FC Midtjylland 1 Saints 0 - Post Match reaction

[obelisk]

Come on chaps. This has been coming for months. Saints inability to convert chances was bound to be undone once the defensive rock was broken.

 

A year ago that would have been a sneaky 0-1 but now the lack of creativity is being undermined by goals conceded. I wonder what the stat results are for a player receiving the ball and turning back towards his own goal.

 

It's just not possible to rebuild a team season after season on the back of selling your best players. We look average at best. Relegation candidates at worst.

[positivepete]

Feel really flat after that. One thing that annoys me when we beat a better side is the comment that that side played badly rather than we played well. So firstly hats off to the winners tonight, I hate their style of football but they did a job on us over the two games and deserved to win the tie.

 

I do not often disagree with Koeman but having said what I have above we did not play better then the opponents for more than about a ten minute spell after Tadic came on and we changed the shape. As soon as they readjusted to our change it was back to the same pattern over the whole tie. I would expect with our superior players that we should be able impose our own game rather than get dragged into their negative style. We looked like a poor West Ham, Stoke or West Brom. Why have we abandoned our passing style of play? I would not mind losing if we played with some cohesion. I accept that that was in part because our opponents executed their game plan well, but I would expect to have overcome that.

 

Let us hope for some retail therapy in the remaining days of the transfer market, though I fear our exit from Europe may well put potential signings in doubt.

 

Off to bed now. Train back to Copenhagen in the morning, and a night out there to get over this performance, then back to the Norwich game. Hope the players respond positively on Sunday.

Edited 27 August, 2015 by positivepete

[CanadaSaint]

I can understand why you believe Clasie can play in front of Romeu and Wanyama but as a Feyenoord fan I've seen his games for a couple of years and I can't see him play more upfront. He can pass allright but he lacks the power and handling skills needed for that position in the fast paced PL. That's why many Feyenoord fans believed he would have been better off in the Italian Serie A where you still can see Totti walking around with a stick...

 

I appreciate your informed insight but that makes him a rather expensive gamble, doesn't it?

 

If not that one, what role can you see him fulfilling effectively?

[sotonnick]

Match report is now up on my blog: http://theitchenperspective.blogspot.co.uk/

[Vancouver Saint]

Do you think this truly crap start to the season is all part of RK's tactic to persuade the board to invest in replacements before the transfer window closes?

[Pat from Poole]

Who was the complete weirdo in our end towards the back with the dark sunglasses?

 

Given that he seemed to be spending much of the game looking at this message board on his phone, I presume he's on here. Beyond me why you would travel all that way to watch a game and then faff about on your phone. Still, whatever floats your boat and all that.

[CB Fry]

Do you think this truly crap start to the season is all part of RK's tactic to persuade the board to invest in replacements before the transfer window closes?

No.

[Whitey Grandad]

Do you think this truly crap start to the season is all part of RK's tactic to persuade the board to invest in replacements before the transfer window closes?

I would think that going out of Europe would mean less need for new players.

[Doctoroncall]

Credit where credit is due, Midtjylland were the much better team over the 2 legs. Impressive defending and organisation, and we couldn't break them down.

 

So disappointed to be out considering all the hard work of last season is now effectively meaningless, but at least it gives us the opportunity to focus on maintaining our league performance.

 

I'm worried about that now, although I'm sure things will get better. Big expectations on Clasie's shoulders to help the midfield.

 

Why can't we at least defend and be well organised? I thought that was the purpose of the playing philosophy regardless of age group, all playing the same way easy to move up, players now what they should do and their playing partner. Something isn't quite right.

[david in sweden]

OK so forget the torrential rain throughout the match-it was the same for both sides - right?...and Jay Rod's mistake to let in their goal won't help his confidence either, but it didn't help the concept of Saints' midfield passing game with both sides resorting to the " big boot upfield" in an attempt to clear their lines.

The fact is that over the two legs we had 60%+ possession and 35 shots (very few of those on target) and managed just one goal. We have 4 strikers (all of whom have form or fitness problems) - and no sign of a regular goalscoring saviour. We've scored one in the last 4 games and that a penalty.

 

There can be little doubt that the departures of these last two summers have created gaps in the structure that can't be easily ignored.

Those of us who like stats. might point out that the successful "Pochettino season" included half a dozen players who had been with the club for (at least 4-5 seasons ) and at least 8 of the regular side had been at the club for at least 2-3 complete seasons. He was lucky, and basically only upped the tempo - and bought Osvaldo.

 

The loss of last summer's "defectors" seemed almost to pass unnoticed with our "best-ever" stats .....but now comes the "Lord Mayor's show".

The real surprise was not that we finished 7th, but that Koeman had managed to "gell " so many new players into a successful unit, and made us look good.

 

I won't denegrate the departure of Clyne, but losing both Schneiderlin and Alderweireld (who tbf played like he'd been in the side for 2-3 years) really tipped the balance and we are beginning to look like the " traditional Saints' Prem. side " struggling to get mid-table safety, with Fonte, Yoshida and Stephen Davis being the only established outfield players from 3 years ago.

 

This season will be a test of Koeman's ability to create " yet another " new Saints team and the prospect of a midtable finish with along with WHam, Stoke and Palace would seem to be "a satisfactory season". It may take a year or two more to stage the next challenge for a top six place and another shot at Europa League.

[aintforever]

the prospect of a midtable finish with along with WHam, Stoke and Palace would seem to be "a satisfactory season". It may take a year or two more to stage the next challenge for a top six place and another shot at Europa League.

 

I would bite your hand off if offered staying up right now.

[Bandy Golac]

Am I the only one who was not really that disappointed to lose last night? I am normally angry and start kicking things when Saints lose, but last night just I just very apathetic about the whole thing.

 

Let's face it, we are probably better off out of Europe, despite what everyone says it HAS been a huge distraction and our team and management already looks mentally tired trying to deal with it. At least now we can start putting our efforts into moving up the league table.

 

I predict an immediate improvement in league form now the distraction of Europe has gone.

[alpine_saint]

Am I the only one who was not really that disappointed to lose last night? I am normally angry and start kicking things when Saints lose, but last night just I just very apathetic about the whole thing.

 

Let's face it, we are probably better off out of Europe, despite what everyone says it HAS been a huge distraction and our team and management already looks mentally tired trying to deal with it. At least now we can start putting our efforts into moving up the league table.

 

I predict an immediate improvement in league form now the distraction of Europe has gone.

 

Unless the confidence is so utterly shot our performance plunges even further.

 

The players must know how f**king awful they were, and the likes of Juanmi and Cedric must be getting angry and resentful.

[100%Red&White]

I predict an immediate improvement in league form now the distraction of Europe has gone.

 

Well, let's hope you're right.

 

The pain will probably get worse though, before it gets better - once the draw is made today and we see where we could have been going.

[Dalek2003]

this whole 3 CB business has a lot to do with our FB situation right now. We are missing the considerable skills that Bertrand and Clyne bring to the pitch and what Southampton usually expects from a FB. A lot more than I thought we would.

 

Give me a second to defend Koeman a bit here. He is in quite a bind - personnel wise. I think he really would like to play a 4 DB/2DM formation, but is limited.

 

It's become obvious Soares, Targett, and Martina are all defensive liabilities, which puts extreme pressure on your two CBs. We have one very good CB and two very average CBs. It all falls apart. See Newcastle/Everton.

 

So what do you do? Ironically, the 3 CBs at our disposal are all better defensively than the FBs we have available, so you get them on the pitch. So, you got 3 at the back and you take Cedric and Targett and put them on the wings. Now Cedric I think is up to the task, the problem is Targett is not. (I really thought Cedric should have started today.) That formation also lends itself to having 1 DM, which just so happens is all we really had available to us today.

 

So, I get why Koeman went with this formation.

 

Yes, one could argue that 4-2-3-1 is what is comfortable, but Targett and Soares are left exposed, Fonte and a Yoshida/Caulker pairing doesn't exactly fill you with confidence and then you most likely be forced to start Reed with Romeu. I know there are a lot of Reed supporters who think he would be up to the task. For whatever reason, Koeman does not.

 

that leaves 4 players "attacking". JRod is not up to form, Tadic is an enigma, Mane is injured,

 

These 3 items combined are the theme of the season so far.

 

01) Injuries - come on, we have been so unlucky

02) the usual summer defections have hurt

03) having important games (Europa) before the transfer window closes. Don't have the squad you want, players you do have are distracted.

 

Koeman would love to play the 4-2-3-1. He just hasn't had the players to do effectively do it this season.

 

-------------------Stek-------------------------

--Cedric-----Fonte-----VvD-------Bertrand--

-----(Wanyama/Romeu)--- Clasie------------

(Mane/Juanmi) - (Davis/JWP) - (Jrod/Tadic)

----------------(Pelle/Long)--------------------

 

would love to find an AM to replace (Davis/JWP). I felt we gave up on Djuricic too quickly.

 

I think Cedric can be an effective starting LB, but only if we have the rest of our defense and MF shored up, ie:(Wanyama, Clasie, and Bertrand healthy and VvD in the fold)

 

So, I don't necessarily take a major issue with the formation today (though with a full squad I would advocate a 4-2-3-1), but would have preferred Cedric for Martina and Juanmi for Davis and Davis for Targett.

 

-----------Stek---------

Yoshida-Fonte-Caulker

Cedric - Romeu - Davis

--Juanmi--JWP--JRod--

----------Pelle----------

 

tldr: We miss Clyne and Bertrand tremendously.

 

Post of the week. Bang on I would say.

[eddie]

sorry to drag through the mud again if posted already, not going to mention the hoof again, but what I don't get is our line about using pelle's 'height'.

 

Using his height means letting him get on the end of crosses as well as punting it long into the box.

 

I can't remember seeing a single cross last night that wasn't martina halting the ball near the corner flag and then flicking it with no power into the box.

 

Where were the whipped in crosses?

[alpine_saint]

Post of the week. Bang on I would say.

 

Yes, but questions have to be asked about our transfer dealings then. I think cedric will come good, but perhaps we should have looked for cover for Bertrand once we knew he would miss the beginning of the season (unless of course we were not serious about Europe anyway).

 

I dont understand why someone like Isgrove cannot get a game. Could hardly be worse, and hes impressed me everytime I've seen him

[Raging Bull]

Unless the confidence is so utterly shot our performance plunges even further.

 

The players must know how f**king awful they were, and the likes of Juanmi and Cedric must be getting angry and resentful.

 

Obvs I'm not at any training sessions etc but I am a little unsure of why Juanmi isn't getting more of a run. If I were in his boots I'd be a little p¡ssed too.

[CWD]

Nonsense. We played plenty of ugly football last season; just with our defense, it was effective and few complained. And RK has made us more direct than we were under either MP or Adkins. Bad luck and some poor decisions have accentuated there tendencies; but let's not kid ourselves and pretend they've emerged only this season.

 

You really think so? Even in games where we dug in and played defensively (the two Chelsea games spring to mind) our passing was still crisp and quick, we played out from the back and generally tried to play our own way.

 

And there is no way we were less direct under Adkins, sorry. You just need to see Rickie's goal and assist stats to work that one out. If you watch the video of Davis, Jaidi and Schneiderlin watching the JPT final, even Kelvin says how we spent two seasons often sending the ball long to Rickie's because it worked so well.

 

Edit - I should point out I that I'm not disputing we played some great stuff under Adkins, we just also utilised long ball when it suited

Edited 28 August, 2015 by CWD

[positivepete]

Last night summed up by Bill Edgar in The Times:

 

"Their stylish qualification for the competition was forgotten amid a series of long balls aimed at the head of Graziano Pellè, their forward, that rarely brought concern for Midtjylland."

 

Says it all for me

[Verbal Kint]

sorry to drag through the mud again if posted already, not going to mention the hoof again, but what I don't get is our line about using pelle's 'height'.

 

Using his height means letting him get on the end of crosses as well as punting it long into the box.

 

I can't remember seeing a single cross last night that wasn't martina halting the ball near the corner flag and then flicking it with no power into the box.

 

Where were the whipped in crosses?

 

You have to question why RK doesn't get this, particularly as he saw how effective it was at the beginning of last season when we played Tadic on the left and Long on the right. Instead we persist with inverted wingers and we currently have full backs who are just nowhere near good enough. I'm not Pelle's biggest fan but we need to play to his strengths if he is going to be our main striker (which he obviously is)

[Seaford Saint]

Branfoot-esque football with a Branfoot-esque outcome. No invention or ideas. On the basis of this performance' date=' I'd say we need more than just a CB. Massively disappointing end to our short Europa campaign and a real waste of last season's achievement.[/quote']

 

**** me the footy wasn't that bad.......

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Poor stuff last night and i will stick to reading this one amongst the

huge quantity of similar threads containing whinging and grizzling....why is there never this many when things are good?

[Saint Charlie]

Poor stuff last night and i will stick to reading this one amongst the

huge quantity of similar threads containing whinging and grizzling....why is there never this many when things are good?

