Pedestrian or Disillusioned?

[HatterDon]

The players we lost are much more essential to our success than the ones we brought in. Without service, Berbatov will never see a half-chance. Richardson will never make anyone forget Dembele; he'll only make us mourn Dembele's loss. As HatterDon says elsewhere, you would have thought the back 4 and keeper just introduced themselves to each other in the dressing room; they weren't great last weekend, either. And where oh where are the goals going to come from?

This is the squad we've got from now until January. The West Brom match will tell us a lot. Win that one, and we can likely stay somewhere in the middle third of the table. Fail to win, and we will likely stumble into the bottom third...about where today's midfield performance would suggest we belong. Yikes.

We scored 5 times in our last home game and Dempsey was not even on the bench...

No, but Dembele was on the pitch

[hn4fulham]

Not panicking but there is definitely something going wrong with Jol behind the wheels. We're in for a tough season. We just have to readjust our expectations and be ready for it.

Good luck to all of us!

[jazz hardrockin]

Not panicking but there is definitely something going wrong with Jol behind the wheels. We're in for a tough season. We just have to readjust our expectations and be ready for it.

Good luck to all of us!

nonsense...Jol is much more than you think.For starter he is open and honest visionary lad. He has had more Ups than Downs in his professional carrier so far. I assume he might be tired and little bit frustrated after the "window" but noting is going wrong with him as you put it.  :011:

[St Eve]

It was just a poor performance all round. Our defence hasn't played like that in a while. However, it is quite apparent that our problem now is midfield. What were we thinking? Not sure we could have kept Dempsey or Dembele but letting Murphy go just made no sense. I said then that until we find Murphy's replacement he should stay. It would have cost 1 years salary, less than 2 million - exactly what we paid for Richardson who couldn't clean Murphy's boots! Even Etuhu was a decent squad player. Richardson doesn't impress me. I don't even know what position he plays, but is isn't midfield. As for Sidwell I didn't like him when we got him and i don't like him now. He is not a premiership player. The only upside is that Frei and Kaka should get a hell of a lot of playing time.

[TonyGilroy]

A fit Simon Davies would be useful.

I agree that Sidwell isn't the answer but he is an average prem player and I'm not sure that many better options were available and gettable without paying silly money which, probably, we should have done given the circumstances.

We clearly tried and failed to bring in midfielders but had very little time once Spurs activated the release clause.

Jol's problem but not his fault in my opinion.

[Berserker]

Agree, don't think Jol's fault. Hope he can sort it though, should be able to with his experience

[cebu]

A fit Simon Davies would be useful.

I agree that Sidwell isn't the answer but he is an average prem player and I'm not sure that many better options were available and gettable without paying silly money which, probably, we should have done given the circumstances.

We clearly tried and failed to bring in midfielders but had very little time once Spurs activated the release clause.

Jol's problem but not his fault in my opinion.

I have to agree with you - I suppose we may see what MAF/Mac are ready to do for Jol in January ... hopefully not waiting till the last day of the transfer window.

[RidgeRider]

A fit Simon Davies would be useful.

I agree that Sidwell isn't the answer but he is an average prem player and I'm not sure that many better options were available and gettable without paying silly money which, probably, we should have done given the circumstances.

We clearly tried and failed to bring in midfielders but had very little time once Spurs activated the release clause.

Jol's problem but not his fault in my opinion.

I'm thinking Tony is most likely right. There can be doubt that they were aware of the release clause but probably thought nobody would take advantage of it, hence why they continued to play Moussa and kept Dempsey on the sidelines. They were unprepared for Moussa's departure probably because he seemed content to play with us another season. Dempsey I think they wanted to move on.

Good news is we picked up Diarra after the January window closed and MAYBE we have something else up are sleeve along these lines.

I do think letting Murphy go was, in hindsight, a mistake however I'm sure they were honest with him about his prospects of starting every match.

If we get Ruiz back he'll help in the midfield but its clear now we REALLY have needs in the middle.

I am looking forward to see how Jol will cope with Moussa and Clint's departure and what tweaks he makes to turn us into a productive side with the new players we now have. Berbatov is a very exciting player.

[epsomraver]

I am looking forward to see how Jol will cope with Moussa and Clint's departure

I'm not Jack, it could be a bumpy ride.

[Berserker]

Been a bumpy ride last couple of seasons up to the January Window, wanted a bit smoother one this year, i agree don't look like we are going to get it

[ffc73]

Reading and listening to him I do not think Jol is coping at all well with the double D departures, especially the lateness of Dembele's move.

