Ultimately, after last night's performance, I'm kind of scratching my head. It all seemed to be so on course last year and now we've fallen off a cliff. But maybe we just need to consider the question of "lady luck".
Maybe last year we overachieved because we were pretty lucky. We had good cup draws. We had Rashford bailing us out with goals as he hit the form of his life. We had a good run without injuries (at least until late March).
This year has been quite the opposite. Anything that could have gone wrong has. The injuries in defence have been significant. The "play out from the back" goalie has a makeshift defence that can't deal with that. The margin of Garnacho's offside vs Arsenal (how different if going into the international break on the back of a win at the Emirates would things have been?). The non-football problems with Sancho and Antony.
So maybe things will improve with a turnaround of fortune but I definitely think we were overhyped coming into this season.
Good luck and bad luck
posted on 2/11/23
I'm also wondering whether last season's efforts has had an impact this season.
Plenty of players went to the well last term and were, IMO, overplayed. We saw it with Liverpool last season to an extent where they went from nearly winning the lot to finishing outside the CL places.
posted on 2/11/23
There will always been moments of good luck and bad luck in football (or any walk of life). But from a footballing perspective, there has to be things that a team can fall back on when the things aren't going well; a robust defence, the ability to create chances and get goals, work rate etc... All of these things are MIA.
- It's not bad luck that our man-to-man midfield system doesn't work.
- It's not bad luck that the distance between our CF and defensive line is massive, leaving the midfielders with so much ground to cover and gifting the opposition the freedom of the pitch on the counter.
- It's not bad luck that time and time again, the opposition beat our high press with a simple clipped ball to the fullback on the opposite side of the press.
- And it's not bad luck that we are struggling to create any chances at all.
I don't want us to sack another manager, but I also can't see how ETH can suddenly turn this around from here.
posted on 2/11/23
We had our share of bad luck last season too, Verane and Martinez getting injured in the same game and subsequently losing form/ being knocked out of Europa, we may well have gone on to win that.
The injuries this season have been abysmal, our whole defence out for the majority of the games so far, Mount getting injured, Hoijlund starting injured.
The Greenwood and Antony situations.
We've had bad luck with decisions, e.g VAR ruling out goals vs Brighton & Burnley, penalty against Hoijlund vs City but not given one vs Arsenal. We seems to be setting of a precedent all the time.
You can say we've been unlucky, we probably have, but ultimately we're also playing with fear, a lack of risk and freedom, we can't score and we make individual errors in defence every single game. The midfield hasn't been fixed even though we've signed 4 since ETH joined.
The stadiums roof is leaking, the training ground is below average, the medical team are making mistakes, our pre-season was a shambles, the club sale fell through, we keep hiring footballing directors from the finance department.
The club is a mess.
posted on 2/11/23
"It's not bad luck that time and time again, the opposition beat our high press with a simple clipped ball to the fullback on the opposite side of the press."
Called this from the stands during the Brighton game, and haven't been able to unsee it since.
posted on 2/11/23
Iv been saying for a while, our high press is half hearted.
Once they get past this, the midfield is too stretched and the defence too deep.
posted on 2/11/23
comment by U12215 (U22987)
posted 25 minutes ago
Iv been saying for a while, our high press is half hearted.
Once they get past this, the midfield is too stretched and the defence too deep.
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Very true. Hoijlund and Antony are the only ones who press with any intent, the rest are doing it at 50%, Rashford not even that.
posted on 2/11/23
One great thing about sacking the manager Busby is Antony will never ever ever play for this club again hopefully.
He will be back at Ajax on loan before you can say fidget spinner. The sooner the better really.
posted on 2/11/23
comment by Glazers Out (SE85) (U21241)
posted 22 minutes ago
One great thing about sacking the manager Busby is Antony will never ever ever play for this club again hopefully.
He will be back at Ajax on loan before you can say fidget spinner. The sooner the better really.
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I think Antony is pretty gash, but even he has more in his locker than what he's showing at the moment. The most worrying thing for me is that even ETH's own guys look poor.
Onana has been a catastrophe prior to the last couple of games. Martinez started the season looking really poor, though his injury surely contributed to that.
I thought Mount was decent last night actually, though whatever role he was signed for is no longer clear given ETH has had to change things up so much.
Donny can't get a look in despite becoming a coveted player under ETH.
Difficult to really make sense of what's happened since the League Cup win last season, where we noticeably dropped off. This season is levels worse though.
posted on 2/11/23
The club needs to tune out the noise and get grinding.
Lots of panic started by the media and it's going to seep into the dressing room. What they did with Arteta when things got tough is exactly what we need to do with ETH.
3 Stars for me
posted on 2/11/23
Oh wrong thread. Voted 3 stars in the other thread