Optimistic Nut Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 He seems to be getting it right lately. Still has a few brain farts but fair play, we look a goal threat at least. 6 games in a row where we've scored 2 goals. Wonder when the last time we did that was? Just looked on Soccerbase and as a Premier League club, we went 8 games under Robson, Carver & Souness from the Villa 2-4. (included two games against Bnei Sakhnin) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Deserves a lot of credit today, before the sending off we played some of our best stuff in ages. After that we dug in really well and never gave up on trying to win the match even down to ten men against one of the teams he's normally terrified of. Tiote as captain was fantastic IMO (aside from his part in the red/pen of course) and I can't think of a single player that didn't play well. Only slight complaint I'd have is why we switched Ben Arfa and Gouffran for about two minutes which they promptly profited from. Bit baffling that. Well done, more of this please. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Haris Vuckic Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 I don't think his record against Liverpool is THAT bad aside from the obvious. but aye. Looking a bit better - the shapes developing and the short passing and ball retention is getting a tad more sophisticated - the defence still needs work overall but apart from Mapou's error we did well and we fought tooth and nail today. It's palpable that we could maintain this level of performance and still get f*** all from some of our upcoming fixtures so today was a big point. Encouraging how when possible - we still went for the win when down to ten men. The tactic of twatting long balls to Sammy made me laugh mind Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdckelly Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 I don't think his record against Liverpool is THAT bad aside from the obvious. but aye. Looking a bit better - the shapes developing and the short passing and ball retention is getting a tad more sophisticated - the defence still needs work overall but apart from Mapou's error we did well and we fought tooth and nail today. It's palpable that we could maintain this level of performance and still get f*** all from some of our upcoming fixtures so today was a big point. Encouraging how when possible - we still went for the win when down to ten men. The tactic of twatting long balls to Sammy made me laugh mind the defense this season has been strange, less badly set up etc more absolute brain dead individual mistakes costing us badly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foluwashola Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Started the match well and adapted to the setback impressively. He's not the tactical imbecile he is painted out to be. Well done Alan. Please don't fuck up next week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilko Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Deserves a lot of credit today, before the sending off we played some of our best stuff in ages. After that we dug in really well and never gave up on trying to win the match even down to ten men against one of the teams he's normally terrified of. Tiote as captain was fantastic IMO (aside from his part in the red/pen of course) and I can't think of a single player that didn't play well. Only slight complaint I'd have is why we switched Ben Arfa and Gouffran for about two minutes which they promptly profited from. Bit baffling that. Well done, more of this please. The most pleasing thing for me was that the 'right let's settle for a point' moment was about the 88th minute or something. Was expecting us to sit back from half time but we plugged away and defended well without lining up too deep and retained a threat on the break. Promising stuff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bimpy474 Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 The movement in the first 40 minutes was the best i've seen from us under him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Haris Vuckic Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Especially as Liverpool pressed so well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golfmag Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 This is horrific namedropping so I apologise, but AP was at Wentworth last Friday to play golf and he said that the most important thing they were trying to do differently this season was to play "expansively" (his word). I think that today proved that is actually the case. Almost every time today and particularly before the sending off, with the exception of Williamson, every time there was a choice between a short ball and a long ball, the short ball was chosen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 He's been saying it for ages, just nobody believes him because he hasn't been able to implement it. Understandable I suppose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdckelly Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 He's been saying it for ages, just nobody believes him because he hasn't been able to implement it. Understandable I suppose. its actually been happening this season tbf the problem has more been defending that any of our ability to go forward. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Haris Vuckic Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Don't play the short ball - or the long ball - play the right ball. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Venkman Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Deserves a lot of credit today, before the sending off we played some of our best stuff in ages. After that we dug in really well and never gave up on trying to win the match even down to ten men against one of the teams he's normally terrified of. Tiote as captain was fantastic IMO (aside from his part in the red/pen of course) and I can't think of a single player that didn't play well. Only slight complaint I'd have is why we switched Ben Arfa and Gouffran for about two minutes which they promptly profited from. Bit baffling that. Well done, more of this please. Agree with most of this. One word of caution though, most of our joy came from lofted diagonal balls over the top, which seems to be our default attacking tactic, so I'm not entirely convinced we had an attacking plan to suit this game in particular, it was more the pressure we put them under that told imo. Much better though, I genuinely enjoyed the first half, and I haven't said that about any 45 mins for what feels like a year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skirge Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 He got it right today no doubt, we denied them space for most of the game even with 10 men, found it harder when they went 4 at the bacj but still well done AP. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Crooks Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 No complaints. More of the same for the future. Great stuff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 We looked well set up from the off today and it made such a difference. I hope after this performance, people will stop saying our players aren't good enough, while we had 11 men we bossed one of the title contenders in most areas of the pitch. We have some very good players, and if we can get them motivated and set up right, we are European contenders. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledDog Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 It's very fitting this thread, it is just as tedious as watching a Pardew team on the pitch. Things should become a bit more interesting tomorrow. Thankfully not. Another positive bit of management today. Proud of the team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
r0cafella Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Nothing has been said about it but I wonder if we did anything different during the international break. We looked like a team today for the first time in awhile. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Jerusalem Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Picked the right team for the day and stayed brave with the substitution after the red card which was good to see. His big test is still to come though when Jonas is fit and available to see whether he has learned from the past year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barnes23 Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 We looked well set up from the off today and it made such a difference. I hope after this performance, people will stop saying our players aren't good enough, while we had 11 men we bossed one of the title contenders in most areas of the pitch. We have some very good players, and if we can get them motivated and set up right, we are European contenders. . If we had a manager like Martinez or Pochettino I'd believe we could be European contenders. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest icemanblue Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 His players gave him a proper performance today. Doesn't often get the organisational side right either, but he definitely did today. Impressed with our spirit and effort. Hope we see more of the same boer the next few games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
durhamunigeordie Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Credit where it's due today, thought he got it spot on. His subs were right as well - introduce Shola or Cisse into that game and we'd have be effectively playing with 9. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 He got it right, incredibly. Twice in a row now. Let's hope it gets to three.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Couldn't believe my eyes when I checked the score to see we'd scored again, having gone a man down. As soon as I saw Yanga had been dismissed, I was fully expecting a defeat - or barely a 1-1 draw. Extremely refreshing to see we continued to take the game to the opposition, even with ten men. Especially at home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 Best game for a while for me I just hope we can take this form into next week Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts