Who knows, would be nice to see Hojlund get a few. He had his little purple patch but other than that has struggled, but can't blame him much.
I can see our players going into holiday mode soon (if they haven't already), nothing to play for and a manager they don't seem to care for (same old story).
It looks more than likely the PL won't get a 5th CL spot which means 7th will get the Conference League spot and were currently 7th. I'd actually prefer to finish 8th and get the squad to get more time on the training ground next season so maybe we don't wanna be scoring much.
I honestly have very low hopes of a positive GD? the team is playing very poor, conceding too many goals/attempts on goals and not looking like scoring with any regularity.
The performance at the weekend was up there with one of the worst, and there have been a fair few, this season, fingers crossed we can beat Coventry and then if its City in the final a miracle would be required unless some form is found?
comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 4 minutes ago
Who knows, would be nice to see Hojlund get a few. He had his little purple patch but other than that has struggled, but can't blame him much.
I can see our players going into holiday mode soon (if they haven't already), nothing to play for and a manager they don't seem to care for (same old story).
It looks more than likely the PL won't get a 5th CL spot which means 7th will get the Conference League spot and were currently 7th. I'd actually prefer to finish 8th and get the squad to get more time on the training ground next season so maybe we don't wanna be scoring much.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheffield United will be a scrap. We will make them look half decent. Same with Burnley.
Genuinely don't really care now about the remaining games. If anything a few more defeats and missing out on Europe all together might even be a blessing in disguise for us. Playing every 3 days for most of this group is clearly too much for them and sadly we won't be able to shift 20 players in one summer.
Not even confident we beat Coventry. If you give poor teams like Brentford 30 shots, can't beat Bournemouth home or away then Coventry have every chance of causing an upset if they get their tactics correct.
Mark Robins is really up for this game, I can tell you.
We are now actually in a very good position to get one of the two remaining of the five top 4 positions this season.
We will win our first 3 quite easily so that's 9 points, then we have two 6 pointers vs top 4 rivals Arsenal and Newcastle so that's a further 12 points if we win those two then Brighton away who have nothing to play for would put us on a total of 24 points from our final 6 games.
Spurs can only realistically get 6 points from their remaining fixtures as they are all tough barring Sheff and Burnley.
That would put them on 66 and us on 74
Villa only have 3 winnable games which would put them on 72.
If Arsenal and Liverpool continue their collapse then our points total above would put us above them.
So we SHOULD get top 4 but it doesn't always work out the way it should.
We'll beat Coventry. We might be playing some rubbish stuff and concededing far too many shots but they seem to have worse form than use currently losing 3 of their last 5 league games.
Hopefully you put 4 past Arsenal
How many league games have we won by more than one goal? Can’t think of many.
Dreadful
comment by JonVeron (U6514)
posted 6 minutes ago
How many league games have we won by more than one goal? Can’t think of many.
Dreadful
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Says it all doesn't it?
Everton away, Chelsea at home, Westham home off top of my head. Probably been 1 or 2 more maybe.
We've been incredibly unlucky with injuries this season. Having over 30 different back 4 combinations is an absolute disgrace. But there's still no excuse for how badly we are set up. If you're struggling for fit players then I'm sorry you have to play defensive football and try to pick up some results. You can't approach games like a basketball match.
Sick of this manager. Get rid.
The Chelsea game I'm remembering was in May in last season.
The answer is three. Everton home and away. Westham at home.
3 times in 32 attempts. 😂
I dont see us finishing with more than a +5 GD, which is shocking.
I did think the injuries would have kept ETH in the job, but performances haven't been good enough. He has to go this Summer.
I just hope we get the football people in soon enough to make the right appointment, and signings.
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
We’ll probably get a few goals in these games. Whether we’ll be able to keep them out enough to get a positive gd is a different matter, especially with Arsenal, Newcastle and our nemesis, Palace at Selhurst, in those fixtures.
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In fairness the manager is checking out too choosing to play this way. If he thinks this open style of football is beneficial for us he's in the wrong career anyway and needs sacking.
A manager is supposed to bring a team together, cover weaknesses and emphasize strengths. He seems to be choosing to do the opposite. Think he wants his P45 and nice little payoff.
comment by Boris 'Inky’ Gibson (U5901)
posted 27 minutes ago
Hopefully you put 4 past Arsenal
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We put three past Chelsea and look how that turned out.
comment by Glazers Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In fairness the manager is checking out too choosing to play this way. If he thinks this open style of football is beneficial for us he's in the wrong career anyway and needs sacking.
