This was never going to be an easy season to watch and given the state of our finances, we've invested as much as we could reasonably expect. I'm not worried like I was if we do get relegated for the financial future of the club. However, you don't want a feeling that we could / should have done more to stay up whether it's down to recruitment or coaching, and right now it feels the coaching side of our club is the biggest issue we need to address. We need a coach who has a clear style of play. Possession or counter attack, offensive or defensive setup. We don't look like a side who know where to be in any phase of play or has a few methods of building up play. Leeds however looked exactly this. So did Brighton. Wolves reasonably had a style of play albeit less developed. It makes the difference.
100% agree with this. I don't think there's any doubt the finances needed addressing after relegation + Covid, so the approach taken has largely been the right one for me. While we're no title winners in waiting, the squad seems a lot better than what we're seeing on the pitch, though, and like you I think we can be better than three other teams in the league (or rather two, since Norwich to go down seems a dead cert).
As ever, it's not the 1990s, or the 00s, so I don't really see what the worth is in dragging it up as though completely different people in completely different times are any indicator of what is, or should be, happening now, in 2021. Regardless, none of the elements of that argument stack up. If not financially killing ourselves was the sole motivating factor, why did we spend almost ten million on a useless midfielder who isn't capable of playing at the level we are at, whilst simultaneously spending nothing on the area that needed it most (defence, as ever). Similarly, if money had been invested even a bit smarter, we would have been much more likely, or at least prepared for the challenge of, staying up, and therefore doing the very opposite of killing ourselves financially in the best way possible. Outside of all that, even, it doesn't explain why a competition winner who had displayed no sign whatsoever that he was capable of doing the job was allowed to have a free go living his fantasy like a make-a-wish scenario by coaching us in the hardest league in world football. That, chief amongst it all, is not some genius cost-cutting measure - it's the opposite - it's profligacy.
There was a 0-3 defeat away to Norwich during GTs first spell which was so awful that he fined all the players and donated the money to charity. In 1991, 0-3 at home to Blackburn Rovers when the Director's Box was stormed. In fact there were numerous abject performances when Perryman was in charge. In 2004, losing 1-5 at home to Palace, a real low point. At least Lewington had the good grace to offer his resignation after the match, which was refused.
Our coaching may not be the best, but so many players could not do basic passing or moving today. I am sure they were not coached to kick the ball out for a throw when a 6m pass was on or just pass the ball to the opposition? How we got away with just a 1-0 loss was amazing. If we play like that against Liverpool, the cup final will feel like a win.
Well a quick search of my local area gives me Argos in Huntingdon's Sainsbury's and 2 Age UK shops. Make of that what you will !!!
Funny part of the game... All the subs went down the tunnel on about 43mins in the first half. Some of them had to be quickly chased and called back when King went down. Still don't understand why Sema came on though??
We usually look like we will concede, midfielders bought on the cheap, and not enough productivity up front unless Sarr is on fire. We sacked Gracia, then got QSF, then got Pearson last time and we still went down. Sadly, if the PL quality isn't there then it isn't there. I also said give Xisco more time, but of course that was on the basis of getting some results on the way, which, looking at the fixtures coming up, may not be many. The owners may not give him the time. I felt we would lose today before the game coz Leeds impressed me with their play against West Ham particularly first half, and West Ham are better than us.
Not hearing the finance excuse. If anything, if we had such little money (which I do not disagree with btw) why did we spend £6 million on Louza? Who is neither ready to start or come off the bench and impact the game?
You and I have had pretty different views on Xisco up to now, but I can see that in retrospect being outwitted by Jonathan Woodgate and Nathan Jones was sadly a harbinger of things to come.
Or swing that another way - 3M on a new Right back and 3M on a new Centre back. We had enough depth in midfield especially with Tufan coming into the side. We continue to neglect the one area to help us stop conceding goals.
I'm not being a ***** at all, and we've had a constructive conversation about our differing views on Xisco before a couple of weeks ago, so if you don't mind me asking, what was it that you couldn't see/draw from those results at the time/what stopped you from seeing, that you now can see in hindsight, that were indicative of his lack of capability? If you get what I mean...
Because we were overrun in midfield presumably. In the second half we were marginally less overrun, but not enough to count for anything.
It's the total lack of any discernible style of play, tactics, system, reactivity to what is actually happening during the game that is so worrying; and the fact that things seem to be getting worse with no evidence of improvement. Nothing to do with a poor PL squad; what we have is just not being set up to give us any hope of competing at even basic levels. The players clearly don't have a clue what they're meant to be doing which is why so many basic errors are being made.
With the utmost respect. Lordy no. The ball would be constantly played sideways and backwards, 1 striker up front and virtually no attacking intent. Deeney is really having an effect at Birmingham. Another defeat, 0-3 at home, for them today.
When you get back, pour yourself a stiff drink and forget today's game even happened. When we beat Liverpool in two weeks this will seem like a bad dream.
Please point out where I said that it was irrelevant? I'll save you some time - I didn't. I've just pointed out that our squad is so crap that pretty much no manager would be capable of getting them to perform well enough to make us staying up seem more likely than not.
I don't like to speak ill of people - so I shall omit the players and the head coach from my comments. It's fairly tiring to think 'that's the worse I've seen us play in ages' after most games. I don't even feel disappointed, just flat after that match. What's the point to see that week in week out? I'm grateful that I cannot afford to go to the games. Apart from the Aston Villa performance, I can't really see much evidence of us staying up.
Well our defence was very well organised somehow. Plus our squad was probably similar overall to Bournemouth's, yet Xisco managed to get us comfortably ahead of them while they failed to go up. Under Ivic it also seemed unlikely that we would have got promoted. So it wouldn't have only been about the players.
I think Adam Leventhal will now be preparing for an all-nighter. Stand by for a slew of articles in The Athletic.
I try and avoid statement like it as usually it isn't and there's something good to take away from it. This is the first I've ever seen where there hasn't been one player, factor or moment that I thought "Yeah, we can work with that." and use it to see where we can go next. We won't see a worse performance than this again for the rest of the season or I suspect the seasons after.
Your post was implying that I thought a manager makes no difference in any situation. With the squad we have though, I just think that changing managers wouldn't make enough of a difference in our situation. Or do you think that Guardiola could get Scunthorpe to the Premiership in three seasons?
