Have we peaked to soon!!

[COME BACK CHED]

well they have cornered the market in troughs lately fair enuogh.

Been using them since 1867 .

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Everyone says it a marathon and not a sprint which is correct . When you watch a horse race it's always the horse that comes from behind that wins not the one in the front . There is a lot of football to be played before May time so as my title says have we peaked to soon !!

I don't know if I imagined it, but it seems to me that most seasons, in most divisions, you get one or two, sometimes, two or three, clubs that set the pace and stay there throughout. They may move up and down one or two places from week to week, but generally they set a pace and stick to it. If you want to take just one example of this, look at the teams in League 1 who were near the top after a dozen games last season and look where they finished. You'll see us and Scunthorpe, Bolton, Fleetwood, Bradford, in there. They all remained in touch with the top 6 all season. There's often an out-lyer that will make a late break for the top 6 but generally after about a dozen games a pattern has emerged and it doesn't change a lot from there on in.

It's easy to come out with cliche's like "it's a marathon not a sprint" - it depends on how you interpret that? To me this saying means that we won't be certain of the result until much later. It doesn't mean that whoever is in the lead at the beginning won't be in the lead at the end. And that's how you seem to be interpreting it - and you give the horse-racing analogy to back that up - which is not relevant actually.

You've got quite a bit of doubt going on there mate - I guess, like many of us, you're looking at that table and wondering how the devil we got there and how long we can stay there? We've got there because we've got a good quality, highly-motivated, team ran by an excellent manager - and that's not going to change anytime soon.

I deal in statistics in my line of work, have done for years. So I'm very dismissive of people who misuse, or misunderstand, facts and statistics. There's a lot of this amongst football fans in particular. Coming out with stuff like ..."X is a bogey team" or "We never get owt at Y" when the facts do not back such things up. I can't tell you if we'll get automatic promotion - but I can tell you that, statistically, we are giving ourselves a far better chance of that happening by being top, than by being in any other position in the table. That's a fact.

So enjoy it!

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

When you watch a horse race it's always the horse that comes from behind that wins not the one in the front.

No it isn't

I would hazard a guess that for most 'top twos' that have gone up from most divisions over the years, at least one has been up there for most of the season.

 

[FTPE]

Why? Do you get more points for a win after Christmas?
I know it comes natural to be pessamistic as a Blade but how you can find a fault in our amazing start is beyond me.

 

[dingledog]

All this 'peaking too soon' rubbish, just remember a victory is still only worth three points in the new year, so lets take them now and just see where it takes us.

 

[Rusty view]

I don't think we've peaked too early and Wilder was right to criticise on Friday as I think we gave the ball away more cheaply than any game I've seen this season! One occasion was when our fans were halfway through Coutts never gives the ball away and he did just that and Leeds nearly punished us so we can improve!

I do agree we we're sloppy 2nd half. And it's good to see Wilder sees this as unacceptable. And his rant shows he expects more.

 

[diode_blade]

Hopefully not.

But if we have if have rather peaked too soon then never to have peaked at all.

I think half of Wilders post match interview was to keep everyone level headed.

Onwards and erm....stay where we are. (Can't say upwards give we can't get any higher)

Errrm not so sure...bout that.....

Errrm Uniteds new team coach.....

Tufty....."Brooksy I only said put the chuffing kettle on......"

 

[ghandi]

No we haven’t. We are top for a reason and have shown we are capable of maintaining this so called ‘momentum’. Your horse analogy is spot on, a slow start last season and this then coming through the field to first place.

The horse race analogy is rubbish. Many horse races are won by front runners.

 

[diode_blade]

I don't think we've peaked too early and Wilder was right to criticise on Friday as I think we gave the ball away more cheaply than any game I've seen this season! One occasion was when our fans were halfway through Coutts never gives the ball away and he did just that and Leeds nearly punished us so we can improve!

I think that might have been Tufty giving em a bollocking in public, you can bet yer bottom dollar he was giving em a bottle of Peroni each after the game in the dressing room.

 

[Jonboy60]

This is united this season. Steady away, but up there. Take a slight lead early on, then pile on the pressure from the front. One of the greatest horses ever, makes the hairs stand up.

 

[Blade56]

Disagree with the horse analogy btw. Depends on the track, distance, rail and opposition. Ive seen plenty of horses lead this Melbourne spring carnival and win. Just I didn't back the bastards!

What's with all the fecking horse analogies? I could understand it if we were hypothesising about pigs (albeit we would have to substitute the said horse for a donkey). We should be using F1 and we are the McClaren or Ferrari.

Only risk I see is we are dependent on a very regular side being fit week in week out, there's very little rotation in the squad so any injuries and suspensions (Fleck is suspended now) could disrupt the sum of the parts being better than the component parts (statistically 100% but you know what I mean Cerberus Blade).

