"England's Most Successful Team Ever (18&5)"
Asked " are Pool now out of the title race" Gray said "no" so he hardly wrote the side off, although some will do....... even more if Man U had beaten Arsenal. But 2 lost games so early are making it big odds against winning the title. Games lost by the Prem winners in the past seasons:
06 lost 5..........( but 2 were final 2 games of season, away, after title was won) 05 lost 1 04 lost 0 03 lost 5 02 lost 3
so Pool are close to using up their share after just 4 games. It is possible that the ' games lost' column for the leaders might be higher all round this season, but Pool have certainly set themselves a hard task. Are they good enough? I thought that yesterday they had patches of the best stuff they have played so far this season, but not easy to judge how good when playing against 10 men for almost half the match. Agree about the plus points. Kuyt suggests clbutt and a lot more to come. Agger is impressive, but Sissoko will be missing too many games if he doesn't learn when to back off.
A good chance missed yesterday. Even though losing , Man U are certainly going the right way ( even better if Rooney ever wakes up) Arsenal looked formidable and Chelsea likely to improve fast over the next few weeks. One or two others are showing early form and won't be easy to get away points from.
Today's Game 558this down need been true, the balance is about to come when we play our 2nd home game of the 5 we have played so...
Pool have plenty of quality and pace all round now but they are an enigma. They, too often, seem to start games with a false attitude that their clbutt will see them through (but with only the long ball as an attacking option) and end it playing better, but a bit too frantic. They have the players to produce 90 mins of controlled, good quality football but not the 'team' to do so.
Could be that a not particularly tactically astute manager has been given too many toys to play with? Management is far easier when they have limited choice and the excuse of " I still need X players" to fall back on. Better hope that the sweating panic and agitation Raffa showed late on yesterday does not transmit itself to a team which has yet to gain confidence.
LC
