His signings do seem a vast improvement although I felt Llorente and Koch were both decent when they first came so I will reserve hopeful judgement for now. I thought Rodrigo was useless but he has found himself this season. I just don't know mate, it feels for a newly promoted club we have wasted far too much money on players for wrong areas and just not up to the standard you need
We needed to be strengthening in every transfer window. We did nothing in last three January’s alone and sold the Crown Jewels in the summer. We’re not a pl club financially
Llorente did look like a footballer when he first came. If you read reports from Spanish press and sociedad fans… that dallying on the ball, making stupid errors stuff? It’s plagued him his whole career. Koch? He looked neat and tidy on the ball which seemed to blind people (in my opinion) to how poor his defensive fundamentals were when he first came. He’s beefed himself up to handle the physical side better but he’s just not good enough.. or his playing style not suitable for this league if you want to be charitable. We have 4 centre backs and none are genuine premier league standard in my view.
Spent 100 million funded by selling our best two players and we still look a better side than last season. Who is this mythical coach who can do better?
Seriously, this site is nearly unusable at the moment with its cursor constantly jumping all over the place and randomly putting huge spaces between paragraphs. It's just taken me 5 mins to do this. Every post will be like this in future.
Mate if you would prefer to keep Jesse that's fine, that is your opinion. The guy to take over, I have had to Google each of the last 5 coaches, if someone wants to pay me Ortas wage to find one I will happily spend every minute of the working day studying each possible target
The first two seasons back we spent big in the summer getting all the targets in early as Bielsa doesn't do January's We were happy at the time because he got us promotion and season one back we were all excited with the progress, we question it now as the wheels have come off. If on season one we had spent £70m in the summer and £30m in January you'd not have a valid argument. Because we spent £100m+ in the summer you are not happy there was none left for January. That's what Bielsa insisted on, if we had went against him and he walked everyone would have been mad that we allowed it to happen Brentford spend a fraction of what we do, a few others clubs have spent a lot less too
I do get Rich’s point… Frank at Brentford for example has moulded a bunch of unfashionable players into a competitive premier league side (I’m not sure how actually as when I watch them they always look sh*t but somehow come away with a result) - but that’s a sign of a well organised team with a plan. So it’s a fair point to ask why marsch hasn’t done that with an equally motley crew. Maybe Frank is just a better coach… maybe having been there for many years he has ingrained a culture top to bottom. Personally I’ve given marsch time, because I do think we needed a top to bottom overhaul. bielsa was brilliant for us but his players were aging and increasingly injury prone. We sold our 2 best players to try and strengthen the squad, and the consensus was we’d be a relegation candidate. Obviously we hoped for better. I think performance-wise there have been signs (only signs) for optimism, but I understand people’s frustrations. For me though whilst the system has it strengths and, much publicised, weaknesses, it feels like the reason we are where we are - and not comfortably mid table - is a catalogue of basic defensive errors. I see that as more player quality than coach quality. Last night we were missing key players and got a lesson from the country’s best team. It’s right that it promotes debate on the team’s and the squads weaknesses, but it’s not a benchmark. Swap our centre backs with there’s last night and we still get outplayed as de bruyne would still have the freedom of the city but it’s a much more competitive match.
Well that was men v boys. A combination of unusually poor finishing from city and some very good saves from Meslier or we could have been looking at another 6-1, 7-1 drubbing and some would be calling for Marsch’s head. We can’t keep selling our better players (I’m thinking of those that might suggest cashing in on Adams for funds) and relying on a bulk of an aging squad that got us promoted from the championship, because that’s what happens when we sell our better players. They’ve done us proud but it’s time to move them on, evolution should have started the minute we got promoted. The only positive from last night except Gnonto was Klich coming on and giving grealish a proper kick.
I've never had any issues until the last few days. It's not my end, I've checked everything. The plus side is I probably won't post as much.
I keep hearing about these great saves meslier made. I thought he generally played well and his decision making and positioning was good, to be in the right place - an important part of keeping, but they were regulation saves or shots hitting him. That said, I thought he was at fault for both first and third goals. Not shockers, but he’d be disappointed with them.
I didn’t say great, I said good, at least two 1 v 1s with Haaland spring to mind. I also said poor finishing by Man City.
Last nights stats reminds me of another game for some reason Last Nights Game Man City 1 - 2 Leeds United Last Nights Game Man City 1 - 2 Leeds United Two games against the same opponents, produce very similar stats, and yet very different results.
Appreciate I Responded to you fella but it was more a point in general… Lots of comments on threads and commentary/punditry… I think meslier himself will be disappointed
Our win at city was proper backs to the walls stuff with 10 men. 2 shots 2 goals and unlikely ones at that. Their xg last night was 4… it was only 3 when they beat us 7-0. There’s often a mismatch between stats and results. The more chances the better the odds obviously but it’s often about whether the strikers have their shooting boots on, how the ball breaks, defensive fckups etc.
Fully accept that Milky, just basically posted the stats given the number of comments saying that we would've been stuffed last night if City had been on form with their shooting and Meslier didnt make the saves he did, and just noted that those same comments (just on a pure stats basis) could just have easily applied to the game we won at the Etihad
That we got just as lucky with City's poor finishing when we won there, as much as we did last night Plus even I admit stats don't prove anything on their own, I just like to make comparisons, and noted that most comments on last nights game regarding how fortunate we were that City were poor at finishing, could have easily applied to the game in April 2021
