The problem is we've not had a settled team all season because there has been players missing
Suarez - Suspended
Agger - Injured
Johnson - Injured
Enrique - Injured
Coutinho - Injured
Toure - Injured
Cissokho - Injured
Aspas - Injured
Lucas - Baby Born
Kelly - Unfit and then Injured
Be them slight knocks like Agger and Jose or long term like Johnson, Aly and Coutinho, either way we have pretty much had to make a change(s) to our line up/formation every game because we've lost a player and it's gotten worse since the first International break this season so it's no coincidence we only have 1 win since that time. We haven't been able to field our strongest line up all season where as Arsenal, Saints, Spurs, City and Chelsea etc have been able to so it could be a lot worse than sitting level on points with 2nd.
We are just starting to get back to a full team so I'm feeling positive about the coming weeks. This formation we are now playing wasn't right a couple of weeks ago because we had to play Sterling RWB but we now have Johnson back and Lucas will be back next game for midfield and Coutinho will soon be back in the number 10 role instead of Moses, we have the 2 best strikers in the league smashing in the goals so a couple weeks when we have our key players back, particularly Coutinho, I think there will be much better performances and more wins on the way.
Newcastle wasn't great, especially defensively but at the same time, Johnson and Aly haven't played for a while so they didn't have that match sharpness which probably contributed to the errors made, particularly Aly. We done everything we could to win that game but hit the bar and denied by Krul on the free kick at the end.
We will soon have a full strength starting 11 with some decent options on the bench too.
It's just always more frustrating at the time and I am happy to admit, I didn't feel this way yesterday but you never do when you drop points. We have one of the leagues top keepers, arguably the best defence when they all settles and gel, without doubt the best strike force in Suarez, Sturridge and Coutinho, it's just our midfield that's lacking but I have faith in Stevie, Hendo and Lucas doing a good enough job until we can strengthen, (hopefully with Xabi
)
Joint 2nd whilst playing badly most of the games without a strongest line up, makes me feel optimistic about the potential of the team when it all clicks and takes off, dominating performances and comfortable victories like the back end of last season when we were destroying teams.