A manager is supposed to bring a team together, cover weaknesses and emphasize strengths. He seems to be choosing to do the opposite. Think he wants his P45 and nice little payoff.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What would you do to hide our weaknesses and emphasise our strengths?
comment by The Mainoo Man (U23147)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Glazers Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In fairness the manager is checking out too choosing to play this way. If he thinks this open style of football is beneficial for us he's in the wrong career anyway and needs sacking.
A manager is supposed to bring a team together, cover weaknesses and emphasize strengths. He seems to be choosing to do the opposite. Think he wants his P45 and nice little payoff.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What would you do to hide our weaknesses and emphasise our strengths?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
With the injuries and complete lack of form I'd set up like Ole had us. Very deep, compact and hit counter attacks.
When you watch us we don't seem to know what the word compact means. You could literally park a jumbo jet into some of the gaps we leave.
If this the style of football we want to see forever? Absolutely not. But we are capable of playing any other way right now with key players missing and no form in hardly anyone? Again no.
A manager has to get results. Before you implement the grand design and style you have to get results..
The way we play with the players we have is far too open. There is no connection between the defence and the midfield and the forwards - we don't defend or attack as a unit. We seem to rely on moments of individual brilliance and sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn't - that's why in the vast majority of games we don't win comfortably, because we don't control games. So depending on how well we take our chances, we either scrape a win, or we lose, sometimes badly.
But we let in too many and we don't score enough, and we don't do anything on the pitch very well.
But the fact that we don't always look like we are trying, that is the worst for me.
I'm not sure if the players have ever been on the same page as ETH, maybe not down tools, but are really giving their all for the manager. And there's nowhere for the manager to go from there
Our problem is accomdating Bruno, who is our most potent player, and is best as a 10.
Unless there is a change in how our current front 3 go about their defensive duties, I can just see us being consistently runover in midfield.
This was discussed in another thread, and even if we had said Rice alongside Mainoo, unless Bruno and the front 3 are a lot more disciplined in tracking back, we would just get overrun.
That's why in the short-term I suggested dropping one of the front 3 to accommodate an extra midfielder - we could have Mainoo, Casemiro and say Mount in there, with Bruno behind the top 2.
Of course is may make us more narrow, but the top 2 would just have to play as a pair and run the channels, and it would give us that extra body in midfield.
But without the team playing 'as a team', any system won't work
At the moment it is hard to see us winning a game let alone achieving a positive goal difference.
With our up and down results, we'll probably win 2, draw 2 and lose 2 of the final 6...........but we'll probably drop points in the first 2 matches and then pick them up when least expected.............
Despite the immediate banter we'd take a season out of Europe all together is probably what we need.
Gives the next manager a lot of more time on training pitch rather than just preparing for games every 3 days and then recoveries. This can't be underestimated how important this is particularly in a restart.
Gives some of the players we are going to have to keep extra recovery time between games and this season has shown that most of them can't cope with a 60 game season every year.
Gives us an opportunity to trim the squad further with a lot less games to play. Again something a lot of fans what to see.
And finally, and this is just a personal one.....it makes my bank account look a bit better next year with less games to attend.
Conference league or No Europe? That's not even a close contest. I'd choose the latter.
Europa League is different because of the prize on offer but realistically it's still not that easy to win anyway is it? We've failed a few times to win it and Liverpool have an almighty task on their hands to recover it in Italy.
If 8th means no European football then thats not the end of the world for me just this once. Give the next coach more of a chance to bed in a new system in training as I said and go into PL games fresher than a lot of our opponents will be.
comment by Glazers Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 2 hours, 31 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In fairness the manager is checking out too choosing to play this way. If he thinks this open style of football is beneficial for us he's in the wrong career anyway and needs sacking.
A manager is supposed to bring a team together, cover weaknesses and emphasize strengths. He seems to be choosing to do the opposite. Think he wants his P45 and nice little payoff.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He played to the players strengths last season and you said we’ve no style of play.
He tries to implement his style (I’d agree, we don’t have the players to do it) and now he should play pragmatically.
Truth is, this squad is unbalance and lacks a lot of fundamentals required to play the way us fans want them to.
It’s time for Erik to go, that much is clear, but do t be surprised to see him go on and be successful in the right environment.
Sign in if you want to comment
Goal difference
Page 1 of 3
posted on 15/4/24
Who knows, would be nice to see Hojlund get a few. He had his little purple patch but other than that has struggled, but can't blame him much.
I can see our players going into holiday mode soon (if they haven't already), nothing to play for and a manager they don't seem to care for (same old story).
