2’s extreme but I agree with the general basis that we’ve allowed mediocrity to settle in instead of getting rid. For me Kane, Son, Bergwijn, Lo Celso, (a fit) Ndombele, hopefully Hojbjerg and Doherty, Tanganga, Lloris etc, they’re the ones who we need to begin building and adding around. What worries me is players like Dele, Lucas, Winks, Sissoko, Toby and Dier seem to be held in high regard by the management and these players have either seen their best days or never been good enough. If we persist with those most weeks, yes, we’ll struggle for top six. If we ween them out, like Pochettino done in his early years with many of those he disposed of, I think we can have a good season. This also needs strengthening within the next couple of weeks but hopefully yesterday’s result hit home to Jose and Levy and forces them to reassess who they seemingly think is good enough and where we need improving. I also stand by what I said yesterday, a player like Bale changes the dynamic and getting that sort of game changer in will be huge, somehow the finances need to be sorted to make it happen as that could really be a defining signing this season.
I deleted it King it was not meant to insult you it was an observation and I apolgise if it offended you
Norwich fans raving about skippy's performance maybe we should have sent the crab out on loan instead . We should also have kept parrot until we had another striker in.
It’s not an agenda on my part...I’m doing what is expected of any fan and that is to back the new man and understand the limited scenario he is in. You can’t ignore these factors so you have to take it into consideration. There is defo a ‘don’t like Jose‘ from day one agenda though like I said yesterday...Dele will probably start on Thursday. If that happens it will explain a bit more as to why he thought of replacing him yesterday with the workhorse that is Sissoko for the 2nd half. It was obviously planned for it to happen at half time. Who’s our playmaker on Thursday then Sunday if Dele plays every minute of every game? you can’t ignore squad rotation with our squad and fixture list. If nothing had happened for the next 20 minutes then people would have been wanting Dele hauled off. The buck stops with the manager, he has to think of the next game. That substitution didn’t cost us the game...it was Toby and Dier forgetting to do their job.
No need to be sarcastic....but why do you feel so strongly that they are the players responsible when we seem to do ok when they play and only lose when they don't....
If Tanguy cost 15 mill would you think the same of his talents or would you say he’s a squad player at best judging from what he has shown? Bale is defo the magic sprinkle we need
Norwich fans singing Skipp’s praise Callum Wilson scoring on debut Castagne scoring on debut for Lesta
We seem to do ok? We’ve finished 4th and 6th with them as prominent members of the XI, playing dreadful football for the most part in the process. Before them we were finishing 3rd, 2nd and 3rd playing great football. They’re two horrendously woeful footballers that wouldn’t make the XIs of any top 10 team.
What does his fee have anything to do with it? And are you saying you don’t see the talent he has? Ability wise he’s better than any midfielder we have but his fitness levels and attitude have been the problem, both of those can be sorted if he puts in the effort. Potentially he can be one of the best midfielders in Europe. If he’s going to stay then we need to find a way to make it work because otherwise we’re going to be left watching more of Winks and Sissoko.
I agree with this, though I don't think that there was anything wrong with the Doherty and Hojbjerg signings, per se. We haven't replaced Dembele, Eriksen, Wanyama, Dier as a midfielder, Llorente, Rose, Trippier and I'm sure there's one or two I'm missing. We have no holding midfielders, a lack of creative ones and a bunch of deadwood or unnecessary redundancies. Our squad isn't good enough and it's wildly unbalanced. I've been saying this for the best part of two years now.
im saying I can’t give him any leeway based on his talent since he has failed to show it to any real affect thus far. A 15 million as opposed to a 45 million failure is easier to stomach. He’s been here over a year...a pro footballer struggling with fitness. I’m not the most patient of guys with people who have the world at their feet but still fail to provide the basics. He needs to find a way to pull his finger out of his own arse...the club are supporting him as much as possible. That’s another pre season under his belt...not the best pre season for all, but still..his fitness is the same as it was back when we noticed the lack of it.
not really..not entirely...the players were dogshit on the pitch and lacklustre. I’ve seen them all doing the right things pre game in the dressing room..all the right noises made. Get on the pitch and they can’t execute with conviction. Jose isn’t blameless but the job of rotating is on him and it has its limits with our squad. We can’t ignore that we have a game on Thursday and then Sunday. I think we could be in bother on Thursday btw
That’s a bit reductive mate. While the subs were baffling, it’s not Jose’s fault that the players most of us probably considered our strongest CB partnership lost their man on a free kick. I have no doubt we train set piece defence but the players have to execute and for them to lose a 2 on 1 battle in the air is unacceptable. I was pretty happy with the lineup given who’s fit. It’s Jose’s substitutions and the player performances I’m unhappy with.
The first half was fairly ****, but quite balanced. Barring the one glaring miss from Richarlison, they didn't create much. We could've and should've scored on several occasions, making basic errors on final balls or just finishing poorly. The second half saw the random introduction of Sissoko on the right for Alli, which totally ballsed the whole team up. Doherty was trying to play some quick interchanges with him and he's just not that sort of player. Our shape disintegrated and we conceded, then went to pot entirely. Mourinho's slagging off the fitness of the players? Who's responsible for that, then? Might be the manager.
Dier's not better than Sanchez, in my opinion. He's still learning the position and makes mistakes fairly regularly.
Broadly I agree with you, I think there’s much of a muchness between them. On the basis of post-restart I think Dier edges it though, hence my comment, but they’ve both got a mistake in them.
There's been a lot of moaning about the free-kick that they scored from and I think there's two points that have been missed. 1) It wasn't actually a free-kick. Cleanly won the ball. 2) Sissoko is blatantly fouled and pushed into the position that plays a number of their players onside. VAR should catch that.
