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Home AND away

After what has been so far a strange but ultimately disappointing season, thoughts begin to turn towards the future.

There seems again to be a reasonable case for the optimists and the idea that the future is looking good. Since our full team (or close enough) has returned, there have been signs of some impressive football and certainly some memorable results, even if intermixed with some poor cup displays and bitter derby defeats.

I read somewhere that our form in the Premier League over the last 12 games or so would see us in the top 3. With 6 of those games against the top, 6 that's no mean feat and surely evidence that we have in the team the potential for something pretty exciting.

I would say the next 8 games will see exactly what this crop has to offer. In particular the away games at Man City, Villa, Stoke and Blackburn.

Whilst our form at Goodison has been stellar, if we are to challenge in the higher echelons, we have to learn to play with the same confidence wherever we go. We have 3 away wins all season. Only 8 teams have worse. To progress we clearly need to do better. Its not enough to just win at home.

If we can get 8-10 points from those 4 away games, then I will believe that we have really turned the corner and I for one will start to get very exited about the possibilities of next season and the further future.
Sam Hoare, London Posted 21/03/2010 at 20:36:27

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Trevor Lynes
1 Posted 22/03/2010 at 09:39:47

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I fully agree....!!

Eric Myles
2 Posted 22/03/2010 at 09:52:01

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Remember last season was the other way round?

We had a much better record away than at home.

Andrew Clare
3 Posted 22/03/2010 at 10:08:17

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Spot on Sam.

If we can beat Man City in mid-week then I am confident that we can achieve a top 6 finish.Our away form is definitely the key to a higher finish.

Brian Garside
4 Posted 22/03/2010 at 21:00:36

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Our only hope is for DM to do a u-turn with his tactics and try to win every match by playing the way we can rather than keeping it tight and hoping to snatch a goal from a set play then proceeding to drop deeper and deeper and playing with fear rather than dominating.
Oh yes and how about playing players who are 100% fit and can contribute for 90mins thereby avoiding forced substitutions.
Just a thought.

David Hallwood
5 Posted 22/03/2010 at 21:10:12

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Unusually for TW we're all in agreement, I would add that the season isn't dead, there's still 28pts to play for and for the people who are saying that 4th is between Citteh & Spurs, both of them have a tough run in, but if (and it’s a big if)we beat them on Wednesday, that will put us 2pts behind the RS and 5 pts behind Citteh and they’ve got to play Arsenal & Man U.

Dick Fearon
6 Posted 22/03/2010 at 21:13:30

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Crucial to hopes for next year is a better pre season prep than we had for the past two.
Despite our horrible injury list it seemed obvious to me that the rest of the squad were physically and mentally way behind where they should have been.
Moyes belatedly recognised that a month into the season when he was quoted as saying he expected the team to be hitting their straps in another few weeks.
I hope he learned from that experience and next year we really do hit the ground running.

Brian Garside
7 Posted 22/03/2010 at 21:34:36

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Er Dick. We are all still in this season which is the point of the post.
As David pointed out, our rivals will be dropping points to each other apart from Utd + Chelsea. We continue to cheer for a surprisingly high finish this season as Im sure you will too. But leave next seasons thoughts to the close season where they belong. This could be rather exciting.

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