I would hope so. But will no doubt see forums returning to blaming Levy again when player x can’t / doesn’t pass or move.
There’s such a toxic attitude to Mourinho that I’m not sure there’s any balance anymore.
Oh, well.
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Manager Jose Mourinho
- Thread starter paddy hotspur
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There’s such a toxic attitude to Mourinho that I’m not sure there’s any balance anymore.
Oh, well.
Even defensively I see no clarity. When under even a modicum of pressure the team seems to think they must drop deep and defend their own third of the pitch, whilst if we take the manager at his word he wants them to get up the pitch and press.
In every aspect how they're preparing is obviously not working.
Either Jose is lying or they are ignoring Jose. Either way it’s over.
I agree that confidence is critical, and most of our players have little to none right now. However, confidence won't fix the lack of pace/athleticism in this squad of players.
Someone like Hassenhuttl would get a better tune out of Bergwijn, for example, but would that make him (Bergwijn) good enough for a club with our ambitions? What has really disappointed me about Bergwijn in the entire time he has been here is that he doesn't really run at and beat his man. That's the kind of player I hoped we were getting. Someone who could unbalance the opposition all by himself.
As for Hojbjerg, it's probably going to take a lot of people three years to realise how ordinary he is.
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Who are these guys that can't press? Outside of Bale, I don't think anyone on our squad is incapable of pressing. Ndombele is top 10 in the league in pressures/90 for a midfielder.
What our guys can't do is press well as a team because they aren't coached to do so. Yelling "press!" isn't coaching. It takes a ton of training to press effectively.
Depends what style you want. Looking at our squad we have lots of really gifted technical players, this is more suited to Pep pass and move and retain possession football. That doesn’t need every player to a be a beast (only a few defenders to cover counterattacks) but it does need top quality coaching. We don’t have to go down the route of early Pochettino hyper press.
Going back to my original point, I am saying we can extol the virtues of a front 3 of Bale, Son and Kane all we like, but when two of them are really sluggish in terms of their pressing, all is not rosy in the garden.
People always forget that we were shit in the league but we played well in the CL run, especially against Ajax. City we took a 1-0 lead into the second leg and held on.Yea it was amazing management that caused Llorente's handball goal to be counted and for Lucas to score a ridiculous hattrick in 30 minutes only to be not picked for the final.
What was the xg stuff vs city?
Funnily enough I don't think Mourinho has been a toxic presence at the club. Doesn't seem to have been overly unfair with many of the players. Think he approached this job with a good manner and gave it his best effort. It's not on the grounds of his personality, man management or bus-parking team selections that I want him replaced.
It's just an inability to keep up with the modern game, his beliefs proved very successful in the past but are just no longer sustainable. Possession, movement and pressing are different now, and need to be drilled correctly and intently on the training field. Our team has now gone 18 months without this and are sitting ducks against decent teams as result.
Only fit for National team coaching now, imo.
It's just an inability to keep up with the modern game, his beliefs proved very successful in the past but are just no longer sustainable. Possession, movement and pressing are different now, and need to be drilled correctly and intently on the training field. Our team has now gone 18 months without this and are sitting ducks against decent teams as result.
Only fit for National team coaching now, imo.
Pinch of salt, it's Duncan Castles but I now follow the Mourinho cheerleader when the dinosaur became our manager. Anyway, he says that it is his understanding that Mourinho DOSE have a break clause in his contract!!! (@26min)
Fascinating listen. The bit about the Regluion deal being a 2 year loan linked to Bale, but the deal was purely Levy’s, stood out as a WTF moment. The manager gets Doherty to play the attacking full back position, then the Chairman gets Regluion and fucks both the manager and the player they bought. Deadly Dan. Deadly.
Big IF as I don’t know the source is any good.
Fascinating listen. The bit about the Regluion deal being a 2 year loan linked to Bale, but the deal was purely Levy’s, stood out as a WTF moment. The manager gets Doherty to play the attacking full back position, then the Chairman gets Regluion and fucks both the manager and the player they bought. Deadly Dan. Deadly.
Big IF as I don’t know the source is any good.
Gonna have to disagree with ya. At best we have 2 maybe 3 players able to do this. That's it! This is why so few move to receive the ball in tight areas as they know their touch is not reliable. The problem we have is that there are too few of these players...especially in our MF.
We have cloggers all around and I'm fucking tired of it.
