[Maureen-yo]

I get that he is English and all that but if he squared that ball for Bruno, it's 1-0 and would've changed the whole game for us. Maybe liability was too strong a word but he was beginning to think he's the next Ronaldo in this game instead of making it an easy goal for the team.

Shaw is most definitely a liability defensively for us, Mou targeted him in the Spurs game and we concede 6! In the game against Young Boys he failed to stop that cross for their easy goal. In the first half against Villa he even let their cross just roll in front of our goal.

Are you seriously calling Shaw a liability for us? Our player of the season for the last two seasons is a liability? He had a poor game but come on stop with the knee jerk rubbish.

 

[Sandikan]

I applaud anyone not worried.

But we've lost three games already. Some are happy to write the league Cup off, even though we lost the next game that was the priority, so not great then.
We've lost to the weakest champions league team, perhaps in a decade?

Scraped through a couple of games.
Two big home wins against a poor team, and a tactically unhinged team that play into our hands.

We have a lot of problems brewing.

Sancho hasn't got going at all.
We're nowhere further to working out how to deal with Pogba, despite his hyped up assist stats, mostly due to the two big wins.

Bruno looks a bit below par, seemingly disturbed by Ronaldo's arrival.
Ronaldo himself we can barely give the ball to at times.
Shaw has started a bit slowly. Maguire has been playing some poor balls. One yesterday almost gifted them a goal.

Still..early days.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

I’m so sick of these chicken Little fans! Can’t we have more Henny Penny or Turkey Lurkey fans? I mean rather than resort to trying to get this Chicken Little branding to be a thing, maybe consider not resorting to name calling and accept that some people will see things differently. Some people might think that the manager has had a good amount of time to show that he has the winning mentality and tactics required at a top tier club. They might think that the lack of direction in the way we play could indicate that we’ll be in for a tough season regardless of personnel and honestly, looking at how terrified our defence seem when the ball comes at them and how clueless our midfield look pretty much all of the time, and how our forward line look like they are just meeting each other for the first time…those chickens might be onto something.

After all, in the end the sky was actually ‘falling’ in that movie.

 

[padzilla]

We were battered by Wolves and scraped a flukey win but have been found out since, losing three of our last four games - that's simply not good enough.
The midfield is an utter mess and we have to play two holding midfielders at home to the likes of Villa because we don't have any one player good enough to play there by themself.

 

[SirScholes]

The reason those arguments don't stick is you could see what Pep and Klopp were implementing so soon after joining. Could see the early signs of their football. You could place your faith in the fact that with better players they could win silverware.

Under Ole, the only improvements to our football are purely personnel related. I wouldn't say we play any better football than when he joined, we just have even more players on the field that can win games on their own. That isn't sustainable when our competition has squads just as good but are made more than the sum of their parts.

All teams have bad performances, it happens, but these games aren't an isolated incident with us. Even in games where we win, we far too often look the lesser side. It's why myself and others have constantly suggested it wasn't sustainable, but were laughed at because we were stumbling our way to some wins.

The same thing has happened every season he's been here. Simply put, with how stacked this squad is, we have enough in us to probably make top 4, manager or no manager. Thats just how much better our squad is than the majority of teams in the league. That being said, he is unfortunately nowhere near good enough to overcome Pep, Klopp or Tuchel when you see managers are clubs with far lesser resources getting more out of their players. He doesn't breed confidence, our performances don't breed confidence and the season after season pattern of our results eventually catching up with our performances doesn't breed confidence.

That's purely the coaching issues too. Not even getting started on his cowardly insistence on playing with two defensive midfielders against far lesser teams, the fact that he too often seems reluctant/unable to make changes to influence games etc.

He is an okay manager who has done a very good job up until this point because rightly or wrongly, the expectation wasn't to win the league or the CL. Now it is, which is where he is falling severely short imo

Can’t argue with anything here, well written

 

[OrcaFat]

I applaud anyone not worried.

But we've lost three games already. Some are happy to write the league Cup off, even though we lost the next game that was the priority, so not great then.
We've lost to the weakest champions league team, perhaps in a decade?

Scraped through a couple of games.
Two big home wins against a poor team, and a tactically unhinged team that play into our hands.

We have a lot of problems brewing.

Sancho hasn't got going at all.
We're nowhere further to working out how to deal with Pogba, despite his hyped up assist stats, mostly due to the two big wins.

Bruno looks a bit below par, seemingly disturbed by Ronaldo's arrival.
Ronaldo himself we can barely give the ball to at times.
Shaw has started a bit slowly. Maguire has been playing some poor balls. One yesterday almost gifted them a goal.

Still..early days.

None of us likes it when we lose (I hope) but most of your post explains why I am not worried. Shaw and Maguire didn’t become bad players over night. The others are good players getting used to playing together.

You are right, it is very much early days.

But also, I think your spin on our results is a tad negative. Young Boys are not as weak as you say - they probably won’t get through the group but they have some quality, were at home and we had ten men. League cup was disappointing but 11 changes were made and these things happen. Villa yesterday was poor but they were an in form side and it was never going to be a gimme.

We need to improve, a lot, but it’s highly likely we will.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

I’m with you chief but there’s no reasoning with some people.

Yep. Sadly Some people have let sentiment override common sense

 

[Wilt]

None of us likes it when we lose (I hope) but most of your post explains why I am not worried. Shaw and Maguire didn’t become bad players over night. The others are good players getting used to playing together.

You are right, it is very much early days.

But also, I think your spin on our results is a tad negative. Young Boys are not as weak as you say - they probably won’t get through the group but they have some quality, were at home and we had ten men. League cup was disappointing but 11 changes were made and these things happen. Villa yesterday was poor but they were an in form side and it was never going to be a gimme.

We need to improve, a lot, but it’s highly likely we will.

Even after beating Utd, Young Boys are still 1000/1 minows to win the CL.

 

[largelyworried]

I insist, It is unreasonable because they are willfully ignoring the realities on the ground. The team is still gelling. Yet in spite of steal gelling and not flying it hasn't fallen behind our rivals like we did at the start of last season

Furthermore the team needed to improve in 3 areas:
compatibility at center defence to play a higher line consistently at home
operating with one dm and one play maker as a result of the compatibility in center defence
the right wing conundrum vs low blocks. We needed a right winger who stretches play not compresses it

In area one Varane and Maguire/Lindeloff are still getting used to each other
That will affect area 2 since Rashford is missing, there is room to still defer to the mc fred duo
Areas 3 wont be up to speed till sancho settles fully

All 3 wont happen till close to November

We cannot afford to wait til November to click into gear, simple as that. We've dropped 5 points in 6 games from an easy start. Now we have Everton (h), Leicester (a), Liverpool (h), Spurs (a), City (h), Watford (a), Chelsea (a), Arsenal (h), all before the end of November. We probably need to drop no more than 4 points during that run to be in the title race, maybe 6 at most if we beat City, Chelsea and Liverpool in the other games. That is going to require an improvement on what we've shown so far.

As it happens, I don't think integrating new first-teamers should take two to three months. After all, we will probably have one or two new players next season too, and the season after. The manager has to be able to integrate them while also playing well.

 

[OrcaFat]

Even after beating Utd, Young Boys are still 1000/1 minows to win the CL.

I’m pretty sure Leicester were 1000-1 halfway through their title winning season after beating at least one team.

 

[Che Guevara]

From 24 October Man Utd will play the Big Five in 6 matches. They will have to massively improve on current form to stay in the race.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

The reason those arguments don't stick is you could see what Pep and Klopp were implementing so soon after joining. Could see the early signs of their football. You could place your faith in the fact that with better players they could win silverware.

Under Ole, the only improvements to our football are purely personnel related. I wouldn't say we play any better football than when he joined, we just have even more players on the field that can win games on their own. That isn't sustainable when our competition has squads just as good but are made more than the sum of their parts.

All teams have bad performances, it happens, but these games aren't an isolated incident with us. Even in games where we win, we far too often look the lesser side. It's why myself and others have constantly suggested it wasn't sustainable, but were laughed at because we were stumbling our way to some wins.

The same thing has happened every season he's been here. Simply put, with how stacked this squad is, we have enough in us to probably make top 4, manager or no manager. Thats just how much better our squad is than the majority of teams in the league. That being said, he is unfortunately nowhere near good enough to overcome Pep, Klopp or Tuchel when you see managers are clubs with far lesser resources getting more out of their players. He doesn't breed confidence, our performances don't breed confidence and the season after season pattern of our results eventually catching up with our performances doesn't breed confidence.

That's purely the coaching issues too. Not even getting started on his cowardly insistence on playing with two defensive midfielders against far lesser teams, the fact that he too often seems reluctant/unable to make changes to influence games etc.

He is an okay manager who has done a very good job up until this point because rightly or wrongly, the expectation wasn't to win the league or the CL. Now it is, which is where he is falling severely short imo

I applaud anyone not worried.

