leffe186

This for me too, although I was able to park it to one side a bit when I was in the US. Now I'm back within earshot of the ground it's bad again. I think it's worse now because I no longer really care so much about football in the big picture, just my own personal patch.

That’s part of the problem, isn’t it? There are so many variables, but the situation is so unique that something is clearly wrong, and we’ve not got the luxury of time to work it out before we get relegated. We all recognize that there are problems other than the injuries, but the injuries themselves make the situation untenable.

Yes and no. One guy posted something on Spurscommunity to that effect - like, it’s our fault we didn’t accumulate 5-10 more points in the first half of the season. The problem is, that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. On Jan 1st, halfway through the season, we were in 12th on 26pts. Actually above Newcastle in the table. We played out a 0-0 draw at Brentford which was one of the worst PL games I’ve ever seen, but even then we were without Kulu, Maddison, Udogie, Bergvall, Simons, Solanke and probably others I’ve forgotten (Bissouma etc). After that things got even worse - we lost Odobert and Kudus for the season (remember that’s the six creative attacking players) and others like Bentancur for extended periods. Add just 5 points to our total at that point and we’d be in 5th, which would be silly. I think Frank wasn’t up to the task, but I also think we rapidly got to the point where absolutely nobody could be. Just look at when RDZ came in. He was talking about how important Kudus and Romero would be to his style of play, then immediately Kudus was ruled out of the season before playing another game and Romero got fouled by Brobbey putting him out for the season (and getting a “sorry we fucked up” from the refs). Then he praised Solanke and Simons and immediately they both get injured and Simons at least is out for the year, not just the season. It’s just incredible. I’d say you couldn’t make it up, but then I’d be worried about what’s next. We’ve got a fantastically talented kid called Luca Williams-Barnett (think along Max Dowman lines) who’d probably be starting now and on a daily basis people on Spurscommunity suggest this. Only for us all to point out he’s on crutches now having got injured last month or so. I’m nearly 53 and have been watching football for nearly 50 of that. I’ve never seen anything remotely like this, and to be frank it’s genuinely affecting fans’ mental health

Yeah, this has been the problem. You can point to any number of possibilities why this is happening and presumably it’s a combination of them all.

It’s precisely the thing that so many of us have fantasized about and honestly is long overdue . Someone goes down like a sack of spuds and gets another player sent off. You may as well do something actually worth a sending off and give him something to really cry about. I’m all for it.

Oh yeah, forgot about the extra round.

I’m with you, I rather like that we still do it.

More than Man City or Arsenal?

I hate to say it as ideally I want West Ham to go down, but I hope we can somehow fluke the next two and you lose yours so you have to beat West Ham

All those fucking decades of Everton fans screaming “handball” whenever it’s moving, and they can’t get that one given.

What’s the point? I’ve used up all my seethe weeks ago. Can’t remember the stages of mourning, but I’m pretty sure I’m in acceptance right now. And yes, if that was us defending it would be a penalty. And yes, in that dirge of a game yesterday with that 50-50 red card decision that went against us we still managed to get more bookings than they did.

You need to win your last two and Palace to only get one point to get into the playoffs, right? Palace at home to Portsmouth on the last day is a bit of a fucker.

BTW some guy just posted this: It genuinely has a debilitating effect on you as a fan. You remember what it was like for you three years ago, or whenever you had that crisis. All the while the media either downplayed it or ignored it. There’s clearly something very wrong, although whether it’s conditioning, medical staff, the pitch? No idea.

On the face of it at the time it made some sense. The team was clearly on a downward trend, a major squad overhaul was due but not happening and there’s a suspicion that Poch might have been mentally and physically exhausted and needed a break. The Champions League run was mental because we were clearly not firing on all cylinders yet we somehow found a way to keep winning. The big question now is whose fault was the failure to overhaul the squad. The year we got to the final we did not buy a single player. Not one. You simply can’t afford to do that as a Premier League club under any circumstances, but in a club heading towards a rebuild it’s absolutely criminal. I presume the new stadium was a factor, but as well as that and Levy there was a feeling that Poch’s great talent was in building togetherness and team spirit, and maybe he was reluctant to break that up. Combine that with the utter failure the following year where we bought and sold loads of players but got precisely the wrong ones in. That may have been down to Poch in part too, his recruitment was never considered his strong point.

Like I say, I think the bigger issue is the teams we can put out. I trust RDZ to do the best possible job, but I think we need three wins. Villa have been meh and we play them in between European games, but it was the home games I was looking at. Just…I don’t know where the goals are coming from. Look at the Brighton game. The two goals we get are ultimately from a lovely clever pass and then a brilliant finish from Simons. He’s probably done for the season now. Richarlison can be effective with service but I’m not sure who can provide it. I was so annoyed that Rosenior got the boot before we played them. Even more annoyed when I saw the handball penalty Everton didn’t get today, hot on the heels of the refs telling us “yeah, sorry lads, we should have sent Brobbey off at least once, that sucks”. Magic.

