Parky

He's a human being with the same fears and desires as the rest of us.

It's waaay too early to posit a psychological profile of McC.

I think our experience with Pardew is framing this debate. McC is being diplomatic but my guess is he's pushing for players behind the scenes. He won't go public until he realises that he is on his own.

We're probably lining up some lithe (lightweight) French dreamboat with lovely hair who doesn't like getting his kit dirty.

0-1 Winj long range.

I have to take a goal innit? Midds will adjudicate.

Unless there are upgrades in Jan I don't think we'll get anything near 7/8 wins.

We need 8 wins from 19 games to be sure.

He's tried to overcome this limitation with Mbem and Collo coming out with the ball, but even then the DM's look frozen and unsure what to do as they don't have the instinct to get into the final 2/3 of the opp half. So a number of straight passes rely on Ayoze or whomever controlling the ball, turning and linking into the 2nd attack phase. By this time we are outnumbered and the wide forwards are still too wide instead of coming inside. When the cd's come out with the ball the striker is meant to run toward them to create insecurity in the opp CD's and the AM is meant to do an angled run into space for a pass and the wide forwards come inside (get a 4v3 overload on the edge of the box). All this should happen at once. Never happens. Ball goes wide someone pisses about with it and a cross comes in with one in the box with no near post run (rarely) and no mid on the edge of the box. The one player who really understands what should be happening is Wijn hence he goes central and towards the box as soon as there is an overlap on the right wing. That's how he gets dem goals.

In the 4231 the middle triangle is key. You can get away with a lot elsewhere if these three are on the case. ................AM/Auxillaryforward..... ..........DM.............DM................. Having variations of Ayoze, One lung with Anita and Colblack there is the biggest issue. Neither of the DM's have the tools to range forward with purpose and the AM/F that we have lack pace or presence.

There's a real need to get a couple of solid players 25-28 age range.

First 4 touches WBA. Bad touch lost the ball, passed to opp, passed to opp, miss control panic free kick.

True. Dummet, Colo, Anita, Colback, Tiote, One Lung all need replacing. I don't even think we have dedicated def and striker coaches...Just McC and those other two selling New Age positivity and psychoanalysis. Reading to them at night out of books about the power of crystals and tamagochi.

Gone missing in plenty of games already. But I agree in the sense that he has a solid pedigree. Probably not his fault as he isn't really a left sided forward/wing... The last window was the one where the real issues should have been fixed. A quality CD ideally PL and a quality striker to replace the waning and want away Cisse. Mitro has too much on his shoulders. I don't really understand what they are doing or if McC came too late to the table and the deals were already in the pipe. He doesn't have the CM's to play an authoritative possession game. And he doesn't have the forwards to play a counter attacking game. So we're essentially playing the sit deep and hope Pardew game with a bit more passing. iirc we were linked with one of the Watford strikers, Berahino and Austin and we ended up with a 21yr old rookie with no pace and a dodgy attitude. The club is absolutely fucked fucko and we will go down without a massive spend in Jan or a new manager. Nailed on.

Let's face it out four main buys were all gambles. Luckily 2 out of the four have worked out and it would have been nothing short of a miracle if Mitro had hit the ground running - a 21yr old from another league who in any other PL side would have been given a season to bed in and learn the PL. I think even the likes of Origie who are starting to come through have been here 2 years. The bottom line is that we're not buying with squad building in mind but future profit on player sales. This would have already killed this club but for huge chunks of luck and a couple of winning runs out of nowhere.. One thing I noted was McC said that he had been scouting Thauvin in the past and knew what kind of player he was etc...Doesn't bode well reg his judgement. Wingers without pace and physicality don't get very far in the PL. Might turn out to be a good squad player in time but not the stuff marquee buys are made of...Players who can turn a game etc..

He's calm with a glint in his eye like a serial killer but we've not found the bodies yet.

It's either all a front or he's wildly deluded with little grasp on reality. We're currently not creating more than 2/3 chances a game to score and we're sitting too deep which is killing 2 out of our supposed front 3. We actually play 451 for round 80% of matches. I'd be interested to see how much Sis and Winj play in our own half...The reason is that both our holding CM's rarely carry the ball forward with menace so our wide am/f pick up the ball too deep and have to do all the work. This whole scenario is compounded by a striker with no pace which means we rarely turn a defence with one or two quick passes out.

As HTT says the whole season hangs on three rookies to the league with two of them barely out of nappies.

If we're playing as a counter side then the forward and the auxiliary forward have to have pace. Neither Mitro, Onelung, Cisse or Ayoze have pace. Also if the two players with pace are picking up the ball on the half way line then the opp have time to organise. It's all wrong.

Those two Watford lads are a good package if you consider the demands of the PL. Pace, power and determination. Proper scary. You either have to be an instinctive finisher or have pace and power. The strikers who are have neither have to be in a dominating side who play high up and keep the ball. He's on a hiding to nothing.

Got a bit of a stare on him innit.

He built a legacy at Barça. I don't think there's ever been a more influential manager in hour history, and I'm including Cruyff here. Guardiola has always said that he wants to be at different places throughout his career, so he's not going to remain many years at the same club. Are you sure about this? Isn't Cruyff the colossus at Barca? Pretty sure he oversaw the transitions through styles and managers...

Yeah it's early days. If he gets time then we're looking at at least 2 windows before we know what is what..Think the PL is going to be much harder than the Bundesliga mainly because almost anyone can beat you on their day.

Think they fell short tactically and competitively today. They need to buy half a team (again). But they don't have the huge financial edge they had in days gone by.

Jesus balls hoiked over the top for Origi to chase.