From the sounds of it, it should be an away game.
Just simply not good enough - yet again. I wish I could make excuses but we were like this when we didn't have many injuries - nothing's changed. Well, nothing apart from the fact that we used to be very good at home - see the Newcastle, Villa, Spurs and West Ham games.
Against Man City we were very disappointing. Tonight it sounds like we've been just as bad. I'm trying not to go over the top or anything but it's been evident for quite a while that our attacking play is either there or isn't. To me it can only be explained by our mentality and how Rafa asks them to play. I just don't think that it all just happened and we 'clicked' or whatever against teams like Villa (who hadn't lost before playing us, and they were comprehensively outplayed) and just haven't tonight.
It has to be down to the mentality. It worries me how much we may be practising attacking play (or how) in training, because it just doesn't seem to be working anymore.
Two home games - Man City / Portsmouth - that should be six points and nothing else. We've struggled to get four, and probably deserved two. Nowhere near good enough.
Negative? Yes. Pessimistic? Yes. But does it fit in with the effort and attainment of the players and manager so far this season? Yes. Champions League aside, we've not been anywhere good enough this season. We quite clearly still have the players (despite injuries) and manager to turn this around and become a real contender for 3rd and the Cups. But we won't unless people start standing up, putting in the effort, and changing the attitudes.
The Alonso quote a few days ago about negativity isn't good enough. If that's how it really is (and still is) then I despair because it's just going to get worse. We're not going to get any better through luck - we're going to need hard work and a change in attitudes. Unfortunately that's not just attitudes in effort, that's a change in our offensive play too. It CAN and COULD be very good - but most of the time it isn't. Our offensive players are as good as United's - but they know how to attack. We, seemingly, don't.
Another fucking chance missed. 0-0 at home to a decent side. Not good enough. Performance - nowhere near good enough. Pathetic all round - tonight (performance and result), the season so far, the title race, other teams winning and losing tonight, everything. Load of shite so far this season. Another massive disappointment ... utterly gutted. Especially with Rafa.
