I hate praising them but...

They played for the shirt and fair play to them. If our players had that attitude, we would be challenging for the title.

SE85 - if we play good football then I think, with the calibre of players who should still be able to attract, then top 4 would follow. More consistent and entertaining performances is what I want too.

comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (U2462)
posted 5 minutes ago
SE85 - if we play good football then I think, with the calibre of players who should still be able to attract, then top 4 would follow. More consistent and entertaining performances is what I want too.
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You'd think so wouldn't you.

Erik's made some absolutely unforgivable mistakes for me but the biggest one of all is basically giving up on implementing a proper style. We play very similarly to what we did when he first arrived. There's been very little he's changed in terms of style.

I actually preferred watching us under Ole tbh and we know we were never going to win any of the major trophies under him. It was more fun than this tripe though. It comes as no surprise to me that 6 of our biggest 7 margin wins post Fergie came under Ole as manager.

Come back Pidier

I have just watched a you tube video of all of our games in the 2002 / 2003 season highlights.

One of the main things to strike me was just how often we put crosses into the six yard box and how not just the attackers bit the midfielders were there to meet the ball.

Now we are luck if we put in two or three crosses in a game.

comment by Roy's Keane (U11635)
posted 15 minutes ago
Come back Pidier
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I'd have preferred to see his article than this to be honest!

comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 13 minutes ago
I have just watched a you tube video of all of our games in the 2002 / 2003 season highlights.

One of the main things to strike me was just how often we put crosses into the six yard box and how not just the attackers bit the midfielders were there to meet the ball.

Now we are luck if we put in two or three crosses in a game.
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I think part of that is that it seems in modern football teams don't like to lose possession crossing it in just in case they get caught on the break. But, to score you do need to take risks and get people in the box. In any case safety first isn't working anyway as we get caught on the break quite often anyway.

The only time we seem to have a concerted amount of pressure is when we're chasing a game or, on occasion, where we start quickly.

I think we really need to improve the physicality in the squad to help us compete again properly. We need athletes in there to compliment our better players (most of whom are quite lightweight really).

comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (U2462)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Roy's Keane (U11635)
posted 15 minutes ago
Come back Pidier
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I'd have preferred to see his article than this to be honest!
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I think we really need to improve the physicality in the squad to help us compete again properly. We need athletes in there to compliment our better players (most of whom are quite lightweight really).

.............

I alluded to this in my thread on Saturdays game. We have too many players who are physically weak.

comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 1 hour, 32 minutes ago
I think we really need to improve the physicality in the squad to help us compete again properly. We need athletes in there to compliment our better players (most of whom are quite lightweight really).

.............

I alluded to this in my thread on Saturdays game. We have too many players who are physically weak.
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Most teams have athletes now don't they? Unless they're superb technicians like Pep's Barca (Chelsea still troubled them though) then you need an element of physically. Even Wenger's best Arsenal had a mean side to them and could mix it.