 

Presumably because nobody (apart from Alpine) is whinging or grizzling.

[Norm]

**** me the footy wasn't that bad.......

 

it sure was

[sadoldgit]

Am I the only one who was not really that disappointed to lose last night? I am normally angry and start kicking things when Saints lose, but last night just I just very apathetic about the whole thing.

 

Let's face it, we are probably better off out of Europe, despite what everyone says it HAS been a huge distraction and our team and management already looks mentally tired trying to deal with it. At least now we can start putting our efforts into moving up the league table.

 

I predict an immediate improvement in league form now the distraction of Europe has gone.

 

I am with you on this. I didn't really expect us to go through after last week and the number of players we had out. We clearly don't have a lot of strength in depth but we do have a lot of players out and hopefully a CH to come in. I am sure things will improve once the likes of Bertrand and Clasie are fit but it still only August and to write us off now is very premature. There is still a lot of football to be played and we have played no where near our best yet.

[shurlock]

Edit

Edited 28 August, 2015 by shurlock

[shurlock]

You really think so? Even in games where we dug in and played defensively (the two Chelsea games spring to mind) our passing was still crisp and quick, we played out from the back and generally tried to play our own way.

 

And there is no way we were less direct under Adkins, sorry. You just need to see Rickie's goal and assist stats to work that one out. If you watch the video of Davis, Jaidi and Schneiderlin watching the JPT final, even Kelvin says how we spent two seasons often sending the ball long to Rickie's because it worked so well.

 

The Chelsea games are interesting: not sure we had much possession in the first game and the trip to Stamford was one of, if not the only time, we dropped Pelle. In the first instance, though, the instinct is to go direct to Pelle or work the ball side to side and get it wide rather than play through the lines or use runners from midfield. Koeman did exactly the same with Pelle at Feyenoord.

 

Don't get me wrong: we were direct under Adkins in L1; but as we climbed the leagues, we were much more flexible - partly that's because Lambert used to offer more than Pelle in terms of dropping deep, finding space and bringing others into space. The difference between Koeman and MP is even starker.

 

Notwithstanding the stat-padding of the Villa game, we desperately struggled to break teams down in the second half of last season, something that's faithfully continued this season. I rate Pelle and think he gets a lot of unwarranted stick; but we've become lazy in our reliance on him -and Koeman whose response has been to double down on defense has to take responsibility for that.

[saint97]

Still furious over last night. Will take a long time to get over like Sheffield United and Sunderland. A real shambolic performance. Pellè the only performer. Fonte was pretty awful and obviously Targett was but he always is.

[shurlock]

I am with you on this. I didn't really expect us to go through after last week and the number of players we had out. We clearly don't have a lot of strength in depth but we do have a lot of players out and hopefully a CH to come in. I am sure things will improve once the likes of Bertrand and Clasie are fit but it still only August and to write us off now is very premature. There is still a lot of football to be played and we have played no where near our best yet.

 

Did you go to the game yesterday?

 

Guess you had no plans of going if we had qualified for the group stages either. For a club of our size, playing in Europe and the experience and the adventure it brings is probably as good as it gets.

[Sour Mash]

Glad I'm not the only one seeing this! Confidence is the problem, and there are a million and one possible explanations for why it's dropped. It could be fatigue, it could be the new lads not settling in on a personal level, it could be coaching, or tactics, or Stekelenburg not inspiring stability, or personal problems in the squad - anything.

 

One thing we can probably agree has had an impact is the unsettled lineup though, especially at the back. After Stekelenburg, Fonte and Pelle are on the team sheet, our starting XI is a guessing game. Injuries haven't helped there.

I said after the Watford game, it's our confidence and belief that's gone as much as anything. Big, experienced players missing doesn't help.

[simo]

Apparently Ron is blaming the ref?

[Sour Mash]

Gotta say I haven't seen a reaction from the fans like that in a while. Gutless.

 

West Brom at home another. We usually turn out okay.

 

 

I'm assuming he means at the actual game and I'd agree, not seen a reaction like that in years.

[kwsaint]

Disappointing as it is. I think that it will turn out to be a blessing in disguise to have missed out on the group stages and the additional 6 games (minimum) that it would have brought. We clearly have problems at the moment. Last year's replacements blended in really quickly to everyone's surprise. We lost four more over the summer (Clyne, Schneiderlin, Alderweireld and effectively Forster) and haven't coped anywhere nearly as well. Defensively we aren't good, no width, and last night seemed to be mainly Martina (no wing back) lumping it forward from the half way line. Tactically we were awful.

