Agreed, but I don’t think some parties see it that way!
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Management Roberto De Zerbi
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
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Yes.And if we lose all 7 of our remaining games, we'll also finish the season with 22 defeats, like we did last year!
But we won't finish on 38 points!
Ange-ball at its best was great so don't have any issues with that in principle.
For me the biggest issues for me with Ange were:
a) the never adapting to game-state thing was too extreme and hurt us more than it helped us
b) he seemed very set in his ways which became a problem when teams figured us out. any attempts to adapt his style were either massively worse (e.g. 3 atb vs Everton) or just outright sufferball in Europa
I think De Zerbi clearly has some flaws in his defensive game and that will grate no doubt, much as they did under Ange, but I don't think his overall approach is quite as extreme and hopefully he's still young enough to adapt and improve on his areas of weaknesses.
Have you listened to the interview?I doubt he means play on the half way line and ship truck loads of goals!
It’s hilarious how all the Ange fanboys have come out the woodwork all of a sudden like RDZ is hailing the messiah!
All I said was that RDZ said that Ange's influence was immense.
Get your facts straight.
Edit: Spelling
Yeah it was the lack of finer details that was really the downfall of Ange and his stubbornness in which he fit his style of play around the players as opposed to fitting his players around hi style of play, the 'high line' thing is laziness seeing as Frank's line was actually higher on average than Ange's was.
I think De Zerbi has a clear system but he seems flexible enough to adjust it so it’s not as demanding or extreme on the players, that said we still need better players if we’re going to make this style work properly just like Ange needed.
Yeah - I reckon if De Zerbi had come in over Frank he might've had us scraping into the top half but the squad is still too flawed and, combined with De Zerbi's own issues, that's about our peak when juggling European fixtures.
If we stay up I think he might be able to get us to around 5th/6th next season with some choice signings and no Europe, but unless he massively levels up his defensive game I struggle to see him doing much better than that long term. Certainly before things inevitably implode in a couple seasons.
c) That chaos-ball approach under Ange just wasn’t sustainable, the intensity ended up wrecking the squad with injuries.
That's basically what I meant by a). We went full throttle all-game every-game and never slowed down even if we were a couple goals up and needed to hold on to a lead. The approach didn't just hurt us on the pitch but also in the physio room.
When the stars aligned it was brilliant - which is why our wins tended to be big wins under Ange - but if teams didn't play into our hands we really struggled and were often our own worst enemy.
Don't think De Zerbi will be that extreme at least.
This discounts the flaws that most other squads have.
I really dont see our squad as that much more flawed that 80% of the others in the league
Just read about De Zerbi saying he wants to see the same attacking flair he saw we had under Ange. Presuming he means when we were playing well of course, I think this is a smart move as there's just not enough time for the players to play his way, and they will of course won't find it too tricky to pick up the pattern of play they played under Ange. Smart move all round, as long as we don't replicate Ange's defensive philosophy!
Yeah but flawed + in Europe is a huge difference to just being flawed. Look at how Newcastle flip-flop in league positions based on whether they're in the Champions League or not (and their squad is better than ours).
Our squad is an imbalanced mess but, I agree, under the right manager and with an average number of injuries we've certainly got better depth and talent than plenty of other teams in the league. The expanded European comps cause huge issues, though.
You have to combine that with injuries mostly hitting in the same place. Last season we had no backline this season no wingers. Then add the change in managers/style.
The biggest error was sacking Ange for a totally different style. If they wanted Ange out they should have hired someone not to far removed style wise. It gives the impression the club has fuck all idea what it is doing.
Agreed, although I think those 2 things go hand in hand. No Europe then likely fewer injuries both last season and this season.
But yeah 100% agree on your second point. It was the Nuno mistake mk 2 - hiring a pragmatic manager and convincing ourselves he could adapt and might be an attacking manager at heart (narrator: he wasn't).
Wind your neck in!
It was tongue in cheek jibe, but it is comical how one Ange reference and his acolytes come flooding back just when we thought they were all under house arrest in the Postecoglou thread!
I'd agree with that, Ange played every game like it was a 5 a side game and Frank was a floppy haired tit.
RDZ is a logical progression from Ange, evolution not revolution, should have been done last summer
To be fair, that's not the only thing that gives that impression.
We are toothless playing 3 up top, have to change it, we will struggle to get the goals we need. Surely better to go 2 up top central and try and win the midfield battle, we dont have good enough wide players to play 3.
Gallagher worst player ever to put on a Spurs shirt