- Jul 12, 2011
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We had all those attacking players last night & still couldn't create shit, GLC needs to play CAM not CM, our lack of creativity in the final third is scary bad
He is fine where he is - it's asking him to do it all with no support is where it falls apart.We had all those attacking players last night & still couldn't create shit, GLC needs to play CAM not CM, our lack of creativity in the final third is scary bad
I hope you are right but I don't.
I was completely against the decision to bring him in, even scrolled back through my tweets the other day of the day we signed him and I hate to say I called it all spot on.
Outdated tactics, no attacking intent, zero chance of him taking responsibility for poor performances, players being thrown under the bus, boring, dull etc etc. Called it all and it's coming true even sooner than I anticipated.
He picked four attacking players last night, did anyone expect it would make any difference? On paper it looks like he went for it but it was never going to be the case, if anything it just adds to his excuses to deflect the blame back on something else. Then you look behind the four attacking players who all looked like square pegs in round holes and what did we have? Sissoko and Lo Celso.
Sissoko is great at running, but he brings nothing beyond that in an attacking sense. Our best playmaker (Lo Celso) is then left as a holding midfield player trying to mop up against a massive Sheffield United side while Sissoko gets back after losing the ball on the 18 yard box.
It just made no sense.
Poch was binned after pleading for a rebuild, Mourinho was hired to try and inspire a side that is past its best and he hasn't done that. I don't want to hear 'he needs a pre-season' one more time because it's nonsense and only comes from people who believe the 'Jose 2.0' nonsense. He is finished as a top level manager and has been for years. United were glad to see the back of him for a reason.
Get rid.
Great post and yes, that 3rd option seems by far the most likely. I think we'll probably do okay next season but the football will be bad and we'll be far worse than we have the potential to be. Bad enough for Son and Kane to ask to leave, but not bad enough for Mourinho to get fired mid-season - which in a way is the worst of both worlds.Whether you want Mourinho to go now or not, I doubt anything is going to happen at the end of this season. And if we're reasonable, that's fair enough as 6 months isn't enough to judge anyone. It's all going to hinge on what happens next season in my opinion, which I see as having roughly 3 possible outcomes:
It's all out of our control though, we can't do much more than just watch as it all unfolds. SC doesn't do stoicism, but maybe it should.
- With the right recruitment and a fresh start we do well, back in the top four and challenging for (perhaps even winning) a trophy. This is the least likely outcome in my opinion - probability around a generous 15%. Mourinho stays, Kane stays, all seems well.
- We're shit. Finish outside Europe again, win nothing, play badly. I think this is more likely, but still fairly low probability - around 25%. Mourinho leaves, Kane leaves. In an ideal world a new coach comes in with a new structure, a DoF, Levy steps back from the football side and the money from selling Kane is used to build a fresh, balanced new squad full of hope, promise and rainbow unicorns.
- We show signs of progress without achieving anything, roughly a top 6 finish, some good performances, some bad. This seems to be the most likely outcome - probability around 60%. Mourinho stays - I don't think the board will sack him if they have an excuse not to. Kane leaves - understandably. This is the most worrying situation, as the money from the sale is at risk of being badly invested, denying future opportunity. Appointing a DoF or some kind of structure would help mitigate that, but I'm not at all convinced it will happen as the excuse that keeps Mourinho in the job will also apply to Levy and how the football side is run. Most importantly, the arguing and emotional outbursts on here will continue and the match threads become even more toxic as fan turns on fan in a brutal and bloody civil war.
It never really got started. Downhill spiral since well before the CL final.I've tried to calm down and re-watch the highlights objectively this morning.
My god that was awful. There's no more excuse about players not being available, to get that badly beaten by Sheffield Utd was inexcusable. The defending was atrocious, we barely created a chance in the second half and the entire team looked tactically clueless.
Yes the VAR decision was shocking, and yes we may have some mentally weak players. But this was unacceptable. And the buck for that has to stop with Mourinho. As a manager he has proven his ability to have strong teams choke out the rest of the league and dominate, but I don't recall him ever getting a side out of a slump and turning things around - this just doesn't look like having a happy ending does it?
This has been the least enjoyable season since the David Pleat season for me.
What makes you think that Poch wouldn’t end in the same way again? We’ve still got the same transfer situation that caused him to become disillusioned.I want him gone. I was all for Jose when he was appointed, but fully admit that its not working and i was blinded by by the "trophy potential"
I would take Poch back in a heartbeat. Yes, we were not great under him for the last 12 months (even though during those 12 months i had possibly two of the best nights of my spurs supporting life in the CL) but under Poch we had an identity and there was a really good feeling about the club. now we are just treading in dirty shit water until Jose eventually leaves.
What makes you think that Poch wouldn’t end in the same way again? We’ve still got the same transfer situation that caused him to become disillusioned.
I think people are starting to fall into the trap of thinking our players are shit because of recent performances.
Our team isn't shit - there's tons of talent. On paper we're better than all but 3 or 4 teams in the league. We have some glaring holes in the squad (CDM, RB, ST) but I suspect most managers would still prefer our squad over that of Wolves, Leicester, Arsenal and certainly Everton, Sheffield Utd etc. Before the season started most would've also picked our squad over those of Man Utd and Chelsea.
The problem is the way we're setting up. We look like far less than the sum of our parts and that has to be the fault of the manager.
Personally I think we dropped a bollock bringing in Mourihno. Yes he's a winner, but he's also on a downward trajectory and with Liverpool and City being this good I struggle to see him winning us a trophy (which is the main reason you bring him in).
We won't be moving him on anytime soon, so we've basically got to hold on tight, hope that he can turns things around somehow. We're gonna have to grin and bear it for a while, and maybe, just maybe, he'll hit upon a system that works.
I still maintain, though, that our squad is largely quite decent and under the right manager we'd be up there fighting for 3rd.
What makes you think that Poch wouldn’t end in the same way again? We’ve still got the same transfer situation that caused him to become disillusioned.
Not even the last few months - we were terrible for the best part of a year. We put in the odd top performance (Man City, Dortmund, Everton spring to mind) but we were so, so lucky to get into the CL last year. We scraped countless 1 goal wins while putting in abject performances - our league position after the first half of last season was truly a minor miracle.People have really got a short memory of how negative things were for the last few months under Poch.
That’s right. If people are willing to accept our limitations because of the way that Levy operates (albeit I hold out hope that things may improve as revenue comes in) then we may as well be content with a modest ‘project’ but it still begs the question of who can come in and wave their magic wand and address the malaise that has now affected two managers .Jose has to go for the mental health of us older fans.. but the root of the problem is as you describe, it comes from Levy not being able to apply his pound shop tactics on transfers
I understand that but I really don’t see that happening.I don't know, and no one does. Being completely honest, my decision is really an emotional one rather than based purely on logic. I think that Poch was tired and the players were as well. The break from each other will have done them all good. I would hope that Levy/Poch would be able to learn from what worked/went wrong last time and refine their work together.