Ultimatt

Will a different manager that's undoubtedly recently been sacked elsewhere make a difference? Whoever the replacement is won't be a class above MoPe and he'll still have the same impotent attack. Will it be worth the £6m+ we have to pay out to MoPe 4 months into a 36 month contract? We need to start cutting the fat and investing in quality in January and properly plan how we'll spend the VVD money.

Sacking the manager will do nothing other than burn another £6m+ hole the clubs pockets. The squad sucks at scoring! No manager can change that! None of our players have ever been prolific throughout their career. Almost all our transfers in the last couple years have been other teams leftovers; Gabbi/Hojbjerg/Redmond/McCarthy/Lemina/Hoedt were ALL bench/rotation players at their last clubs. We've rebuilt our team with players not good enough for Norwich/Crystal Palace/Lazio/Napoli. Gabbi has a TOTAL of 50 career goals and he turns 26 this week. Pelle literally scored that many in the 57 games before he joined us. Redmond couldn't lockdown a starting place at a relegated Norwich. Tadic's strength is crossing/assisting and since selling Pelle we have no strength/size in the box anymore so he's useless. Teams can easily sit back against us and constantly head away cross after cross against our lightweight short team, and that's exactly what they do. And then I see all these posts saying Redmond/Tadic should both be dropped. One spot for Boufal but who's the 2nd winger? Shane Long playing out wide? lol... an injured Sims? nope. Are we pinning our hopes on a green McQueen? That's literally all the wingers we have. Redmond/Tadic/Boufal. And yet the club decided to buy another CM so we now have 6 (Romeu/Lemina/Davis/JWP/Hojbjerg/Clasie) none of which can play AM well. And we also bought another CB making 6 of those too (VVD/Hoedt/Yoshida/Stephens/Gardos/Bednarek). We have our English trio of goalkeepers (Forster/McCarthy/Taylor) none of which are anywhere close to the national team now. The squad balance is horrible. Mediocrity all over the place. Worse still we've given all these average players 5 year deals to ward off other teams except no one wants them. All they need to do is turn up and they pocket £20m over the next 5 years. What a life. The Sky TV money came in and we all saw clubs spending crazy money. We did the opposite and actually made transfer profit. To expect to not regress when other clubs strengthened and we weakened is insanity. Is MoPe a top manager? I don't think so. But if you all scapegoat another manager the next one won't last the year either. We all know the club will find another leftover; a manager without a job. Put the blame where it belongs; at the board for being cheap and at the recruiters for buying more CM's/Defenders/GK's instead of proper goalscorers. This is the toughest league in the world. We can't afford to be cheap if we want to finish top half.

You can't seriously think this squad is capable of top 6. We only just made top 6 in a freak season where Leicester won and even West Ham finished only 1 point behind us, and that was with Mane/Pelle/Wanyama who are without doubt better than Redmond/Gabbi/Romeu. Last season the club decided to be cheapskates, weakened the team, and actually made transfer profit while other clubs invested the big Sky TV money. Look back at the start of season expectations thread and I recall a lot of people predicting 10th or worse in the league. It was obvious we'd weakened.

Sell 2. Buy 1 quality CF and bring Gallagher back. Do the same with our midfield. We don't need 6 CM's (Romeu/Lemina/Davis/Hojbjerg/JWP/Clasie). Sell 2, buy a better AM than Davis, promote Hesketh or Reed. Do the same with our defence. We don't need 6 CB's (VVD/Hoedt/Yoshida/Stephens/Bednarek/Gardos). Sell 2, buy a better attacking winger. Squad built for Europe and we couldn't be farther from qualifying for it again.

If it was his choice to change strategy and only recruit players based on resale potential then out. If it's the boards decision then not his fault. Buying a bunch of 20-24 year olds that were all getting limited game time at their last club is a recipe for disaster. Whoever made that decision: out.