Just on the fixtures I’d have said so too, but that’s not the problem. Sure, I can see you and Leeds rolling over for West Ham, but the key thing is the squad. At this point in the season, if you’re in a relegation scrap you want to be well-organized, keep it tight and have your creative players come up with something. West Ham have zero injuries, just played three consecutive games with the exact same starting XI and in the game before that just had a tactical straight swap of Wan-Bissaka for KWP and Potts for Soucek. They’ve had the same matchday squad for weeks and weeks and been able to rest players in cup games. Their attacking players have been scoring, and Bowen has set up pretty much every League goal this last couple of months. In contrast, we’ve consistently had about 10 players out injured. In the last five league games we’ve had 22 different starters, of whom six are newly out injured to add to all the long term guys. More than one guy per game got injured and is now out, four of them may be out for the season. It’s mental. Building a well-organized team as a new manager in these conditions is very difficult, but the biggest concern now is that attacking creativity. Ideally that would come from Maddison, Kulusevski, Kudus, Simons, Odobert and/or Solanke. They’re all injured. All of them. Take Bowen, Summerville, Pedro and Castellanos out of West Ham - just those four attacking players - and they’d be punting the ball up for Callum Wilson to chase. They’d be completely fucked. I just can’t see it. The two remaining forwards who might be able to create things are Tel and Kolo Muani. Kolo Muani’s confidence is shot, to the point RDZ said post-match he’d be eating every meal this week with him to gee him up. De Zerbi knows he’s running out of players. Tel is fun, but he’s more than two years younger than Osula. Bergvall’s even younger. They’ve got so much to learn, and now’s not the time to be learning stuff. I pity RDZ. We might be able to get through this based on Richarlison’s work rate and a bit of luck, but it feels like an impossible job.

They’re there, there are just fewer of them, and so many teams will be playing the same way. The nice thing is that we might just have two of the superstars ourselves in Kane and Bellingham, which will help.

It’s been one long, drawn out shit from Arteta. He’s tried to minimize variance and in doing so has stifled them, despite spending an incredible amount of money on fees and wages. They could put out two full teams with minimal difference in quality, but then they’d just play the same way. Thought you might sneak it today, their fans are terrified.

You’ve not been watching them much I take it?

Come on lads, spawn one in, your xG is actually better than theirs. Oh hang on. Well it’s close anyway.

Our problem has been for the last 2-3 years it’s difficult to separate the incompetence from the bad luck . It’s possible I guess.

Even a win brings more signs. The two key players De Zerbi praised for their ability and confidence against Brighton were…Simons and Solanke. It’s absolutely insane and I’m fucking sick of it Even if we were a well-constructed squad playing well under a settled manager, you just can’t maintain this. That’s us back up to 11 players out injured (plus Byfield and Williams-Barnett, the two best players in our U21s). We need to start getting a bit of luck. One team has precisely zero injures in the injury table. Guess who? I didn’t think it was a red card personally but certainly a yellow, however I am genuinely confident that if it was Bissouma on Andre he’d have seen red. I don’t know how many people said they’d take relegation if it meant winning the Europa, but it was clearly enough.

@Sima You’ve not been watching us mate. The idea that VAR and refs have helped us out in any way this year is hilarious.

Just saw the statement: https://rochdaleafc.co.uk/joint-statement-rochdale-york-city-240426/ Good luck!

It’s all the things. I’m always wary of our fans who complain about players making no effort or being arrogant - or being complacent - because I think it’s usually far more complicated. For example, Bentancur was getting slated early in the season then got injured, but his first game back he was arguably our best player. It’s become clear he was simply being asked to do different things under Frank. I do agree that some players effectively aren’t up for the fight but so many factors set that up - experience, team chemistry, style of play etc. It’s all been a mess. It’s all the things. A poorly-constructed squad is given to a manager with a seemingly diametrically opposite approach to the previous one. That squad, already imbalanced by design, is then further compromised by routinely being short 10 or more players d/t injury. Players are brought in to cover those injuries but you’re starting games with younger players - some from abroad - who ideally you’d be bringing on gradually. And often they’re forced to play out of position because of the squad construction and injuries. It’s all the things. Players don’t gel together because injuries necessitate changes every week, the new manager is trying to install a new system with a changing and inexperienced team that’s shitty anyway and the fans hate it. Eventually it becomes clear that the players do too. They’re playing a style they hate and getting stick from the fans for it which pisses them off even more because they know it’s shit. I’m not trying to pin it on bad luck alone. Bad squad construction, bad management off the pitch, bad coaching on the pitch. Bad injuries aren’t necessarily just bad luck. Bad refereeing too. Refs aren’t corrupt, they just tend to favour certain narratives naturally. They’re influenced by home crowds, they’re reluctant to punish repeated niggly fouls properly, they punish identical fouls differently depending upon the club or the players involved. And as someone said on a podcast the other day, if a team is playing badly and a decision is borderline, or the ref is guessing, it’s more likely to go against them. Kolo Muani blocked a Sunderland pass with his face to put us on the attack, then the ref blew for handball. A total guess, not even close. It wasn’t corruption, he just kinda got carried away with things. Definitely a fascinating finish. I just hope RDZ stays.