Fine margins

[Trafford]

Despite City’s dominance for much of the match and a saved penalty, the game came down to two pivotal and very similar moments. In the 1st half Billy’s cross was just too close to the City defender and Fleck was denied a tap in; in the 2nd half De Brunye threaded a much more difficult ball through to Aguero (did it go through Stevens’ Legs?) and the game was lost. If only......

 

[Brian Deane]

Despite City’s dominance for much of the match and a saved penalty, the game came down to two pivotal and very similar moments. In the 1st half Billy’s cross was just too close to the City defender and Fleck was denied a tap in; in the 2nd half De Brunye threaded a much more difficult ball through to Aguero (did it go through Stevens’ Legs?) and the game was lost. If only......

Some on here would have you believe it was lost before the game kicked off with no signings of importance other than a 3rd choice player in this current transfer window. No ambition . UTB

 

[Champagneblade]

I thought I'd reuse an old thread than start a new one.

The Leeds result got me thinking that despite the deflation caused by much of our play against City, are we so far off generally speaking? We gave a good account of ourselves against Liverpool.

Leeds got an absolute pasting at home tonight, shipping 4 goals. Something that hasn't happened to us in over 45 Premier League matches.

Now I can appreciate that the nature of the next bit is 'if my Auntie has balls' but...

1. If Lunny had taken the sitter he had against Leeds and the ref/VAR had just done his/its job vs Leeds for the foul on Berge, they'd be on 3 fewer points and we'd be on 3 more.

2. If Lundstram had put away the penalty against Villa and/or Egan not been wrongfully sent off then that could have been 3 more which would put us level with Leeds.

If the above scenarios, refereeing or better finishing from genuine high scoring chances from Lundstram, there wouldn't be a single article on being 'sussed out'.

These are the fine margins. This is how pivotal and crippling one poor decision or slight lack of composure in the entire scope of two games can have.

This is without banking on:
1. Arsenal should have been a man light for 86 minutes and should have conceded a penalty for Ceballos standing on Lundstram's foot in a game we lost by one goal.
2. Berge should have had a second penalty vs Liverpool and McBurnie should have put us in an unassailable position at 2-0. Earlier in the same season we may have got a pen vs Robertson too.

We ended up feeling fortunate in the Fulham game but it was only profligacy that cost us a win from the first half performance. VAR did its job. Mitrovic kicked through Robinson. I don't think we are lucky when VAR gives fouls that are fouls.

There is then of course the intangible knock on effect of these occurances that sitting in 7 points rather than 1 would weigh less on the mind but with everything else being equal, we'd be a side sat comfortable enough.

To compound the above ill luck, we've also only played 2 teams in the bottom half so far, so there is an element too that the fixtures are skewed against us right now. This continues on Saturday but having played 6 of the top 10 from 8 matches, it stands to reason we then get to play some of the less capable teams.

Yes, we need to take pointers from games like Saturday, but chin up lads. I don't think it is any worse than what perhaps it looks from the outside at all.

 

[Charlieblade]

Fine margins indeed. The reasons we are at the bottom looking up just ne, are many and varied, but I still think we will evolve into a top half finish this season, Covid permitting.My view has been described as ‘blind faith’ or ‘Rose tinted glasses’ by another poster on here, but it’s far from that. We are not a bad side and Wilder has not lost the plot.
The squad is talented and hard working. If we were getting put away by 3 or more goals every week, I might be concerned, but we aren’t, and I believe this team has a lot more to come this season.
Fine margins can turn in our favour, with a confident and capable team backed by a quality manager.

 

[Champagneblade]

Agree.

Whilst I'm also not a fully paid up member of 'it all evens itself out' because clearly certain clubs have had favour over time. However I would say that 7 matches is not enough of a sample to expect the 2 sending offs and 3 unawarded fouls to get redressed.

I don't think we are asking for gifts but just even luck, we've had a huge slick of misfortune so far and that can't continue.

What Chris has to ensure is that it doesn't impact confidence.

In hindsight I agree that going toe to toe with City isn't wise and a 4-0 defeat could create a lack of belief. He is correct that we just need to show more quality. Quality we are capable of, such as when we get in positions I wide areas or when we get clear sighters in goal.

I'm not convinced the Chelsea game is one we give up on yet either.

Time to stick together and dig in.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

I can hear em all now. “Shame about Sheff United going down without scoring...But at least they kept it tight”

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Maybe we could do a bit of rebranding. Possibly get rid of the Forged in Steel” motto and replace with “The masters of a tight defeat?”

 

[mattbianco1]

Usually a barometer for how things will finish is judged at Xmas. The old stat about which clubs stay up despite being bottom on Xmas day...

Worth noting that this season, Xmas day is 4 games earlier than last season due to the late start to the season. Under a normal season, we would have just entered October.

Here's last seasons table after 7 games

 

[mattbianco1]

Thought i'd expand on the post above.

Based on last seasons table after 7 games, the 3 relegated teams were placed 8th, 17th & 20th respectively.

Bournemouth dropped 10 places, Norwich 3 and Watford climbed 1.

On Xmas day, the table looked like this:



So the relegated clubs ended up moving the following number of places between Xmas day and the final day:

Bournemouth -4, Norwich -1, Watford +1.

Teams in the bottom 6 on Xmas day that pulled clear were Everton finishing +3 places but 15pts safe and Southampton +6 places and 18pts clear.

This year, the historic Xmas Day number of fixtures (18) will be played on 12th January.

What i'm trying to say is - don't panic yet