Copying my post from another thread because I feel it's the player recruitment and not manager. Just a bunch of **** poor transfer decisions since Koeman left. Love him or hate him, Koeman didn't give two ****s about the academy and only wanted to buy players that could have an immediate impact. He got his way and we got some quality like-for-like replacements for Lambert/Lallana/JRod with Pelle/Mane/Tadic in to complement our strong core. Then we sold our 2 best attackers and only physical CM and replaced them with 3 lightweight 2014/15 team: Forster, Clyne, Fonte, Alderweireld, Bertrand, Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Davis, Tadic, Pelle, Mane 2016/17 team: Forster, Cedric, Yoshida, VVD, Bertrand, Romeu, JWP, Davis, Tadic, Austin, Redmond The board stopped buying players to win and started buying players with potential high resale value. The only reason Redmond was bought and plays so much is because he's young and English. The only reason Forster is still here, let alone got a f'ing contract extension is because he's English. We bought Hojbjerg/Gabbiadini/Lemina/Hoedt not because they were good players in form but because they were at a decent club that no longer wanted/needed them. If they came good then $$$ resale value. Gabbi turns 26 in a week and only has a TOTAL of 50 career league goals. He'd only started 7 matches in the 6 months before we bought him. The man he's replaced, Pelle, scored 50 in 57 games the 2 years before we bought him. Hojbjerg was a bench player at Schalke with just 17 starts the season before we bought him. Lemina was a bench player at Juventus with only 8 starts the season before we bought him. McCarthy was a bench player at Palace with only 7 starts the season before we bought him. Redmond was a bench player at relegated Norwich with only 24 starts the season before we bought him. Hoedt was a bench player at Lazio with only 21 starts the season before we bought him. We've filled our team with a bunch of other clubs rejects. Is it any surprise that so far only 1 of them (Lemina) looks good? What the hell did the board expect. When you think about the spending power the premier league has, we could easily outbid almost every other European team, and yet instead of buying quality in-form players we buy leftovers. The reality is that there's no way we'll compete with other Premier League teams who are buying ready-made players when we're only buying players with potential. It reeks of arrogance. We have a chance to fix things next summer if we stay up this year. Sell VVD + Bertrand for £80m+. Sell the fringe players in our bloated made-for-europe squad and buy QUALITY. £25m for a striker, £25m for an AM, £25m for a winger.

Just a bunch of **** poor transfer decisions since Koeman left. Love him or hate him, Koeman didn't give two ****s about the academy and only wanted to buy players that could have an immediate impact. He got his way and we got some quality like-for-like replacements for Lambert/Lallana/JRod with Pelle/Mane/Tadic in to complement our strong core. Then we sold our 2 best attackers and only physical CM and replaced them with 3 lightweight 2014/15 team: Forster, Clyne, Fonte, Alderweireld, Bertrand, Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Davis, Tadic, Pelle, Mane 2016/17 team: Forster, Cedric, Yoshida, VVD, Bertrand, Romeu, JWP, Davis, Tadic, Austin, Redmond The board stopped buying players to win and started buying players with potential high resale value. The only reason Redmond was bought and plays so much is because he's young and English. The only reason Forster is still here, let alone got a f'ing contract extension is because he's English. We bought Hojbjerg/Gabbiadini/Lemina/Hoedt not because they were good players in form but because they were at a decent club that no longer wanted/needed them. If they came good then $$$ resale value. Gabbi turns 26 in a week and only has a TOTAL of 50 career league goals. He'd only started 7 matches in the 6 months before we bought him. The man he's replaced, Pelle, scored 50 in 57 games the 2 years before we bought him. Hojbjerg was a bench player at Schalke with just 17 starts the season before we bought him. Lemina was a bench player at Juventus with only 8 starts the season before we bought him. McCarthy was a bench player at Palace with only 7 starts the season before we bought him. Redmond was a bench player at relegated Norwich with only 24 starts the season before we bought him. Hoedt was a bench player at Lazio with only 21 starts the season before we bought him. We've filled our team with a bunch of other clubs rejects. Is it any surprise that so far only 1 of them (Lemina) looks good? What the hell did the board expect. When you think about the spending power the premier league has, we could easily outbid almost every other European team, and yet instead of buying quality in-form players we buy leftovers. The reality is that there's no way we'll compete with other Premier League teams who are buying ready-made players when we're only buying players with potential. It reeks of arrogance.

