Sorry but you have hand picked games to suit your argument. You ignored our 2nd game of the season against pacos away where we created just two chances 2 chances. Palace (2 chances) and Wolves in the cup (9 chances). These were ALL pre the Newcastle and the Vietesse game. Take out Villa, Vietesse and Newcastle and put pacos, Pace and Wolves you get a very different picture. 49 attempts 8 goals 8 attempt per game. I was clear in my original post about this that it weren't top opposition that we have played under conte but there are clear signs that we trying to attack more so it is a good start. Not due why you of all posters are down playing our small improvement ... tbh it surprises that you have kind of cherry picked games to make the facts fit your point of view
Liverpool falling down the table in order to fund the Penguins return to their divinely ordained role as NHL champions seems only right. It means more to us yinzers.
I tried to pick matching games. Exactly the same two teams that Conte has played in Europe and the worst four teams we have played in the PL. Should have had Palace instead of Wolves I suppose. I agree that our play under Nuno was poor but he did get 6 more points than in the same matches last season. If Conte can do better than that we will definitely finish top 4.
I have no issue with Nuno other than we were told that he understood the type of football we wanted but he vlearly didn't. I have a lot of sympathy for him tbh...I really wanted him to succeed but you could see from the Palace game onwards that he was in trouble. When we were humiliated by Chelsea and then arsenal in the next two games he was a dead man walking. He should never have been given the job. I have not felt hopeful about us in over 2 years so am looking at the small positives since Conte took over tbh.
Conte has the same squad as Nuno but is a better manager and so in theory should get more out of them than Nuno. Add in the transfer window and hopefully some much needed signings (defence and midfield especially) and it’s only logical that we should all feel a bit more hopeful than we were a couple of months ago. Being 5th with a game in hand is quite extraordinary considering all things.
The biggest difference is that Nuno had a gameplan he wanted, but what he didn't have was the respect of the players or authority with management to force the issue on any of his decisions and ended up getting pushed and pulled into having to compromise, best exemplified by his system being tinkered with to accommodate Ndombele in the midfield three or giving Lo Celso minutes even if it meant playing him out of position, before ultimately sacking off his 433 for a 4231 While it's only been a month, it certainly does seem that Conte does have both the respect of the players and authority with management to come in and say what system he wants, who he wants playing in it, and appears to be getting left to his own devices Also, it does seem to be an odd thing to notice, but the only coaches who have obviously experienced somebody pushing down from above all seem to be Portuguese: Villas-Boas were pressured by players into ditching his tactics and formation in his first season while his second he was pressured to both squeeze as many of the Baldini Seven into his team while also loosen the formation to play more expansive football only to have a series of bad losses, the ubermensch certainly had to be nudged into playing Ndombele last season and rejigged his formation and tactics to fit him in, and Nuno basically had less authority on tactics or lineups than Ryan Mason ever did
In terms of attacking threat, quite. However it does show the limits of GD. If Spurs were to play and win their game in hand 1-0 right now, they would only be 5 pts behind a team with a GD nigh on 30 better.
We got 3 wins to start the season. We could have had no complaint if we'd drawn all three.We didn't play any better than Wolves or Watford and we met City at the best time, in that they had a few players missing and the first game of the season often throws up anomalous results, due to fitness issues and bedding in new players. Plus we still had an element of 'new manager bounce' in those games. The wins were great but Nuno didn't win a PL game by more than 1 goal and as happened with Mourinho, a run of good results tends not to last, when your defence is as shaky as our can be. If we had drawn those first 3 games, we'd be in mid-table with Leicester and Villa, a point ahead of Everton. Yes, we're currently 5th, ahead of Utd. and Arsenal, but it wouldn't take any stretch of the imagination to see us finish in 7th. If we pick up a few significant injuries, it could be lower, because the squad lacks quality in depth. Mourinho had us top in December. We finished in 7th. You can't extrapolate a whole season from a few games or even the first quarter of it.
I think for me the biggest difference so far between Conte and Nuno is actively seeing a game plan/ coherent unit. Despite his reign being short, I couldn’t see what Nuno was trying to do. He had a pre-season with some of the players and about 9 weeks of the season to implement something and yet there was no evidence of anything happening, we were actually getting worse. When we won it felt unconvincing and when we lost it was thoroughly convincing. With Conte, in just over a month I’m already seeing (from the first XI): Two flying WBs A pressing front three A LCB who underlaps to assist the attack The middle CB acting as somewhat of a quarterback. A group of players seemingly playing as a team, it’s not champagne football (yet) but it’s a coherent unit and one that has deservedly won its last three league games. The fitness has also improved to a level where we can actually play for 90 mins and not just in ifs and spouts (if lucky!). It’s still missing a creative presence as well ruthlessness up top and from a squad perspective it needs better players who can come in and impact games as well as adequately cover when required but if this is just after a month of Conte, I’m looking forward to the future. Though I’m also under no illusions yet that we’re still likely going to see some dog awful results and performances but there’s a sense of optimism about the place now and the belief in a manager that if given time, will deliver to some degree. A belief we’ve not had since about 2018 under Poch before it started going pear shaped.
I meant we have the 4th to 6th best squad so we ought to be around there. I agree we've got more points than our performances deserve but the opposite was true last year.
‘we ought to be’ There is no ought to be in football. Look at Man Utd for example. If you mean financially then yeah I agree, Spurs should be around 5th-6th.
Been saying this for years The club and a big section of the fan base feed each other a losers mentality. That’s why I was hearing ‘punching above our weight’ during the height of the Poch era. As much as most of the fan base laments the pundits they themselves keep the psychological shackles on our club by undermining our status and ceiling. No we weren’t punching above our weight…we were where we had earnt to be…so that’s where we belonged.
Lionel Messi has begun to question whether Mauricio Pochettino is up to the task of being Paris St-Germain manager after the 34-year-old Argentina forward registered concerns over his tactics and ability to control the dressing room. (L'Equipe, via Mirror) Very believable
