Time Up For Jussi?

[Lofthouse Lower]

Seem to recall last season we kept more clean sheets with Sam at CB when Cahill was injured than when our 'star' defender was fit, DLH

[Peter Thompson]

I think the 1st was a great strike and it did move....but I'd think that Jussi was disppointed with the 2nd/3rd & 4th

The 2nd looked like it sneaked in at the near post (on the inside) and the 3rd & 4th went straight through him.

He's been a great servant to the club, but everyone's time comes at some stage and he's nowhere near the keeper he was and
for me he is becoming a liability, he certainly doesn't instill the confidence that he used to, and like some others have said our defense is an absolute shambles, no organisation and very little talent at all throughout our back 5 (inc Jussi) does not fill anyone with any confidence. I know Chelsea are a good side but we just sat off them and let them play last night - we are becoming very soft and easy to play against, we need more fight & desire because at times our play & attitude is lethargic (2nd goal was an absolute joke)

On another note I thought Elmander was awful....and in the main we play like a team of individuals and our passing is woeful, and that's being kind, we'll stay up (just...), but OC needs to change at least 4-5 of this teamin the summer if we are to progress (sounds familiar....didn't we say the same under Megson)

[Lofthouse Lower]

My old man came to the game last night, and he's not seen us since the start of the season - he said that without major changes then he can see us being dragged down into the relegation scrap. On current form it's hard to disagree.

[BWFC_Wyles]

Agreed. I hope someone feels the need to stump up £15m. Ricketts is better at Centre Half IMO

Its good to see we're not losing our minds completely because we are on a bit of a bad run... people are posting some absolute shite...

Good to see we still have the rose tinters too DLH.

[Worthy4England]

Good to see we still have the rose tinters too DLH.

Been a while since we've seen that particular phrase - we must be in a bad run!

Knee-jerkers anyone?

[BWFC_Wyles]

Not so much knee-jerk, just worried that our bad run has gone on since boxing day and something needs to be done pronto because the league is far too tight for us all to think things will simply work out

[Worthy4England]

Not so much knee-jerk, just worried that our bad run has gone on since boxing day and something needs to be done pronto because the league is far too tight for us all to think things will simply work out

I agree we're on a bad run (and I think it started at the beginning of December)

If you want to take "from Boxing Day" as the starting point, we've lost to Chelsea home and away, Liverpool away, Stoke away and drawn against Wigan at home. Not hugely untypical in any other year from that set of fixtures.

[BWFC_Wyles]

Not so much knee-jerk, just worried that our bad run has gone on since boxing day and something needs to be done pronto because the league is far too tight for us all to think things will simply work out

I agree we're on a bad run (and I think it started at the beginning of December)

If you want to take "from Boxing Day" as the starting point, we've lost to Chelsea home and away, Liverpool away, Stoke away and drawn against Wigan at home. Not hugely untypical in any other year from that set of fixtures.

I was just thinking of the last time we got 3 points. It's not so much the results, it's the manner of which they are happening. Since Newcastle, we've become toothless

[Worthy4England]

Not so much knee-jerk, just worried that our bad run has gone on since boxing day and something needs to be done pronto because the league is far too tight for us all to think things will simply work out

I agree we're on a bad run (and I think it started at the beginning of December)

If you want to take "from Boxing Day" as the starting point, we've lost to Chelsea home and away, Liverpool away, Stoke away and drawn against Wigan at home. Not hugely untypical in any other year from that set of fixtures.

I was just thinking of the last time we got 3 points. It's not so much the results, it's the manner of which they are happening. Since Newcastle, we've become toothless

We won 2 Prem games from August to October - 10 games - but supplemented that by not losing many. We've won 2 Prem games in December/Jan - 9 games, but seem to have lost the knack of grabbing a draw. Probably because our November form suggested we could score more than whoever we were playing. Very dangerous thought that, with our squad of players.

[BWFC_Wyles]

Good stats Worthy thanks for that. So I guess as I said, it's the manner in which we are playing at the moment.

[Owen_Coyle]

Since Newcastle, we've become toothless

Exactly what I think. The game v Newcastle was our best performance of the season, and ever since then our form has dipped.

[chester white]

Unless we change our approach against the better sides, this could happen more often. Both Muamba and Holden pressing the ball high up the pitch is all well and good against a side not brilliant on the ball, but one half decent turn by a player like Essien and both of our centre midfielders are on the wrong side of the ball and the defence gets swamped. They were not blameless last night, but our tactics don't exactly help them sometimes. The amount of times Muamba and Holden get caught on the wrong side is frightening, and a result like last night was bound to happen at somepoint playing like this.

When it works it's great to watch like the Newcastle game, but Coyle must take some responsibilty when it goes wrong also. We need a bit more flexibility.

This does not excuse however players giving up, which unfortunately some appeared to do last night. It was for me the most disappointing game for me under Coyle last night. That may be to do with the occasion as well affecting my judgement and I'm do realise we were playing the current Champions, but the lack of heart from players, and one dimensional tactics disappointed me.

[BWFC_Insane]

Unless we change our approach against the better sides, this could happen more often. Both Muamba and Holden pressing the ball high up the pitch is all well and good against a side not brilliant on the ball, but one half decent turn by a player like Essien and both of our centre midfielders are on the wrong side of the ball and the defence gets swamped. They were not blameless last night, but our tactics don't exactly help them sometimes. The amount of times Muamba and Holden get caught on the wrong side is frightening, and a result like last night was bound to happen at somepoint playing like this.

