KingArthur Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 9 minutes ago, r0cafella said: We are competing in the champions league and smashed PSG, what do you mean the squad is nowhere near CL material? Your take here is quite surface level to be frank; it’s clear to most that injuries have forced us to rotate less than we would like which is causing sluggish performances at times. Yea, we won that game nicely. And we won taken few nice wins in the league against big teams. We were awful against Milan and had 1 or maybe 1,5 good chances yesterday, when we desperately needed a win. I mean that our squad is thin and still we are not creating a lot. If you took out best XI, how many players from there would Dortmund or PSG swap for theirs? If you look at the teams from yesterday, how many our players would they take? We are quite clearly underdogs in this group. And it is fine to admit it. Less than 2 years ago we were fighting relegation, of course our team is not good enough. It takes 4-5 years easily. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufcjb Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 Most annoyying thing in the match last night was the amount of 2nd or loose balls falling nicely for them and wouldn't drop nicely for us. Drove me nuts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
r0cafella Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 2 minutes ago, KingArthur said: Yea, we won that game nicely. And we won taken few nice wins in the league against big teams. We were awful against Milan and had 1 or maybe 1,5 good chances yesterday, when we desperately needed a win. I mean that our squad is thin and still we are not creating a lot. If you took out best XI, how many players from there would Dortmund or PSG swap for theirs? If you look at the teams from yesterday, how many our players would they take? We are quite clearly underdogs in this group. And it is fine to admit it. Less than 2 years ago we were fighting relegation, of course our team is not good enough. It takes 4-5 years easily. I’d take most of our players over those of the opposition; especially with our manager. Intensity isn’t something easily coached, good luck getting Mbappe to run. And when it comes to injuries, try not to narrow your focus to the players whom were missing; it’s much more than that. We can’t rotate our players with the injuries with have which leads to a drop in standard, this is unavoidable. In time, we will have players who can play with the intensity and have that same level of technical proficiency but it takes time, such players are unicorns to be frank. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingArthur Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 17 minutes ago, r0cafella said: I’d take most of our players over those of the opposition; especially with our manager. Intensity isn’t something easily coached, good luck getting Mbappe to run. And when it comes to injuries, try not to narrow your focus to the players whom were missing; it’s much more than that. We can’t rotate our players with the injuries with have which leads to a drop in standard, this is unavoidable. In time, we will have players who can play with the intensity and have that same level of technical proficiency but it takes time, such players are unicorns to be frank. Yea, I know Howe's style requires certain type of players. Still, players like Mbappe (of course not as good) are something we need. Intensity doesn't matter if you are constantly losing the ball against top quality opposition and it doesn't matter if you are playing against very organized, world class defense that sits deep. We have seen this against Liverpool and Dortmund at home (a bit unlucky we did not score though they could have scored more) and yesterday. I know injuries are making us a lot worse, but even with our full squad, we are not top top quality European side, like PSG, Dortmund or Milan yet. And it is fine to admit it. We will get there, but we just started this journey. We can have some great results, but in overall play, we have a lot of work to do be top class. We might still qualify, which would be great result. I still think we got to UCL few years too early to really give it a go. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
r0cafella Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 5 minutes ago, KingArthur said: Yea, I know Howe's style requires certain type of players. Still, players like Mbappe (of course not as good) are something we need. Intensity doesn't matter if you are constantly losing the ball against top quality opposition and it doesn't matter if you are playing against very organized, world class defense that sits deep. We have seen this against Liverpool and Dortmund at home (a bit unlucky we did not score though they could have scored more) and yesterday. I know injuries are making us a lot worse, but even with our full squad, we are not top top quality European side, like PSG, Dortmund or Milan yet. And it is fine to admit it. We will get there, but we just started this journey. We can have some great results, but in overall play, we have a lot of work to do be top class. We might still qualify, which would be great result. I still think we got to UCL few years too early to really give it a go. We don’t usually lose the ball so much; intact pretty sure we had better pass completion than Dortmund last night and that’s with the makeshift side we had. I think we are very competitive with Milan and Dortmund at this point, the results kind of beat it out 2 narrow loses and an away draw. It’s going to take time to surpass them we are both ahead of schedule and injury ravaged you simply can’t discount the effect these injuries are having. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikon Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 1 hour ago, SUPERTOON said: Against top teams, particularly away from home, I think we need a lot more technical quality. Players who aren’t afraid to have the ball in difficult areas, only really Bruno who does that currently. It’s the next stage in our development imo and what we will hopefully focus on in the summer window. 100% This. Been banging this drum for a while. Will help us control games and see us winning more games by the odd goal instead of conceding late on and get draws. Takes away a lot of pressure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffee_Johnny Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 (edited) 12 hours ago, worthy said: Whole fucking team bar Tino hang your fucking heads in shame Watched the match (on phone in Italy) and just scrolling through to catch up on people’s views on here. I felt really proud of the team; not least given our limited selection choices. ‘Hang your heads in fucking shame’? Fuck me. Have you forgotten that we will lose football matches too? They put in a stellar effort second half, in particular, against a very good side in a loud hostile stadium. We were right in the game throughout. Largely controlled their superior fire power, 54% possession, 10 shots 5 on target. We lost. Deservedly so. But there is no shame in that performance or result. I’d understand (ish…) if you were talking about the mauling of ten man Celtic. Edited November 8, 2023 by Coffee_Johnny Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 Heads hanging in shame is reserved for capitulations and half arsed efforts. Last night was neither. