Its hard because we can only buy if we sell. Although it is looking as though we would have been better off selling Bertrand as it now looks like he may go for free
We put all our eggs in one basket hoping that the Academy lads would cover the FBs but it's clear that they were nowhere near ready and now it's costing us dearly in results.
I’m coaching 11 a side this season for the first time and been watching some great stuff on YouTube from the coaches voice. Fantastic breakdowns by some top managers and then mourinho with 2.2million views. So I caved and watched mourinhos vid. It was him at juve when they beat Barca. It was everything I hate, dour, dry personality describing what was basically a low block with fast counter attacks. He really is a one trick pony - park the bus and hit them on the break but presented with the confidence of the greatest manager in football history.
Even with the singular attacking talents of Kane and Son, it's just so hard to launch a counter from the edge of your own box, particularly in an era where large swaths of the league play an aggressive style that will pin your entire team deep if you allow them to take up those advanced positions uncontested. The central problem with Mourinho isn't the dourness, the cynicism, the outmoded man-management, or even his ego: it's that the style of football he plays ceased to be effective years ago and he isn't a good enough manager to adjust.
In totally unrelated news, Brighton is a really, really weird team. https://understat.com/league/EPL They generate shots from good locations at a very high rate. They limit opposing shots at an elite rate: only two teams (Man City and Liverpool) have done better. Every statistical marker suggests that they should be fighting for a European place, not sitting a shade above the drop zone...if only they could actually get shots on target and cease losing 1-0 in matches they dominate.
He achieved superbly with Porto and has since then relied on world class talent to make his tactics look good. When it goes bad he just demands more world class talent to replace the existing world class talent. It mystifies me. I told my spurs mate it wouldn’t work and it hasn’t. I also told him PEH wouldn’t do much. Can’t be right all the time.
Getting tight at the bottom. For weeks I’ve been saying we will be fine but I really don’t feel so confident now.
Finished 1-1 Until we start to pick ourselves back up I don't want anyone below us to win tbh so happy with that.
I don’t expect us to go down, but it wouldn’t be surprised where we stand now. Finishing 15th is definitely not good considering our start.
It isn't good at all, and I really worry about us next year (though we're so incredibly inconsistent year-to-year that who knows), but we did enough work early in the year that even our horrendous form means that our odds of getting relegated, per 538, have only ticked up to 3%. We still have matches against Sheff Utd, BHA, Burnley, WBA, Palace and Fulham in our remaining schedule, and only really need 2 wins to be home free...we'll get there.
I didn’t realise our odds only rose by 3%. How can that be when we’re right in the mix? True, I would like to think that we might pick up a point or 2 from that lot.
It's by no means the only reason for our poor form but the run of injuries for the last 2 months has been freakish and as even Liverpool's form has shown the loss of key players can be very costly to a team's momentum. There is no excuse however to end the January window with no back ups for both of the fullbacks, which I believe are very important positions in Ralph's system and it is no coincidence to me that our poor run started with KWP's injuries.
