Are we really a team of 'bottlers'???????

[Makingtrax]

Is the current squad really a team of bottlers? A lot of people seem to think so?
To be ‘bottlers’ rather than just inconsistent there has to be some pattern to ‘folding under pressure’.

• Have we folded in the EPL under the pressure of playing top 6 sides? Arsenal have the most points against top 6 sides – 12 points. Leicester, Sp**s, Man C, Man U, West H all have less. No pattern here.

• Have we folded in FA Cup games? We lost in the cup, but it was the first FA Cup loss in nearly 3 years. No pattern here.

• Have we folded in the CL competition? People said we folded against Olympiakos at home but when the pressure was really on we beat them away 3-0. Bayern Munich away was a 5-1 loss but at home we beat them 2-0, after Bayern had won their last 12 fixtures. We lost twice to Barcelona but the performances were generally regarded as good by the pundits. No pattern here.

• Have we folded under the pressure of away games? Surprisingly our home win record isn’t that much better than away. No pattern here.

• Do we fold under the pressure of going behind? We did lose more games when we went behind. But most teams do. We had some good comebacks though. Leicester, the EPL leaders, scored first but we came back to win 5-2 and they scored first again in our 2-1 win. Sp**s scored first in the 1-1 draw, Liverpool scored first in the 3-3 draw, Sunderland scored first in our 3-1 FA Cup win. No obvious pattern here.

• Do we fold against physical teams? Who’s to say which sides are the most physical? We beat Stoke 2-0. We lost twice against Chelsea but beat them in the FACS, and to be fair in the first league game we only had 10 men thanks to Mike Dean. Everton are usually a tough side to play and we’ve beaten them 3 times including the pre-season friendly. No pattern here.

So the facts say this team are not ‘bottlers’. . . . just inconsistent.

 

[Trilly]

Ah, give it a rest man.