mrfahaji

Ignore post, was about Yoshida but I thought he was back from injury...

No he said that AFTER the match!

Presumably he said that Redmond "reminded him of a young Thierry Henry"? Which is not the same. But of course, everyone likes to ignore the context and get carried away. It might be quite funny think of that comparison now, but I didn't think anyone took those comments to seriously mean he thought Redmond would end up anywhere near as good as Henry...

My comment was more about how ridiculous Pellegrino's comment was, when 10/11 players are playing pretty regularly. Redmond was the ONLY one to fit his description, so presumably that's who he meant. Redmond frustrates the hell out of me, but he has played well at times (under Puel, not this season), so I don't think he's a lost cause. The frustrating thing is that he always plays on the left, which means he always cuts in and then passes backwards, plus it means Tadic goes to the right where he is generally poor. It is true that Sims showed in 5 minutes the sort of thing that I would like to see more from Redmond. Either he needs to coached to be braver with the ball at his feet, or he needs to be coached be more effective at cutting in (i.e. actually be a goal threat). But I don't think that's going to come from Pellegrino - he just does the same thing over and over. I don't really like Guardiola, but I reckon if he had Redmond in his squad (and had to play him), he would make him a better, maybe even good, player.

People are teeing them up for you left, right and centre on this thread

After the game Pellegrino said the match was not only a good result, but also a good opportunity to give players a game who haven’t had much time on the pitch lately. Given the line up was McCarthy, Cedric, Hoedt, Stephens, Bertrand, PEH, Lemina, JWP, Tadic, Carrillo & Redmond... I’m taking that to mean “this match was purely for Redders!”

Seems like the main positive is that he “gives us a focal point”, “tries hard” and “puts himself about”. Nothing wrong with those traits. But you do have to hope for a bit more than that from a £19m striker. It’s still early days of course, but equally we are not in a position where we can wait months for him to find his feet.

BBC are listing us as home, so was a bit confused. Looks like the BBC have just got it wrong. Amazing how poor their reporting is sometimes.

This. The sort of thing we would like to see more from Redmond.

Can't believe he is still going with this tactic/formation...!

Criminal that (apparently) Pellegrini was in the frame to take over from Koeman and we didn't want him. I think what's more likely is Pellegrino called Les Reed, said he'd like to apply, Reed asked him his name: "Mauricio P..." "You're hired!"

That's akin to a Formula 1 driver crashing and then claiming it's good because the spectators enjoy a pile up.

Number 5 is already covered by number 1. Number 2 really doesn't matter. Number 3 is our business model. It's not a bad strategy but we haven't executed it right. Scouting quality has worsened and we have taken too much of a 1-for-1 approach. "Sell for big sum -> use money to buy 2 or 3 good players" is ok, "Sell for big sum -> use money to buy 1 replacement and pocket profit" is not.

The best way to play in the Premier League definitely starts with getting relegated from it in the first place...

From what I know, Boro fans are happy with Pulis after Monk. They're glad to actually see the ball in the opposition penalty area once in a while, and the individual players look like they have a better idea of what they're doing. Plus, they are sniffing around the playoffs after looking destined for nothing more than a midtable position when Pulis came in. I'm not saying they'll stay happy with his tactics forever, and I wouldn't want him here, but I'm not sure what you've said is true about his job at Middlesbrough so far.

I seem to recall that Forester was a fan of Puel but not of Pellegrino. He might be a little bit OTT on the "you got what you wanted" mantra in that respect, but I would say that his posts are generally reasoned and he's not a "the club can do no wrong" type.

Pellegrino isn't much better than either of them. And as for being 'scarred' by Gray, while I concur that he was awful, Lowe acted quickly at the start of the season and appointed Strachan (no, I don't want him back), who did fantastically for us.

Although I voted to sack him, I do appreciate Fan the Flames' reason for going with 'back him'. The idea that we'd now have to appoint a second rate/choice manager who would be an improvement but not necessarily enough of one to keep us up, added to the fact that if a short term option isn't there (eg Silva), we could be lumbered with someone like Mark Hughes for the foreseeable future, while all those good managers go elsewhere in the summer. BUT, those 'good' managers aren't coming to us in the Championship, so it really comes down to whether you think Pellegrino can scrape survival or not. I'm not sure he can.

adriansfc hasn't voted yet, his could go either way.

Always remember him interfering in the Pahars work permit stuff. He is a sickening human being. Never done anything other than feather his own nest. Looks like that's worked out pretty well for him though, unfortunately.

That's a better one

Because he is smug, a bit thick, and stubborn to boot? He obviously doesn't want us to be rubbish, but perhaps has such a sense of self-importance and expertise that he can't acknowledge that he is wrong?

I think the focus on being able to score goals is misplaced. It's much more important for teams at the bottom to be tight at the back. You can find examples either way, but we didn't get relegated in 2005 because we couldn't score. When you're at the top of the league you have to score goals because you lose ground every time you don't win, and teams set up to defend against you. At the bottom, a 0-0 followed by 1-0 is probably good enough to climb one or two places. Even the poorest attacking teams can find a way to create or take a chance now and again. Our problem is that we're not great in attack, and shaky at the back. We invaraibly need to score two or three times to win a game, and we're (understandably) not capable of that.

Not buying success, but breeding it.

Shocking news that a player championed by Pellegrino might be sh1t. (edit: I'm not writing him off yet, obviously it was a bit of an impossible job yesterday. But doesn't change the fact that we let this clueless manager choose the centre forward we need to get us out of relegation).