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Squad & tactics (2024/25)


LoveItIfWeBeatU

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Not a fan of the Europa Conference and would actually prefer that we don’t ever enter it.
 

The real progress to me this year is the fact that we won’t be losing the usual 15+ league games in a season. Our mentality totally changing to one that doesn’t just accept defeat is a great shift from 18 months ago 

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I think for a club where 7th-8th is the ceiling, it can have a bearing. If we're going where it seems where we're going though, I think the board would use Europe to dope our sponsorship deals, spend more and strengthen us so we can handle it.

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Any European competition is good. The club will need to naturally progress into more competitions and if it’s Conferencd League, then it’s one that we could potentially win. 

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I know we don’t go behind much these days. But this has been a problem right back to the Pardew days, hasn’t it?
 

I suppose with better players and more squad depth. We’d be able to improve on this.

 

 

Edited by Lush Vlad

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Does the Liverpool away game count in that since we went behind in the 97th minute, or is it just when conceding first?

 

Games we conceded first:

 

Man City X2

Wolves

Bournemouth x2

Liverpool 

 

 

Edited by Optimistic Nut

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Guess from that it's not really a metric that has a bearing either way for us. We got a result in 4 of the 7, Liverpool away was impossible to come back, Liverpool at home we had 10 men for the majority and City are City.

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42 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Games we've lead and dropped points would be a more interesting one I think.


That is probably on there. It’s a decent page, The Other 14. But hopefully we won’t be included for much longer. 

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56 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Does the Liverpool away game count in that since we went behind in the 97th minute, or is it just when conceding first?

 

Games we conceded first:

 

Man City X2

Wolves

Bournemouth x2

Liverpool 

 

 

 


Yeah, that’s all fair. 
 

I just feel like we are not a team that is built from coming from behind. Not that many probably are. But we have been in plenty of tight games this season. But we often grab the lead. 
 

Maybe it is just under the microscope

more. As we currently don’t score. So it feels even more like if we go a goal down. We aren’t winning. 

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9 hours ago, Yorkie said:

 

Why?

For me I think the Europa Conference League is not worth messing up your schedule and rhythm in the season. It doesn’t really offer you elite competition and I assume the sponsorship / tv money is poor for the amount of strain it puts on the team. I’m a fan of the Europa League because it has a lot of top sides entering each year and also offers the avenue of Champions League qualification as a winner 

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48 minutes ago, andyc35i said:

For me I think the Europa Conference League is not worth messing up your schedule and rhythm in the season. It doesn’t really offer you elite competition and I assume the sponsorship / tv money is poor for the amount of strain it puts on the team. I’m a fan of the Europa League because it has a lot of top sides entering each year and also offers the avenue of Champions League qualification as a winner 

 

European football of any form would be a step forward. 

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Being in Europe is a tangible sign of progress to the wider football community. 8th is not.

 

Not sure how much difference that makes but it is a difference.

 

Leicester aside. Teams don't go from regularly not qualifying for Europe to then qualifying for the CL. Because you need a deep squad to even finish 4th and even 5th these days.

 

The Conference League would be good for us to have a proper development squaad / players. I want us to sign highly rated teenagers and youngsters and Europe is a great way to get them first team experience. Those Europa games were great for the development of Saka, ESR, Martinelli.. even Rashford, Dalot & Garnacho. Kane.

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Quick scan at the other top Leagues on the continent and it's apparent that we're rubbing shoulders with the elite in some areas. Our defensive unit is outstanding. Of the top 5 leagues (98 teams) only 3 have lost fewer games than we (3) have, these teams are Barcelona, Napoli and Bayern (all on 2 losses). Looking at goals conceded then only Barcelona (8!) and Napoli (16) have shipped fewer than we (18) have. I know we've been tight at the back and that all starts from defending as a unit from the CF back but that's incredible given when Howe inherited and the way we were playing 14 months ago. 

