You have to assume at this point the possession-retaining drudgery is a tactical choice - but the issue is that the players appear unsure of what they're supposed to do during those phases, unlike when we flip the switch and play the with pace and directness which is where our two goals came from because that's what most of the squad have embedded in their muscle memory already IIRC we had similar issues in the 2017-18 season when Poch tweaked his tactics to balance between pressing high and hitting teams on the break and for the first few games they played a lot like they thought they should break the game into ten minutes of pressing followed by ten minutes sitting back rather than reading the game for themselves and knowing when to do one or the other
Ali Gold went on a bit of an offensive in his recent article. Called it one of the worst performances that ended with a win that you'll see. Said a line that feels as if I wrote it for him too by saying we had so much possession, loads of passes but zero idea. Also says Gray needs minutes in midfield, not RB - which is pretty obvious but thanks to the stupid decision of omitting Spence from the Europa squad, I suppose the thought process is that Gray needs to build experience in a position that isn't his primary one which could've so easily been avoidable... Something I also didn't realise at the time was that the boos during the Maddison-Bergvall sub came from Spurs fans over the decision to take Bergvall off, I initially thought it was a small section of Coventry fans bantering a former player but Gold and Ange addressed it to which Ange replied "I don't make subs by poll, mate". Last thing the manager needs at the moment is losing the faith or patience of the away fans, they're our best and most loyal and passionate amongst the fanbase. Ange also seemingly refused to accept it was a flat performance, paid credit to Coventry which was fair and correct but jesus pal if you watched that game and didn't find it mind numblingly boring, idea lacking and flat from our perspective then that just seems very stubborn. I think he's very, very fortunate Spence, Johnson and Kulu helped change the game yesterday, things could've been severely toxic, it still arguably is despite the win.
I said it the other day and his interviews since reinforce my view and that is that Ange is a bit deluded. The stubbornness and arrogance is fine and most managers have that and you need it at the top level but when you’re deluded too then it’s not a good mix.
He seems to be getting very snappy in them too. It's probably the first time in his career he's faced this level of pressure and adversity due to the nature and global pull of the English game. I'm still really hoping he tactically tweaks things about though and turns it around, very much want him to succeed (obviously!) but that feeling of impending doom is just beginning to linger for me.
Plus the fact that we started the game with three fullbacks on the bench. We didn't offload Reguilon for whatever reason, so why not use him? He should've taken part in the pre-season regardless. Our preparations for each campaign need to be looked at, as they're not working.
I do like that he’s certain things will come good but like you I don’t have that feeling. He’s untested at this level and like you say, he’s never had this much scrunity before, he had a bit of pressure at Celtic but things there turned around quickly and he didn’t look back once they did. Spurs and the PL is different to that.
Yeah it's trying to work out if it's confidence or delusion that's currently fuelling his answers. Definitely hope it's the former.
Even the official highlights vid couldn't clip out all the baffling decision-making on the pitch The amount of times players were making a run and yet we either passed backwards or took a shot that went wide is a baffling situation
Croydon mentioning them reminded me to post the lowlights: I'm not sure why anyone would want to torture themselves by sitting through the extended ones, but here they are anyway: Fraser Forster really needs replacing in one of the next two windows. Our system doesn't help and I'm sure he'll be fine somewhere else, even as first choice.
The one that stands out for me is at about the 0:54 mark of the club's extended highlights vid Bergvall has the ball and Johnson is in space ahead of him - yet he passes backwards, so when the ball does get to Johnson and he gets into the area the Coventry defenders have had enough time to set While that sequence takes 4-5 seconds tops, it sums up how we overthink things as it could have been 2-3 seconds if Bergvall simply passed to Johnson in space and Coventry's defenders would have not had that extra time to get set
I'm surprised you've highlighted that as the problem. For me, Solanke's movement in that specific sequence is horrendous, confusing both Bergvall and Johnson as he makes the wrong run twice.
Well gentlemen I'm leaving without fruit this time, however I will chance my arm visiting the Arsenal branch to see if I can reconcile my limbic system.
Although I agree with the general sentiment, I'm not sure that I would highlight an example from arguably the only one of our MF that showed some positivity and creativity for the 70 minutes he was on. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/3PCYgxWqZ59YXPVs/
please log in to view this image Leaving him out of the Europa squad seemed like a poor decision at the time, but looks worse now. Perhaps he'll get starts in the league, instead? We can't just keep playing Porro and Udogie every game.
In terms of Udogie I've seen it suggested the plan was to get 45 minutes into his legs and sub him off when we were (presumably) leading for Spence or maybe Reggie - so of course things did not go to plan