You may be right but it's not a sure thing that Mitchell knew him. In fact i'd be surprised if he paid attention to a 10-13 year old since that would be a huge waste of his time. Mitchell does seem quality though.

IMO they do speak to the quality of the shots. De Bruyne scores from outside the box on an angle. I swear Redmonds shot from that exact place probably 30 times the last year and hasn't scored once. Swap Gabbi/Redmond/Tadic/Davis for Aguero/Sane/Silva/KDB and we'd be top 4 comfortably. The difference in quality is outstanding. Players that know how to move, linkup, find a yard of space and place their shots.

Now? The terms been around a long time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-football. It's the modern day catenaccio.

2016/17 stats from Premierleague.com Shots: 1. Liverpool 199 2. Man City 194 3. Spurs 191 4. Arsenal 184 =5. Man Utd 157 =5. Southampton 157 7. Chelsea 151 We're amongst the big 6 for shots taken. Passes: 1. Man City 7,921 2. Arsenal 6,740 3. Liverpool 6,304 4. Spurs 6,187 5. Saints 5,876 6. Man Utd 5,623 7. Chelsea 5,524 We're amongst the big 6 for possession. Through balls: 1. Arsenal 39 2. Man City 32 3. Man Utd 26 4. Spurs 18 5. Chelsea 17 6. Saints 15 11. Liverpool 10 We're amongst the big 6 for through balls. Backwards passes: 1. Man City 1,257 2. Spurs 926 3. Arsenal 902 4. Liverpool 893 5. Saints 869 6. Man Utd 807 7. Chelsea 790 The same sort of percentage of our passes are backwards as the big 6. They control the ball and play similar tempo to us. Corners: 1. Spurs 80 2. Saints 77 3. Man City 73 4. Man Utd 73 6. Arsenal 67 7. Liverpool 61 9. Chelsea 58 Crosses: 1. Saints 262 2. Spurs 261 3. Man Utd 253 =6. Liverpool 220 =6. Man City 220 17. Chelsea 193 20. Arsenal 155 We're putting a ton of balls into the box. All those stats look great, but irrelevant because football is about 1 thing. It doesn't matter how beautiful you play, how many passes you made, how many men you beat if at the end you don't score. Our squad is technically solid but we fail at the 2 most important things: Finishing and Goalkeeping. Goals: 1. Man City 38 2. Man Utd 23 3. Liverpool 21 =4. Arsenal 20 =4. Spurs 20 6. Chelsea 19 15. Saints 9 Shots per goal: Man City 5.1 Man Utd 6.8 Chelsea 7.9 Arsenal 9.2 Liverpool 9.5 Spurs 9.6 Saints 17.4 Like with Puel, we're controlling games and usually creating more chances than our opponents, but they're clinical when it counts and we're anything but. Our squad is full of players who just haven't been big goal scorers throughout their careers. It's not the manager fault. It's the players he's been given. "Do I care if it's a walk or a hit? He gets on base." - Billy Beane

Uhh.. the same Burnley that literally only had 1 shot on target, 3 in total against us? I don't think we've ever had as few shots as that since coming back to the prem. We can be boring but we're never anti-football like half these PL teams.

The big failure was the 2016 summer. The club changed strategy with a view to sign young unpolished players, shifting from Koeman's demands for players that instantly had an impact. We made a good manager appointment in Puel who has a history of developing younger players. We spent all our Mane/Pelle money on young "potential" players in Boufal/Redmond/Hojbjerg. Unfortunately the three of them haven't delivered at the level we need. The club needs to decide whether they want to continue this strategy and build/nurture this young team with a view of challenging the top 7 in 3 or 4 years, or whether to cut their losses and buy some ready-made players like Koeman did.

The strategy of long contracts to keep players leaving is great on the assumption that the players are wanted by big clubs. Long contract extensions on players VVD/Bertrand? Great idea. Implementing this strategy 2/3 years ago when most of our first team was wanted by big clubs? Great idea. Implementing it now to players that are at the highest level they'll ever get? Awful. The board had this great idea to tie everyone down and build a team going forward, except their timing was abysmal. What we have now is the majority of our players not good enough for CL football and on wages that other clubs won't beat, which drives out most of their incentive to perform and improve. Why work your ass off when you're already locked in for £4m/year for the next 5 years and won't be getting a better deal. What a life. Better yet, have the worst season of your career and get a 1 year contract extension when you still had 4 years left. Our boards gone mad. Spurs put in the same strategy; young team, long contracts. Right now it looks to be paying dividends but that's because their players are actually quality and wanted by big clubs. IMO it's not going to stop their team getting picked apart as their players still want out but they'll get great transfer fees from the long contracts.