It looks more than likely the PL won't get a 5th CL spot which means 7th will get the Conference League spot and were currently 7th. I'd actually prefer to finish 8th and get the squad to get more time on the training ground next season so maybe we don't wanna be scoring much.
posted on 15/4/24
I honestly have very low hopes of a positive GD? the team is playing very poor, conceding too many goals/attempts on goals and not looking like scoring with any regularity.
The performance at the weekend was up there with one of the worst, and there have been a fair few, this season, fingers crossed we can beat Coventry and then if its City in the final a miracle would be required unless some form is found?
posted on 15/4/24
comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 4 minutes ago
Who knows, would be nice to see Hojlund get a few. He had his little purple patch but other than that has struggled, but can't blame him much.
I can see our players going into holiday mode soon (if they haven't already), nothing to play for and a manager they don't seem to care for (same old story).
It looks more than likely the PL won't get a 5th CL spot which means 7th will get the Conference League spot and were currently 7th. I'd actually prefer to finish 8th and get the squad to get more time on the training ground next season so maybe we don't wanna be scoring much.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
posted on 15/4/24
Sheffield United will be a scrap. We will make them look half decent. Same with Burnley.
Genuinely don't really care now about the remaining games. If anything a few more defeats and missing out on Europe all together might even be a blessing in disguise for us. Playing every 3 days for most of this group is clearly too much for them and sadly we won't be able to shift 20 players in one summer.
Not even confident we beat Coventry. If you give poor teams like Brentford 30 shots, can't beat Bournemouth home or away then Coventry have every chance of causing an upset if they get their tactics correct.
posted on 15/4/24
Mark Robins is really up for this game, I can tell you.
posted on 15/4/24
We are now actually in a very good position to get one of the two remaining of the five top 4 positions this season.
We will win our first 3 quite easily so that's 9 points, then we have two 6 pointers vs top 4 rivals Arsenal and Newcastle so that's a further 12 points if we win those two then Brighton away who have nothing to play for would put us on a total of 24 points from our final 6 games.
Spurs can only realistically get 6 points from their remaining fixtures as they are all tough barring Sheff and Burnley.
That would put them on 66 and us on 74
Villa only have 3 winnable games which would put them on 72.
If Arsenal and Liverpool continue their collapse then our points total above would put us above them.
So we SHOULD get top 4 but it doesn't always work out the way it should.
posted on 15/4/24
We'll beat Coventry. We might be playing some rubbish stuff and concededing far too many shots but they seem to have worse form than use currently losing 3 of their last 5 league games.
posted on 15/4/24
Hopefully you put 4 past Arsenal
posted on 15/4/24
How many league games have we won by more than one goal? Can’t think of many.
Dreadful
posted on 15/4/24
comment by JonVeron (U6514)
posted 6 minutes ago
How many league games have we won by more than one goal? Can’t think of many.
Dreadful
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Says it all doesn't it?
Everton away, Chelsea at home, Westham home off top of my head. Probably been 1 or 2 more maybe.
We've been incredibly unlucky with injuries this season. Having over 30 different back 4 combinations is an absolute disgrace. But there's still no excuse for how badly we are set up. If you're struggling for fit players then I'm sorry you have to play defensive football and try to pick up some results. You can't approach games like a basketball match.
Sick of this manager. Get rid.
posted on 15/4/24
The Chelsea game I'm remembering was in May in last season.
The answer is three. Everton home and away. Westham at home.
3 times in 32 attempts. 😂
posted on 15/4/24
I dont see us finishing with more than a +5 GD, which is shocking.
I did think the injuries would have kept ETH in the job, but performances haven't been good enough. He has to go this Summer.
I just hope we get the football people in soon enough to make the right appointment, and signings.
posted on 15/4/24
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
posted on 15/4/24
We’ll probably get a few goals in these games. Whether we’ll be able to keep them out enough to get a positive gd is a different matter, especially with Arsenal, Newcastle and our nemesis, Palace at Selhurst, in those fixtures.
posted on 15/4/24
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In fairness the manager is checking out too choosing to play this way. If he thinks this open style of football is beneficial for us he's in the wrong career anyway and needs sacking.
A manager is supposed to bring a team together, cover weaknesses and emphasize strengths. He seems to be choosing to do the opposite. Think he wants his P45 and nice little payoff.
posted on 15/4/24
comment by Boris 'Inky’ Gibson (U5901)
posted 27 minutes ago
Hopefully you put 4 past Arsenal
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We put three past Chelsea and look how that turned out.
posted on 15/4/24
comment by Glazers Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In fairness the manager is checking out too choosing to play this way. If he thinks this open style of football is beneficial for us he's in the wrong career anyway and needs sacking.
