It's a tough gig. Koeman struggled at the wrong end of the table and paid the price. Other managers held in high regard are struggling, Eddie Howe and Paul Clement to name just two. It could be the manager and players raise their game for some of the big matches coming up. Will remain envious of what Tottenham have now with MP 1
With the squad we have and the fixtures we opened with, we should be in the top four tonight. The fact that MP2 is doing no better than Claude, who incidentally is unbeaten with Leicester, suggests changing the manager is not the answer. Dropping VVD and Bertrand might be as they are totally disinterested. I’ve defended Fraser too long probably, but what are the options? For me the missing link is still the Lambert/ Pelle target man. No criticism on the club. I know they have tried hard to get one in but it didn’t happen. Let’s hope one is lined up for January.... ...and well played Burnley. You deserved the win.
Nothing is certain in football brendy, that's what makes it so great. If that was the case a lot of teams supporters wouldn't bother turning up each week. Palace without a goal beat Chelsea a few weeks ago and they were very low on confidence. There's not too much to get excited about at the moment but things can quickly change
Unfortunately flirting with relegation is likely this season, on current form at least. The worrying thing is that there is nothing on the horizon that suggests improvement. Change manager? No, the board obviously saw something in MP2. Change the whole forward line, bar gabbiadini? Not possible. The best we can hope for is that MP2 gets a little more out of the team and we bolster the attack in Jan. survive this season and look to properly build and prepare next. I agree about dropping VVD and possibly Bertrand too. And Redmond. And tadic....
Everyone around me blaming forster but it was MPs bizarre decision to drop hoedt for yoshiba that left us short of height/power that cost us that goal. Is he going to swap them every match like we did in under 12s team?
Did we really try hard? We were linked to a couple, and Haller (who seemed to feature most frequently in rumours) cost a grand total of £5-6m. Still think attacking midfield is a far greater need (particularly as we'd likely rotate between Gabbiadini and Tall Striker X), but we could have scratched that itch with little difficulty.
Sorry Mowgli, I disagree. Particularly with “Puel unbeaten suggests changing the manager is not the answer”. I don’t think either Claude or MP2 are the right manager for this particular group of players. I think we desperately need a charismatic/psychology style manager with this bunch (as mentioned above), rather than a cerebral, tactical one - which Claude is (i’m not convinced MP2 is either one of the above. I think he’s a lower level manager i’m afraid). I also don’t actually think Burnley deserved to win.
Hmm. I think Maya was better than Virgil today. Much of a muchness though. Agree a settled defence would be nice, but again I think it’s a pointer toward MP2 going down the hope and guess route rather than the strength of conviction.
I think you may be right. Personally I think puel and MP2 are a step down from where we want to be, but maybe ambitions changed when koeman left? I think being charismatic and being able to lift players is essential for a good manager. But it’s also a personell issue, Redmond and tadic are not good enough. Boufal = jury out. Austin and long are not good enough. No Burnley didn’t deserve it, we dominated for much of the game. It was a smash and grab win.
Tadic is good enough. "He's not playing well and should be dropped" is a much different statement to saying he's not good enough. I just think that he needs a partiuclar style of management that he hasn't had for 18 months. A player rarely goes from being very good to not being good enough.
Agreed Maya was good overall but for me it was a match for hoedt given their forwards and that change cost us the goal and therefore the match.
Austin not good enough because he’s unfit. Long has a use. The others, with the right management, I disagree.
Absolutely right, I mentioned the other day that one of Koeman’s biggest faults was his misuse of the Academy, but the reality is that we have never recovered from that position. Puel brought in the odd player through rotation/injury like Sims and Stephens but there wasn’t a definite renewal of the proclamation of “50% from the Academy” and as you say, things have gone decidedly backwards. Where is Matt Targett, or Jake Hesketh? They both played occasionally under Koeman but have hardly been seen since. McQueen has hardly featured this season either, and Stephens did absolutely nothing to deserve being dropped. Sam Gallagher no sooner signed a new contract than he was shipped out on loan again, even after Jay Rod was sold, and no prospect of a new striker coming in. MP bears some responsibility for this but Les Reed has to take the biggest portion.
