Havocc
Well-Known Member
Founding Member
Gray, Pauline and Vic can be pleased with their nights work, the rest were piss poor
Yid
Moderator
Founding Member
Spence done OK in his Cameo...
jaxdermot
Well-Known Member
ew
BrooklynYid
Well-Known Member
Star of the game was Monaco's finishing. How they didn't score 5 I have no idea.
Yid
Moderator
Founding Member
I could write reams about how shit that was and dig out individual players... But it's bored me to fucking tears...
ClemFandango
Lord High Chief of the Privvy
Founding Member
It shouldn’t be the case to have doubts about a new manager this early in the season.
Style And Glory
On My High Trojan Horse
Founding Member
It's been more than 39 days.
Style And Glory
On My High Trojan Horse
Founding Member
After watching this game, I may finally enter that "Football Is Beginning To Bore Me" thread.
J.spurs
Well-Known Member
Founding Member
We really miss Romero when he’s out. Not so much for defending, because Danso is a perfectly serviceable CB in that sense, but Romero is basically a deep-lying playmaker for us. When he’s out, and Pauline and Bentancur are in midfield, there’s really nobody to get the ball forward. Made even worse by Richy, who is just nonexistent a lot of the time and struggles to hold the ball up as needed.
jaxdermot
Well-Known Member
are you Greek..
Chavhater01
Well-Known Member
Spot on mate!
The Cryptkeeper
The Aussie Yid
Completely unacceptable.
Should have lost by 4 or 5. And Monaco are pretty bloody average.
Frank will be gone by Christmas. Both of our league and CL positions are fraudulent.
Should have lost by 4 or 5. And Monaco are pretty bloody average.
Frank will be gone by Christmas. Both of our league and CL positions are fraudulent.
ClemFandango
Lord High Chief of the Privvy
Founding Member
Ironically I think we've got the kind of squad Poch would thrive on. Players like Gray, Bergvall, Simmonds, Tel, Odobert e.t.c.. could really be something with kind of coaching he's done with younger players.
Yid
Moderator
Founding Member
We've been here before haven't we...
Half a dozen spawney results create a shield that masks how woeful we actually are...
Anyone who has watched us for a few games knows that we're fragile as fuck and once you keep MK quiet... We're cooked.
Havocc
Well-Known Member
Founding Member
It’s true though. Their are people out their who have been watching that performance and analysing the stats, possession breakdown, formations, alternative 11, historical performances, the paint used for the goal line and who the ball boy is related too.
There will be 10 podcasts tomorrow talking fucking nonsense with guests who are on because they do stupid things to their mates. O’hara will be having a hissy fit on Talk Sport and don’t get me started on that guy called ‘Expressions’. He knows fuck all about anything except being a prick.
Premier League has lost its fucking soul.
Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, recycle, pass, pass, pass, pass, recycle etc……
ClemFandango
Lord High Chief of the Privvy
Founding Member
Apparently our first 0-0 draw since 2023.
Havocc
Well-Known Member
Founding Member
Poch has been woeful since leaving us, not sure he is the same manager he once was.
Also, we don’t have Harry Kane who was one of the main reasons we competed at that level.
Chavhater01
Well-Known Member
I think sometimes managers just fall upon a team that sets up perfectly for the way you want to play, and that Poch side was an absolutely perfect fit. You start to lose one or two pieces here and there, and things start to fall apart pretty quickly. I think it actually just boils down to our recruitment, especially up front, the money we've spunked on players that are really pretty average, is mental!
Dave
If I lived here I'd be home now.
Founding Member
Agree. We spend alot of money on players that Liverpool, City, Chelsea and Arsenal don't want....basically mid range players in moderate demand. Simons, Muani, Tel, Bentancur, Bissouma, Brennan, Solanke, Danso , Odobert, Vicario and on and on the list goes. Half decent "Meh" players....and as a result we get "Meh" performances.
Kane temporarily dragged us up above that for several seasons. We had him for so long we just took him for granted...
Kudus and Palhinha have been good so far....but that's it.
This isn't a quick fix unfortunately...
ClemFandango
Lord High Chief of the Privvy
Founding Member
Archie Gray was great tonight, as usual, so expect Bentancur to continue against Everton .. 
Style And Glory
On My High Trojan Horse
Founding Member
So true about how much money we've spent on average players that really don't adhere to "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". I don't rate Brennan for numerous reasons & it was ridiculous how much we spent for him. Having said that, & removing the psychology from the equation*, it's crazy to think that without his goals we could very well have been relegated last season.
*insert the Counterfactual Fallacy & Adaptive Compensation Principle
Yid
Moderator
Founding Member
Nope...I've been up since 04:00 and I can't even face googling that...
I won't be doing it...
Dave
If I lived here I'd be home now.
Founding Member
Well absolutely. And if you factor in the conbobulation of the secondary conundrum stimulate you'll find that it's the third or possibly the fourth from the left.
ClemFandango
Lord High Chief of the Privvy
Founding Member
Interesing stat about our "defensive pragmatism"
16 shots conceded to Leeds
18 shots conceded to Bodo Glimt
23 shots conceded to Monaco
16 shots conceded to Leeds
18 shots conceded to Bodo Glimt
23 shots conceded to Monaco
Yid
Moderator
Founding Member
It's getting worse...
I'd also bet that we mustered half as much going the other way...
ClemFandango
Lord High Chief of the Privvy
Founding Member
That peaked my curiosity since I'm indoors with nothing better to do .. heh
Leeds - 16 shots, 4 on target. We had 9 shots, 3 on target.
Bodo Glimt - 18 shots, 4 on target. We had 8 shots, 3 on target.
Monaco - 23 shots, 8 on target. We had 11 shots, 2 on target.
So you're pretty much bang on - around half going the other way.
J.spurs
Well-Known Member
Founding Member
Frank also has a track record of making players better, though. It was basically how Brentford did business. Buy young and undervalued players, coach them up, sell them on. For us the remit is different, because we want to keep our players, but the point is the same.
And we weren't great under Poch at first--it took time for him to get his ideas across and pick the right players. In his first season, the man himself said that if Kane's deflected goal hadn't gone in at Villa he might have been sacked in November, and we didn't really pick up momentum until the holidays. He gave starts to young players like Dier, Winks, Bentaleb, Kane, etc., but for a time we had to watch guys like Andros Townsend, Vlad Chiriches, and Benjamin Stambouli, not to mention a completely uninterested Adebayor.
Though we've gotten some decent results, it just seems unrealistic to me to expect we'd hit the ground running.
We've not been playing well, and I don't like how we approach some of these games. I also don't understand some of the personnel decisions.
But I do think Frank knows what he's doing. I think our squad is better than it was in Poch's first season, but its still awfully unbalanced and lacking in cutting edge.
BrooklynYid
Well-Known Member
The reality is that Frank took over the 17th "best" team in the PL. Expecting him to have us contending with the players we have is unrealistic. As a manager I think he's fine. He might not be for us long term, but nobody is going to thrive with this side. We are a horrendous passing team that gets muscled way too often for how physically large our players are. The main problem is that we spend a lot of our budget on players like Tel. Simons may be another bust, but hopefully he turns it around. Aside from the two center backs, we don't have any top players. I don't care who gets called for their national team, they are all borderline average.
J.spurs
Well-Known Member
Founding Member
To be fair, most of them are pretty young (looked it up--we have the 3rd youngest squad in the league.) I think players like Lamine Yemal have inflated expectations of what's possible with young players. Maybe many of them won't pan out (I'd be surprised if Tel did, for example) and yes, at the moment, they look average. But I'm optimistic.