What? Playing less games and having more time to train is now BAD THING ? Now I've heard it all.
It is pretty universally accepted that the more games you play, more difficult it is. Listen to Klopp, Pep or whoevers comments.
No, I think having big gaps between games can 100% affect match sharpness. You can't replicate game like situations in training. It's impossible.
Klopp and Pep don't moan at the amount of games. They moan at the schedule of playing mid week then lunch time on a Saturday.
It's not an excuse. But I don't think playing less games was meant to make us somewhat better performers or more competitive.
Injuries are very comfortable excuse to hide behind. In some moments ofc they impacted us - like when we did not have a single senior CB specialist available. But in terms of injuries, we have been like 6th or 7th most impacted team.
Who above us has had worse injuries than us?
Not interested in teams below us.
In terms of attackers being wasteful and giving away possession too often - well that is surely the case. BUT when it became apparent that it happens like this, I would have liked to see some kind of solution to the issue.
The solution is buying better players that suit.
The whole point of THIS season was nailing down the basics. Drilling that through the whole team through repititon over and over again.
By doing so, you see who's capable over a 38 game period. And by the end of it, you get rid of those who cannot do it and you're left with those who can.
Instead of just keep banging head against the same wall with zero change.
See point above. Repetition. Repititon Reptition.
Postecoglou wants to change the entire culture of the club. He isn't going to know if the players are all in if within a few months, he changes it up.
He wants to see that if you're in an uncomfortable situation or a sticky moment, youre still going to try and play brave and not just pass it back or knock it long to get it away.
It's no surprise that now the season is coming to an end, he's likely got an idea of who has zero future here, who has and is now trying different things. The false 9 against City. Van de Ven at left back. Kulusevski playing LW etc.
Maybe that's the wrong way of doing things. But it's worked for him everywhere he's been. So I guess we should probably give him the benefit of the doubt.
I was eager to see how we could do with Kulu and Madders playing both "no 10" role and having basically 2 strikers and 2 AM's as we had 0 capable wingers in last 1/3 of the season. But we still kept trying same crap with no change so that is 100% on Ange. He is responsible for setting up team, coming up with solutions and finding ways to get results.
I think my comments above tie in to all this tbh.
The season was a test for the entire squad. To see if they could keep up his vision for a season, when things got tough if they could keep it up, playing the same way, not shy away from it.
I reckon a fair few failed.
I cannot wait for the summer.