Jol needs to get his head around this and until he does the team will probably reflect the managers turmoil as demonstrated in the performance today and last Tuesday.

The international break may have come at a good time for us and Mac and MAF need to ensure the manager is with the programme

[BlaWhiArmyyyyyy]

Reading and listening to him I do not think Jol is coping at all well with the double D departures, especially the lateness of Dembele's move.

Jol needs to get his head around this and until he does the team will probably reflect the managers turmoil as demonstrated in the performance today and last Tuesday.

The international break may have come at a good time for us and Mac and MAF need to ensure the manager is with the programme

Any manager will struggle once two key players are gone. Arsenal have the same issue, Jol will be dissappointed but today was nothing more than the simple fact West Ham were more effective with the ball than we was. With Mousa and Clint we wouldnt have won. West Ham smothered us and only let us play round the back, theyd have been all over Dembele had he been playing for us!


Everyone just needs to chill. Norwich, United, West Ham....4 points would have been a good return. We have 3. No shock

[ffc73]

Does not have to be football. I key member of my team at work has just resigned after 5 years. He will be a big loss to the business. Taken me a couple of days to get my head around how best to replace him.

It will be work itself out fine as I have other good people. Jol has too

[Oiseau]

I was at the match today. We were incredibly poor and I can only echo previous comments in this thread. We displayed many of the same defensive errors as we did towards the beginning of last season (particularly against Wolves and Newcastle away.) Hopefully these mistakes can be once again ironed out on the training ground.

Our complete lack of creativity or a specialist playmaker is fairly concerning. Our players just weren't linking up or building productive attacks. Perhaps the reason why many people are frustrated with Sidwell is because they expect him to supply some of this creativity? The trouble is that he isn't that type of player (neither is Diarra) - he actually looked alright today (as did Diarra) but he wasn't employed efficiently or correctly.

I'm reserving judgement on Richardson. He's still yet to train with our first team properly and we can't expect him to settle in seamlessly just after his arrival (it could say something that Jol was forced to start such a new player.)

I believe that this could potentially be a very difficult season for us. We'll need to sit tight until the January transfer window and hope for the best. I agree with previous posters about this predicament not being Jol's fault but rather 'his problem.' We were really put through the ringer by Spurs. Their decision to purchase Dembele so late in the transfer window left us with very little time to find a replacement.

There are some very strong potential mid-table sides in the Premiership this season. This poses a serious challenge to us. The likes of WBA, Sunderland, Swansea and Everton who we might have hoped to compete with for places in the table are looking much stronger than us at this early stage. After this transfer window, it looks as if we might be at risk. While I have faith in Jol, there's no escaping that our lack of central midfielders and a regista makes us particularly vulnerable. We must invest the funds generated from our most recent sales.

In the second half against West Ham we saw potentially our strongest side playing (sans Ruiz.) That was particularly upsetting as we looked brighter than in the first half but still far from strong. I actually agree that it would have been more productive to bring on Kaca/Kasami rather than Berbatov for Petric. While Berbatov displayed flashes of class, it wasn't as if Petric was playing poorly. He just wasn't getting the service from midfield. It would have been much more productive to bring in a CM, an attacking midfielder or a pacey winger rather than a replacement striker.

I do acknowledge that it is early days. That's no reason to shout down the worriers, though.

Apologies if this post makes no sense/is full of typos tonight. I'm feeling veeeery sleeeeeeepy.

[Oiseau]

The players we lost are much more essential to our success than the ones we brought in. Without service, Berbatov will never see a half-chance. Richardson will never make anyone forget Dembele; he'll only make us mourn Dembele's loss. As HatterDon says elsewhere, you would have thought the back 4 and keeper just introduced themselves to each other in the dressing room; they weren't great last weekend, either. And where oh where are the goals going to come from?

This is the squad we've got from now until January. The West Brom match will tell us a lot. Win that one, and we can likely stay somewhere in the middle third of the table. Fail to win, and we will likely stumble into the bottom third...about where today's midfield performance would suggest we belong. Yikes.

We scored 5 times in our last home game and Dempsey was not even on the bench...

I fear that we were flattered by Norwich. It felt like an anomaly. Their new players had not yet settled in and since that match they've improved their fragile defense. We seemed to catch them off guard. Additionally, the weather was more obviously uncomfortable for them than for us and we played with both Dembele and Ruiz.

[perry geyton]

bet you wasn't thinking that after the Norwich game. im gonna chalk today down as an off day and start again fresh in a couple of weeks, we were terrible in the first half but when Berba came on in the second half we played some much better football and were almost the better team...
im over it, well see in a couple of weeks