 

SaintTex's post hit the nail on the head. I think that RK will turn it round, but anyone expecting a top half finish is going to be disappointed. It's going to be a long season. The only positive is that on paper, our squad is stronger than at least three others in the Prem.

[John B]

Really good result out of the Euro League

[Batman]

tell you what, we dont mess about getting knocked out of europe really, do we

 

 

how does that attempt compare to wigan or hulls efforts?

Edited 28 August, 2015 by Batman

[Window Cleaner]

Apparently Ron is blaming the ref?

 

He wasn't great, should have finished at 8 a side and about 3 penalties each. Both sides played alehouse football and the ref just didn't get a grip.

[Roger]

Am I the only one who was not really that disappointed to lose last night? I am normally angry and start kicking things when Saints lose, but last night just I just very apathetic about the whole thing.

 

Let's face it, we are probably better off out of Europe, despite what everyone says it HAS been a huge distraction and our team and management already looks mentally tired trying to deal with it. At least now we can start putting our efforts into moving up the league table.

 

I predict an immediate improvement in league form now the distraction of Europe has gone.

 

Loser.

[disconnect]

Ward-Prowse playing bad

Targett makes us sad

Juanmi gets 5 mins

Long dont make us sing

Cuco takes us lower

Cuco takes us lower

Cuco takes us, Cuco takes us

Cuco takes us

 

Out of the Europa!

 

etc!

#riptheredstrypes

[mrfahaji]

He wasn't great, should have finished at 8 a side and about 3 penalties each. Both sides played alehouse football and the ref just didn't get a grip.

 

When he booked Rodriguez for trying to stop their player time wasting it was clear that we weren't going to get much and any anti-football tactics they deployed would go unnoticed or unpunished. However, the performance of the officials over the two legs should be nothing more than a footnote in the reasons why we went out.

[mrfahaji]

The Chelsea games are interesting: not sure we had much possession in the first game and the trip to Stamford was one of, if not the only time, we dropped Pelle. In the first instance, though, the instinct is to go direct to Pelle or work the ball side to side and get it wide rather than play through the lines or use runners from midfield. Koeman did exactly the same with Pelle at Feyenoord.

 

Don't get me wrong: we were direct under Adkins in L1; but as we climbed the leagues, we were much more flexible - partly that's because Lambert used to offer more than Pelle in terms of dropping deep, finding space and bringing others into space. The difference between Koeman and MP is even starker.

 

Notwithstanding the stat-padding of the Villa game, we desperately struggled to break teams down in the second half of last season, something that's faithfully continued this season. I rate Pelle and think he gets a lot of unwarranted stick; but we've become lazy in our reliance on him -and Koeman whose response has been to double down on defense has to take responsibility for that.

 

Reminds me a bit of the Peter Crouch dilemma for pretty much every team he has played for. Hitting the long ball is not the best way to deploy him, but it is an option, and an easy option at that. If in doubt, boot it forward to the big man - and when players are lacking in confidence they will always go for the low risk easy option rather than being brave with the ball.

[shurlock]

Reminds me a bit of the Peter Crouch dilemma for pretty much every team he has played for. Hitting the long ball is not the best way to deploy him, but it is an option, and an easy option at that. If in doubt, boot it forward to the big man - and when players are lacking in confidence they will always go for the low risk easy option rather than being brave with the ball.

 

Yep agree with that. The confidence certainly makes the Pelle outball easier, though do think RK gave specific instructions to go long, after analysing our second half performance against the danes last week.

 

Let's not forget the experts on here were also calling for the same thing, though, sure enough, plenty are now claiming it was to doomed to fail from the start.

[Mr X]

Was at the game and like everyone else just gutted about it. Its not that we lost, I can handle that. It is the way we played, the attitude of everything. We set up so negative that it is no surprise that the performance was negative too.

 

The players we have brought in so far have been mostly terrible. Culkar, Martina, Romeu add nothing to the team. They are just bodies.

 

The board have gone very quiet the past few months and need to make a statement of intent. By this I mean bring in some quality players who are going to go straight into the first team. We have been here before where we had too many average players rather than star quality and that didn't end well.

