Don't mind West Ham, growing up when they had Joe Cole, Di Canio, Sinclair they were always good to watch. Probably helps that I don't know any West Ham fans. Every team I dislike is through knowing a fan of that club and them being a total bellend when it comes to football. Case in point I was in the pub last night with an Everton fan and a couple of others. One of the others asked him if he thought they should've got rid of Koeman. He said it was a tricky one but overall he thought he deserved more time. I remembered what Tobes said on here about Koeman apparently being in Portugal on deadline day, not eating with the players etc (all stuff I had told my mate when he left Saints and he called me "just bitter because Koeman was leaving for a better club") So I mentioned that apparently Koeman had been doing that Everton aswell. His exact words "No disrespect (this always come before something incredibly disrespectful) but because Saints are a nothing club he could get away with **** like that there, but at a big club like Everton that wouldn't go down well". I laughed, but hate Everton that little bit more now.
It's funny how Everton are this huge clubs when they've won diddly squat for a good couple of decades at least. At least they have their dugouts........
Just a thought. If Claude was still our manager and we had performed as we have done under Mauricio this season, what would you be thinking? Would you feel he needed to go or would you think it was ok and he needed even more time. I think that my weakish support for Mauricio is influenced by the fact that he has only just started in this league and I really don't want to see us get rid of another manager.
Same thing I thought most of last season, Redmond is bang average and shouldn't be a starter. Davis shouldn't be a third midfielder, unless we're looking to keep things tight. Shane Long & Austin both need upgrading, though Long actually does offer something different. Boufal needs to play more, Gabbiadini shouldn't be left isolated on his own upfront. Fullbacks need to improve their final ball and we need to give up on crossing the ball aimlessly into the box. Oh yeah, Forster needs to be dropped and replaced - but no we'll give him a 5 year contract as our highest paid player. I find it very difficult to lay the blame at the managers door with the squad they've both had to work with.
Well if Puel had been here the entire summer then the argument would be more who is to blame for the squad still being sub par? Him or Reed? It is pretty obvious with a new man in charge that it is Reeds fault atm as he and his team should've been planning from last season on what we should be upgrading, Pellegrino obviously wouldn't have been.
Definitely Reed, and Wilson. The gaps in the squad were painfully obvious last year and we did little to address them. For a club that loves to spout how great the recruitment is and how well we operate... it was a poor summer. As was last summer.
Yeah I never really bought into the whole "we are much better than everyone at recruitment. We've got the BlackBox" We did very well the summer we lost everybody and have bought some good players since, but our success/failure rate is only slightly better than average I would say. Most of the players we have signed would've been known by all the PL teams. Uncovering a Pahars type where everyone is like "who?" is basically unheard of nowadays. The top teams let the smaller teams in the PL pick up players from the smaller leagues who look talented. For every £10/£15m player who turns into a big success there are a handful of failures, the top teams can afford to let them filter through the smaller teams and see who really is up to scratch and pay triple the price for a more guaranteed player (obviously doesn't always work out).
We bought two cracking players this summer, just to give it some balance. Just perhaps not in the most necessary positions!
Thats pretty much my thoughts and why i didn't want to get rid of Puel and said many times if we did to do it as soon as possible. So if we failed to get a proper team formed under Puel then i would have been in favour of him leaving. Can't say the same for Pellegrino. Under Koeman i think the squad would have perfomed better just because its more suited. Boufal, i think would be a brilliant AM under Koemans more counter attacking style which i imagine he was scouted for. but really struggles under a manager who values keeping possession. We have had a very good summer in terms of filling in the gaps in the squad. But the we don't really have any gaps in attack, we're actually pretty overloaded so we have to replace players which isn't easy, especially if you don't know what players the next manager will want to keep. As shown by all the arguments we have on here. Hopefully we will be able to sort that out in January.
