And be replaced by ? If there's a realistic option out there, great. I have never been a McLaren fan. If there is no realistic option, he is basically competent which his replacement may not be
That's the only problem. He's a fantastic coach and those that have worked with him have raved about how he is on the training ground. He isn't a 'manager' though. Until the club stop with this football board bollocks we will just go around in circles. The system doesn't work at our club and never has.
Some facts, after 13 games last season we had 19 points, at the half way stage after 19 games we had 26 points, Pardew left at this time, there has to be a massive change in the teams performance as each game becomes more precious as points are dropped, we can't rely on teams being worse than us so if Ashley is not going to bullet Tufty he must spend big in the January window, if not then something else must change and that is Tufty which again has to be done sooner with a response needed and a plan for the January window. I would chuck the money on the table and say to Howe rather than fighting to keep Bournemouth up why not come here and not only keep the club up but develop it onwards, Ashley has to change his operating policies or face the crash, Villa followed the same path and look to be even worse off.
Howe has no interest in coming North. He hated it at Burnley by all accounts and was unsettled as he wanted to be back on the South Coast. The bigger problem for me isn't necessarily the money, but who we spend it on. Graham Carr's judgement is poor. He scouted Thauvin for two years, just like Cabella and early impressions are that we have wasted a fortune. Young prospects are not an option for January. Neither are unproven foreigners. We need some PL experience. If we are not going to go down that route then we are wasting our time.
I can see why Carr thought Cabella was a good option. Scoring goals, getting assists, litterally dancing around players week in week out, obviously it went wrong, and we have Thauvin, again I can see why, his very similar to Cabella, but despite being younger hisbigger, stronger and physically more adapted to the premier league. I still have faith that Thauvin will suceed where Cabella failed, plus I think theres a level of protection there from the coaching team I've looked at the stats and he has only marginally underperformed when compared to Mephis Depay, who is another new player to the league, similar age and expected to get better. Shots Per Game - Thau: 1 Dep: 3.2 Key passes per game - Thau: 3.5 Dep: 0.6 Tackles Per game - Thau 1 Dep: 0.8 Ave Passing % success - Thau 70.4% - Dep: 79.7 Crosses - Thau:0.7 - Dep: 1 Minutes played - Thauvin 534 Depay 857 There is a huge difference in price and im not saying that Thauvin is going to be a big as Depay, his just a similar player, similar position who has joined the PL at the same time so makes it easy for comparision, even if he is playing for one of the top teams with top players. There have been games where Thauvin has played 12 & 13 minutes. Its early doors, but he definatley is not another cabella/luque and I really do hope the coaching team and players around him can give him enough confidence to come good, it would be a waste of a great talent if we didnt get the best out of him.
I remember when he played against Northampton, he [Thauvin] looked different class. Since then though he has looked awful. Saturday, he was too scared to take people on. It's obvious his confidence has taken a knock. Being dropped probably hasn't helped.
I only saw the highlights, every ball into the box looked dangerous especially set pieces, his confidence has taken a knock, but i struggle to understand why he isnt on the pictch for set pieces alone, more and more time on the pitch will help him and we have no other competant set piece takers imo. considering when we have two massive arial threats like mbemba and mitro his delivery would be worth say 5-10 goals a season
Really don't know whats wrong with the team. Mitro was in the Champions League last season, Perez linked with man u etc, Sissoko thinks hes top 4 quality, Wij player of the season in Holland, Janmatt can be quality. Got some really good players. Everything McClaren says makes sense. Why is nothing coming together. Away at Man U we looked fantastic. But they just don't turn up 9/10 games. Very odd, not even bothered watching them or not atm. -----------------------Darlow Janmaat - Mbemba - Lascelles - Dumett -----------------------Tiote ---------------------Wij Anita Sissoko------------------------Perez -----------------------Mitro
Wijaldum has been dumped on the wing. He really can't play there. He should be in the centre. I don't know why we don't go down the wing back route. That would allow us to stick Sissoko and Wijnaldum in the centre, or Sissoko and say Colback and Wijnaldum behind Perez and Mitrovic. Of course, with the wing back system we'd need quality on both sides. Janmaat has proven he's dangerous when going foward. Left side....yeah that would be a problem.
