Smallest squad we've had?

[Rowan_Osborn 58]

You think so? Reading had us pinned and exposed our weak defense as a result of our attack. We need to have that balance between both. Wigan were absolutely shithouse! There best player was deciding what number he will be wearing for us in a weeks time. Newcastle forgot that they needed to score and to be honest had there worst game in two seasons.

Reading's goals were not really defensive errors but goalkeeping mistakes, we were on the front foot for most of that game and did well. Wigan and Newcastle were made to look poor by our play and the defence and holding mids prevented Newcastle from attacking, Ben Arfa was hardly mentioned due to the good job Bertrand and Cole did. I agree we need a balance and it will take a while to come, but i don't think people should be so negative this early on, even if we hadn't won our first three games.

[gary gordon 1,777]

Still saying no buy in Januray was ever good is stupid. David Luiz was bought in january, Ivanović was bought in january...

But what did they do in that year? Ivanovic didn't play a single game the year he was bought and 10/11 when we signed Luiz we finished equal 2nd with Man city and 9 points behind united without a single piece of silverware.

[Pacquiao 1,834]

Prices are too inflated in the January transfer window. Besides, when has buying a player in January ever helped anybody?

so is that going to stop us buying players we need? i dont think so. and when has buying a player in January ever helped anybody? where do i start how about Anelka, G.Cahill, Papiss Cisse, Vidic, Evra, Suarez, Mascherano, Walcott, Agger, Jelavic ect ect ect the list goes on and on! Im baffled that you would even think buying a player in January wouldn't help anyone!

[Rowan_Osborn 58]

We will only beat teams by outscoring them this season. Guaranteed. We haven't been able to defend for shit for like 2 seasons now.

I don't think so. We can defend when we need to, as we did against Bayern and Barca. What we need to develop is a balance between the two.

[themightyblue 443]

You think so? Reading had us pinned and exposed our weak defense as a result of our attack. We need to have that balance between both. Wigan were absolutely shithouse! There best player was deciding what number he will be wearing for us in a weeks time. Newcastle forgot that they needed to score and to be honest had there worst game in two seasons.

See once again your looking at it very negatively mate. Reading had a good 25 minute spell, for the other 65 minutes we completely dominated them and had we taken our chances would have been out of sight. And your reasoning for the Newcastle game, surely we could just use the same excuse for the athletico game yesterday. Our tactics were good, we didn't allow Newcastle to get in the game and we were comfortable. Wigan we once again had our chances, Torres had something cleared off the line and should of won a penalty. That was probably our weakest game out of the three and it wasn't great, but we would have lost a game like season. We've definitely improved which is a good sign as the team are still settling

[Rowan_Osborn 58]

Prices are too inflated in the January transfer window. Besides, when has buying a player in January ever helped anybody?

We would of been in the dog house if we hadn't bought Cahill in January last year.

[Bambiny14 25]

We will only beat teams by outscoring them this season. Guaranteed. We haven't been able to defend for shit for like 2 seasons now.

Oh really? What i remember was three good defensive performances (one with a bad goalkeeper error) plus one total failure. Come one people! Stop judging everyone and everything after one really bad, bad performance. RDM as well as the players have a lot of time to think about it and i'm sure next game will not be such horrible.

[gary gordon 1,777]

See once again your looking at it very negatively mate. Reading had a good 25 minute spell, for the other 65 minutes we completely dominated them and had we taken our chances would have been out of sight. And your reasoning for the Newcastle game, surely we could just use the same excuse for the athletico game yesterday. Our tactics were good, we didn't allow Newcastle to get in the game and we were comfortable. Wigan we once again had our chances, Torres had something cleared off the line and should of won a penalty. That was probably our weakest game out of the three and it wasn't great, but we would have lost a game like season. We've definitely improved which is a good sign as the team are still settling

As much as i would love to agree with you I'm still not confident. It's a very long season and even with a bigger side last year, we were stretched to the limit. This season is very risky as an injury to either Torres or Sturridge will see us competing for nothing.

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

I don't think so. We can defend when we need to, as we did against Bayern and Barca. What we need to develop is a balance between the two.

Ok so because we defended like that for 4 games we can automatically do it for a whole season? Doubt it because if we could why couldn't we not do it last night? Or against Reading? Or Man City in the Community Shield? We've been ripped a new arse hole at times and gotten away with it the last few seasons, the defense is faltering. The current team has no balance too.

[Chelsea? 892]

that 4-1 loss seems like a lack of effort to me. I will be really pissed if we play like that for the club world cup.

