Fine Margins

[TETLEY74]

Best way to kill time is keep the fuggin ball and don't give it away cheaply, a 2nd goal for us with the couple of break aways we had would have killed them off.

[Sandking]

This is the downside of predominately being set up as a counter-attacking side.

You sit in, hold the defensive line, keep the shape and contain, the problem is it can turn into and often does a defence vs attack training ground exercise.  
This is when you need a player that can travel with the ball at his feet and eat up the yards when you're under the cosh.

Matty offered a little of that today even if he was running down blind alleys. I still think we sit too deep and invite wave after wave of attack.

No wonder we struggle to keep clean sheets.

[KratosBaggie]

Thought we were poor throughout,not helped by a crap ref. Not much attacking intent and constantly giving the ball away.

Behave. We defended well and were udone 
by a moment of quality and a rash Gibbs challenge.

Bar those crazy few minutes it was the ideal away performance. 

We'll do them at home, and I'm seldom confident.

[Tokyo Baggie]

Thought we were poor throughout,not helped by a crap ref. Not much attacking intent and constantly giving the ball away.

What were people expecting? We were away at a team in great form with a noisy crowd, the plan was always to keep it tight and nick something. For 70 minutes it worked perfectly and then we imploded.

We were never going to come out and go at them.

With the amount of goals we score I’d expect a bit more attacking intent,there was hardly any all game.We were treading a fine line trying to keep a clean sheet,something we rarely do.

 
I would have loved to see us taking the game to them, too. But I think we were trying to replicate the performance at their place earlier in the season, when we got our goals and kept them at arms length without putting too much effort in. Unfortunately, it backfired this time.
The story of our season has been that despite the amount of goals we have scored, when the pressure has been put upon us we haven't put in the performances that we as fans had hoped that we would. Think of Leeds away, Sheff Utd at home, Boro at home, or Blackburn both home and away even, etc...

[KratosBaggie]

Kieran Gibbs was very poor today. An experienced player like him should know better than diving in on that greasy bastard.

He was brilliant today. Constantly covering for others' mistakes.

I love Brunt, and rate him as a starter, but he was all over the place today, which left Gibbs covering two men.

[boingingbaggie]

Kieran Gibbs was very poor today. An experienced player like him should know better than diving in on that greasy bastard.

He was brilliant today. Constantly covering for lthers' mistakes.

Until he dove in to give a penalty away when he got nowhere near the ball.
Not one of his better days IMO. Although I'm convinced we told the wing backs not to attack so that hampers his game somewhat

[Tokyo Baggie]

Kieran Gibbs was very poor today. An experienced player like him should know better than diving in on that greasy bastard.

He was brilliant today. Constantly covering for lthers' mistakes.

I thought Ithers was quiet today. Didn't even notice him on the park

[HugeHons]

Thought we were poor throughout,not helped by a crap ref. Not much attacking intent and constantly giving the ball away.

Behave. We defended well and were udone 
by a moment of quality and a rash Gibbs challenge.

Bar those crazy few minutes it was the ideal away performance. 

We'll do them at home, and I'm seldom confident.

It is what I saw,and my opinion.I was very disappointed with us,time wasting,lack of attacking intent like when Pulis was here.We gave the ball away numerous times ,putting us under pressure.We also struggle to keep clean sheets,so it was always a fine line. Hegazi and Bartley were excellent ,under the circumstances,but I can’t help thinking if we’d showed more attacking intent we’d have scored a second.

[Duffers]

Kieran Gibbs was very poor today. An experienced player like him should know better than diving in on that greasy bastard.

He was brilliant today. Constantly covering for lthers' mistakes.

Until he dove in to give a penalty away when he got nowhere near the ball.
Not one of his better days IMO. Although I'm convinced we told the wing backs not to attack so that hampers his game somewhat

As I said elsewhere it was Gibbs losing his head over a free kick that lead to it all. As an experienced player he should have known better.

[Kit Kat Chunky]

But for the Gayle situation, I would have taken a 2-1 loss. I was worried it would be all over.

Yes it is difficult, but certainly not impossible. Both Spurs & Liverpool did a job without star players this week.

I have a sneaking feeling that the cuntish arrogance of their fans will transmit itself to their team. We have to come out of the blocks and straight at them from the start.