There was some discussion on here as to why MP had been given a contract as Coach. And not given the Manager's job. It now seems that that is in order that any new owner will have the freedom to bring in their choice as Manager, with MP remaining as Coach. So...MP is still 'caretaker Manager'?
Antonio Conte is Head Coach at Chelsea, Walter Mazzarri is Head Coach at Watford, they're not caretaker managers.
I do not think the players have confidence in MP. I wondered once or twice, if he had been concentrating a little bit too much on his own situation, than the players. I sort of get what he is or was trying to do with Keane, but, having a good work rate and putting in the KMs does not win games unless you create or score. We have seen that time and time again with Meyler, a player who I love to see for his work rate, but that is all.
Come on everyone, a bit of a reality check here. We were playing Stoke yesterday. They've been in the premier league for years on end, have invested enormously in their squad and are way above our level. Our season won't be defined by games against teams like stoke, it's essentially a free hit. Our season starts next week against Watford, let's see how we get on in this next run of games shall we?
Maybe the lonely bit comes hot on the "wanting to feel involved" reason at Bournemouth.. Phelen feels Keane needs love so is sacrificing last years top scorer along with premiership points
Also nice to see everyone writing Keane off now. FFS. I wonder what game most of you are watching, he did a brilliant job yesterday like he did at Bournemouth.
Im not writing Keane off Im lost as to Phelens reason to play him last week at Bournemouth over Henandez. If he is going to play a young striker up front give him a chance with some support for a start. Same as yesterday give him a second striker at home
The only games we've got anything out of this season have been where he's played 2 up front and Jak in goal. Is it really so hard to work out?
Does anyone seriously think this isn't down to the Allams?! We're the worst prepared Premier league side since Derby in 2007/8. That's so obvious that even on a national level people have been saying it.
Clearly the situation around us being sold, which you demanded, and got, isn't helping. However, our current performances are not because we didn't buy a 15m striker. Our players are better than they're currently playing. Especially when they're playing in their proper positions. That is 100% down to Phelan.
We didn't press but that was obviously an instruction, not that they couldn't be arsed. I'd much rather see us being the team on the front foot harassing the opposition but clearly that wasn't the plan yesterday. We played like an away team from the start because we were so scared of another hammering. If we'd played the not606 formation with all the strikers we'd probably have got it. This is going to be the story this season. We can't really go attacking teams aggressively like we tried to at Bournemouth because we're really not very good. For Bruce, 352 provided an answer to this problem, I'm sure we'll do the same thing now, but we really can't hope for much.
Bruce used to play Aluko on his own up front and people on funny positions all the time. Funny how we were never this **** then. Perhaps it's not as simple as just picking the most obvious 11 and automatically winning? Now I wonder what else has changed from last season to this that might have caused us to be a poor side? Surely not the fact that we've barely got a squad or backroom team? No that's not important is it. The main thing is that Hernandez didn't start. Oh wait, Bruce used to drop him every so often too.
Because we looked a bit better when we moved to 352 yesterday and Clucas showed he can play wing back no problem.
I'm not sure why anyone with a modicum of a footballing brain would instruct his team not to recover the ball? I think it was more to do with not being arsed than an instruction. Look at the players flailing arms about after misplacing a pass or losing the ball. We were only playing Stoke, not Barcelona. Stoke may have the odd decentish player, but on the evidence of yesterday I would expect them to be around the bottom 5/6 teams in this league.
To me it is strikingly obvious that we need to revert to 3-5-2 after the last twenty of yesterday compared to the dog shyte that preceeded it, since Bruce has gone is it just coincidence that the organisation, defensive stability, and being hard to beat has disappeared, would any of Brucies teams have been beaten so easily. He said at the end of last season that we needed a lot of additions, we fk around all summer and bring in 6 in the last two days, with no defensive cover despite the injuries Not only are the Allams to blame for this debacle, but Phelan has to shoulder the responsibility too. Strange that when he had very few options, he got the lads doing well, and got them organised, true we rode a little luck, but deserved the points. However now he has serious decisions and choices to make it is almost he is trying to justify the signings he made by playing them. Yesterday was embarrassing, blatantly obvious decisions were left until the 70th minute when finally we get the formation needed. Then in the interview afterwards there was a quavering in his voice as he was asked pertinent questions, doesn`t fill me with any form of confidence at all. I`m hoping that Phelan takes a good look at himself and the team, and plays what suits what we have, we know we aint going to be world beaters due to the piss poor handling of the transfers, but surely with this group of players we can compete a hell of a lot better then that.
Liverpool didn't used to play that excellent pressing game before Klopp, and even when he took over he took a while to get them up to speed with it. It's obviously not a simple thing to just do, and it's definitely a high risk strategy which is why so many crap teams try to sit back instead. Not nice to watch, but in our situation whatever we do isn't going to be.