No point getting rid of MoPe before June (we suck but we won't get relegated). If our form doesn't improve then a new manager can come in and have a window with £90m kitty (VVD + Bertrand fees) to get the players he wants to suit his system.

Have they? Gabbi a bench player at Napoli when we bought him. 50 goals in 205 league games. (0.244) Redmond 18 goals in 174 league games before joining us, with most of those being in the Championship. (.115) Tadic with a good 2 seasons at Twente, but only 11 goals in 65 league games under Koeman. (.243) Boufal with 1 good season at Lille, otherwise only 14 goals in his other 118 league games. (.170) Davis 33 goals in 437 league games, with his most prolific season being 6 goals for a dominant Rangers in the SPL. (.076) Romeu 3 goals in 175 league games. (.017) Bertrand 6 goals in 290 league games. (.021) Cedric 2 goals in 151 league games. (.013) Yoshida 15 goals in 236 league games. (.064) VVD 20 goals in 193 league games. (.104) Our entire starting 11 averages a combined 1.067 goals a game over their careers. The fact is our attacking players just aren't very good. Combine that with a keeper incapable of keeping anything within a foot of the post out and we have a lower-table quality team.

What's a manager supposed to do with our players? Our attackers lack quality plain and simple. In the same way Everton have gone from 7th to relegation with the loss of a quality striker, so have we after Pelle/Mane weren't properly replaced. It's not as simple as clicking his fingers to turn players like Davis, Tadic, Redmond into goalscorers when at no point in their careers have they been good at that.

Bloated squad built for Europe when our time in Europe is done for the foreseeable future. 1. Quality players 2. Depth ^ Pick one. We're not rich enough for both. The board are continuing with option #2, replacing every player we sell with a £10-£20m new first teamer and it's seen our quality deteriorate the last couple of years. The pathway from the Academy is well and truly blocked with most of our young players getting barely any minutes to help them grow. Players 24yo or younger: Player(Age) - Minutes Redmond(23) - 698 Lemina(23) - 575 Hoedt(23) - 360 Stephens(23) - 360 JWP(23) - 256 Boufal(24) - 233 McQueen(22) - 20 Hojbjerg(22) - 6 Targett(22) - 0 Bednarek(21) - 0 Sims(20) - 0 Only 2 of our young players have played at least 5 out of 10 games. Academy: Stephens(23) - 360 JWP(23) - 256 McQueen(22) - 20 Targett(22) - 0 Sims(20) - 0 Hesketh(21) - 0 Gallagher, Seager, Reed, Lewis & Olomola out on loan. Would like us to start trusting the youth again as rotation players which frees up money to buy better 1st team players in that £20-£30m bracket.

Top drawer dive this, first touching the ball when it's already a foot inside the goal. He just gets next to no spring out of his feet, can't cover anywhere near the same ground as the majority of other keepers. Any shot within a yard of either post and it's a goal. Maybe that injury really did ruin him but them's the breaks for professional athletes.

Also agree. IMO the fans were the main reason the board got rid with low ST sales and the constant booing. Love him or hate him, Reed is wise enough to see Puel was doing a decent job with our squad but took the easy scapegoat. Should've never got rid without a good appointment lined up.

On track for another contract extension based on what happened last season. Get the sticky ready mods.

This was Fonte at the start of Puel's tenure. Hugely toxic to the dressing room. I don't think VVD is anywhere near as bad.

All our attacking players are 1.82m or shorter with the exception of Austin (1.88m) who doesn't play. We have no physical presence up front.

Finding the shoes are too big to fill following on from the quality Puel. What he managed to do with this squad was decent, Pellegrino with actual backing from the board in transfers is getting nowhere.

1st headed goal since January 2016, and it bounced first so not sure we should count it.