Mourinho...how long will he be given?

I suspect that when the window closes and we haven't signed Cavani, we might see Parrott coming off the bench...

 

Here's the annoying thing about that: Poch had the same idea about a back four morphing into a back three while the attacking fullback gets forward, but he understood that it can work on both flanks, with Davies being the third CB if Aurier plays and Foyth being the third CB when Sessegnon plays

On the other hand Steptonho persists with Aurier in the free role and or, as he has this evening, has Aurier and Sessegnon - but when Poch did that he had either Dier or Wanyama to drop back to make a back three, but tonight we need Winks or Lo Celso doing that even though neither is a DM

Which takes me back to what I've said elsewhere: why not play Foyth as a DM, given he can drop back to be a third CB if we have two attacking fullbacks going forward?

 

21 games under JM
2 CL ...won 1 lost 1 GF 5 GA 5
4 FA Cup .... won 2 drew 2 GF 7 GA 5
14 PL ...won 8 drew 2 lost 4 GF 25 GA 17

Total
p 20 won 11 drew 4 lost 5 f 37 a 27
Conceded 2 or more on 9 occassions
Kept just 3 clean sheets
Failed to scored 4 times

The next 2 weeks will be decisive.
IF we go through in the fa cup, the CL and get something at the bridge confidence will be flying high with the players and the fans but if not it'll be a long boring end to the season!

 

The win today was so important given the PL game tomorrow.
We shall see how the result of that game + our/Chelsky CL tie plays out.

 

Oh no, momentum means nothing in football, KingHotspur said so...

 

@PowerSpurs what do you make of form mate?

 

I have to say prior to the break I was beginning to warm to him. Well, perhaps 'warm' is too generous a term. 'Thaw out' is probably more appropriate. But then he goes and selects Dier to start when there are 4 - FOUR - options on the bench and a further 5,000 in the away section who would have more of an impact on the game.

I admire Jose for his clearly changed demeanour. He seems more positive, grounded and dare I say it humble as a result of his time at United. And the steely toughness is still there too. His treatment of Rose et al. demonstrates this. So why ruin it all with terrible decisions on a regular basis? We were a freakish defensive error away from dropping 2 points. And we can complain all we want about out attackers missing gilt-edged chances all game, but at the other end of the pitch we were being sliced to bits over and over again. Conceded 2 probably should've been 4. And that was due to having zero control of the midfield - an area which ironically should have been easy to control as Danny Drinkwater actually makes Dier look world class.

We got the points but as RCL says there are some huge fixtures coming up. If we get them wrong, our season could well be over by the end of March. Get them right, and I may just change my avatar.

 

I said it a few weeks ago and it's worth repeating: for some games he clearly has a plan and the team follows it, most obviously against The Sheikh Mansour Team and Saltypool - but for so many other games we don't seem to have any plan and appear to win more by coincidence than anything else, which was most evident yesterday and a few weeks ago against Wolves, and that currently worries me because that brings back flashback of Juande Ramos's belief he only needed to put thought into things such as team selection or tactics for half of the Premier League teams while matches against anyone else would be resolved by nature taking its course

 

I meant to add that since the poor Southampton performance on new years day we have seen a a real improvement.

We have played
Boro way...draw
Liverpool home...lost
Watford away....draw
Boro home...win
Norwich home...win
Southampton away...draw
City home...win
Southampton...home win
Villa away ... win

9 games
Won 5
Drew 3
Lost 1
For 14
Against 9
2 clean sheets
1 failed to score
Unbeaten in 7

 

On the other hand, it does have to be suggested that we played at least one match more than we should have, possibly two, as we absolutely should not have required replays against both Middlesbrough and Southampton

 

Lo Celso and NDombele will improve the team yesterday no end. I just hope both are at peak fitness for those games. Gedson looks decent too.

 

We're winning games but often, it's as a result of the players keeping going to the bitter end and overcoming poor starts and 2 goals conceded. Yesterday, the first 15 minutes were car crash stuff and it's a regular occurrence. We kept a clean sheet against City but it could have been 4 or 5. Better teams will do just that to us, it's just a matter of who and when.

There's a continuing sense of lessons not being learned. If we're better as games progress, why not dig in for 15 or 20 minutes and not concede early? Maybe play Aurier deeper to start with and someone with some mobility in front of the centre halves?

The continuing attempt to reanimate Eric Dier is now beyond ridiculous. I don't know the cause of his problems and whether they can be resolved but right now, he's nowhere near good enough to be starting games. Gedson or Skippy should have started yesterday...and preferably both of them. We have to play a midfield 3 and become more difficult to play through.

Somehow, we're still fighting on 3 fronts but if we're going to achieve something, it's time for these issues to be addressed. Currently, the spirit is willing but the set-up is weak.

