While it is a bit of a crutch to dodge some valid criticisms, injuries have played a role in this Early in the season we were resting Romero and Mickey Van midweek and fielding a Davies/Dragusin CB pairing in both Europa League and Season Killer Cup matches, so there was a degree of depth there which allowed us to focus on all three - until there wasn't That doesn't excuse everything, mind, as leaving Porro on the training pitch until we essentially had to play him was a definite error while also led to us running Porro and Udogie into the ground Also has to be asked what the plan was for the Europa knockout stages, because by that point you would expect Romero and Mickey Van to be the starters, so were they going to play every fixture or were we going to rotate Dragusin and/or Davies into league matches?
Misquoting me again. I am interested in any opinion where people share their methodology. Agree completely about teams.
Injuries have definitely played a role, but the fact that Davies is the backup CB is still an issue too. He's done well for us there, but to think that he could/should perform anywhere near as well as a specialist in that position would is naive. I'm sure we were after a signing for that LCB position, it just didn't happen. Expecting top of the table performance when your squad is held together with gaffer tape is just silly. Regardless of manager, we've been doing a similar dance of make do for too long. So long that we've normalised the patchwork squad make up and expect miracles regardless.
The way I look at this is that we would almost certainly have won some of the games we have lost if we had a fully fit squad. If that number was four then either we would still be in at least one more cup or we would be 5th in the League. I don't think this is an in any way an unreasonable assumption but it would be hard to describe our season as a disaster if that had been the case.
You're really not. That's kind of a criticism...and also just the reality. You have a view and eschew any markedly contrary opinion or data used to back said opinion. If examples are given, there are never enough. An unattainable level of proof is required of opinions or they are deemed unworthy. Life isn’t like that for most of us, but you are what you are... We all are. I analyse stuff, but eschew analysis paralysis. I'm more instinctive. As I'm sure with you, it has served me well in my life. I didn't need Mourinho, Conte, or Nuno to be given years, so that their unsuitability could be data processed, to see that they were dreadful appointments. They were dreadful from the off. You might try to embrace the alternative...all learning is useful. Particularly if it's of something you don't like or understand.
I actually agree about Mourinho and Conte though. Not so sure about Nuno...he seems to be doing OK. Your posts are entirely helpful to me except when you make assumptions about my thought processes when you sometimes get them wrong. People who have worked with me tell me my strength is understanding data without having to do detailed analysis. That does make me tend to dismiss analysis that I can see must be wrong because it isn't consistent with the big picture. An example: the data seems to show that money is overwhelmingly the most important factor in football now such that almost every other effect is nearly undetectable. But small gains are still important so we should still be doing all we can to achieve them. But I don't see any good method for selecting a manager or a DoF who will really make a difference so I'm not prepared to judge Levy as a failure when he doesn't succeed. But he should never have sacked Pochettino who looked as if he was such a manager.
There were certainly plenty of rumours, most obviously Toisin Adarabioyo and Lloyd Kelly, but they were snapped up early on by clubs bankrolled by crypto scams and oil respectively Patrick Dorgu was also linked last summer at LB, though Lecce said Release Clause or GTFO at the time, a stance they noticeably softened come January but by that time our interest had cooled and Danso was our main priority
You either have a squad with an embarrassment of breadth, or a manager who FULLY utilises their squad to overcome not having the latter. I will say it again : Ange has been found wanting too often on his squad management, and as a coach his "system" has been found out + may be contributing to increasing injury counts + MTTR,
Because that's not normally how we play and it's not how we set up. Son's usually hugging the touchline, receiving the ball with his back to goal, miles away from the box. Udogie and Porro are asked to play centrally and our wingers go wide constantly.
Er.. ok. So was it a different manager with a different system that asked them too play like this for this goal then?
It was a rare breakaway against a pretty crap side. Good goal, but not something we're doing every week. Or today. Even then the opposition has a ton of players between Son and the goal. Udogie would normally be underlapping or just sitting deep. It's Spence going down the wing which makes the goal and that's not usually what our fullbacks do.
Immediately : Someone who thinks the current squad is under-performing +/- playing a flawed system, and could do much better than is currently the case.
I think we’d be an attractive proposition for most managers at clubs around or below our level (size wise, not performance wise obviously) or those out of work from some of the elite clubs. There’s money to spend, some very good players already there despite how they may look at the moment and the opportunity to make this club into something we’ve threatened to be under poch but never quite made it.
Too many need clearing out and if I understand correctly we have to sell before we can buy. We'll get rid of Werner (end of loan), Davies, forster ( both end of contract) and possibly Tel and save wages in the process but as for selling...not sure who will come in for Richarlison, Johnson, Reguilon, Bissouma, Bentencur or how much we'd get. Personally think we need to up grade on Maddison and sell Romero as both are way to inconsistent and not as good as they think they are IMHO.
Reguilon's out of contract at the end of the season. Romero will leave and I think we'll have plenty of takers. I'd sell Bentancur in a heartbeat but I don't think we will as he is somehow seen as a key and senior member of the team whose experience (experience in what, I ask) is seen as valuable. Bissouma will be sold and here again, I think there will be plenty of takers. Richarlison will be a nightmare to shift and imo will become our next Ndombele, running down his contract until it is cheap enough to mutually terminate. Johnson is a conundrum as while I think there'd be lots of interest, no one in their right mind is going to help us recover the bulk of what we spent on him.
Brennan has been linked with a return to Forest. I’d keep him unless the club could recoup most of what they paid.
Matt Law's come out saying Andoni Iraola and Marco Silva are top of the list in the event that Ange gets sacked Probably a bit lazy on his part (y'think?) given Silva was linked with the job a couple of years ago and a sizeable chunk of our fanbase are already saying to back the ruck up to Iraola's house If anything suggests the mechanism is starting to grind into life it;s Alasdair Gold being oddly cagey on the subject in recent videos, sort of like he was about the ubermensch and Conte
I think we are already covered in Central defence with Romero, Micky, Danso, Ben and Dragusin. That should free Archie to play midfield in a normal season.
