When the Harry honeymoon ends....

Azrael · Nov 3, 2008

I don't mean to be a prophet of doom, but I do think we shouldn't get carried away with the current form.

We've seen it many times before, new manager, the players play out of their skin to impress and the results come in.

However, what I am slightly concerned about is that everyone will now have high expectations and expect us to qualify for Europe this year and win a cup. I myself think its time for a reality check and I think we need to keep the focus fixed on avoiding the drop as if we don't and go on to suffer a few defeats in coming games I fear everyone will lose perspective and start claiming that Harry was a mistake (which, for a relegation dogfight he is not).

Kushal · Nov 3, 2008

It will take us a lot longer than many people now expect to get out of the bottom 3. The teams around us are all picking up points (Bolton, West Brom, Newcastle) at the same time.

The priority still needs to be survival. Any cup run should be regarded as a bonus only. Harry has hinted that he doesn't care about UEFA so I wouldn't be surprised if we were to crash out of the group stages now.

liberty · Nov 3, 2008

Well the thing is we’ve rode our luck the last 2 games, that’s a given, but you can’t just rely on luck, we still have to stick the ball in the net and to do that the players need the belief which it seems Harry has given them.

Of course, scoring 4 at the Emirates with ‘no proven strikers’ and coming back to beat Liverpool from losing 1-0 are pretty one-off spectaculars, but I think it just goes to prove that we are more than capable.

You’ll get the odd few turning on the manager but it’s hard to tell at the moment. Hopefully people will remember his first week in charge and bite their tongues.

Look at the table. Not many points between us and around 6th.

Azrael · Nov 3, 2008

Kushal said:
It will take us a lot longer than many people now expect to get out of the bottom 3. The teams around us are all picking up points (Bolton, West Brom, Newcastle) at the same time.

The priority still needs to be survival. Any cup run should be regarded as a bonus only. Harry has hinted that he doesn't care about UEFA so I wouldn't be surprised if we were to crash out of the group stages now.

Yes, see this is exactly my feeling as well. I think the midtable and lower table sides are much stronger this year than in previous seasons and I can really see sides picking up points at our expense. That's why I don't want to get too exited. Liberty says that we are only a few points away from 6th, which I accept, but I just think teh competition is harder to beat at the moment than it has been during previous campaigns.

Tickers · Nov 3, 2008

The thing is, if you look at the league table, there are about 14 teams all separated by six points.

And all those teams are frankly shit.

So they'll continue to knock around taking points off each other. Which means that you can have a long spell of not getting very far but also you can suddenly fly up the table as Everton have. Gash all season, they're now seventh.

llamafarmer · Nov 3, 2008

There's no obvious relegation fodder this season, only 4 points seperates the bottom 11. I think Stoke will stay up by virtue of fortress Brittania, but other than that there's a lot of teams that could be sweating come the end of the season. West Brom are the only side I'd be willing to put money on being relegated right now.

We should get well out of this now, we have so much more quality than the sides around us and I hope we don't start ignoring the cup competitions, otherwise our season could be over pretty early.

striebs · Nov 3, 2008

I think Levy has run out of excuses for sacking managers so Harry should survive a couple of bad runs of results .

As soon as we are clear of relegation , the board's attention will turn to CL qualification again and the expectations will go through the roof and Harry will get the compo .

ravo · Nov 3, 2008

Getting a solid string of results, getting out of the bottom three and getting a consistantly performing starting 11 are the most important factors right now.

There is nothing saying we can't qulaify for UEFA by the end of this season, but we should not focus on this right now. As the old cliche goes, "one game at a time".

COYS

Shanks · Nov 3, 2008

No problem what so ever, over time we will improve.

I believe that new managers do not bring out good performances, I cannot remember Santini, Jol or Ramos going on runs like this when they took over.

Okay its only 3 games, but we have played Arsenal and Liverpool in those 3 games....

We will now be fine, not even doubtful about it anymore, and I can see us moving right up the table and possibly into a Euro spot.

haxman · Nov 3, 2008

Shanks said:
No problem what so ever, over time we will improve.

I believe that new managers do not bring out good performances, I cannot remember Santini, Jol or Ramos going on runs like this when they took over.

Okay its only 3 games, but we have played Arsenal and Liverpool in those 3 games....

We will now be fine, not even doubtful about it anymore, and I can see us moving right up the table and possibly into a Euro spot.

I really hope so, because our European coefficient is improving all the time as we've been in the UEFA cup this last 3 seasons, meaning we go into Europe seeded higher giving us (supposedly) easier draws. It'd be a shame to see that wasted. That said, the league should be the no. 1 priority but Europe should be no. 2 imo.

Azrael · Nov 3, 2008

Shanks said:
No problem what so ever, over time we will improve.

I believe that new managers do not bring out good performances, I cannot remember Santini, Jol or Ramos going on runs like this when they took over.

