The same people telling us that everything was on Ange last season are now telling us the squad is not good enough !
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Manager Thomas Frank
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Rubbish
This club was desperate for a trophy, how much longer would you have waited for some glory? The way it happened with the poor league form and the final league standing was totally unacceptable and that's why Ange lost his job. But come on, winning that trophy and entering the CL was absolutely fantastic for the club and fans. Unfortunately ENic and Levy completely fucked up the opportunity by hiring Frank and not strengthening the squad in the summer
I think this is being overplayed. They've a very small squad and the amount of injuries they have had arent too bad after doing a quick google.
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOther14/comments/1jgm7bx/the_amount_of_injuries_each_prem_team_has_had_in/
View: https://www.facebook.com/groups/553138156990792/posts/1015897487381521/
Forest on 11 is quite surprising, must have got rid of Ange before he done any real damage to hamstrings!
The way I see it, the enigma of through balls could be interpreted in two different ways; with different implications in terms of who the main culprit is.
On the one hand, they could be played both in set play and in transition; meaning that a team doesn't have to be excellent in either one of those dimensions of the game to have a respectable tally. Top 6 are the usual suspects in City, Woolwich, United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Villa; while at the same time:
21 / 22 : 50- 12th
22 / 23 : 53- 11th
23 / 24 : 70-9th
24 / 25 : 69- 9th
They were obtaining these numbers despite playing as direct as we're doing right now; it's not like Frank has suddenly become a hoofball merchant who stifles his team's creativity with his methods to such an extent that his players are now physically incapable of spotting / delivering those passes.
As you can see, this second explanation by contrast shifts the blame to a completely non-existent midfield featuring a bunch of mediocre veterans and mere teenagers, and to a lesser extent to a frontline that has been ravaged by injuries.
The truth is most likely somewhere in between, where some of Frank eccentricities and personnel issues come together to bring out the worst in each other; but it's a curious case regardless.
On the one hand, they could be played both in set play and in transition; meaning that a team doesn't have to be excellent in either one of those dimensions of the game to have a respectable tally. Top 6 are the usual suspects in City, Woolwich, United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Villa; while at the same time:
- Palace are 17th in possession but are 7th in through balls
- Everton are 18th and 8th
- West Ham are 16th and 11th
- Burnley are 20th and 12th
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On the other hand, we're on pace for a 20 through ball season whereas Brentford during the last 4 seasons had the following numbers:
21 / 22 : 50- 12th
22 / 23 : 53- 11th
23 / 24 : 70-9th
24 / 25 : 69- 9th
They were obtaining these numbers despite playing as direct as we're doing right now; it's not like Frank has suddenly become a hoofball merchant who stifles his team's creativity with his methods to such an extent that his players are now physically incapable of spotting / delivering those passes.
As you can see, this second explanation by contrast shifts the blame to a completely non-existent midfield featuring a bunch of mediocre veterans and mere teenagers, and to a lesser extent to a frontline that has been ravaged by injuries.
The truth is most likely somewhere in between, where some of Frank eccentricities and personnel issues come together to bring out the worst in each other; but it's a curious case regardless.
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Its not just about injuries, it's about fatigue - add in European comps to the mix, and I'm not sure he would cope and I certainly don't want to be the club that is the guinea pig for it.
I don't think it's about players being able to spot or deliver them - I think it's about having players capable of making the intelligent runs.
A lot of our attempted through balls fail because they are trying to hit a man who is making a run almost impossible to be found by a pass...
I actually think theres something to this. Not to be dramatic, but I think Frank is getting worse
I think he started badly, on the wrong premise, and has now dug a mighty big hole without an idea of how to get out...
It looks to me like when he came in his plan was to absolutely rip everything apart and start from scratch (bad idea), starting with defensive principles (fair).
I think its clear hes done no/nearly no attacking training, its like he expects the algorithm to sort that out (team wins the ball X times, has Y transitions, defends Z zones gets ? many goals....)
Obviously things havent gone well, but it seems more like he's doubled down on the defensive side (with worse results) instead of balancing the team with proper attacking and on the ball play.