 

can't understand how he thought those two were good enough even to be back up players, both slow hoof merchants that cant pass or defend

[Tommog]

It seems RK is getting most of the flack on this thread. Im a bit of a bedwetter by nature but I think RK has done enough over the past year to warrant me going a little easy on him. Bad team selection... but I think we are bad team.

 

Our defence (with Fonte now seeming to have a dip in form) is Championship standard at the moment. Yoshi has never been up to it. Targett.. its early days but doesn't look like we have another Shaw/Bridge/Bale on our hands and the others probably are an even lower standard whilst Bertrand is out.

 

Midfield JWP ive never rated, yes he has a mean free kick but how many set pieces do we score? Goes missing for long periods of the game. Davis has peaked. Big Vic (although not playing last night) is probably our one top half prem league quality player in midfield and he wants out by the sounds of it.

 

Our attack is decent but not much they can do with no quick passes in and around the box. If you're gonna play long ball at least get people playing off Pelle effectively.

 

We need quality and fast

[shurlock]

It seems RK is getting most of the flack on this thread. Im a bit of a bedwetter by nature but I think RK has done enough over the past year to warrant me going a little easy on him. Bad team selection... but I think we are bad team.

 

Our defence (with Fonte now seeming to have a dip in form) is Championship standard at the moment. Yoshi has never been up to it. Targett.. its early days but doesn't look like we have another Shaw/Bridge/Bale on our hands and the others probably are an even lower standard whilst Bertrand is out.

 

Midfield JWP ive never rated, yes he has a mean free kick but how many set pieces do we score? Goes missing for long periods of the game. Davis has peaked. Big Vic (although not playing last night) is probably our one top half prem league quality player in midfield and he wants out by the sounds of it. Other than Caulker's propensity to hoof every other minute, defensively, we were sound, even when we went to a flat back four.

 

Our attack is decent but not much they can do with no quick passes in and around the box. If you're gonna play long ball at least get people playing off Pelle effectively.

 

We need quality and fast

 

We got Davis and JWP playing off Pelle and it caused them problems for the first five or ten mins and things might have been different, save some lucky blocks and deflections. They focussed on snuffing out the second ball -and we didn't seem to know how to respond.

[derry]

One of the big problems we have is JWP and Davis. We know what Romeu does but putting in JWP and Davis caused the long ball game. Everything they do is slow, sideways and ends up going backwards so the defenders end up with little choice while being closed down but hit it long.

 

We needed at least four or five attackers. Two marked by five doesn't work. No runners from midfield and the two early chances fell to the worst finishers in the EPL, Davis and JWP.

 

If we were going to play three centre backs and Romeu in front picking up one player we could have been innovative by having a go. Tadic at LB, Soares at RB. Juanmi and Reed (tempo} in the middle with Romeu and two from Jayrod/Long/Pelle in the absence of Mane. That would have given Mytylland more of a problem at the back than presented by last nights disaster of a selection. Better to be beaten having a go than this cynical excuse for a team that was never good enough.

 

It's no good hitting balls to Pelle without at least a couple of runners through the back line.

Edited 28 August, 2015 by derry

[Window Cleaner]

Perhaps 30 seconds of Gaston magic was all that we needed yesterday evening, couldn't have done any worse anyway.

[Professor]

To suggest that Koeman sent a team out that was designed to lose really makes no sense nor would the idea that he told the players not to try to win. My impression of both games was that Midtjylland were marginally the better team but in football the best team doesn't always win and Saints could have won if the luck had gone with them. Tim Sparv's goal had a touch of good fortune and there was the penalty issue last night. So I can't see that going out is a reason to despair. What does matter now is that the team begins to win Premier League games and with the strength in depth that Koeman now has they should be less affected by absences through injury and suspensions this season. it is, of course, also true that there will be less pressure without the Europa matches. At this stage I'm still optimistic that we will have a decent season. We just can't expect to compete consistently though with the ultra rich clubs that can spend anything from £20m to £50m on a single player.

[alpine_saint]

Perhaps 30 seconds of Gaston magic was all that we needed yesterday evening, couldn't have done any worse anyway.

 

But we could have given Juanmi more than 8 f**king minutes.

 

He didnt even change things at HT.

[Window Cleaner]

But we could have given Juanmi more than 8 f**king minutes

 

Of course we could but Koeman didn't, he's not an outside of the box thinker by all of the signs so far. Too much Dutch and not enough enlightened ideas. Sooner he's gone the better it will be I think. Just sits there with his brother and looks ****ed off all of the time.