It’s a very encouraging sign for you that Ange has already engendered a never-say-die attitude and that the team has embraced his methods and style of play, when so many of them were so passive under Conte. It does show that a manager can make a difference - and quickly. I don’t think the performances overall are at the level he would want, but the commitment, confidence and spirit is umpteen levels above what it was last season.
I'm just going to focus on the positives, again. Absolutely fantastic finish to the match and the crowd was utterly deafening. So, so loud and I don't think that the footage does it justice. Another tiring game that was a pleasure to attend.
I'd agree, the footage doesn't reflect the game. But unlike MotD it at least showed the ridiculous decision to not give a penalty for th foul on Maddison. Yes, it was frustrating at times and our finishing for 97 minutes was hurried and inaccurate, but we always looked like we would create chances and that positivity is so refreshing. Now the big tests loom, but at least when the Goons & Scousers start parking the bus we will have had some experience of trying to break that down!
I would also like to see again what Johnson did when he came on. at least one brilliant finish (marginally offside) but was immediately in the thick of it. Exciting times are back again.
Next week you would imagine our defence will be severely tested. I am looking forward to see how we cope. It's very early days for this team so any kind of result will be amazing.
The standard of refereeing yesterday was beyond useless and the club needs to lodge some form of official complaint. It's not as if doing so could actually worsen the decisions being made!
To be fair, that’s not actually as true as it seems. Ange has ripped up most of Conte’s XI to the point where we’re not far off from having a whole new team - which has delighted us fans as we were getting sick of some players consistently letting us down under multiple managers. 7 of our 11 under Ange were either not here (Vicario, Udogie, van der Ven, Maddison, Solomon) or not trusted (Sarr, Bissouma) under Conte. Porro wasn’t always starting over Emerson too so there’s a decent case for 8 of the 11. Son, Kulusevski and Romero are the only nailed-on starters from Conte’s regime that are still so far mainstays in Ange’s. I think that makes it even more impressive on Ange’s part, because it’s well noted that large changes to an XI can initially take time to gel and settle, so to be getting both results and performances early on is a testament to him and his coaching staff, as well as a testament to the players for quickly adapting, especially the new ones. As has been said though, we’ve got two massive challenges coming up next which will give us a good idea of how close or how far we are from the top sides. Personally, I don’t think we’ll win either as both opposition are further along with their plans and development but I’m definitely hoping we won’t be putting in limp performances like last season.
So earlier I was cleaning my cat's litter tray, lost my footing, and my hand went straight into a dollop of cat crap That was still not as bad as the crap Paul Heckinggreatbackside was coming up with in his post-match whine session
Exactly this. I don't expect points from either - and tbf Kane was a mainstay of any recent success against the Goons making that even less likely - but if the lads play with the same positivity, creativity and passion shown so far I'll be more than happy.
Another impressive performance from Udogie Seems to have all the elements and he's shaping up to be a very, very good player! Also good that there is clearly a calm, 'go out there and play' attitude from the manager which pervades at the moment, as this does wonders for confidence.
This system. like many others, struggles against busparquet. What did Sheffield Utd was the cumulative : 1. ume-wasting 2. fatigue For the winner, you could see their fatigue as the passes flew thru and ther players could not close it down. On #1, I wonder if at least 3 mins of the extra 10 were due to their antivs (90 + 7 = `1-0 win) .
That was a day 1 "mission statement" for new WHL. Most non-attendees can live with that as long as it actually happens.
Correct....I took the 14 year old son of a friend to the match yesterday...he last came to the Leeds match two years ago when he was 12. The only starter in both matches was Son and I think Dier, Hojbjerg, Davies and Emerson were the only other players in both squads.
