Playing for the reserves, playing in lower tempo games, coming on later on. There are obviously other ways to build fitness other than throwing players into tough games.
I don't think Clasie has done too badly. He looked very sharp early on. I wanted Romeu to start over Clasie. But the problem is our whole defence has lost their heads and the attackers haven't made the most of the early pressure. You can't scapegoat Clasie today.
But he hasn't done anything wrong. Neither goal had anything to do with him. We need to stop with this "too many cheap players" crap. Steven Davis gave away that ball. VVD (who we paid a lot for) made a horrible tackle.
I don't know why we insist only playing 1 holding midfielder. Our defence is a shambles and needs protection. Wanyama alone is not enough. I just don't know what's wrong with us. How do you deal with morale so low?
People seem to be thinking that I'm criticising Clasie which is not the case. I think our defensive shape is wrong because the midfield isn't protecting the defence well enough. A big contributor to that in my eyes is that Clasie doesn't seem to have the running power (today) to cover the ground, so gaps are opening up and leaving defenders 1v1 against high quality players. Last season you barely ever would have seen Fonte 1v1 against a midfielder or striker.
We're playing with two. Clasie is just playing like a different type of DM. Romeu would be starting over him every time though if I was the manager lol
I think he's in massive danger of getting sacked if we lose to Arsenal and West Ham. I almost caused a **** storm when I brought that up in the Koeman thread, but we look absolutely atrocious at the moment.
For me I would have Clasie infront of the holding two. So he could at least try to do what he did for Feyenoord and pass the ball about.
Whilst we're in poor form I think it would be a woeful desicion to get rid before the transfer window.
He's certainly not in the "unsackable" realm anymore as far as I'm concerned. Not that I'm saying he should be sacked but he needs to turn things around fast. If we get dragged into the bottom 4 or 5 then he will have to go IMO.
Can we really blame Ron? We sold our best midfielder and replaced him with 2 players who aren't really fit to clean Morgan's boots. Clyne left replaced with Cedric- currently looking inadequate. We were light on strikers and didn't buy anyone (juanami accepted). You could argue that our run was over-performing and Ron can't get more out of this side.
He had a full off-season and pre-season. Made some poor signings. The board might think sacking Koeman before the transfer window is a good thing. As it gives the new manager a chance to sign some players himself. It depends who is available to replace him and who would be interested. I really think he could be in big trouble in a couple of games. Norwich, Chelsea and Bournemouth are winning. 18th place is starting to close in on us..