Its the fact that anita tiote colback dummet thauvin are all ****e which is around half our outfield players mate in fact you can add colo too
It would need to be something like this if we went down the wing back route (with the players we've got atm) ------------------------------Elliot----------------------------- ----------------------------Coloccini-------------------------- --------------Mbmba-----------------Dummett------------- ----Janmaat----------------------------------(Thauvin)---- ----------------------------Tiote------------------------------- ---------------Sissoko-------------Wijnaldum-------------- -------------------Perez--------------------------------------- -----------------------------Mitrovic--------------------------- Not sure Thauvin could track back well enough but not sure who else could go in there. Dummett is much better playing more central and Janmaat isn't really a defender anyway - he already is a wing back! Now imagine that team with a decent centre-back in place of Colo and someone like Cabaye instead of Tiote. We need more than 2 new players, but getting people playing in a position that suits their game would be a good start (though again not sure Thauvin is suited to tracking back). The problem with the wing-back system is that we'd be relying on people not going missing to an even greater extent - and that has proved to be a big issue with these players. The wing back system can be very attacking or very defensive depending on how the team approaches the game. I'd love us to be very attacking but fear this would end up being very defensive.
That team would get crucified IMHO. 3 at the back always ends up being a disaster as it's so easy to attack down the flanks. I think we should really go back to to a 4-3-3, thus: ---------------- Elliott/Darlow ---------------- Janmaat - Mbemba - Dummett - Mbabu ------------------- Anita ------------------------ ------ Sissoko ----------- Wijnaldum ------- Thauvin ------------------------------- Perez ------------------- Mitrovic --------------------- To be honest, you can call that a 4-5-1 if you like because when we don't have the ball Thauvin and Perez would have to drop into midfield. Could put Lascelles at LB. Treat De Jong as competition for Sissoko and Wijnaldum. Get Anita out of the team as soon as there is an alternative.
Agree with this. We've always seemed to look good with a 4-3-3 and our CDM players are definitely suspect so lets throw another attacker in instead. I also think that Thauvin has the potential to make it work in the PL. He may not have fully produced yet but he has put in effort when he's come on which is more than most of our players have done in the last couple of games. Give him a run in the team and see if he progresses. It can't make the results any worse!
I specifically gave you all realistic options when McLaren was appointed Anybody telling me the Leicester game was better than performances last season is kidding themselves. I've seen us been abject, and tactically clueless, but that was something else.
No it wasn't, but some of the previous games (not Bournemouth) were, so that's all we've got to cling on to. We have won 30 points in the last 12 months and if it doesn't improve dramatically and immediately we are royally in the ****. Not good enough just doesn't encapsulate it. These players we have on big wages and doing nothing for it need whipping.
Think we should stick with McLaren, spend big in the transfer window and see what happens. I suspect though that if we are not at least close to 20 points by half way the players we have will be so low on confidence that it wont be easy to get out of this position. Just hope that he tries something different on Saturday as it clearly hasnt worked for last couple of games and its depressing to watch.
It looks to me that the players have real idea of how we are going to score, they play it down the right wing and hope someone puts in a decent cross. Players playing out of position all the time, when we have the ball we are so slow with moving it forward, giving the opposition time to regroup and defend. We look ponderous and awful. No leader on the pitch to drive the players forward. I`ll stop there but there are so many things to criticise as well. Basically we are in serious trouble and McClaren seems at a loss at what he should do. We all seem to be waiting for the nirvana of the January transfer window, when we purchase a couple of worldie players to turn our fortunes around. Experience should tell us that this will not happen.
I agree with that. I was just showing what our team would look like IF we played the wing back system with our current players. One of the problems we have is that we currently play with one wing back and one full back. Janmaat doesn't play as a defender. This means that when Dummett is forward then Janmaat is usually forward too and we get caught at the back as soon as possession is given away. We would have to use that system as a defensive system at the minute if we used it and play 5-3-2 rather than a standard 3 at the back. I don't see how it could work with the players currently available. If we had a proper CB in place of Colo and a creative Cabaye-type in place of Tiote then it might work though, as there would be more flexibility in who went forward and who stayed back.
