Spot on. Palace battered us for the opening 20mins of the second half but were visibly tiring from that point on. He got the Richarlison sub wrong imo. That's when Bentancur should have come on, and leave Richarlison until later on (or not at all, it really doesn't make any difference he's so poor). Our formation from that point on required long balls through the channels or crosses into the box. I lost count of the hospital passes from Porro, Johnson and Solanke in regard to the former, whereas Werner did put in some really dangerous crosses but no-one got on the end of them.
One thing I can't fathom is why Solanke was getting slated after the match, given he was one of the few players who put up a fight for 90 minutes
I think that’s generally the issue, we’ve basically got the equivalent of an aggressive defensive midfielder up top instead of a striker.
His overall game is generally good. He's been in and out of the team due to rotation and injury and the lack of consistency is obvious, he hasn't had a chance to settle and integrate. It hasn't helped at all that him and Son have hardly been on the pitch at the same time as each other, as that in theory should be a very productive partnership with Solanke using his strength and hold up play to bring Son into those central pockets of space he loves operating in but hasn't since Kane left. I think Solanke has a lot more to offer which we'll see in time. Not £60m worth to offer but the price tag isn't his fault. Richarlison on the other hand has shown us all he has to offer and it can be logged on a modest postage stamp.
This And as Croydon said, he was one of the few to come out of the Palace game with any credit at all. (And I fully appreciate that is with a very low bar)
I know I’ve always been vocal in saying I don’t like him at all (I’ll never forget the tweets) or rate him much (inconsistent & goes missing when really needed) but surely this is awful by him after that game. To me this seems selfish and also a weird thing to be proud of
I saw on Twitter we’ve lost 16 of our last 37 league games (essentially since the end of Ange’s initial excellent opening run of games), that’s one game short of a full season’s worth of football. 16 losses would probably put you around 12th in the table. I knew 2024 and the end of 2023 was bad but I hadn’t quite realised it was that bad. We really need to end 2024 well and begin 2025 positive.
If you want stats (which I don't really) Ange has the 5th best win rate of managers OF ALL TIME. 53.70% Compared to 11th Redknapp 49.49%, Mourinho 8th 51.16%, Conte 6th 53.25%, Pochettino 4th 54.27% Stats. from Soccerbase.
Bad? Ange is doing better than ALL our previous managers bar 4. That is not describable as bad in fact it's the opposite it's bloody amazing considering the sea change he has made in the squad and play.
He’s also outspent every single manager we’ve ever had. And our current form of 2024 would dictate a midtable finish.
Using this logic, you must believe that Villas Boas was a better manager than Pochettino, Redknapp, Jol, Postecoglou himself as well as the great Bill Nicholson.
Are these PL stats? And possibly the figures are skewed by the start of last season when we won 8 and drew 2.
As I said from Soccerbase which is a betting organisation. There business is stats and their income depends on getting them right.
How else can you predict something if not based on the present and recent past? The reality of the situation is we’re underperforming, I’m not sure why that is a debatable point.
You just did neither you predicted the future. It's all a matter of opinion but the the stats do not support your position.
Having said that I think opinions are more important than stats which as we have just shown can be used in any way you like but we will still have to disagree.
I’ve predicted the future based on our results in 2024 and the end of 2023. 16 losses in our last 37 league games would equate to a midtable finish if that persists. Brighton had 16 losses last season and finished 12th. Chelsea had 16 losses in 22/23 and also finished 12th. We have currently lost 4 of our first 9 league games this season, 9 games is roughly a quarter of a season so if we continue this level of form we’ll be finishing with around 16 losses in the 38 games, which would almost certainly lead to a midtable finish.
It’s not debatable. The results for 12 months have been unacceptable. Yes Spurs sold Kane but every attacker signed since has been chosen by the manager for quite big money in some cases so I don’t buy into that.
