Elia Viviani rides the mens road race at the European Championships this morning, finishing 7th, then turns up for the elimination race on the velodrome track this evening and wins.
Fixtures schmixtures, you have to play everybody else twice in a season. Perhaps a run of games like we had at the end of last season would help; Brentford, Watford, Palace, Burnley, all defeats in our tremendous run of 13 league games with 1 win.
How many teams play 4 at the back ? How unusual a system is it ? How can anybody say it would take time for a player to learn the system ? Even 20 year old top flight professionals have been playing and getting tactical coaching for probably 12 years. All our new signings have come from academies at top division clubs. None were making their first first team appearances.
You misunderstand schadenfreude - you cannot take pleasure from somebody else's misfortune when you are in exactly the same situation, you end up laughing at yourself.