He could shoot a couple "Pour encourager les autres" but that might be considered a bit harsh.[/QUOTE]I'm genuinely recalling an anecdote about Caesar as an early general who lead a century of men, who fled from a battle. As punishment he decimated them - they drew lots and every tenth man was pummeled to death by his 9 closest companions. That is the sort of measure this squad of cowards need. I'd be praying for Foster to draw the short straw after his interview today.
Exactly...…..if Flores cannot get a more positive/resilient performance from his team as a new coach, then there's very little point in him being here. I doubt anyone else will lose by such a big margin to City. We all know they are a winning machine, but they only beat really bad sides by this type of score. We should be far better than 8-0. Let's be honest, City let us off the hook. It could and should have been 12 or 13 today very easily. Most teams can make it hard for a good opponents. We lasted 1 minute and were 5-0 down after 18 minutes. That's just ridiculous and shows the players are not trying. The mental side of things is very much down to the coach and how he gets players to respond etc. It seems they were beaten mentally before the first kick. Even Flores' comments before the match were defeatist. He made it clear it was a damage limitation exercise today. Players knew there wasn't much expected of them and played in that manner.
[/QUOTE]I'm genuinely recalling an anecdote about Caesar as an early general who lead a century of men, who fled from a battle. As punishment he decimated them - they drew lots and every tenth man was pummeled to death by his 9 closest companions. That is the sort of measure this squad of cowards need. I'd be praying for Foster to draw the short straw after his interview today.[/QUOTE]Harsh man. World's moved on.
Okay, but he has only been here 2 weeks! The problems are long-standing and deep seated. If you have a cancer all over your body and are comatose in ITU, you don’t sack the doctor who is treating you after 2 hours if your symptoms get worse initially. It takes time to prep for surgery, work out a diagnosis and a treatment plan
Agree with most of whats been said. 8-0 is an embarrassment, regardless of who you're playing against or how good they are. I don't think anyone was expecting anything out of today's game, and losing by 3,4 or 5 goals was a very very realistic possibility giving our run of results and the team being low on confidence. Don't like Fosters comments, or the fact he and Doucouré were surrounding some City players at full-time looking for their shirts. Reeks of not giving a sh1t and I hope they're pulled up on it. No blame on Quique for me, City away is a free hit regardless of what Norwich did to them last week, and I'll be much more interested in the game next week, but theres no hiding from the fact that losing 8-0 will seriously knock the players confidence even more. Tuesday could be a funny one. On one hand we could see a few changes, drop those not performing, or keep a relatively settled side, and try pick up some confidence with a win, although Swansea are doing well and will provide a tough test. When Quique came in, and we saw the first 2 games as Arse (H) and City (A), i think we all would have been happy with a point from those 2 games, and we are unlucky to not to have 3 if we're honest. 32 games left of the season, and it is a certainty we wont be the only team to get a hiding off City this season, but looking at our next 5 league games : Wolves (A) Sheff Utd (H) Spurs (A) Bournemouth (H) Chelsea (A) Anything less than 6/7 points and we may be looking at a real struggle.
It's possible for a team loose with a bit of dignity or pride, not surrendering without a fight. Make the opposition work for it not present it to them on a plate, and don't just stop playing like we did today.. Other teams can do this but not us, oh no, Man City or Liverpool come along, and our spineless team collapses and allows them to score 5 or more goals. Every season bar the first one back Liverpool or Man City have put 5 or more past us. Often both have in the same season That's pathetic..
There's easily zero points there. Sheffield winning at Everton, Bournemouth in great form, Wolves have much better players than us. Don't even want to think about Spurs and Chelsea. At least all the happy clappers get to see Tottenham's new stadium once before we go down.
Not helped by us having a cowardly inept squad, at a club which accepts cowardly inept performances. It's no wonder we regularly choke on the big occasions.
Are people even arguing this would happen to other teams? It hasn't happened for a while in the Prem. It was truly appalling. In fact, this is the THIRD biggest win in all time Premier League history. A division which has been around for 27 seasons and that plays 380 games a year? That's over 10,000 football matches in Premier League history. Out of 10,000 games we just suffered the SECOND highest margin of defeat. There's no debate here that was SHOCKING.
Pep said that it was down to the quality of players he has that they had 5 shots and 5 goals at a time we had 2 shots and 0 goals. Probably the closest any of the big team managers or players has ever come to saying it’s an unfair system / league. Can’t believe I’m saying this but I think the USA have it correct when it comes to the way they run their top leagues on their sports.
That business of Foster and Doucoure asking for shirts is inexcusable. Are they starstruck kids ? They should be sat on the floor head in hands in self recrimination particularly after the mistakes and lack of effort and technique they both displayed. It's very small time of them indeed and a poor mentality to be in awe of players they are supposed to be competing with. I would have zero hesitation in benching both. Both feel they are guaranteed starters and they walk into the team every week. They need to feel the competition and the idea they are not automatic starters. I would happily bring in Dahlberg and Chalobah. And Femenia also needs to be dropped. What Janmaat needs to do to break into the side is mystifying.
Can’t wait until we get relegated and the Pozzo’s get their grubby hands off of our club. I’ll get my Watford back and we’ll be battling relegation in the proper football leagues. Maybe we’ll even have a spell in non-league like that proper club up the road. Exciting.
Can we forget this drivel please? There is plenty of criticism from the Rookery when things aren't going well. Personally I prefer the constructive sort. Obviously the reaction today is pretty negative and justifiably so. But my criticism of the Shoutbox mentality is that it's always like that given the slightest excuse. I participated in it fully today (with a fair bit of voyeurism) and obviously it was relentlessly negative. However, the fact that we were playing against a bunch of nasty, medievalist financial cheats shouldn't be discounted. As for this contingent of happy-clappy, flag-waving, Gino Pozzo arse-lickers then I'm afraid I don't recognise them at all either on the Rookery or anyway else. Obviously again, many supporters rightly recognise that is was Gino Pozzo and family that rescued us from financial ruin and have delivered a whole lot of terrific new infrastructure and five seasons in the 'best league in the world'. That doesn't mean that they're beyond criticism for any of us. I understand that you don't attend many matches. So what exactly is your locus in being 'Nath. apologist No.1' then? I understand that he doesn't go much either hanging out in Maidstone most of the time. Never mind. You have your uses. Your Brighton match thread o.p. was a tour we force.
5-0 after 18 minutes is shockingly bad. Has that ever happened before in top flight history ? On the bright side we only conceded 3 goals in the last 72 mins plus injury time, Clear improvement.
The fact our fans proudly waved flags at 0-6 in a cup final is a matter of fact. Unless they have had a rapid transformation then I imagine they remain happy clappers.