Lo Celso, Ndombele, Bale, Kane, Regulion, Bergwijn, Lamela, Dele, Son are all very good technically even Toby at the back is very good on the ball. We are not short of technical players. Fuck even Winks average as he is, isn’t bad at passing.
We don’t have the other kind, beasts. Jose needs players who are good off the ball like Michael Essien to work, we lack that.
We were a little better in the first, City much better in the second because of game state. We were up 2-1 (3-1) on aggregate and sat back the rest of the match. 80% of City's xG came after that point.
xG aggregate was 1.8-2.6 I think.
Edit: I was close
You are clamouring for Nagelsmann, right? His football is so high-octane, it is jaw-dropping. How would he deal with 2 forwards (Kane and Bale) that only go in for token pressing these days? I genuinely don't know the answer to that question.
In terms of our having lots of really gifted technical players, I think I am going to step back from the laptop for a while. The fog is clearing here. I don't know how you assess players' technique, so I will tell you how I do it. What are they like when it comes to receiving the ball? Can they do it left and right? What's their first touch like, regardless of what direction they are facing? What's their weak foot like? Can they make their own space/dribble out of a tight spot? Can they reliably pick a pass? Can they reliably execute that pass? Can they play all types of passes? Stuff like that.
So put him on garden leave Monday and then officially sack him in the summer? International break is a good time to do it.
If we went for Naglesmann yes we would need to use Skipp, Sess and other younger players we have and sell off a few deadwood ones like Sissoko but that is no bad thing. It may mean rotating Son and Bale but again no bad thing if we get the results and football we want.
As for control well I don’t know if there are stats for that but you can tell watching a player closely generally how good they are. Example, Foden is maybe the best I have seen recently in the prem at close control, the ball sticks to his foot, almost like Messi, it incredible how quickly he brings the ball under control and how he operates in tight spaces. For us Ndombele and Lo Celso are clearly technically very good players, way above the average prem standard.
Dele? DELE?!?!? FFS! Dele is shit. A horrible technical footballer and even his fanbois will concur. Did you not witness the many bumbles against Zagreb? Are you just taking the piss?
Reguilon is not a technical footballer. His touch hard and horrible. Have you not noticed how many times he gets into trouble trying to dribble?
Sonny? His own father says he's not technical.
Lamela? At a push but he's got his own technical issues that go beyond being the most 1 footed human in existence.
Kane? Not a great touch and not quick on the ball. Also, not reliable with a mark when handling the ball. Can he give quick 1 touches? yes. But the game you are talking about will be receiving the ball in tight areas. Kane has not shown this ability and if you look at his game you would not expect success here.
Bale? Yes, but not his forte. He can receive the ball softly though...only on his left. But in tight areas that might be a problem.
Bergwijn? Seen him do nothing so won't comment.
Ndom and GLC? yes, for both but mostly GLC. Ndom has not played that game and would need to adapt but unlike most you've named he at least has shown the technical ability to do so.
But that's 9 players you've mentioned and that's not 'lots'. And of those 9, the vast majority were incorrectly identified as techinical footballers. If you would like our squad to be rebuilt with 'technical' players in this mold we will be in for a long winter.
The midfield is the most important area, that's where you want your most technically reliable and most physically robust players. We have Ndombele who is only arsed half the time and Gio who is never fit. Hojbjerg is a tough terrier but that's it. Winks and Sissoko are not brave enough or technical enough. Watching Winks try to play penetrating passes is painful, and Sissoko is too afraid to even try. Neither put themselves about with any relish.
All managers need players who are good on and off the ball, not just Jose. De Bruyne might be the most technical midfielder in the league but he works his bollocks off and gets stuck in. It's the bare minimum. All City's players work harder than ours. That's why they are going to win the league. They work harder than all the other teams. If you've good quality players working hard, winning matches will take care of itself. We have 5 central midfielders, 3 of them are OK if you want to finish 5th and the other 2 don't belong in the top half. None of them would get a seat on City's bench.
You're right but I don't think technique and first touch are necessarily the same thing. Reguilon has a poor touch but he has great technique on the ball in regards to crossing and passes. But first touch is the most important part when trying to play attacking/progressive football.
Pretty much. Kane & Son have incredible shooting technique and Kane has very very good passing ability but they lack the concentration and anticipation to pass it first time, receive the ball in tight areas. Maybe having one of these players in a team would be okay, but we simply have to play direct when playing 3-4 at the same time.
GLC and Ndombele are good... but you can't trust them. Either they're always injured or still hungover from a cake binge.