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Say I told you so.
Kane will be gone next season and I wouldn't even blame him.
Looking at how average we are now makes it even more painful that we won fuck all when we were good.
Really thought courage, honesty & family values would see us thump them
Sure they stole 5 yards but imagine excusing 90 minutes of dog shit performance because of this.... And Dier should have cleared it regardless.
Mou clutching at straws.
I just can't get any enthusiasm going for this game, or for the start of the season in general. I know that's because I can't attend; televised games, especially home games, just leave me a bit "meh".
However, once the whistle goes, I'll be cheering us on / shouting obscenities at VAR and ref / wandering why Jose hasn't made a substitution / crying into my vodka & tonic - usual matchday experience.
However, once the whistle goes, I'll be cheering us on / shouting obscenities at VAR and ref / wandering why Jose hasn't made a substitution / crying into my vodka & tonic - usual matchday experience.
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Really crazy of you to expect that we will be bench Skriniar, Bale and Thiago in the first gameweek, but, eh, that's your opinion.
That was a real tactical clusterfuck from Mourinho. From the get go it was deeply flawed. You're moaning about the lack of fitness of Doherty but you play him instead of Aurier. You play Doherty, a player used to playing as WB in a back 5 in a back 4, ask him to push up but play him with two slow, cumbersome CB's.
Whichever midfield pairing picked for Mourinho's CM2 was going to struggle, because....you know....WE DON'T HAVE ANY CM'S WHO ARE GOOD IN CM2's - none of them are voracious, dynamic, busy cunting footballers. And Everton played a 433/CM3. But that was probably the best "2" combo of the options available in terms of match fitness/energy/footballness etc
Where Mourinho's initial selections had just resulted in a festival of insipid meh, at least it had been largely safe, his half time tactical sub turned meh into a fucking nightmeh (fuck off I'm trying). Alli had bumbled away plenty but what that game didn't need was swapping him out for an even more technically atrocious footballer and putting the equally inept and even more pea brained Moura into the pivotal ACM remit that suits him much less than a wider one. Instead of improving one position it weakened two, considerably.
The second tactical sub/change absolutely killed us. They had just scored, we needed more control and ability to move the ball, not less, but what does Mourinho do, he swaps Bergwijn for Winks and moves Sissoko to the even more pivotal position of CM. It absolutely fucking killed us, just when we needed some direction and control and ability to move the ball we actually lost the ability to even receive it. At one point (66 minutes) I even saw Toby looking for a pass out of defence and Sissoko just turned his back and ambled away from him.
Neither Alli or Winks were great, but both were better than the solutions Mourinho replaced them with.
As I said back end of last season, we are now living with the omnipresent Hobson's choice of the tedious slog of Mourinho getting it tactically ok, or the fucking abomination of when he doesn't.
The argument of the end ("trophies") justifying the means just doesn't cut it for me - unless it was the league and even then a) it would be very reluctantly and b) it's not going to fucking happen - I'd rather watch us try to play good proactive, aggressive football every week and win fuck all, than have to watch us play negative reactive shite for 38 weeks and have one great day out at Wembley.
The horror of this situation is there are no easy fixes. Even a simple change of head coach isn't going to solve everything.
We need a root and branch overhaul. A new - proper - DOF, a new strategy and some direction from the top as to what we want to be and how wee are going to be it, and it needs to be an ethos fans and players (and fucking punters and sponsors) can buy into, new recruitment people and methods, and obviously new players that fit that that philosophy.
It should have been done when Poch went (shouldn't have been ditched before). Now we've installed the 15m a year bionic Pullis and promoted head of whippet breeding to DOF it seems even less likely to happen any time soon.
Whichever midfield pairing picked for Mourinho's CM2 was going to struggle, because....you know....WE DON'T HAVE ANY CM'S WHO ARE GOOD IN CM2's - none of them are voracious, dynamic, busy cunting footballers. And Everton played a 433/CM3. But that was probably the best "2" combo of the options available in terms of match fitness/energy/footballness etc
Where Mourinho's initial selections had just resulted in a festival of insipid meh, at least it had been largely safe, his half time tactical sub turned meh into a fucking nightmeh (fuck off I'm trying). Alli had bumbled away plenty but what that game didn't need was swapping him out for an even more technically atrocious footballer and putting the equally inept and even more pea brained Moura into the pivotal ACM remit that suits him much less than a wider one. Instead of improving one position it weakened two, considerably.
The second tactical sub/change absolutely killed us. They had just scored, we needed more control and ability to move the ball, not less, but what does Mourinho do, he swaps Bergwijn for Winks and moves Sissoko to the even more pivotal position of CM. It absolutely fucking killed us, just when we needed some direction and control and ability to move the ball we actually lost the ability to even receive it. At one point (66 minutes) I even saw Toby looking for a pass out of defence and Sissoko just turned his back and ambled away from him.
Neither Alli or Winks were great, but both were better than the solutions Mourinho replaced them with.
As I said back end of last season, we are now living with the omnipresent Hobson's choice of the tedious slog of Mourinho getting it tactically ok, or the fucking abomination of when he doesn't.
The argument of the end ("trophies") justifying the means just doesn't cut it for me - unless it was the league and even then a) it would be very reluctantly and b) it's not going to fucking happen - I'd rather watch us try to play good proactive, aggressive football every week and win fuck all, than have to watch us play negative reactive shite for 38 weeks and have one great day out at Wembley.
The horror of this situation is there are no easy fixes. Even a simple change of head coach isn't going to solve everything.
We need a root and branch overhaul. A new - proper - DOF, a new strategy and some direction from the top as to what we want to be and how wee are going to be it, and it needs to be an ethos fans and players (and fucking punters and sponsors) can buy into, new recruitment people and methods, and obviously new players that fit that that philosophy.
It should have been done when Poch went (shouldn't have been ditched before). Now we've installed the 15m a year bionic Pullis and promoted head of whippet breeding to DOF it seems even less likely to happen any time soon.
How can Everton sign James, Doucoure, Allan and you only buy Hojbjerg, Doherty and Hart? And still blame Mourinho? Tottenham in transfer market is ridiculous. In my team in Portugal, Benfica, we already buy Jan Vertonghen, Everton Cebolinha and Pedrinho (both Brazilian internationals), Waldschmidt (German international), Darwin Núñez (the most promising striker from Uruguay) and almost Ruben Semedo. And we have less money and a much worse league.
