Agreed, everyone had a bad day.
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Agreed, everyone had a bad day.
That is true. We have been blessed with far more wins than losses in the last couple of years. Which makes the few losses we do get sting more.
In a sense I personally am not super pissed about losing (losses happen, it is part of football) but rather how we did. How unmotivated and uninterested our players looked.
That’s the issue.
Any team can lose despite playing well, but to lose with a lack of effort is unforgivable. There’s very little hunger on display. Personally I think a lot of that is down to Eriksen. He’s the beating heart of the team, and so far this season he’s flatlining.
Yeah we’re gonna get beat fair enough and against a team who’s cost millions again fair enough but to go down without as much as a fight then no,sorry that has to be addressed! Lamela looked up for it so did Moura and Son so hopefully they all get a run in the team that will change.
Lucas has given him a headache. He’ll have to drop one of his favourites to accommodate him when they’re all fit. I keep reading that this is a good problem to have, but in Poch’s case it isn’t. He’s not had this problem before.
He has a squad full of big names to manage for the first time in his career. He has made many of them into big names, but I wonder whether there are clashing egos now they aren’t “kids” any more? It’s undeniable that Poch has his favourites, & this has to stop.
Intwresting notion.
I tend to agree somewhat and think in part that our players came back as world cup semi-finalists and maybe thought and think they are better than they are.
This 5 year cycle will end with some changes to personnel. It has to.
I wouldn't say it was a good problem.
A good problem is having your your best eleven but someone coming in and staking a place for their position. Like Son did when Lamela was out injured last season and the year before.
This season we've played 433, 352, 41212 yet no one knows what the fuck they're doing.
But that’s the cliché. And yes, nobody knows what’s going on. You can’t deny Lucas’ form hasn’t forced Poch’s hand. He’s struggling to manage this squad.
Lucas has been starting from the opening game though. He basically took Lamela/Sons place who were both missing against Newcastle.
His performances mean he should be keeping his place, for sure.
I think going into the season, we all had this down as our best team from available players:
Kane
Eriksen - Dele - Lucas
Dembele - Dier
Davies - Vertonghen - Alderweireld - Trippier
Lloris
Going into our first Champions League game (and our next league fixture), we have a goalkeeper who is out for 7 weeks. A left back who is hideously out of form and dropped today. A missing centre half in Sanchez who doesn't really warrant sitting on the bench. A shockingly out of form Dier and a central midfield partner who can't seem to play more than 90 minutes a week. An out of form Eriksen who hasn't played that high up all season. An injured Dele Alli. Our player of the season so far in Lucas and a striker resembling Rickie Lambert, not Harry Kane.Eriksen - Dele - Lucas
Dembele - Dier
Davies - Vertonghen - Alderweireld - Trippier
Lloris
And I don't think we've played that formation once this season. I could be wrong.
If we did, based on our performances so far, you'd replace Eriksen with Lamela, you'd have already replaced an injured Dele with Son. You'd start to bring Wanyama in for Dier and integrate Winks in over Dembele.
A big problem I feel is that we're changing formation far too often mixed in with the fact the players we have aren't suited to playing said formations. You don't get the best out of Trippier playing him in a back four. Dembele cannot play in a midfield 3. Dier isn't a right sided central midfielder in a 3. Eriksen is showing that in the Premier League he cannot play in a midfield 3 successfully etc.
Poch needs to get us going back to basics, get us solid defensively again and get Lamela back in the team.
But Lamela and Son were unavailable. If they had been Lucas probably wouldn’t have started. When he did, and played so well, Poch had the cliched problem. He solved that by dropping Dier. Who is utterly shit at the moment. But when Dele comes back? Let’s see what he’s made of.
I'm not sure Dier being dropped was because of his form. I think Poch was trying to just keep all the centre backs happy. Which again is another problem. Who starts against Inter Milan? 3 at the back again? Toby dropped? Vertonghen rested?
We've played 4 different formations in our opening 5 league games and Lucas has played in 3 different positions throughout those 5 games.
Poch needs to just get us back to basics.
I agree with much of that, but that wouldn't have been my starting line up, Dembele is struggling to do 45 minutes, let alone 90. And I think Eriksen has looked OK/good in either the 8 role, or the kind of false 8/10 hybrid role he was playing much of last year.
Who would you have started in the opening game from available players?
Bare in mind Lamela, Son and Wanyama weren't available.
I didn’t say he was dropped for his form. I said he was dropped to accommodate Lucas. Anyway, after his lamentable performance today I don’t really give a shit. Another player thinking he can coast through games.
Ah, apologies.
Wouldn't it have been Sanchez as opposed to Dier?
He was dropped to accommodate Lucas against United. We smashed Man Utd at Old Trafford with a sort of 4222 formation and then he replaced Dier to bring Sanchez back in the team to keep Lucas up top again, which we then lost to Watford.
I agree with his performance today. Shocking. I don't really want to see him in the starting line up in the league until it's deserved or needed to be honest and I'd be fucking furious if he's starting against Inter Milan.
I really don't think this is about a lack of effort or motivation. So far, Ive never felt that under Poch. I think it's much more about having a very fragile and unsettled midfield, and what Poch is doing, tactically and structurally.
There's no firm over arching ethos coming from Poch at the moment, we no longer really press high, is that because Poch has decided his favourite players aren't great at it and deliberately reigned it in, or does he still want us to and we just don't do it great? In which case he's making strange choices. We are not a quick transition team, because he keeps playing midfielders who don't transition quickly in either direction, But we continue to play a high line and high FB's, even in back 4 set ups. Pushing Moura into Kane's space just seems to hamper both of them, and we are funnelling everything down the middle or humping balls long or from wide instead of inter play and variation.
Frankly, we're a fucking mess. No ethos, no structure, no midfield, an uber 9 who's decided he wants to be Wesley Schneider. Why has Sanchez been dropped? His pace allowed us to play that high line and helped cover his FB?
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Son was.
I'd have probably played a 433.
Trippier---------DS--------------JV---------------BD
Eriksen-------------MarshAmos/Skipp------------Dembele
Son-------------kane---------------Alli
If we’re playing a 3 Sanchez every time I’m guessing that Sanchez’s nose is put out of joint because of Alderweireld starting, and Dier is a hopeless CB. It’s not like our defence is any better since Alderweireld came back - in fact it’s worse. Dier’s position, whatever that is, is the obvious upgrade.