How Good Can We Be?
Wednesday, 1st Oct 2014 06:28 by Jonthan Weaver (follow him on Twitter @jonathan_we

So with 6 games gone in the premier league season, I started thinking after watching our team this season, and our relative stability, that despite a couple of results which could have gone better for us, being in 5th after 6 games, we are doing rather well. I know there has been some negativity around the Sunderland game, and us not scoring up there, but I started thinking about the league so far, and it got me thinking, that a clean sheet away from home, is a great thing. Against Southampton, we only conceded 1 with 10 men. So we have definitely made some strides at the back.

I thought about it, and whilst it sounds very far fetched, why couldn't we stay around the top 6 for the remainder of the season?

The top 2 pretty much is taken care of by Chelsea and Man City as they both seem solid, and to have made the right additions. But thats as far as it goes in terms of nailed on.
The 5 teams of Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, Everton and Man Utd who normally follow them up are all over the shop. If you wonder my logic. Well the swans have conceded the least goals from all of these teams and normally we seem to be good going forward.
Lets take a minute to look at each..... before i start, by no means am I writing off Southampton, they look good, even though it took them 50 minutes to score against us with 10 men. They seem to know how to win a game.

Arsenal. I'm a big fan of their play and Wenger as a manager. But if you just watch any game, they try and score every goal like its a 28 pass move finished with a goal, and they know that the swans do that best. The key thing for Arsenal though is they are in Europe, the league, 2 cups and they cant keep players fit for more than 3 games at a time. Add to that when they are fit they have in Wenger's words : "we have 10 players who want to play number 10" you kind of get the feeling that its a team that wont have a consistent line up. Yes they have great players, but with so many commitments who's to say. Unless they drop everything to win their 4th place trophy again. Dont get me wrong, I like Arsenal, but if they were only to sign a solid defender, a decent tackling midfielder and potentially a strong number 9, they would challenge for the league, but Wenger doesn't seem to want to buy anyone except short number 10s.

Spurs are still struggling to come to terms with having sold Bale and bought 6 players to replace him. They have great players but again so far haven't worked out how to play together. They also have a good few number 10s, and not found a number 9 who can consistently score. Thankfully they sold us the Gylf, who week in, week out will be our number 10. Again they have Europa League to deal with, and so that will no doubt upset their routine.

Liverpool much like Spurs sold a big name player, added lots of players to replace him, and haven't clicked yet. I'm sure when Sturridge is back they will do much better, as he can score goals from anywhere, but they have looked a little uninspired recently. They have great options going forward but at the back Brendan hasn't really made them any better so will always concede goals.

Everton too, haven't hit the ground running and now have Europa League to contend with. We already beat them, and so that inspires great confidence going forward, but having conceded 14 in the league so far and 3 in the cup against us, they aren't at the races defensively. Any team with Lukaku, Barkley, Eto, Seamus O'Connor and Baines will score goals, but they need to keep some clean sheets. You put that against the Swans, and we have only let in 6 so far, 4 of which came against a tough Chelsea team.

Man Utd have been having a tough time of it, kick started by the Mighty Swans taking 3 points in a famous win at Old Trafford. Now talking of defending. They have so far conceded 9 in the league, 4 in the cup, so 13 in total, and yes they will always score, but they haven't played any of the perceived top 6, so I wonder how that defence will fair against City, Chelsea and the rest.

To put this in context, we have had two games where we had a man sent off, Leon isn't fit, and Bony hasn't scored yet (who is 50/1 to finish top goalscorer in the Premiership ). Let that sink in and reflect on that and the information above.

So how do we stay in and around where we are now? I remember 2 weeks ago Rangel saying we could do, but I thought I should note down my thoughts on what could be the difference.

1. As another blogger noted.... Take Our Chances. It sounds simple, but in the premier league, you get so few chances, when they come, we have to make them count. You watch Diego Costa and he exemplifies that. Against Southampton, Routledge hits the bar, Bony gets it saved on the line, if either of those go in, I would bet that the swans would have gone on to control the game. Against Chelsea at 1-0 up Routledge had another chance and again, that goes in, different game. Gomis too was guilty.

2. Limiting Individual mistakes. Again, yes it sounds simple, but think about some of the games we have lost recently and last season. Bony getting sent off, Chico getting sent off, it goes on and on.... each one basically puts 3 points nearly out of reach. Eliminate those mistakes and we at least give ourselves a chance.

3. Substitutions. This is a topic for discussion, and many will think I'm wrong for even questioning Gary Monk, but sometimes, it just seems that our team and subs are pretty easy for the opposition to imagine. For example on the weekend, after 55 minutes, you could see that Dyer and Routledge weren't having one of their on form days. Some days the opposition don't let them click. Sunderland didn't leave any space to run into, and Monk replaced like for like with Montero coming on. Now he looks quality but he has come on in the 60-70th minute in every game this season. Imagine if Monk had hauled off Dyer and Routledge for Emes and Bony, so all of a sudden we would have a pretty formidable and unexpected forward line of Gylfi, Gomis, Emnes and Bony. Definitely more physical, and whilst maybe not as defensively helpful, they would have sent the fear of god into Sunderland, as they have pace, strength, the ability to shoot from distance and it could have changed the game. Then again, without Leon in the team, perhaps he felt going for the single point was a better option without Leon underpinning everything. I just wonder if sometimes we could maybe switch things up a bit.

Anyways, I'm not the manager, and hindsight is a beautiful thing, so I am not going to begin to try and tell Super Gary Monk how to run his team but just my thoughts on the start to the season.

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or my blog about my travels on www.the-goodlife.co.uk

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