Okay its only 3 games, but we have played Arsenal and Liverpool in those 3 games....

We will now be fine, not even doubtful about it anymore, and I can see us moving right up the table and possibly into a Euro spot.

To quote Greavsie, footie's a funny old game. Here we were just 10 days ago planning for life in the Championship, and now look, we are convinced we're safe in our hearts (yes, me included). I love this game....

Bristol Coys · Nov 3, 2008

When the Honeymoon ends, all the knee jerkers and prophets of doom will be back and abusing Darren Bent, JJ, Gomes, BAE or whoever the current boo boy is and I shall restart my thread "Its all Darren's fault"

We are 11 points behind Arsenil.
When did we last have a points ratio of 4/6 against the top 4?
When did we last beat one of the top 4 in the league?

Look at what Harry did on his Pompey return and by his own admission the players were shite. He said he loved the quality of the players, just the balance that was the problem. I know we have had more false dawns than Michael Caine in Zulu. But I think we will be in the top 8 by Easter and relegation will be a distant sepia tinted memory.

COYS!

Shanks · Nov 3, 2008

Its true, 9 days ago, I really thought we were doomed. I couldn't see us picking up more than 1 point from the 3 games, and here we are sat on 9 in total and off the bottom.

We are very lucky that many teams from the top half down to the bottom are all very close on the amount of points there. It's going to be pretty easy to get up into the top 8 with a few poiints gained. If we can continue the run of luck, and get some form, we could look at easily closing the gap on those in Europe.

Looking at positives, we have one of he best positive outcomes this eason, than is recent years.

We have not lost fo one of the top four teams this season - chelsea, liverpool and arsenal. That in itself shows how good we can be (with a bit of luck!)

Bristol Coys · Nov 3, 2008

Shanks said:
Its true, 9 days ago, I really thought we were doomed. I couldn't see us picking up more than 1 point from the 3 games, and here we are sat on 9 in total and off the bottom.

We are very lucky that many teams from the top half down to the bottom are all very close on the amount of points there. It's going to be pretty easy to get up into the top 8 with a few poiints gained. If we can continue the run of luck, and get some form, we could look at easily closing the gap on those in Europe.

Looking at positives, we have one of he best positive outcomes this eason, than is recent years.

We have not lost fo one of the top four teams this season - chelsea, liverpool and arsenal. That in itself shows how good we can be (with a bit of luck!)

Damm you foiled my masterplan of outrageous prediction, by realising it is only 2 wins to 7th place. and I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you peasky kids. Mwaaa Haa Haaa.:duh:

I was going to pint out that a win and 2 draws is (sadly) amazing form for us against the top 4. and thank you for supportiung my point about luck in the other thread.:wink:

Adam456 · Nov 3, 2008

Shanks said:
I believe that new managers do not bring out good performances, I cannot remember Santini, Jol or Ramos going on runs like this when they took over.

Really Shanks ? This is almost an accepted truism which, if anybody measured statistically would show a very very strong correlation between new manager and good result.

Also, what qualifies as a run like these THREE games in which, let's face it, we've had a bit of luck ?

Santini had us in the top 3 for a couple of weeks in his brief stint. Jol took over and we narrowly missed out on 4th. Ramos took over and we shot up the league and won the Carling Cup.......

donny1013 · Nov 3, 2008

I'm just glad the feel good factor is back on SC after nearly 3 months of doom and gloom

Shanks · Nov 3, 2008

Yust never got the impression that we done that well with new managers straight away. So it was a statement without actually looking into it much!

sidford · Nov 3, 2008

the honeymoon will end but if it continues for another 2-3 weeks then it wont matter about the honeymoon period because harry will have been able to make tweaks to the side and have an idea of who should be playing and in what position so we will hopefully have the honeymoon period end and just get taken over by a good manager winning games becuase of his knowledge of the team and the players we have

Shanks · Nov 3, 2008

One thing that has to be noted is that in his first 6 days in charge, he had 3 games of football.

He hasn't had any time to make an inpact on the tactics, but he has already got a good response from his players.

Fact remains, this last week, he have played pretty shitty. Against Arsenal, we were pretty rubbish until the end. Against Liverpool, we didn't even look like a football team until the 70minute.

But what he has done is got the players playing in their right positions and he also gone back to basics by doing so.

riversmonkey · Nov 3, 2008

We have to aim to hit 40 pts as soon as we can, thinking about Europe even after a euphoric last week is stupid. Once we hit the 40 pts we can then think about our next target.

Forums

What's new

Matches

Sportsbook

Members

When the Harry honeymoon ends....

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned

Marquee Signing

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

SC Supporter

Kinda not anymore....

Well-Known Member

Banned

New Member

Kinda not anymore....

New Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Kinda not anymore....

Well-Known Member

Kinda not anymore....

Active Member

Similar threads