Between now and New Year...

[Diggerman]

... could be a great 6 weeks of the season for us. Looking at our fixtures and those for the teams around us, I feel that we could consolidate a top 4 berth and then build on it in the New Year. The last 5 draws haven't done us a huge amount of damage in hindsight as the teams around us haven't capitalised (think Scouse 1 v Sunderland, Spuds v stoke, Villa losing at W Ham etc).
Arse are now going to be without Van Persie for 6 weeks (8 goals 8 assists according to Sky), Torres and Gerrard both look to be struggling as well as players that have been important to them this season like Benayoun and Riera(!).
There's also the African Nations coming up and I think Chelsea will miss Drogba and Essien more than we'll miss Ade and Kolo (on current form and considering that maybe Nedum and Roque might deserve a few starts). Having said that, I still dont think we'll be troubling Chelsea's final finishing position.
Basically, we should pulverise Hull (yes we shouldv'e done the same to Burnley, Brum etc), genuinely feel we'll get at least a point at Anfield, beat the Mackems at home, another 3 v everton and hopefully a cup semi final place thrown in to boot. All seems simple!
Fingers crossed. Over to you Leslie.

[Crossie]

if you look back 6 weeks you'd say the same thing!

[AlanBallsHat]

if you look back 6 weeks you'd say the same thing!

lmao. Woohoo great run of fixtures fulham and burnley at home and blues away! We will be top of the league by november!!!!

[Robinho_Is_GOD]

I doubt we will win too many matches between now and new year, but what we should be looking for is a new recruit in a position that we should have filled a gap in during the summer, but slow movement by ourselves and tunnel-vision target buying by my friend!!, ended up us losing a creative player and not having one then to go into the campaign with should Robinho lose form or get injured, and the worst has happend.

What we will need is to target the next generation of top class midfield players such has Mesmut Ozil (Werder Bremen), Rafa van der Vaart (R Madrid), Lulinha (Corinthians), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Sebastian Sessagnon (PSG) or Jose Moutinho (Sp Lisbon)....we needed one when Elano left in July and still need one now.......missing out on the likes of Sneijder, Diego, Gourcruff etc whilst we pissed in the wind for Terry & Eto'o.....(2 moves that were never going to happen).

I will be happy looking at the fixtures we have between now and new year just being in the top 10 come Jan 1st, not negative at all, it is just we have played all the easy teams and been unable to beat them, now we face the likes of Liverpool (needing a win), Chelsea, Spurs, Stoke and Sunderland (all sides who are in the top half of the table and very close to ourselves in points, or in Chelsea's case miles ahead of us, in terms of points and ability.

[AlanBallsHat]

RIG I am of the humble opinion that Stephen Ireland is a fantastic creative midfielder. Elano is not fit to shine his boots.

[zuricity]

It hurts too much to dream so far ahead.

I just stick with the old maxim of "one game at a time".

The next one up is Liverpool and I'd like at least one point, preferably three.

[Fish111]

This is the weakest Liverpool team for a long time and i expect at least a point against them.

[Wonderwall]

This is the weakest Liverpool team for a long time and i expect at least a point against them.

totally agree, however, I expected the rags to smash the fuck out of them too!

[Diggerman]

This is the weakest Liverpool team for a long time and i expect at least a point against them.

totally agree, however, I expected the rags to smash the fuck out of them too!

Its all set up for us to get something from this game, the "typical city" tag will get banded about on Sunday if we can get a result there having scraped points against the likes of Burnley, Brum, Wigan etc

[Fish111]

This is the weakest Liverpool team for a long time and i expect at least a point against them.

totally agree, however, I expected the rags to smash the fuck out of them too!

Ha ha, true, fucked my coupon right up that weekend. Liverpool are very inconsistent this season and if we get back to the form we showed at the beginning of the season then i think a draw may be seen as bad result this time.

[john68]

RIG,
I think you are half right but a simple change of personell in the creative midfiels won't change anything.
We have Ireland who proved last season that he can play that role and play it well.
The problem is that his role has been changed and nobody has replaced him.
We have plenty of energy and run around with the likes of Tevez and Bellamy but no cool head and stability in the centre.
I could possibly see Johnno doing the job when he is fully fit and maybe that is the plan for the future, with Ireland behind him.

This is when we find out how good our manager is. It's easy to rolll with it when things are going well but he has got to find a way to dig us out of this current run.
I am certain that we have the players to fly up the league once our immediate problems are sorted. It all depends how quickly we can sort them.
Even without further recruitment, this squad should be good enough.

[Vhero]

I'm thinking of going football style celibate and not watching any more matches until Christmas day and then looking back and hoping Santa has been good to me this year as I been a good boy :p

[Dubaimancityfan]

RIG I am of the humble opinion that Stephen Ireland is a fantastic creative midfielder. Elano is not fit to shine his boots.

Based on his performance so far this season, I would correct this stament to "was a fantastic creative midfielder last season".
I hope that he regains last season's form soon. We bloody need it.
And as for yr for yr (couldn't resist a jab at) remark on Elano, I wonder if Ireland was Brazilian would he be started ahead of Elano !!! Nuff said.

[Slim]

RIG I am of the humble opinion that Stephen Ireland is a fantastic creative midfielder. Elano is not fit to shine his boots.

Based on his performance so far this season, I would correct this stament to "was a fantastic creative midfielder last season".
I hope that he regains last season's form soon. We bloody need it.
And as for yr for yr (couldn't resist a jab at) remark on Elano, I wonder if Ireland was Brazilian would he be started ahead of Elano !!! Nuff said.

I think the fact he has had to gel with two new teams in three years probably means he is on as much of a learning curve as the new arrivals. He wasn't as great in the Svennis season, but grew into his role the following season. I expect as soon as he learns the movement of Ade, Tevez, Barry, RSC, etc he will look more at home pulling the strings.

[sky_blue_stew]

I hope so Slim. There's nothing more frustrating than wasted potential, especially when it's a homegrown academy product. With Barry playing below par at the moment, Ireland needs to try and force his way into the first team and remind everyone of the form that made him such a favourite on here in the first place. I agree that trying to fit in with 5/6 new players in and around you can't be easy, and he's certainly had less experience with the pressure at playing in a team with such expectations than the others.

[Slim]

Honestly I believe Johnson in the answer to Barry. He needs to de-spotlight a little and De Jong and Kompany are a bit too one dimensional(the former more than the latter) to hold down a place in a team that needs to push forward.