I have long given up on getting very upset about official decisions. The game is full of bad decisions, from players, from managers and officials, but who is really to blame? In my view this blame is shared by FIFA, UEFA, the FA and television, chiefly Sky. The claim for bringing in VAR was to remove doubt and controversy from the game's rule decisions by referees. In my view it has failed to do that and in fact made the situation far far worse. It's worse because of the instructions given to referees and the constant rule changes that are gradually destroying the natural flow of the game. In the PL the referees have been instructed to let the game flow. In letting the game flow some fouls are overlooked but others are not. Some offences receive yellow cards but others because they are early in the game are not. Now players expect to be 'allowed' one bookable foul as a free go, that's entirely against the spirit of the game. Handball and Offside have been tinkered with to such a degree as to make no sense. On the one hand officials let the game flow, at the expense of the rules and fair play to both sides, and on the other hand VAR holds up the game and also spoils one of the very basics of football enjoyment, the celebration of a goal. What a mess! Thank you Sky. To blame referees for this is to miss the point, in my opinion, I don't believe corruption is a big issue. Despite views to the contrary, on this board, I see poor decisions made against all teams with maybe a bias towards the home side. You have only to look at the protests of players against decisions, to see that teams like Chelsea and United are rather good at it. Which suggests to me that they are not in receipt of a favourable playing field. but of course I don't have any proof of all this. If the game was as corrupt as some seem to think I would find another interest.
I see what you're saying and mostly agree but this point is where I disagree: "the second half last night showed how we can control a game, and dominate. We’ve got decent performances in us. Conte may be responsible for the team selection, but it’s down to the players to put in a performance. Last night’s first half was ****e, but the second was very very good. No changes were made at half time.. so explain that one?! Ultimately some of the responsibility is with those same players, who need to perform for 90 mins, not 45." The manager's setting us up to be too reserved and cautious in games. It's then no surprise that when his game plan isn't working he then sends us out to go and attack and try to claw ourselves back into the game. We do have some poor players - some he persists with, which is again on him - but in general we have more quality than most teams in the league and all three of the teams in our CL Group, yet we're making hard work of games because we're playing within ourselves due to these laborious tactics, terrible subs and awful squad management. Stevie Wonder can see that Sessegnon, Emerson and Doherty are dreadful footballers, I'd cancel all their contracts this instant if it were down to me as I'm sick of dogshit players getting minutes at this football club. He can also see that Lucas is strictly a bench option and nothing more. Yet Conte will persist with these players whilst trying to convince everyone that players like Spence, Gil etc aren't ready... I'm sorry it's bollocks. Gil's shown he offers more than Lucas - and Richarlison - in that RW position whilst there's not a chance Spence will be worse than the two donkeys at RWB. As I said last night, I'm surprised I find myself saying it but Conte's holding this squad back this season. I actually think there's a fair few managers who'd get more out of these players. I'm not necessarily "Conte Out" as it does feel haste but I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep if he walked this evening either.
If he was to walk (he won't) you do realise the Poch would be reappointed tomorrow and whilst that might work in the short term I am not sure that he would get any more out of this team in the long run.
Things are so bad to watch at the moment and they're now being followed by results to match that I'm almost not arsed if he did get reappointed. He wouldn't be my first, second or third (or beyond) choice but I can't watch a whole season of this football. It's worse than Jose's and Nuno's and yet we have a considerably better squad than what they had. Been very disappointed in Conte, he's made matters that much worse too with his non-stop moaning and bullshit about certain players not being ready when he's persisting with some of the worst players to ever put on our shirt.
Should we give up the CL and drop to the Europa? It's painful to the players and especially the fans!
Agree with this. It comes back to what I said before about Conte not budging (tactics, set up, personal choices etc) , and certain players not being good enough/ others not getting a chance. It’s just not marrying up. We’ve heard comments about how it’s gonna take several windows, and I honestly think it’s the only solution. If we get the players we need, everything else falls into place, IMO. If we were to bring in a new boss, we may see an end to the crap football. We may see better tactics and other players rotated more. But ultimately if we’re also saying that some of these players are part of the problem because they aren’t good enough, we’re still going to have some of the same problems regardless of who the manager is. I’d rather we stick with Conte and back him properly. That, unfortunately, isn’t an overnight process. But what it does mean is that we can’t stand still in January.
I agree..it's gonna be a battle and I have doubts whether this bunch have that fight in them tbh. Now....wonder if Joe Jordan is free for the evening?
Based on how little he's utilised some of his new players from the summer I'd be concerned about what he does with any more. Plus, weirdly we keep getting linked with CMs in January like McKennie despite CM not being a problem area for us. He tells us all Spence isn't ready yet keeps playing two players who've never been good enough. He's not utilising Bissouma correctly, not playing Skipp enough, all whilst running Hojbjerg and Bentancur into the ground. He's ruining Son by playing him too close to Kane. He still has Lucas above Gil in the pecking order. He says how he "trusts" Sessegnon which bemuses the hell out of me as he's woeful. He's making poor decision after poor decision. It's all a mess at the moment and he's the biggest problem as a number of our issues could be eradicated with a few simple choices that he isn't making. I'm losing all faith in him to correct his issues as he's too stubborn to seemingly admit he's wrong. There's also the concern that what happens if we heavily back him in January that he still leaves in the summer? We'll then potentially have a bunch of players a new manager may not want. Until he starts making smarter decisions, both with selection, tactics and subs, I'm not overly keen on giving him more new players that he'll potentially just under utilise anyway.
He absolutely rattled Sporting. They were terrified every time he got on the ball, especially in space. He also had the reverse effect on the crowd. Got people on their feet and animated.
It's one of the things that's dramatically damaging my enjoyment of the game. I should not be able to predict ****ty and biased performances from officials. Pre-VAR we could all put mistakes down to human error. Some sides benefited enormously and consistently from them, but still. How do we still see blatant, ludicrous, factual errors all the time now, though? It makes no sense.
Just watched the highlights back. That second Dier miss (the first one was bad enough) is unforgiveable at this level and with that much at stake.
Yeah, I hear ya. It’s hugely frustrating. But to be honest, I think that a major part of our problem (and where this stems from) is the fact that all of our “wingbacks” (if we can even call some of them that) are poor. Apart from Perisic, the others offer absolutely nothing. I’m not trying to defend conte here, as I do agree with you, but perhaps there’s an element of having to use (overuse) certain players in other areas as they help compensate for the lack of quality we have elsewhere. This could be why hojbjerg and Bentancur are overused. Perhaps conte feels their skillsets provide a better spine to the team. Perhaps in conte’s eyes, this one massive problem could be causing a major domino effect elsewhere?
No doubt the wingbacks ain’t good enough, even Perisic ain’t on top form yet despite a healthy return of assists already but then he’s choosing to persist with the worst possible one at RWB and it’s these sort of selection decisions that are holding him and us back. As for the overuse of the CMs, I just think that’s his thing and it’s why he’s struggled in Europe as a manager as he doesn’t rotate enough. Skipp and Bissouma are two good midfielders as well, if there’s one position he should feel comfortable rotating it’s that one. I just don’t think he’s doing anywhere near good enough, especially for what he’s being paid and the reputation he has. The tactics have gone well downhill too, we’ve got a better squad yet look far worse than last season. Then when you add in all of his moaning and bemoaning not having a large squad (wtf?!) and it’s all just getting a bit too much now.
Perisic's assists aren't an indicator of what he gives to our play, considering they're almost entirely from corners instead of open play When in open play he slows our counters down due to his lack of pace while also occupying space Sonny thrives in, so is creating a net negative