I don't know how you can sit there with a straight face and say we don't have any gaps in our attack. Goals is a pretty big gap, and a lack of quality (outside of Gabbiadini, Tadic & Boufal). Could also add pace to that because Redmond isn't that quick and is also incapable of taking his fullback on.
I don't like change, I fear the uncertainty that a new gaffer brings. But it felt like something was wrong at the back end of last season. Perhaps VvD had caused a fair bit of crap we were yet to realise, but I was worried about a summer when a whole clutch of players were wanting out, that's where it looked like it was heading. Reed didn't just pull the trigger because of a few boo's.
You are right that he didn't pull the trigger because of a few boos, but they were the start of those wheels moving... then the players, then the Board. I thought our fans were appalling in their attitude (chunks off) in the first half of last season. The football was explained before it started and it was nowhere near as bad as was being made out. The foundations were there but we stoped and gave up before we could add to it. By the time we got to March/April it was already all over for Puel.
We did, but Lemina was filling a gap we'd had in our team since Schneiderlin left, we'd failed to replace him twice before with Hojbjerg & Clasie. Not sure I've seen enough of Hoedt to put him down as a cracking player yet...
Oh yeah we needed a CB, think it's too early to say whether Hoedt is a cracking player though. De Vrij always stood out more for me at Lazio.
'Goals' isn't a gap, and if it were, It'd be Austin. Just ask any pundit, goodness knows he doesn't do anything else. We have 3 or 4 first team players for every attacking position of similar ability. We would have to clear out a player for every one we bring in. If we just buy on perceived weakness we'll just end up with redmond. A right winger brought in due to a lack of a dedicater player in that position and then never played there as neither manager used traditional wingers. And this time possibly have somebody who would have worked there sold. Buying a CB because we only had 2 fit in the squad is a no brainer. What we have to bring in for attack differs with whichever fan you ask, and thats because we have no obvious gaps. You're just repeating Reed's strategy that failed for Puel.
Goals aren't a gap? It's a pretty big gap if you ask me, how else do you win games? It's no mystery why we were among the lowest scorers last season. Redmond wasn't a stop gap signing, Les Reed wanted him for ages for some bizarre reason. He mainly played left wing for Norwich and Birmingham so don't pretend it's an unusual position for him. Who are these attacking players we have? Gabbiadini (ST/AMC) - Great player, can play striker or in the hole. Needs better service from attackers around him. Our main attacking outlet and easily marked out of the game with our laboured football. Long (ST) - Great energy, gets himself in good positions but ultimately lets you down once in those positions. Austin (ST)- Can't stay fit, doesn't look capable of playing PL football these days. Living off that one season with QPR when he was the main man. Redmond (Wing) - A poor mans Jermaine Pennant, I don't know what the club see in him. He's not that quick, he can rarely beat a man, he can't cross, he can't shoot accurately & with power (usually one or the other) Tadic (Wing)- Good player, great technically, can beat a man and puts in a good cross... usually to no one though as we don't get players in the box. Boufal (Wing) - Our one player who is direct in attack and can produce something out of nothing. Should start every home game at least. But yeah, tell me more about the 3 or 4 players that can play every position at an equal level... I'm glad we bought a CB in, nowhere have I said otherwise. Not sure what your point is there, we can strengthen more than one area in a window.
My point was that cb was a gap goals is not a gap. You can't fill goals with a single player. Austin is proof of that. Also Redmond can easily beat his man down the wing by changing pace and knocking it past and has shown that many times but that's only useful for traditional wingers looking to put in a cross which neither manager have really used. You can't get into a packed box that way. his crosses have created 2 of our best chances in our recent matches despite taking them wrong footed from an awful position. (Unfortunately both for tadic) due to tactics. I could go on to list the merit's for prowse and Davis and get into an argument about it but my point is you're not basing your decision on players we need but players you like. But we don't need players you like, we need players Pellegrino likes. And it's Reed buying players he wanted rather than Puel wanted that got us into this problem to start with.
