Rival watch

Bournemouth had twelve shots on target yet lost 3-2 AET.

Was their finishing poor, or did Chris Maxwell have a worldy on his debut? Makienok sounds a handful, too.

 

Mourinho blaming Van Gaal's legacy for three straight defeats, oooh, excuses already, sure sign of a loser. So what's responsible for the wins? Or the draws?

 

Congrats to Chelsea on the giant killing, I'm sure it was a proud day for their (racist) supporters.

How much of a donkey is that Wasilewski though? I've only seen him a couple of times and he's a disaster waiting to happen... Wait change that, he's a just a disaster that's happening.

 

Utterly classless. He's football's answer to Jeremy Kyle.

 

Listening to the radio and they were discussing our injuries. Blamed Poch's training regime and how as far back as his Malaga days his teams would fizzle out by the end of the season. Saw it at Southampton and seeing it at Spurs.

Its not a co incidence. Its something that concerns me and I'll be twisting on Poch if it happens at the end of this season too.

 

There's certainly a potential point here but the bloke they get on to stick it to Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp, Raymond Vehheijen, is Guus Hiddink's fitness bloke. He hates us and MP particularly, for some reason. Today he put Harry Kane's injury down to playing to much football. I agree he has played too much but he didn't break down, he got his studs stuck in the turf. That's as much MP's fault as the coming in and out of the tide or the breakdown of Angelina Jolie's marriage to Brad Pitt.

MP's record on muscle/ligament injuries is actually very good. Exhausting players MAY be an issue but not all clubs have the assets of Manchester City, Barcelona and Zenit St Petersburg, where Verheijen has worked when not being alongside Hiddink in international football. He has more usable squad players this season and we all expect MP to use them so that we finish the season in good condition. Already, the squad seems to be getting more usage (Lamela hasn't always started) and GKN hasn't yet had a go. Kyle Walker and Eric Dier could probably do with a rest. I didn't like the look of them holding their hamstrings on Sunday. If we can use Harry Winks and Josh Onomah a bit here and there, then I think we're doing pretty well.

 

True, all true Bri. We had a bigger squad than Leicester's last year. They were on a roll up until the end. They covered as much grass as us during the season. We definitely do burn out. Let's see if the squad depth helps. I don't want us to be happy with the level we are at. Finer points need tweeking. This set of players needs to get us over the line in something or we will stagnate.

Because we won't get on the next level up until our club's luring policy goes up a level. That won't be happening.

I just see the burn out as a massive issue.

 

Spurs faded in the last 4 matches, if they can improve on that then all's well and good.

 

Anyway, Middlesborough? Spurs have lost heavily there before.

Gillingham? Beat Watford. Hmmmmmm.

 

I'm not sure we faded physically at all last season.
We ran around and fought (a lot) during the Chelsea game and after that the heads went imo

 

Or the spending the GDP of a central European country on a bunch of players that Moronho plays out of position?

 

I'd say it's different now. He has a huge squad to manage with a lot of quality, we've already began to see rotation (Son playing regularly, Sissoko in for Lamela, Dembele coming in in place of Eriksen rather than Wanyama, Alli was benched for Janssen against Palace etc) so I'm hoping fatigue won't be a problem come the end of the season as many seem to be playing regularly with enough rest time.

Compare to the games of last season, where Poch was relying on guys like Carroll and Mason to replace the likes of Dembele and Alli... It just wasn't working, the quality and styles were too far apart and it messed with the system.
The fact Wanyama has performed so well in Dembele's absence shows we're now not overly reliant on him like we were last year (though it's much better to watch when he plays). Same for Eriksen and Lamela, neither started against Sunderland (Lamela didn't start vs Stoke either) and although you can argue that we'd have perhaps been better with them in the side, they weren't overly missed such was the performances of others like Son and Sissoko.

 

Poch is to blame for the breakup of Brangelina. . The Bastard.

 

I'm not the only one who thinks that then.

 

I think it's a lot of reasons that led to our poor finishes under Pochettino. In his first season we had a small group of players that were actually trusted, along with it being many player's first full seasons, which takes its toll, and everyone's first season operating at a higher fitness level across the season. Second season some of those same problems were there but to a lesser extent. I think what really hurt us though was the league slipping out of reach. You could see in the games prior that there was real belief there and a fearlessness about our play, as there should be, there was a huge prize at stake. After the West Brom result the league was good as gone with Leicester only needing a point, and the focus, ideas and spirit just sapped right out of the team.

 

I understand that, I'd be the same. I hope that is all it is. Love Poch...but might be ripping him a bit if the pattern repeats.

 

All true Spurlock. I agree with you. I think this is the season for burnout to really rear its head (for all clubs) after a summer tournament. I hope that we are well placed because MP has chosen all of our squad. Those he didn't want have gone. There's no need not to use all of them and in that I include the youngsters. If we don't, then something has gone wrong and it will be a failing that bites us on the ass. I was surprised to see Kyle Walker play on Sunday when Ben Davies didn't. Let's hope his hamstring is fine and he can be rested in the weeks ahead and that all is well with Ben.

What happened last season with Leicester was helped by them not playing in Europe or doing anything in the cups. Like the Liverpool title tilt a few year ago, they had fresh, rested players throughout the season and also no injuries to speak of.

I stand by the MP/Brangelina comment. Not very close, you understand but close enough to wriggle out of it when the libel lawyers come calling.

 

Our squad was bigger but was still filled with at least half a dozen players who Poch had zero trust in. They have by and large all been shifted this summer. It's all well and good having a 'squad' of 25+ well played players, but for all intents and purposes Fazio, Townsend, Njie, Bentaleb and Winks (at the time) were invisible. That isn't the case now, with almost every position filled by players who are either currently competing for places or with bright futures ahead of them.

The other point many people don't emphasise about Leicester is the fact that as of January 21st, they had nothing to focus on other than the league. Went out of both cups very early and had no European football to juggle. Having a whole week's rest between games at the business end of the season is invaluable. By contrast, our most damaging run of games last season was probably when we faced West Ham, Arsenal and Dortmund in the space of 8 days. That was a tremendously difficult ordeal to juggle and, predictably, we dropped the balls and went into the international break with a mountain to climb in the league and egg on our face in Europe. Leicester faced nothing remotely closed to that level of intensity, and already we can see that with CL games to juggle, their league form is suffering.

 

I think this gets to the heart of it. Pellegrini is a gentleman. Guardiola is a, well, jerk with a deliberate plan behind his jerkiness. His style is to attack non-believers, scoffers and doubters. I think Guardiola looks at the confrontation as a way of strengthening his hand. He once picked a similar big public fight with Eto'o. Don't want to do it my way? Look what I did to Toure--and he's the greatest player on the squad.

Many of the best managers have at least teetered on the brink of being ultra-aggressive control freaks. I would say it does work--but it tends not to work for very long, at least in one place. There have been few Fergies, and there will be fewer. There have been a number of examples in American sports as well of super-aggressive managers who could arrive, turn a team around, and wear out their welcome in the span of a couple of years. I might suggest most of the most successful managers in football at this point may fit that description.

 

Gary Neville's claiming that there's someone within Man Utd's dressing room leaking information to the press.
He believes that they have an inside man, who's already disillusioned with Mourinho.
Can't think who that might be. Now here's a totally irrelevant picture:

please log in to view this image