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondonewc Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 (edited) Imagine thinking two years ago we could be in the Champions League, play Dortmund away, and have 10+ first team players missing through injury and still be competitive. No complaints, we go again! Edited November 8, 2023 by mondonewc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 The reactions after the Joelinton miss... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG32 Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 A big game to far for us this season given all our squad stresses at the moment, we need this international break more than anyone else. Thought Dortmund were pretty neat and tidy with quick passing and movement between the lines, they also looked like they could switch tempo very quickly when needed. Pretty impressed by them tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnonel Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 My key takeaway from last night, based on some comments, is that we need to spend $100B on a completely new squad, because we dont have the manager or team to smash every single team we play 10-0 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 I'm not getting that at all. Even the most incontinent of us seem to appreciate injuries, fatigue and the quality of the opposition have stretched us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Zaius Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 27 minutes ago, The Prophet said: The reactions after the Joelinton miss... The game changes if he puts that away. We were on top and building pressure. Might have went on to nick it. Cannot be missing chances like that man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 At the same time, you’re taking a risk if you only create one chance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 Yep. I love a bit of Joseph Linton as much as the next man, but it's a criminal miss. Between that and the Wilson miss in the home game we've done well to get nothing from either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
black_n_white Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 As much as the champions league is great for us the fans and the club and players getting that experience it’s killing our squad at the moment (appreciate it’s not all down to this btw with strange injuries), but if this continues we could be in big trouble. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 21 minutes ago, NG32 said: A big game to far for us this season given all our squad stresses at the moment, we need this international break more than anyone else. Thought Dortmund were pretty neat and tidy with quick passing and movement between the lines, they also looked like they could switch tempo very quickly when needed. Pretty impressed by them tbh. I got the feeling they just didn’t respect or fear us at all. They seemed so comfortable and able to control the ball and beat any press. More CL experience and more technical quality I guess. And less fatigue. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erikse Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 I guess "You'll never walk alone" is like a curse for us.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronky Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 1 hour ago, AyeDubbleYoo said: I got the feeling they just didn’t respect or fear us at all. They seemed so comfortable and able to control the ball and beat any press. More CL experience and more technical quality I guess. And less fatigue. True enough, but football can be peculiar. Until the second goal went in, we were never completely out of it, and if that header by Joelinton had gone in...... hmmm... It would have been interesting to see how things would have gone from there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanshithispantz Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 Howe has defied larger odds than winning in Paris Going into the last game against Milan needing to get a result will be great craic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexf Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 Thought Trippier was uncharacteristically poor. Gave the ball away loads. Got beaten 1v1 plenty. Looked really uncomfortable on the left aswell. But worst of all, that cross leading to their 2nd goal. Thought the rest of the team tried hard. Longstaff looked abit lost out there and the game was abit too quick for him, maybe fatigued. Felt sorry for Eddie. He was desperately trying to move the pieces he had around to make something cohesive but he just didn't have enough options to tinker tactically. A few injuries to far and fatigue for the guys that have played so many games. Worry for the Bournemouth game. 9 times out of 10 we beat them comfortably, but they are playing us at the best possible moment for them as this feels like it will be the weakest lineup we will have all season. (Fingers crossed, injuries start to ease after this). That being said, one more big effort from the lads can hopefully get us to the international break with 3 more points. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 Yeah Trippier had a bad game, thought Longstaff was completely out of his depth (but admittedly I notice his mistakes). We’re just operating in an environment we’re not quite fully equipped for, especially without Botman, Tonali, Isak and with Miggy and Gordon benched. No shame in it, we’ll get there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikky Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 I know a few people on here say we are well stocked for midfielders, the reality is that we aren’t (that’s just my own view) - we are still 1 short - ideally a mix between Bruno and Tonali - For me this could be the player that elevates us to a higher level We won’t get Barrella - but that’s the sort of profile I would love - how many are out there? Can we buy and mould someone? I do think in the winter/summer we will buy a CB - CM and an all round attacker, plus Minteh - then we are seriously cooking Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shearergol Posted November 8, 2023 Share Posted November 8, 2023 Wonder what time @worthy will be awake today. How's the head dude? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now