[gary gordon 1,777]

Ok so because we defended like that for 4 games we can automatically do it for a whole season? Doubt it because if we could why couldn't we not do it last night? Or against Reading? Or Man City in the Community Shield? We've been ripped a new arse hole at times and gotten away with it the last few seasons, the defense is faltering. Team has no balance too.

Couldn't agree more. Would take our defensive style of recent seasons and closing out the league with 3 weeks to go then trying to be a team we can't, It's a massive test that already cost one poor cunt his job, now i fear it will cost another..

[TheCount 146]

People have written of frank every year for the last few years, terry to and ferraria, but every single year they have to eat shit when the big games come alone and everyones little kids cant handle it, excluding last nite that was a disgrace.

The old players have their place and their worth always become apparent, thats not to say ofc we dont need replacements but writing them off is something only a arsenal wenger lover boy would want.

Also the post above is bugged please delete it/ignore cheers.

Ok so because we defended like that for 4 games we can automatically do it for a whole season? Doubt it because if we could why couldn't we not do it last night? Or against Reading? Or Man City in the Community Shield? We've been ripped a new arse hole at times and gotten away with it the last few seasons, the defense is faltering. The current team has no balance too.

To be fair you all wanted this type of football, now your complaining when its goes badly? as mourinho said, you can either play attacking Brazilian style football or you can win.

[Rowan_Osborn 58]

Ok so because we defended like that for 4 games we can automatically do it for a whole season? Doubt it because if we could why couldn't we not do it last night? Or against Reading? Or Man City in the Community Shield? We've been ripped a new arse hole at times and gotten away with it the last few seasons, the defense is faltering. The current team has no balance too.

It depends how we set up and the tactics we intend to use. Against Bayern and Barca we set out to defend and counter attack. All four of our games this season we have expected to be on the front foot and score first then defend, last night it didn't work. Against Man City we were unlucky with Ivan's sending off as it restricted our ability to defend and gave City space to play with. We will develop balance, this is still a new, young side and we can't expect it to be perfect from the outset.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Let me remind everyone that we would have killed to have this squad last year. Since then, we have replaced Bos, with Azpi, Alex with Cahil, the likes of Kalou and Anelka with Hazard and Marin. I really don't see what the board can do more! We're a really hard bunch to please.

[Strike 7,217]

so is that going to stop us buying players we need? i dont think so. and when has buying a player in January ever helped anybody? where do i start how about Anelka, G.Cahill, Papiss Cisse, Vidic, Evra, Suarez, Mascherano, Walcott, Agger, Jelavic ect ect ect the list goes on and on! Im baffled that you would even think buying a player in January wouldn't help anyone!

yes, it makes no sense generally but he meant in that season. someone posted that if we do have problems we can buy in january but ideally even i would want the squad built before the start of the season and only bringin in reinforcements in january if there is an injury or a sale.

[gary gordon 1,777]

People have written of frank every year for the last few years, terry to and ferraria, but every single year they have to eat shit when the big games come alone and everyones little kids cant handle it, excluding last nite that was a disgrace.

The old players have their place and their worth always become apparent, thats not to say ofc we dont need replacements but writing them off is something only a arsenal wenger lover boy would want.

Also the post above is bugged please delete it/ignore cheers.

To be fair you all wanted this type of football, now your complaining when its goes badly? as mourinho said, you can either play attacking Brazilian style football or you can win.

Not me. I've loved the way we've played since 04

[Strike 7,217]

Let me remind everyone that we would have killed to have this squad last year. Since then, we have replaced Bos, with Azpi, Alex with Cahil, the likes of Kalou and Anelka with Hazard and Marin. I really don't see what the board can do more! We're a really hard bunch to please.

not to mention the shift in play at the start of the season. emphasis on retaining possession and all that... we are going in the right direction but it is a bridge too far to expect us to go back to the way we were under Ance or Hiddink or Jose.

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

It depends how we set up and the tactics we intend to use. Against Bayern and Barca we set out to defend and counter attack. All four of our games this season we have expected to be on the front foot and score first then defend, last night it didn't work. Against Man City we were unlucky with Ivan's sending off as it restricted our ability to defend and gave City space to play with. We will develop balance, this is still a new, young side and we can't expect it to be perfect from the outset.

Unlucky against City? Restricted our ability to defend? Ivanovic should be at center back so he can defend from there. Not out at RB where some slow cunt/Kolarov can get past him. (YES EVEN KOLAROV OUTPACED IVANOVIC WTF) If Ivanovic was at CB and Luiz wasn't, I reckon he would tried to close Tevez down a bit earlier preventing the ugly bastard from working space to score, rather than Luiz sitting admiring his ugly face letting him do whatever he wants. We restricted our own ability to defend by being lazy and just waiting for other players to do something.