

, a wise man once told me, stop the opposition from scoring and you can't loose

He can't have been that wise

 

[Simster]

Of our opponents so far, in my opinion, Blackpool and Cardiff will be sniffing around the play off places this season. Of Southampton's opponents, only Leicester and possibly Leeds.

However, we've played a few sides who will have relegation fears - Doncaster, Peterborough and perhaps Bristol City. I think the only team who will be in a relegation fight that Southampton have played will be Ipswich.

 

[albion534]

He can't have been that wise

You serious

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

All we can say, regardless of which teams we play against.

1) Our defence is solid
2) We will create chances from all over the pitch. Wing play, central midfield, set pieces, you name it.
3) We will score goals
4) We aren't reliant on one, or even two individuals to score.

Of the games I've seen us play, namely Doncaster, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Cardiff and Peterborough, we created very few chances indeed. Luckily CMS and Barnes haven't missed many of the few we've had.

 

[FloridaGull]

Of our opponents so far, in my opinion, Blackpool and Cardiff will be sniffing around the play off places this season. Of Southampton's opponents, only Leicester and possibly Leeds.

However, we've played a few sides who will have relegation fears - Doncaster, Peterborough and perhaps Bristol City. I think the only team who will be in a relegation fight that Southampton have played will be Ipswich.

You always fancy yourself at home, it's the AWAY games that are the measure of toughness of schedule. Disregarding their reults against us, our away oppents have won 5, lost 2. That's tough! By the same measure, Soton's away opponents have won 4, lost 6. Not so tough!

 

[westy]

I wouldn't say we've had an easy start but it could have been tougher. Blackpool have impressed me the most so far but we should have beaten them really. 2-0 at home you don't expect to loose but I think we learnt from that game.

Leicester don't fill me with too much concern to be honest. Scraping a draw at Barnsley is hardly impressive and Sven's (lack of) tactics should play into our hands. I have a good friend who is a Leicester fanatic, home and away guy and he thinks Sven's is a clown and doesn't hold out any hope of them troubling the top 2 despite the money spent. If we can keep Beckford quiet and we play as well as we can I see no reason why we cant get at least a draw up there if not the win.

 

[Simster]

You serious

Of course he is. You can't SPELL.

 

[JJB]

Ipswich will be nearer the playoffs than relegation come the end of the season. We've played teams that pre season were favourites for promotion/playoffs (leeds, ipswich, Milwall, Leicester, Forest) and done very well against them. We have had a very tough start, which continues with Brum next week, Burnley away, and Cardiff Away. We don't really have a more comfortable st of fixtures until the end of the season.

 

[Simster]

Ipswich will be nearer the playoffs than relegation come the end of the season. We've played teams that pre season were favourites for promotion/playoffs (leeds, ipswich, Milwall, Leicester, Forest) and done very well against them. We have had a very tough start, which continues with Brum next week, Burnley away, and Cardiff Away. We don't really have a more comfortable st of fixtures until the end of the season.

I think Ipswich will have to wait until next season before they sort themselves out, and then only if they stick with their manager. Forest were expected to be among the pace setters, but they don't seem to be opening the purse strings and McClaren has already been in to seek assurances from the chairman. Leeds look very Jekyll and Hyde to me, and Millwall are a selling club who sold their top scorer 2 months ago - mid table would be a good season for them. In short, you're overestimating the quality of some of your opponents. Personally, I fancy Blackpool to finish above ALL of those teams you list, with the possible exception of Leicester.

 

[Ernest]

As everyone knows the facts do not lie, at the start of the season the bookies predicted we would finish 11th, now they predict we will finish 4th. The teams that we have played - Doncaster predicted to be 24th, Portsmouth were 15th, Cardiff were 9th, Blackpool were 10th, Peterboro 22nd and Bristol City were 17th so it would be fair to say that we haven't yet played any of the predicted big guns yet but it could also be said that we are doing exactly what we did last season and making no mistakes against any of the inferior teams.

The best way is to see where we are is when we get to 50 points, if we have 50 points by the New Year then we will be playing Premiership football next season.

 

[JBizzleBeard]

You serious

 

[westy]

Ipswich will be nearer the playoffs than relegation come the end of the season. We've played teams that pre season were favourites for promotion/playoffs (leeds, ipswich, Milwall, Leicester, Forest) and done very well against them. We have had a very tough start, which continues with Brum next week, Burnley away, and Cardiff Away. We don't really have a more comfortable st of fixtures until the end of the season.

You will be ok in those games, Brum are average despite their win the other day, Burnley are poor and Cardiff are hit and miss. I wouldn't worry too much about any of those fixtures.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Of the games I've seen us play, namely Doncaster, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Cardiff and Peterborough, we created very few chances indeed. Luckily CMS and Barnes haven't missed many of the few we've had.

Are you serious? We create very few chances?

 

[simmo]

Are you serious? We create very few chances?

I agree WTF??

I have seen a lot of those games too, another way to think about it is this. In those games, how many chances did our opponents create compared to ours.

Against Doncaster, CMS and Noone both had glorious chances before we equalised. We were in total cruise control against Peterborough. I didn't go to Cardiff but by all accounts it was one of best ever Gus Poyet performances (and there have been loads to choose from).

CMS and Barnes are doing well, but Buckley, Hoskins, Noone, Harley have all scored too?

Let's have a bit of a comparison. How would you feel if you were a Bristol City season ticket holder. Games at home three, goals scored zero.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Are you serious? We create very few chances?

Yes. Against Doncaster there was a clear chance for Barnes, couple of shots where Noone should have done better and a long-range effort from CMS before Buckley's brace; I can't recall much about the Gillingham game but know we weren't exactly peppering their goal; at Pompey both Vincelot and Noone had a long-range curler saved, and that was it, whilst Pompey had a good ten shots on (or over) the goal; at Cardiff the only decent chance other than the three goals came when CMS hit the post; again Cardiff created at least 6 or 7 chances and should have done better; and against Peterborough there was CMS's header that he should have scored, and I can't remember much else from us.

I wasn't at the Blackpool, Sunderland or Bristol games, and maybe we created a hatful of chances in those games; but the ones I've been to the opposition (donny aside) had more clearcut chances than we did, but were wasteful whereas we were clinical.

Thats not to say we haven't made the defences work hard to keep us out, I thought Pompey's back 4 were excellent in preventing us creating more chances from all our possession.

 

[Gazwag]

Of the games I've seen us play, namely Doncaster, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Cardiff and Peterborough, we created very few chances indeed. Luckily CMS and Barnes haven't missed many of the few we've had.

TBH I would say the opposite, had CMS, Barnes and Noone put away a higher % of their chances our goal difference would be immense.

 

[Notters]

It was pretty clear to me that at Bristol we were only shooting when we thought we'd scored (rightly or wrongly). I think looking at the number of shots may be a bit of a red herring.

One thing I have noticed is that the pitches in this league are of a much higher standard, and generally bigger, both of which will help us IMHO.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Being sad, I've just added up our shots on target from our own match reports from all games - 45 on target and 46 off target. 5 clean sheets have helped as well.