The College Dropout

One of the reasons Alonso has failed is Ancelotti had the players trust and respect. Won everything with them. Alonso has rocked up. With less credentials and tried to implement what’s been considered a revolution for a team that’s been successful these last 4 years. And the players are right. They don’t need to sit and watch long videos of Osasuna to beat them. Why are they playing 3 at the back? They are just as turgid and ponderous as they were under Carlo. I mean Carlo was even better than Alonso when it came to defending players from racism. When it comes to man management, Alonso wasn’t good. Carlo was grand-fatherly yet cool. Xabi has PE Teacher energy. Honestly relieved he’s done.

Genuinely Alonso hasn’t managed it well over there. The footballs bad and the players haven’t bought into him. Alonso is clearly talented. But it’s a bad fit for him. He was Rafa-like.

The last manager was there for 4 years. Everyone kind of agreed it was time for Carlo to move on. They appointed Alonso, bought 4 super highly rated players. And don’t look any better than last season. Real Madrid don’t need a tactico manager. No 3 at the back nonsense.

Yep. He’s stunk it out. It’s an impossible job now though. 80% of the players are 2x CL winners. But all the glue guys that make this rag tag work have gone (Modric, Casemiro, Kroos, Benzema, even Mendy basically) and the best player isn’t one of those CL winners. You could tell by how slow Fede Valverde walked off the pitch the dressing room isn’t with him. Alonso has a weird legend card at Real too. There’s a few in that dressing room that are bigger legends at the club.

Think Howe loves this type. I think we should be all over that personally.

I don't know that we need too. Also depends on the attitude of others. Tino & Sandro may want out, and then it will be them and not Gordon.

Think Murphy has overall been ok. Put in many a great ball that nobody has attacked.

Taken 12 I think. Missed 1. Great record. As a Gordon ability sceptic since day one (never cared about his personality) I don’t get the consistent questions about selling him. He’s at worst our second best winger. Selling him is not worth discussing unless he’s strongly linked elsewhere for crazy money - which he isn’t.

None of us are football scouts. Suggesting players is a fools errand. We’ve struggled to sign players over hr last few years - partly down to PSR but not fully. And when we do we’ve focussed on PL players over £30m in the main. Largely stopped signing players 21 and under to be in the first team picture (Osula aside). Given our financial restrictions. Is it fair to question the value of some of our signings? Yes. Is it fair to question the approach and profile we pursue? Yes. I think the current approach makes getting Europa league or CL football a necessity. We don’t seem much interested in developing players the way we did Hall or Tino. If we want £40m players on good wedge to sit on the bench, we need high revenue games for them to play in.

Vicario Austin Porro, Danso Van De Ven, Romero, Dragusin, Davis Udogie, Spence Palhinha, Bissouma Bergvall, Gray, Sarr, Bentacur Simons, Kulu, Maddison, Odobert, Kudus Solanke, Muani, Tel, Richarlison There's a lot of injuries to some key players. Defence is weak on paper. But it's not a bad squad. Not worse than ours if you take away the long-term injuries.

Spurs have a deep cultural malaise that can’t be fixed by a coach.

It’s exactly what we’re doing now Real Madrid’s backup GK cost £5m. Prior to Trafford Man City got their backup GK for free. Arsenals cost £5m But it is Newcastle United that should sign a new GK to start and spend £20m on a backup GK. It is well.

This is how ppl speak of a GK who has been an integral part of a teams best side for 20 years and the first keeper to win a trophy with us in 70 years. The fickle-ness of fans is something else.

Livramento played 3500 minutes for us last season. 200 for England. 480 for U21 47 complete 90 minute matches and 53 games in total. Barely had a summer. Then back to pretty much playing 90 minutes every game. He’s overloaded and needed a proper break during summer and eased gently back. This is not evidence of ‘injury prone’.

That sounds like Howe Glasner is a fine coach evidenced by winning big trophies with clubs that don’t win big trophies.

As fans all we see is the managers. People above them rarely talk. So we hyper fixate on the managers.

Think it’s becoming more and more obvious why matters most is a clubs leadership rather than individual managers. Frank had years of ‘he’s a brilliant coach’. He left one of the best setups in the PL, to join a club with money but no identity or drive and is floundering. His replacement was no great shakes in previous managerial roles but within the Brentford environment is flourishing. We view Howe as elite (and I’m a Howe loyalist - didn’t waiver an inch last month) but a lot of that is down to the great support and environment Staveley setup. I think there’s a lot of really talented managers in the league. What matters more is how they are supported.

People were talking very bad about Bruno. Considering what he’s done for the club - the floor of his performances I was disgusted. But the nature of forums is wild swings in opinion.

Glad he seemingly played better.

Our game is too vertical for that to work reliably. It’s too much running. It worked for City because they hemmed teams deep which made deep runs less intensive for midfielders. Ours have to do a lot of running as it is.

He reminds me a bit of that cunt Poyet. For his position he has uncharacteristic quality end product. It’s so often the difference at the elite level.

He’s risen to the challenge when joining us. Could’ve sulked off but he’s worked hard and taken his opportunities. It takes some mentality to play pretty well, get dropped and still come off the bench to deliver time and again. At Leicester I think he’s was accused of sometimes being lazy. But he’s a grafter here. He’s a legend to me already and I was very much nonchalant about his signing.

There’s reason to criticise elements of his game but I still feel the criticism overall is OTT. I’ll keep repeating it. He’s not played regular top level football much at 23. He’s also not played lone striker that much either. He’s got a lot to learn. But with Howe I think he’s got a great teacher. The personality profile is a head wind mind. It’s clear he doesn’t have a bagsman mindset yet. Not that aggressive but Eddie will push him in that direction.

From what I saw Botman looked bad but he’s not match sharp. I’ve been Burn > Botman all season but I’m not calling Botman finished. He’s not match sharp. He needs to stay fit for the rest of the season and then we can make a call on him.

I could agree to say it’s fundamentally Botmans fault. He needs to control the situation. But from where the pass is played to where to the shot is taken it’s criminal that the goalie doesn’t come to collect it. Absolutely glued to his line until the last - doesn’t read the situation at all, he’s far too deep from the start. It’s just totally the wrong attitude. Pope will have moments like Auba where he comes out and totally misjudges. But he’s always looking to relieve pressure from his defenders by sweeping up. It also requires a different level of mental awareness. any ball played in behind or in the air - Pope is anticipating and making a decision whether to come out or not. He’s ready to come out. When you play like that you’re always switched on because you’re always making decisions. But Ramsdale will have a lot more moments like today. Absolutely not engaging with the threat and the game until it’s too late. Everyone has to defend more. Being comfortable with the ball doesn’t change that. If Howe had Pope instead of Ramsdale Bournemouth would never have been relegated. I think he’s learnt a lesson there.