 

On the upside it has given extra minutes to players like Lamela, Ndombele and Lo Celso which may help later in the season

 

Dier starting is as mystifying as Rose playing ... it is so obviously wrong but keeps happening.
There was a point in the first half yesterday when it was 1 nil thst he went full Trippier and was screaming at players even though he was continually giving the ball away and losing his man.

 

It also added 90-180 minutes extra to the legs of Son, Lucas, Winks, Toby and Aurier - but more than anything else, I hate getting flashbacks of 2012 where the Stevenage replay - which only existed because humble and decent man Harry Redknapp thought the initial tie was his audition for the England job - saw Michael Dawson get ruled out for the remainder of the season, especially in the case of the Southampton replay given some of the challenges they were throwing in (and getting away with...) in the league last month

 

I'm pretty happy with how Jose's done. I thought our season was over after about 10 games, we were 12 points off fourth, out of the league cup, had been gubbed by Bayern and it just felt like the team had given up so early on.

Since Jose's come in, we've still had some really poor performances coupled by silly team selections in certain games but all in all I don't think anyone can be too disappointed with the small progress we've made.

Lo Celso is flourishing under him to the point where if it continues he's my POTY (albeit feels a slightly tarnished one as no one has been great for the whole season), Tanganga has been excellent after breaking through, Aurier has even shown glimpses of being a footballer (though was back to gash yesterday), Bergwijn and Gedson look really smart signings and with the likes of those two, Gio, Tanguy, Gedson, Tanganga, Dave, Kane and Son, there's a basis of a good side that just needs a few additions.

After how the season started, if we can get a top four (or top five now) spot to secure CL next season, I think that will provide a fresh start for us to go into the summer with some proper ambition. I'd love to go far in the CL and win the FA Cup but without Kane or a proper striker it's gonna be too tough I feel, we saw yesterday against Villa how much we need a central striker and so against tougher competition in Europe plus trying to get further in the Cup, I think we'll come unstuck sooner or later.

 

I've been one of his biggest critics since the day he joined, but Aurier didn't do too badly yesterday. He got into lots of excellent positions but was let down by woeful crossing. Defensively he wasn't that bad - Toby has to take the 'worst defender' award (but then again, he apparently travelled 8 hours on Saturday and barely had any sleep, so why did he start?). There was one superb last ditch defensive intervention Aurier did that was Ledley-esque in its timing. I was certain it would either be a goal or a penalty but he stayed on his feet and got the ball away at the last second. Up against your lovechild, I felt yesterday exposed how little Lucas does to help out on that flank. And with Dier literally unable to get across the pitch quickly enough, Grealish + 1 were doubling up on that flank throughout the first half to devastating effect. It provided yet another reason to hold on to Lamela for the time being as, when he is fit, he is the only AM with the work ethic and fight to actually help his FB in games where we're under the cosh.

I have to say, I'm struggling to see the point in Lucas at the moment. He works so, so hard and has a fantastic attitude but has very little end product. 4 goals and 2 assists from a player supposedly in his peak is unacceptable. He hasn't scored in the league since the Wolves game. And without being able to praise him for doing the Lamela/Lennon role of protecting his FB, I just can't see his long-term value. RCL pointed out above that Dier went full Trippier...from what I could see, he was screaming at Lucas to get back and help out.

 

I know I've said it a few times before, but if Lo Celso didn't get crocked in that international incident friendly between Argentina and Chile right after he signed it's likely he would have started to show the form he's shown in the last month or so back in October-November, and things could have panned out so differently for our season as a result

Similar can be said for Bergwijn: he was heavily linked with us last season, so if he was added during the summer it's certainly feasible that Poch would have been braver with implementing the 433 he was clearly leaning towards having us play instead of the halfway house where he had the defence and midfield set up to play in that system yet in the final third we had a diamond bolted onto it and that both negated any width once we were in the opponent's half and made it clear that Lucas isn't capable of playing up top

 

Ahem!

I'm not denying that there's been progress...but there are issues that don't resolve around Kane's injury or Ndombele's fitness that could readily improve things further.

Poch was rightly called out for playing Kane when he was patently not fit. Dier is playing worse...and he keeps going back to him, for no discernible reason. Skipp and Gedson couldn't play worse. They just couldn't.

We're getting ripped to bits from the kick off, so why not play 3 in the middle and tell Aurier to concentrate on defending for the first 20 minutes? It may not be how we're going to play next season...but right now, we're getting owned in the middle of the park.

These are repetitive issues, that are costing us goals and they will cost us matches against better teams....and they can easily be improved upon. I'm not prepared to accept those issues as insurmountable...because they're not.