At this point, HE doesnt look like he knows what he's doing - is it any surprise if his team reflects that?
Seems obvious to me players arent really coached in what to do on the ball. Also that they arent really believing in Franks ways of playing. Like, theyre acting it out - but know the whole time it wont work...
And to be completely fair to Frank, while it looks like he doesnt know what he's doing - I think thats because he is absolutely floundering. I think its because he is doing a job he was never qualified for. I fully expect in another environment (a different club or even punditry) he will seem really insightful and knowledgable.
Right now though he is spiraling, and he doesnt have what is needed to sort things out
Its quite sad to watch, to be honest. For the club and for him.
This is my concern around Iraola. Id like the football, I think hes more chance of doing well than Frank - and I think we'd enjoy a lot of it.
I do worry about his ability to manage the team/squad over a whole season, especially with added midweek games
I think its clear Frank is struggling with this as well
He's gone from Choo Choo to Booo Booo!!!
TBH I think bad managers cling onto cup runs as a hail mary for the most part. The League Cup has been won by 2 of the worst managers we've had in Graham and Ramos, and both finished in the bottom half.
I never felt like Poch really tried with the domestic cups. It's silly to say he didn't want to win them, but I didn't ever feel like it was more of a priority to win a cup final than it was a PL game.
It's an odd one, because when you see teams like Wolves putting out a strong FA Cup side, you think "Wtf are you doing? sack it off an concentrate on staying up!". Wouldn't be the first team to win a cup and get relegated, but the risk/reward is a bit low.
I think one of the reasons we never used to take the EL seriously in the past was because there was no real 'reward' in winning it (clubs and fans divided on this), whereas getting CL football effectively means a £50m+ guaranteed bonus for winning it.
for me, the overarching question that still hangs over us is whether or not things have changed with enic post levy. are we going to spend and try and win things or not? if so, not only will we invest in january, we'll also eat the twenty million to jettison frank and so far that doesn't seem to be happening. it seems far more likely we'll do what we did last season and hang on and not really care if we finish bottom half so long as relegation never comes into play and keep cashing beyonce checks and taking punts on the low hanging fruit of cheaper deals in the transfer market. rinse and repeat..
You should have known you were on the wrong track when the village idiot agreed with you.
Assuming that anybody worthwhile wants the job — and I would think it’s a totally poisoned chalice for a top class manager — when was the last time that a (top) EPL manager switched teams in the middle of a season?
The last guy I can think of was Alan Pardew going from Newcastle to Palace and Newcastle fans were deliriously happy at that so not exactly a top appointment.
Contract law being what it is, you don’t lose your top performers in the middle of your busy season while he has a contract.
So, that basically leaves us with the choice of unemployed managers — and there are a couple that might be okay — or under-performers whose clubs want rid of.
You are going to be massively disappointed.
The top 5 finish was the abnormality based on an 8-2-0 start and no Europe that season. Sure, you will point to poch/mourinho/conte seasons but those players are gone and replaced by lesser ones.
This is not a top 6 club atm, regardless of manager. It’s not changing unless it’s fixed at the top. Levels above the manager.
Which is EXACTLY what myself and a few other level headed posters could see us becoming, and have been warning against, for years.
Only because if we finished top 4, it would mean we have a good squad and are a good team, proven over 38 matches with a balanced schedule against teams with similar ish budgets.
The EL win masked how bad this squad is (to some people). We won a competition that had much fewer matches, was knockout style, and against clubs that we dwarfed financially.
Fewer matches - the fewer matches you play, the less confident you are in the results reflecting reality. This is basic stats.
Knockout style - the best teams do better in league format than knockout style. Knockouts have random draws, imbalanced fixtures and are more susceptible to randomness. We all know the team that reached the CL final was not us at our peak.
Financial imbalance - even relegated PL clubs have a bigger budget than most Europa clubs. We only outperformed the Europa clubs.
Im not sure thats true, didnt he even say recently he'd love to return and win something?
I just think he bottled it / failed / couldnt get over the line.
I suspect thats why Ajax meant so much to him, one of the rare times we actually did it (in some fashion too)
100%
Putting CL as a prize in the EL was the best thing UEFA have done in years