How much have we improved?

[Eskimo]

We have a mental toughness now that has been missing for a long time. This is a team that does not give up.....

 

Agree, also having more options in the middle and upfront has also helped in my opinion. We are less rigid in terms of gameplan than we were under GH...

[Guz]

Belief

Team Spirit

More posession football (still lots of room for improvement though)

Ability to 'dig in' when needed

A defence the team trusts

More competition for places

Goals from the midfield

No more getting bullied away from home

More tactically flexible

[Ronnie Whelan]

 

More tactically flexible

 

 

Personally i think this is the key difference from last season.

[Bootle Buck]

1. Confidence, Confidence, Confidence

 

2. A settled team fairly free of injuries

 

3. The players finally getting Rafa's message on how to play

[Maldini]

3. The players finally getting Rafa's message on how to play

by far the most important factor IMO.

[Joshytoohotty]

it severely pains me ...but the answer is s***loads.

 

Manc or Bluenose I take it?

[abc]

He's started off by making us powerful and incredibly tough to break down and defeat. And now he's added pace, technique and flair...

 

Wrong. He actually tried to integrate everything in.

 

If anything, he was guilty of putting a team out who tried to play football before earning the right to (read away nightmares last season). This season he has rectified that, and as it was against Spurs on the weekend, we got into the match after about 15-20 minutes, when our physical presence wore Spurs down slightly and gave us time and space to put our foot on the ball (though we were never close to our best).

[Guest ukbriand]

Seems like we're certainly taking a big step forwards this year. Of course I realise that these kind of stats don't take into consideration the teams who we've played and/or are yet to play. Still the figures are very encouraging indeed IMO.

 

Last season: 38 games, 58 points i.e. 1,53 points/game

 

This season: 20 games, 44 points i.e. 2,2 points/game

 

Our improvement: 0,67 points/game

As a comparison:

 

 

Interesting analysis.

 

In the last 12 games we have averaged 2.83 points/game, how does this compare with Chel$ki?