I Dont Hear No Bell

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Cjay
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I Dont Hear No Bell

Post by Cjay »

(Rocky reference).

Well Saturday was a kick in the balls.

Angry, fed up, frustrated, all sorts of emotions.

We really dont help ourselves sometimes, could see the frustration on MBs face in his post match interview, there really wasnt much he could do about the errors and poor finishing.

He could however stop making the same substitutions almost every game, Dallas and Douglas, i will never understand this for as long as i live.

Douglas has been a major disappointment this season (by his own admission), we havent seen the player Wolves had last year and his defensive skills are extremely poor. In fact while Cooper was undoubtedly the main contributor to the Blades goal and Philips didnt cover himself in glory, it was Douglas not tracking Basham that was also crucial.

The Douglas change has little purpose other then to push Ali up the field but Ali plays like a winger anyway, it makes no difference.

Dallas is just mr average, everything is average, he will do an average job in any position at best, he is not, will not and never has been the sort of player you send on when chasing a game, he isnt a creator or a goalscorer, he is totally pointless unless you want energy and determination, attacking threat will rarely ever happen.

MB got his subs wrong vs Blades, he probably got his bench wrong to. Shacks was the obvious choice if you want to take Ayling off, or even Robbie Gotts with Shacks for Klich and Clarke for Harrison, that would have been 3 pacey young men who just may have provided something different.

And to compound it Jansson is now injured, he will miss the very physical Millwall game, probably the equally physical Birmingham game to, its a massive blow. With Kiko also suspended we have to hope the break has done BPF good because he can not be as indecisive vs Millwall as he has been throughout his young career and regardless of Millwall Kiko must return once his suspension is done, Bielsa must bring Kiko back in (he probably will but that loyal streak is a concern in this case).

So we dust ourselves down and think about what went wrong. We know what went wrong, individual errors and not taking our chances, the Blades game was basically our season in 90minutes. Sheffield United defended well tbf to them and took there chance when it came and credit to them for that, whatever we think thats something we probably could have done with doing more often this season because rarely has there been anything wrong with our approach play, small errors have been our downfall.

That being said all is not lost, 1 point is the gap to 2nd, 5 to 1st, 24 points to play for. Nobody has achieved anything yet, nobody is promoted, nobody is planning there party.

While we play Millwall at home, Blades welcome Bristol City, they beat Sheffield United before this season, they are streaky and in poor form but you never know which Bristol City will turn up, with us they have the longest winning streak of the season. Norwich travel to Boro, Boro are also in poor form, but Pulis is a wily fox, it isnt a foregone conclusion that Norwich will win, Boro on there day are masters at soaking up pressure and nicking a goal.

So all to play for, this time 2 weeks we could be as we were pre Blades, 2 off top 2 ahead of 3rd, entirely possible. The team cant dwell, there isnt time for that, yes we were unlucky, but we lost, we really have only ourselves to blame.

Now we must show why we  are the only side to never drop below 4th this season, in fact that was only for about a week, we havent dropped below 3rd for most of the season and actually its rare we were out of the top 2.

We have spent more time top then Norwich, we have spent more time top 2 then Blades and Norwich combined, we have been the only constant in the automatic promotion race since game 1.

We have the better record against the top half, we are better then Norwich against the top 7, we were better then Blades but the positions changed and they are 3 points ahead having played 1 more game.

We have proven we can beat the better teams, we have proven we and we alone can sustain an automatic promotion push since game 1, we have proven we can bounce back.

Should we fail to get automatic then it is fair to say well done to Sheffield United and Norwich because they will deserve it in the end.

But having come so far this season, having done so well, having been able to sustain an automatic promotion push despite a dreadful injury list since early season, having done all that it would be devastating to fall so late on.

In hindsight maybe January will cost us again, maybe we should have done more, maybe we should have been more ambitious in the summer.

But we have done so well so far to get this close that i hope that maybe just maybe this is our year.

We may never get a better chance, we are the underdogs now but we were the underdogs before game 1 against promotion and title favourites Stoke City.

Saturday was a blow but it doesnt have to be a knockout one, we can still get up off the canvas and mount a comeback.
Signed

King Cjay

Fountain of all knowledge and wisdom
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The Subhuman
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Re: I Dont Hear No Bell

Post by The Subhuman »

If we're doing boxing analogies

We got hit under the belt 2/3 times, generally out boxed the opposition and walked into a sucker punch.
"Never debate an idiot, they'll only drag you down to their level and they have the advantage of experience"
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mothbanquet
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Re: I Dont Hear No Bell

Post by mothbanquet »

You said it all, Cjay. Good post.
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