we are turning into pooe agian

Not sure it is as clear as that. This impression of the team playing well but lacking scorers is true to a degree, but this midfield, who pbutt well and tackle well, give fans a false idea about how their side 'dominate' a game but lose. It might start to occur that this apparent domination is more show than constructive. Often ends up being a long way round to getting the ball wide and hoping the cross produces something. Pretty, one touch pbutting in midfield isn't worth a toss. It only leads the less objective fans to applaud and think it proves that the team is better than it really is and the poor result must be because of bad luck.

The midfield lacks the ability to produce the REAL chances that even these forwards would score from and they are not good enough to score many from distance themselves.

The defence is not as rock solid as many suppose either and are vulnerable to far more than set pieces ,often suggested as their only weakness.

The side are an above average Prem team who are likely to get a lot better in time, but a long way from the consistency of recent Arsenal and Man U championship sides and even further from the present Chelsea team. And yet we hear silly comments that this side are only a decent goalscorer away from being the equal of a side which has lost 2 in 63? Who can really believe that?

Although the team are not consistent enough to be dominating, they are good enough to raise their game for one off cup matches, and they are still in two of them. I am not the biggest Benitez fan but, to be fair to the man, a top 4 finish would be a fine result after some of the crap league showings last year and they are still odds on to do this.

Anyone who seriously expected more must have been carried away by the CL Final result. Understandable....but a bit unrealistic.

LC