FORM

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Our form isn't very exciting is it?
9 home games since Xmas have been 8 wins and a draw. Sound spretty damn good and it is ok but the games were against either total dross or average teams at best. Dross = Leicester,WBA,Notts County,Aris,Wigan,Blackpool and the average were Wolves and Fulham and I think I am being generous to the last 2.

Even then in most of the prem games although we won there was some rubbish played,Wolves,WBA( second half) Wigan,Fulham.

BUT then we have the not away form. 7 games bringing 5 draws and 2 defeats and 3 of the draws were against leicester,Notts County and Aris.

Reading on Sunday and another average team at best who we should beat.Then it starts Kiev at home,Chelsea away ,Sunderland at home,Liverpool away and I would say nothing but a change in form will get us anything.

How do we find form again?

[Ted Hughes]

This is relative to the 'tired' argument on the other thread imo & where the 'x' factor comes in as regards the manager. We need a boost & we need to find something extra to get us through this period. A lot of that will come from the mental approach rather than just working on details on the training ground imo.

This is where we find out if Bob has the personality & magic to get a team through the hard part or whether he's just a fairly good chess player. His future will depend on it.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

This is relative to the 'tired' argument on the other thread imo & where the 'x' factor comes in as regards the manager. We need a boost & we need to find something extra to get us through this period. A lot of that will come from the mental approach rather than just working on details on the training ground imo.

This is where we find out if Bob has the personality & magic to get a team through the hard part or whether he's just a fairly good chess player. His future will depend on it.

Comments made by the commentators ( ex pros) on tv tonight:
it's important on nights like these to make sure all the players are fully motivated.
it's all about attitude and state of mind.

[Fesan]

Sadly I have not yet seen (and kind of doubt I will see) any form of encouragement skills from Mancini, we should be a good enough side to not need alot of encouragement to win vs on the paper "worse" sides but we do need it now. I am loosing more and more belief that he can take us all the way. Maybe we'll win a cup and get fourth this season but our aim is surely to be at the top of all the major comps and I just don't see him having the motivational (or tactical) skills to take us all the way.

Sad as I'd love him to be, hope he proves me wrong the next few months! I think the sheik will be really reluctant to let him go as 1) he is a personal friend of his and 2) he is their signing. I however don't think I can take another season of "almost" and pure flat gameplay with more backpasses than forward ones. I would not mind "boring" play if it actually made us win games but boring play and loosing... sheesh!:-)

That being said, COME ON MANCINI! SHOW US WHAT YOU CAN DO! Turn this baby around:-)

[Ted Hughes]

The motivation question will be answered very quickly. If he fails that test then all other technical questions (like the thread I've just started! Doh!) won't matter. I think we'll know the answer to this question in the next week or so.

[Crossie]

Dzeko coming in and Balotelli returning from injury upset the balance of the team imo.

We'd learnt to play some nice stuff, gelled, did well most of the time but couldnt break down the 10 defender type teams.

Those 2 came along, unsettled our nice stuff, ungelled us, and we still cant break down the 10 defender type teams.

We have to just hope that we can scrape wins together and focus on 4th, its 4th or nothing, its more important than the FA cup.

Champions League is everything for our club now. It will open doors to players who are the best, in form and actually want to come to us, not just for money.

We've had to offer stupid money and wages to get "good" or a better words would be - high profile - players here. Without the offer of champions league, we arent half as attractive as Chelsea, Arse or Scum.

Last night was a shambles, I don't think the players knew what the fuck was going on. It was like Platt told the attackers to play one way and Mancini told the defenders to play another way.

[david yearsley]

The motivation question will be answered very quickly. If he fails that test then all other technical questions (like the thread I've just started! Doh!) won't matter. I think we'll know the answer to this question in the next week or so.

I concur - infact i think we´ll know after Chelski if he has a future. This is where the good become the great. Crunch time has arrived and we need to start showing the bollox of a brass stallion

[Ted Hughes]

The motivation question will be answered very quickly. If he fails that test then all other technical questions (like the thread I've just started! Doh!) won't matter. I think we'll know the answer to this question in the next week or so.

I concur - infact i think we´ll know after Chelski if he has a future. This is where the good become the great. Crunch time has arrived and we need to start showing the bollox of a brass stallion

I think it's possible even to lose to Chelsea & come away saying 'we lost but we did ok' but if we turn up & play like we did last night, there'll be a hangin'.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

The motivation question will be answered very quickly. If he fails that test then all other technical questions (like the thread I've just started! Doh!) won't matter. I think we'll know the answer to this question in the next week or so.

I concur - infact i think we´ll know after Chelski if he has a future. This is where the good become the great. Crunch time has arrived and we need to start showing the bollox of a brass stallion

I think it's possible even to lose to Chelsea & come away saying 'we lost but we did ok' but if we turn up & play like we did last night, there'll be a hangin'.

In all the predictions of points to the end of the season everyone has Chelsea as a defeat so it's not the end if we lose.