 

[Antonb]

How can we peak too soon. We still need another 20 points for safety. Get them in the bag as soon as possible, then see where we go from there. As Duffy has said, why not try and win every game, home and away. Not think that we would take a point here, 3 points there. I know what your saying, but no, we might run out of steam a bit, but if we can keep this going till January, we might be able to bring in some good backup, to freshen us up and maintain it.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

Under Wilder I think we do top of the league pretty well

 

[Yellarbellyblade]

Seven more wins and we should achieve our first ambition which is survival. After that every point takes us closer to our next ambition etc etc. It’s really important to keep perspective but remain ambitious.

Would you rather we were in Bolton's position?

 

[Blade56]

This is united this season. Steady away, but up there. Take a slight lead early on, then pile on the pressure from the front. One of the greatest horses ever, makes the hairs stand up.

This is how piggies season started in their heads and how it really panned out!

 

[Kev Gee]

I would rather have the points in the bag now rather than be chasing them later in the season.

Wilder will ensure we get more cover in Jan for the final sprint.

 

[Jonboy60]

This is how piggies season started in their heads and how it really panned out!

Love it. Bloody hell that jockey wants shooting. If I'd put a few bob on that horse, I'd want the jockey to have a drugs test.

 

[Woodthorpe blade]

Disagree with the horse analogy btw. Depends on the track, distance, rail and opposition. Ive seen plenty of horses lead this Melbourne spring carnival and win. Just I didn't back the bastards!

It’s sometimes about timing. Like Michelle Payne on Prince of Penzance .

 

[JordoBlade]

We haven't peaked too early at all. Our target was 50 points and another 20 and it's job done! Anything else is a bonus.

 

[BushBlade]

No idea. It's a question that can only be accurate answered retrospectively.

 

[Fanny magnet]

Let's be honest if we finish in the play offs it will have been a more successful season than anyone could have imagined or dare dreamed of pre season

Would feel like a major disappointment now but it shouldn't

Think we've looked a bit tired second half last few games need to get through to the next international break and go again

 

[Pinchy]

Who the f*** says we've peaked?

Not Tufty that’s for sure.

The truth is there’s never a bad time to collect points. It’s not F1 with double points in April.

Gerremwonanseeweeritteksus.

 

[Pinchy]

Hopefully not.

But if we have if have rather peaked too soon then never to have peaked at all.

I think half of Wilders post match interview was to keep everyone level headed.

Onwards and erm....stay where we are. (Can't say upwards give we can't get any higher)

Isn’t increasing the Gap (Mind it now) an upward move of sorts?

 

[Dnblade]

Maybe everyone else has peaked,haha..if so,they're all fucked...I like to take it one game at a time,but to answer the O/P,i don't think we've peaked yet..I think there's still more to come.
There's one or 2 other sides to be aware of,but nothing to fear so far...maybe Villa,but Wolves saw them off recently...Who's better and more consistent than us?..I can't see a bad run coming at the moment;especially under this Manager...Trying not to get carried away,so one game at a time,but enjoying the ride at the same time.

 

[WhiteHawk]

We should be using F1 and we are the McClaren or Ferrari.

McLaren haven't won the title since 2008, Ferrari haven't won it since 2007 [/QUOTE]

 

[Pinchy]

I read somewhere that we’ve won 10 out of the opening 14 games and the last 3 teams to do that have gone up.

Don’t believe everything you read Pete...

Meanwhile at the Sty the Green ‘Uns have just arrived:

 

[Deleted member 875]

At the minute I'm more than happy with where we are, and I'm absolutely delighted, and I would much rather be top on 30 points, than in 6th on 22 points, a position that I would have snatched anyone's hand to be at the start of the season.

All we can do is take each game as it comes, there will be more scintillating performances to come, and to borrow the horse racing analogy we will clip a couple of fences along the way, but all we need to do now is sit back, enjoy the ride and see where it takes us.

For posterity I would like to record the fact that before the season started I told LS26BLADE that we would absolutely fine in this season and could even go on and enjoy a very special season, and then after taking Brownie Jnr to Sunderland to watch our heroes turn in an outstanding performance I had a beer with Foxy and raul in Newcastle before catching the train home and I said that this was going to be a promotion season.

 

[Ricky]

I can only see us getting better.

I said the same last season, and was proven right. It's for similar reasons I'm predicting the same this season.

We won't lose anyone important in January. We will only strengthen.

We made a lot of new signings (10). They're only going to gel further.

CCV, O'Connell, Baldock, Stevens, Lundstram and Brooks among others should only get better as the season goes on. We do though have to hope this isn't offset by any deterioration from our ageing strikeforce.

We have a great management team and there's no way they'll let standards slip at any point. I don't see quality and performance levels dropping, injuries permitting. My question mark is whether other teams can up their games, find more consistency and stop us.

As it stands, no one is more consistent than us and that bodes very well indeed.

 

[super_pig]

Everyone says it a marathon and not a sprint which is correct . When you watch a horse race it's always the horse that comes from behind that wins not the one in the front . There is a lot of football to be played before May time so as my title says have we peaked to soon !!

heh. this isn't a horse race .. or a bike race for that matter.. there is no pacing and slipstreaming here

 

[Mesut Özil's Lawnmower]

View attachment 32634

This sort of thing is getting me far too excited!

I darent even dream about it just yet