Coming up to 2 years since Wickham last played so can't expect much from him for a while.

Re the original post - given how well we did at the end of last season with Zaha and Townsend up front, and looking at our opening 8 games, I would have expected us to be on about 16 points by now. Taking into account how we've actually played in those games, if we'd taken the easy chances at the end of games and cut out the stupid pen at Bournemouth, we should be on 12 points. So I would say it is in fact as bad as we think. Another transfer window was wasted regarding our lack of a decent striker, and we lost Sako ( a decent backup) due to apparently offering him a reduced deal.

Agree with this. We played very well against Watford first half and should have been at least a goal up at half time and could have taken a draw if Ward had put his header on target. Same can be said for Newcastle with Sakho's header for 3 points.
It really is a case of taking our chances, we're not playing bad football and are actually controlling a lot of games. Saturday we played a side that limited City to 1 goal and United to 1, we can't be surprised that we did not create much as they're a good side.

Stay positive, we always get a shock result against one of the top clubs.

Think we are not far away from a decent team.

Add Meyer and Kouyate to the starting line up and we are probably the 10% better we need to be. From there we build confidence and start to get points on the table.

we have played a lot of teams who have been happy to play us at our own game...we very rarely do well in these games as we are a team that exploits space well & striggle when it comes to breaking teams down.

look at the points we gained from the games that in most peoples eyes we shouldnt have got anything from.

in my humble opinion we need to f*** off ayew as hes awful, and revert to the 442 with wilf & andros up top. put kouyate next to luca & give mayer freedom to roam & feed wilf & andros.

‘Football isn’t instant coffee. You have to work at it. You must grow the bean, grind it.’ Ian Holloway

But our finishing is so spectacularly s***e it has to be seen to be believed. And it isn't just the "strikers".

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The Ferret
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^this

Losing to a terrible Southampton side, an average Watford side, and then an average Wolves side, we do look a shambles.

Not being able to do a piss poor Newcastle at home when they looked bad just shows us even worse.

Townsend puts in a shift but does not threaten, Ayew has a couple nice touches, but does not threaten, this leaves Wilf as the only real threat as we know, and thus can be dealt with.

Never thought i would say it, but looking forward to Benteke's return. Maybe if he sees we cant score without him, even if its not him that scores, he will feel more confident. Least Wilf gets less attention when Benteke is on the field, guess you dont realize that til hes not there.