 

Also fully aware that our stats for goals scored and games won won't be as rosy either but it's a hell of a platform to build on from here. Adding 4 or 5 players in midfield and attack could catapult us forward as a club, we all know that but the foundations are there. Turning draws into wins next season has to be the priority and that means adding goals to the system. It won't be cheap either :lol:

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Depending on the result and performance tomorrow.  The international break might be coming at a bad time for us, momentum wise.  

 

However, I think it is obvious the likes of Bruno and Joelinton have been playing through niggles.  Howe keeps referencing that we are nursing injuries week to week.  Wilson looks absolutely fucked, certain players a bit jaded, Gordon is out for a bit, Willock just back from a minor injury, Targett working his way back after a long time out etc etc.

 

I did say something similar for the World Cup break and I was totally wrong.  But considering we won't lose a whole heap of players.  I feel like it might be exactly what we need to get players refreshed for the run in. 

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1 hour ago, Lush Vlad said:

Depending on the result and performance tomorrow.  The international break might be coming at a bad time for us, momentum wise.  

 

However, I think it is obvious the likes of Bruno and Joelinton have been playing through niggles.  Howe keeps referencing that we are nursing injuries week to week.  Wilson looks absolutely fucked, certain players a bit jaded, Gordon is out for a bit, Willock just back from a minor injury, Targett working his way back after a long time out etc etc.

 

I did say something similar for the World Cup break and I was totally wrong.  But considering we won't lose a whole heap of players.  I feel like it might be exactly what we need to get players refreshed for the run in. 

To be honest I think the international break will be ok for us.

We still have to negotiate Forest yet to class anything as momentum but assuming we do (hopefully) then I think the chill out will be good because it'll be a chill out and training with a positive mentality and a chance (as you mention) to cater for a few niggles and injuries.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Think we're in a position now where we've got 15-16 players who you're comfortable seeing in the starting XI now as long as Bruno and Trippier are both starting (the likes of Murphy and Longstaff). As long as we have those two, I'm happy with any of...

 

Pope, Dubravka, Burn, Targett, Botman, Schar, Joelinton, Willock, Longstaff, Murphy, Gordon, Almiron, St-Maximin, Isak & Wilson

 

...making up the other 9, and being confident we'd be the better team in most games.

 

We'd still have a few like Lascelles and Anderson around that who if they play to the best of their ability can do a job also. 

 

We'll inevitably get at least 3 more players who are upgrades in the summer, which should mean that we can replace Bruno with quality if he's out, and have more quality elsewhere so that even if we downgrade from Trippier to Manquillo/Krafth/Ashby, we've got so much quality in other areas that we can still be the favourites in most games. Exciting times. 

 

 

Edited by Optimistic Nut

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some interesting stuff from the Tifo podcast:

 

Our high press brings a lot of upside, but teams are now discovering ways to bypass that. 

Teams are starting to work out how to shut us down in our build-up phases. It happened in the first half at Brentford, but as soon as we changed it up they had no answer. 

Villa and Brighton are the best teams in the league at baiting teams in and playing through or over them. 

 

You'd imagine with the more quality we'll add the more flexible and unpredictable we'll become. The only thing we have in our locker at the moment is the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. 

 

 

Edited by The Prophet

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19 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

Some interesting stuff from the Tifo podcast:

 

Our high press brings a lot of upside, but teams are now discovering ways to bypass that. 

Teams are starting to work out how to shut us down in our build-up phases. It happened in the first half at Brentford, but as soon as we changed it up they had no answer. 

Villa and Brighton are the best teams in the league at baiting teams in and playing through or over them. 

 

You'd imagine with the more quality we'll add the more flexible we'll become more unpredictable. The only thing we have in our locker at the moment is the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. 

 

Yep, we should never lose sight of the fact that we've still got several players in the team who were considered dispensable 2 years ago. We need a few more at Bruno's & Isak's level before we're going to regularly steamroller the mid tier of the PL.

 

 

Edited by Dr.Spaceman

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