How do we get out of this mess?

Trying to think of things the club might be looking at in order to stabilise the situation.

Sacking Gracia and rehiring QSF doesn't appear to have had the desired impact, although Arsenal at home and City away were pretty tough fixtures. The lack of performance and endeavour shown at the Etihad, for a new coach, would have been alarming for the owners. They were all at the match, Gino, Duxbury and Giraldi. There is no hiding place. The hierarchy saw absolutely everything.

I've quickly checked and we have another 15 games to play before the transfer window opens. That would mean we'd have played 21 of the allotted 38 games before we could even bring in a few new signings.

How many points would we have on the board before then? I've looked at the games we have to play and I can see us getting around 16 or 17 more points, giving us a total of around 19, which wouldn't be too bad considering. We'd certainly would be in touch with the pack on 19 points from 21 games.

We'd need around 7 wins from the remaining 17 games. It's tight but achievable.

I think the key to everything is getting a couple of positive results from the next two. It's vital we do not lose at Wolves and we need to win at least one of the games v Wolves and Sheff U. 4 points is the minimum now.

Lose badly at Wolves and that could happen, I think Flores would be looking down the barrel. But would Gino seriously sack Flores after only 3/4 games? You bet he would if we play like we did at City again.

One thing is clear, we're now at the make or break stage of the season. Win the next two and we're back on track, but lose them and we will be in the relegation fight for the rest of the season.

 

I'm sure you'll turn it around HB1

 

The more I think about it, the better it would have been to leave Javi in charge for Arsenal and City. Any 'new manager bounce' we may have benefited from has been well and truly flattened by the city result.

Javi could have had these last couple of chances to turn it round - taken the heat for the likely losses, then Quique would come in with a much more forgiving run of fixtures.

As it stands, confidence is shot to bits and the Quique novelty has worn off somewhat. If I were Quique, I'd be looking to make some big changes to the starting XI. The likes of Quina, Chaolbah, Janmaat, Sarr, Masina could be in a different place mentally than the usual XI. If put in the team they'd want to grab their chance and prove a point. We really need this fresh impetus.

While the situation is grim, we know the squad has quality (apart from defence!). It's a mental problem right now, something all teams go through at some point. If we can get confidence back, the points will come. It has to happen soon though. Every game is huge now.

 

Playing a striker or preferably 2 might be a decent way of turning 30 odd attempts into a goal.

Our defence is poor, our defenders are poor. Chucking another one or two on isn't going to stop us leaking goals and it is certainty will stop us scoring if forwards are sacrificed for extra defence.

I'm absolutely convinced that reappointing QSF is a massive mistake.

 

I said this to friends at the time. Absolutely chaotic decision making by Pozzo.

Given Quique an absolute hospital pass to coin a footballing term.

I sure the Pozzo sympathisers will defend the process with some weird logic but they have turned the potential new manger bounce into a massive own goal.

 

If we play with the same lack of pride and application at Wolves we could easily lose 3-0 and be left with Sheff Utd being an absolute must win game.

 

I predict a loss to Wolves, a close loss, but a loss.

Then a draw against Sheff Utd.

I hope this is not the case but fear it will be.

 

Get behind the boys. We'll be fine!

COYH!

 

I thought this at the time, and it panned out exactly as it did. However, would we have come back against Arsenal to get a point under Gracia? We'll never know, but even though the new coach's credibility has been shot to pieces we may be a point better off for it.

I felt we should have kept Gracia until after the City game. No one would have blinked an eye sacking a manager after this type of run and finishing off with an 8-0 defeat.

The important thing now, is how we bounce back. If we go to Wolves and lose 4-0, the writing for this season is truly on the wall. If there is a huge uplift in performance and hopefully result, it could be seen as the real starting point for the season.

 

The crazy thing is that we have underperforming players playing week in, week out and options on the bench that aren't getting a look in.

Bachmann
Janmaat
Kabasele
Masina
Chalobah
Quina
Sarr

Swap these players into the starting 11 and I truly believe that our fortunes would turn around quickly.

 

Whilst I don't doubt we need a shake up I'm unsure where the excitement over Bachmann has come from. And Kabasele is crap.

 

First of all we need to play to our strengths and not to our weaknesses.

When you have terrible defenders, don't add more defenders to the XI. When you have signed one of the biggest prospects in world football... maybe play him?

4-2-3-1 is clearly the way to go and play them in their actual positions. Not rocket science.

 

I'd be mixing up the midfield first. Our defence is crap, but it's not like we have anything better elsewhere in the squad. We do, though, have deeper options in midfield and our midfield this year has been appallingly bad and left the defence badly exposed.

Bench Hughes and Doucoure. Same with Deulofeu. With a fully fit squad this should be the starting 11.

Foster
Janmaat Cathcart Mariappa Masina
Pereyra Capoue Quina Sarr
Deeney Gray

 

I find it highly dubious that you have any friends who put up with you.

 

Bachmann kept 13 clean sheets in 25 matches last year.
Kabasele is in the top 2 defenders of our crap defence

 

Not a sympathizer as such, but I guess you could argue that it’s 2 extra weeks of Quique being able to work with the squad and implement his ideas/tactical emphasis. Obviously we’ve not seen much of that this weekend, but I suppose it’s possible that there’s an idea of sacrificing the short-term bounce in favor of more time to build long-term results.

 

For Kilmarnock....

He might be good, but the GK position isn't a big problem right now - it is what is in front of him.

Cathcart and Mariappa are the best CH pairing we have. Kabasele is a car crash defender.

 

Very simply it comes down to team spirit. When any team comes up they get a bounce for a few seasons and then find their level. We have better players now, but we have lost our spirit. I would pick younger / fringe players mixed with the experienced players that give a damn. Any players that are not contributing to a positive dressing room need to be kicked into touch. QSF needs to show man management and kick the complacent players, and work to build up players that have lost their confidence

 

That is a pathetically weak personal attack based on nothing IRL.

Your level of discussion is at best basic.

You are out of your depth so toddle on little boy.

 

How do we turn it around?

In the short term QSF can never be tempted to play into the opposition hands like he did on Saturday. I don’t ever want to see a line-up like that again. And certain players need dropping, pure and simple. Our defenders are beyond poor - but continually chopping and changing who plays in the back line doesn’t help. We can’t improve them as players but we can absolutely improve their confidence. A settled back line is the best we can hope for. Drafting Mariappa in on Saturday and dropping Kabasele was beyond odd.

Doucoure and perhaps even Capoue need to be taken out of the side for a few games. Quina and Chalobah should be given the chance. Continually picking underperforming players sends out a terrible message to the rest of the squad. And finally Sarr needs to be introduced. Spending £40m for a player who has not started in 6 PL games isn’t a good look. Let’s see what he can do.

In the longer term, and it’s been said so often - buy quality defenders. We’ve been sleepwalking to this defensive crisis for a long time. Many of us have pointed it out for the past 4 or 5 transfer windows but it’s been ignored or added to with bargain basement stuff. If the money isn’t there to add both Sarr and quality defenders, then signings like Sarr have to wait. If you want to rectify both in one window, then we have to look at selling Doucoure or someone who will bring in decent funds to put back into the side.

My concern regarding the above being is just what type of quality is available in January? And where will we be in the table? I can’t see many quality defenders falling over themselves to throw themselves into joining us for a relegation battle. We’ve had successive windows where we haven’t sourced quality defenders - doing so in January seems a tall ask to me. I don’t trust the club to not go and get more bargain basement stuff that won’t aid us at all.

Leventhal’s latest column states that Dawson was the first result of Giraldi’s restructured UK based scouting - what a horrible result. If that’s not bad enough, he’s ‘revealed’ that we passed up the opportunity to bring in Maguire when he left Hull. Now we may have still lost out to Leicester - but it’s more fuel to the fire than Giraldi simply doesn’t have a nose for sourcing defenders. He needs to be sacked. Sacking successive managers instead of looking further down the chain for fault is beginning to cost us. Gino won’t sell. I don’t want him to. And Duxbury won’t sack himself. And nor should he - the question is can we trust Giraldi with the next 2 windows and where will be when they come around? The answer to me is no we can’t. And we may find ourselves lower than we want if persevere with him.

 

Yawn.

 

What a ******.

 

That’s very rude, if it came from someone with half a brain cell would be considered abusive.

 

Simple, I can solve this. I just need to come out of retirement and sit on the bog for the rest of the season. So until 17th May 2020. I make that 237 days in a row from now. I hate to admit it, but I'm not sure I have that stamina in me. Sorry guys and gals we're done for.

 

Why don't take your own advice and ignore the obvious trolling? Very strange you'd go back for more.

 

Fair point. It’s just getting quite tedious seeing him trying to hijack every thread on here with his vitriolic nonsense. I’m never normally one for censure but it’s clear what he’s doing and I’m not sure why he’s not being warned by Mods - @hornmeister?

 

Wait a minute, because I hold different views to you and chose to express myself differently you think I should be banned. I am taking personal abuse just because others think their viewpoint is the only one that can be made.

That’s a very foolish precedent to set.

People died fighting over the right to free speech.

That is quite disgusting.

 

The Pozzo's certainly have got their hands full. Udinese are also in the relegation zone. Things are not going well for either of their clubs.

 

Dear god 442 is absolutely not the answer it is far too susceptible to overload

We will be down for sure

Whatever the formation it must include 3 central midfielders

4231, 451, 433 all plausible

 

You could just block him, he's hardly being abusive. That's what I'm told when I used to complain about the politics forum.

 

First things first, I advise everyone to buy tickets for the game at Spurs new ground next month. These games don't come around for clubs like us very often. It'll be a great day trip to a fantastic new stadium and a chance to see my fourth team (Watford > Man City > Arsenal > Spurs) live before we're relegated. Hopefully the seats are padded lol.

 

"Hardly being abusive"? Ffs!

 

Yeah, he kept lots of clean sheets for a poor team in a top flight division - i.e. one which would have faced plenty of attacks against it.

GK really is a big problem, since the cup semi Foster has been costing us more goals than he's been saving.

I'd also rather Kabs to Mapps at this point, I thought he looked our best defender vs Arsenal (not that it's saying much). It's true that Kabs is prone to the odd rush of blood, but even given that I'd say his lowest level is the same as Mariappa's, while his upper performance ceiling is perhaps the best of any of our CBs. He's inconsistent, but maybe he can pull it together. It's worth a try given that we already know Mapps and Dawson aren't good enough, while he still has a possible upside.

On another note, Holebas is well and truly done at this level. His age has caught up with him. I think Masina is utter droppings, but Holebas is so far off the pace by now that even he can't be any worse any more.