When it works it's great to watch like the Newcastle game, but Coyle must take some responsibilty when it goes wrong also. We need a bit more flexibility.

This does not excuse however players giving up, which unfortunately some appeared to do last night. It was for me the most disappointing game for me under Coyle last night. That may be to do with the occasion as well affecting my judgement and I'm do realise we were playing the current Champions, but the lack of heart from players, and one dimensional tactics disappointed me.

Great post. Think thats absolutely bob on. Chelsea realised very quickly that all they had to do was suck us in and hit us on the counter. Holden and Muamba did not show enough discipline. The problem is when the midfield sits deeper the back four are not good enough to sustain any pressure and we don't break well enough, catch 22!

[David Lee's Hair]

Seem to recall last season we kept more clean sheets with Sam at CB when Cahill was injured than when our 'star' defender was fit, DLH

Point being? Would we have been tonked as much at Sunderland, Tottingham in the cup, Jackburn with Cahill playing?

I'd suggest the fact we kept more clean sheets was more the fixture list and change in management rather than one player out and one in...

The Fulham away and Wigan away games in particular were two of the dulliest games I've been to in a long time, where I could probably have played and we'd have kept a clean sheet.

If I remember rightly the clean sheet against Wolves was more down to luck than Sam Ricketts, didn't they hit the post a couple of times?

Good to see we still have the rose tinters too DLH.

Where am I being rose-tinted about anything?

I think Cahill is over-rated, but he's a hell of a lot better CB than Ricketts, to suggest otherwise, is plain daft.

If Ricketts was as good a centre half as that, then he'd have been playing centre half all his career, not RB...

[Worthy4England]

Since Newcastle, we've become toothless

Exactly what I think. The game v Newcastle was our best performance of the season, and ever since then our form has dipped.

We were 10th at the end of October. 3 points in front of the relegation zone.

We then had a superb November which gave us a cushion, raised expectations and put us in a fairly unrealistic position in the League table.

We were 10th on form in December and 20th in January.

You could argue that our form has dipped since Newcastle - or alternatively, you could say we played well above ourselves for the month of November. I happen to think it's the latter case.

[Lord Kangana]

I happen to think it lies somewhere in between.

[Prufrock]

Any?? You must be kidding me? Definitely the last two without question. The only thing is we expect better from a keeper who has been one of the best in the Premier League for years. He's just in a bad run but unfortunately, as a keeper, a bad run of form means goals conceded, and we don't have the firepower to compensate for 2/3/4 goals shipped.

If you're worried about goals being shipped I think you should look at the 4 shithouses across the back four before pointing the finger at Jussi!

All well and good, but if we're pointing fingers at the defensive unit, we might also want to look at the six shithouses in front of them. Cannot believe anyone is picking out individuals. They were all woefully shite. Against a good team. Who we didn't even kick. Bastards. Players look jaded. Few new faces and fewer fixtures and we should pick up again. Back towards our rightful position atm.

[Prufrock]

Since Newcastle, we've become toothless

Exactly what I think. The game v Newcastle was our best performance of the season, and ever since then our form has dipped.

Well, obviously, squire, otherwise, it wouldn't have been our best performance of the season .

[BWFC_Insane]

Any?? You must be kidding me? Definitely the last two without question. The only thing is we expect better from a keeper who has been one of the best in the Premier League for years. He's just in a bad run but unfortunately, as a keeper, a bad run of form means goals conceded, and we don't have the firepower to compensate for 2/3/4 goals shipped.

If you're worried about goals being shipped I think you should look at the 4 shithouses across the back four before pointing the finger at Jussi!

All well and good, but if we're pointing fingers at the defensive unit, we might also want to look at the six shithouses in front of them. Cannot believe anyone is picking out individuals. They were all woefully shite. Against a good team. Who we didn't even kick. Bastards. Players look jaded. Few new faces and fewer fixtures and we should pick up again. Back towards our rightful position atm.

Aye no argument there.

Across the whole season though even in our better form the back four haven't been good enough IMO!

[Worthy4England]

Any?? You must be kidding me? Definitely the last two without question. The only thing is we expect better from a keeper who has been one of the best in the Premier League for years. He's just in a bad run but unfortunately, as a keeper, a bad run of form means goals conceded, and we don't have the firepower to compensate for 2/3/4 goals shipped.

If you're worried about goals being shipped I think you should look at the 4 shithouses across the back four before pointing the finger at Jussi!

All well and good, but if we're pointing fingers at the defensive unit, we might also want to look at the six shithouses in front of them. Cannot believe anyone is picking out individuals. They were all woefully shite. Against a good team. Who we didn't even kick. Bastards. Players look jaded. Few new faces and fewer fixtures and we should pick up again. Back towards our rightful position atm.

You could point to individual errors that didn't help us much - Steinsson, Robinson, SKD, possibly Jussi (although I'm not in the "should have stopped 3 of the 4 Club", maybe 1). But like you say as a team, we were pretty poor all over the park, had we not had any individual errors to point to, I don't think the result would have been much different.

But we couldn't have some all round shite team performances without singling out a couple of players as being the reason for the downfall - wouldn't be right.