A manager is supposed to bring a team together, cover weaknesses and emphasize strengths. He seems to be choosing to do the opposite. Think he wants his P45 and nice little payoff.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What would you do to hide our weaknesses and emphasise our strengths?
posted on 15/4/24
comment by The Mainoo Man (U23147)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Glazers Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In fairness the manager is checking out too choosing to play this way. If he thinks this open style of football is beneficial for us he's in the wrong career anyway and needs sacking.
A manager is supposed to bring a team together, cover weaknesses and emphasize strengths. He seems to be choosing to do the opposite. Think he wants his P45 and nice little payoff.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What would you do to hide our weaknesses and emphasise our strengths?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
With the injuries and complete lack of form I'd set up like Ole had us. Very deep, compact and hit counter attacks.
When you watch us we don't seem to know what the word compact means. You could literally park a jumbo jet into some of the gaps we leave.
If this the style of football we want to see forever? Absolutely not. But we are capable of playing any other way right now with key players missing and no form in hardly anyone? Again no.
A manager has to get results. Before you implement the grand design and style you have to get results..
posted on 15/4/24
The way we play with the players we have is far too open. There is no connection between the defence and the midfield and the forwards - we don't defend or attack as a unit. We seem to rely on moments of individual brilliance and sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn't - that's why in the vast majority of games we don't win comfortably, because we don't control games. So depending on how well we take our chances, we either scrape a win, or we lose, sometimes badly.
But we let in too many and we don't score enough, and we don't do anything on the pitch very well.
But the fact that we don't always look like we are trying, that is the worst for me.
I'm not sure if the players have ever been on the same page as ETH, maybe not down tools, but are really giving their all for the manager. And there's nowhere for the manager to go from there
posted on 15/4/24
Our problem is accomdating Bruno, who is our most potent player, and is best as a 10.
posted on 15/4/24
Unless there is a change in how our current front 3 go about their defensive duties, I can just see us being consistently runover in midfield.
This was discussed in another thread, and even if we had said Rice alongside Mainoo, unless Bruno and the front 3 are a lot more disciplined in tracking back, we would just get overrun.
That's why in the short-term I suggested dropping one of the front 3 to accommodate an extra midfielder - we could have Mainoo, Casemiro and say Mount in there, with Bruno behind the top 2.
Of course is may make us more narrow, but the top 2 would just have to play as a pair and run the channels, and it would give us that extra body in midfield.
But without the team playing 'as a team', any system won't work
posted on 15/4/24
At the moment it is hard to see us winning a game let alone achieving a positive goal difference.
posted on 15/4/24
With our up and down results, we'll probably win 2, draw 2 and lose 2 of the final 6...........but we'll probably drop points in the first 2 matches and then pick them up when least expected.............
posted on 15/4/24
Despite the immediate banter we'd take a season out of Europe all together is probably what we need.
Gives the next manager a lot of more time on training pitch rather than just preparing for games every 3 days and then recoveries. This can't be underestimated how important this is particularly in a restart.
Gives some of the players we are going to have to keep extra recovery time between games and this season has shown that most of them can't cope with a 60 game season every year.
Gives us an opportunity to trim the squad further with a lot less games to play. Again something a lot of fans what to see.
And finally, and this is just a personal one.....it makes my bank account look a bit better next year with less games to attend.
Conference league or No Europe? That's not even a close contest. I'd choose the latter.
Europa League is different because of the prize on offer but realistically it's still not that easy to win anyway is it? We've failed a few times to win it and Liverpool have an almighty task on their hands to recover it in Italy.
If 8th means no European football then thats not the end of the world for me just this once. Give the next coach more of a chance to bed in a new system in training as I said and go into PL games fresher than a lot of our opponents will be.
posted on 15/4/24
comment by Glazers Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 2 hours, 31 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 minute ago
The players have checked out again, that much is obvious.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In fairness the manager is checking out too choosing to play this way. If he thinks this open style of football is beneficial for us he's in the wrong career anyway and needs sacking.
A manager is supposed to bring a team together, cover weaknesses and emphasize strengths. He seems to be choosing to do the opposite. Think he wants his P45 and nice little payoff.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He played to the players strengths last season and you said we’ve no style of play.
He tries to implement his style (I’d agree, we don’t have the players to do it) and now he should play pragmatically.
Truth is, this squad is unbalance and lacks a lot of fundamentals required to play the way us fans want them to.
It’s time for Erik to go, that much is clear, but do t be surprised to see him go on and be successful in the right environment.
Page 1 of 3