But we've lost three games already. Some are happy to write the league Cup off, even though we lost the next game that was the priority, so not great then.
We've lost to the weakest champions league team, perhaps in a decade?

Scraped through a couple of games.
Two big home wins against a poor team, and a tactically unhinged team that play into our hands.

We have a lot of problems brewing.

Sancho hasn't got going at all.
We're nowhere further to working out how to deal with Pogba, despite his hyped up assist stats, mostly due to the two big wins.

Bruno looks a bit below par, seemingly disturbed by Ronaldo's arrival.
Ronaldo himself we can barely give the ball to at times.
Shaw has started a bit slowly. Maguire has been playing some poor balls. One yesterday almost gifted them a goal.

Still..early days.

Two good posts.

 

[Kevzter]

Are you seriously calling Shaw a liability for us? Our player of the season for the last two seasons is a liability? He had a poor game but come on stop with the knee jerk rubbish.

It's not just one game and knee jerk rubbish, he allowed the cross in at the Young Boys game for their goal, against Newcastle he was out of position again for their goal, even yesterday he couldn't stop the cross but was lucky the ball didn't go in. He offers us something in attack but he can hardly stop a cross from opponents.

 

[Plant0x84]

Wow, the Ole-outers have really gone to town on this result haven’t they? Sheesh!
I get it, bitterly disappointing result but we created decent chances and should have gone in at half time 2 up. Pogba and Greenwood should have had at least one each, and Mason should have squared to Bruno for a tap in. Individual decision making lies with the individual not the manager.
You have to say Villa took the initiative and were the better team second half. Olé has a point about their player being offside and obstructing David, and the decisions have to be consistent. There was a similar goal ruled out by VAR last week. Unfortunate.
I think the less said about Bruno’s penalty the better, just a bad kick and we move on.
Chelsea lost, Liverpool dropped points, and whilst we could have been ahead, we still aren’t adrift. With the fixtures coming up we will lift our game, and things will look pretty different after a few weeks.

 

[Coops73]

From 24 October Man Utd will play the Big Five in 6 matches. They will have to massively improve on current form to stay in the race.

This could be a very pivotal moment for our season and I don’t think our record against the “top 6” is great.

 

[patch1]

Why do we need 2 holding midfield players against teams like Aston Villa. 1 step forward 2steps back.The manager has got no imagination it’s the same old crap week in week out.He has got world class players playing like donkeys.

 

[Drizzle]

Now we have Everton (h), Leicester (a), Liverpool (h), Spurs (a), City (h), Watford (a), Chelsea (a), Arsenal (h), all before the end of November. We probably need to drop no more than 4 points during that run to be in the title race, maybe 6 at most if we beat City, Chelsea and Liverpool in the other games. That is going to require an improvement on what we've shown so far.

I'm staring at those fixtures and trying to muster as much confidence as I can. Trying to recall the occasional Ole masterclass against City. Looking at the excellent players who are coming back from injury. Praying that it'll all click.

Yet I'm still struggling to see us getting more than 12-14 pts out of 24. Which would effectively see us out of the title race before December.

Things are going to have to click very soon for us to rescue our league season. Like now. But honestly I have no faith that Ole has the tactical bravery and understanding to make the changes required. He'll keep faith with his set up and hope that Bruno/Ronaldo will somehow save him. And who knows, they might. Doubt it though.

 

[The Boy]

Though there are certainly issues to discuss, lots of posters here are reacting as though you've Arsenal's start to the season.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

I'm staring at those fixtures and trying to muster as much confidence as I can. Trying to recall the occasional Ole masterclass against City. Looking at the excellent players who are coming back from injury. Praying that it'll all click.

Yet I'm still struggling to see us getting more than 12-14 pts out of 24. Which would effectively see us out of the title race before December.

Things are going to have to click very soon for us to rescue our league season. Like now. But honestly I have no faith that Ole has the tactical bravery and understanding to make the changes required. He'll keep faith with his set up and hope that Bruno/Ronaldo will somehow save him. And who knows, they might. Doubt it though.

Last season in four league games against City and Chelsea, we didn't lose one.

 

[Water Melon]

Wow, the Ole-outers have really gone to town on this result haven’t they? Sheesh!
I get it, bitterly disappointing result but we created decent chances and should have gone in at half time 2 up. Pogba and Greenwood should have had at least one each, and Mason should have squared to Bruno for a tap in. Individual decision making lies with the individual not the manager.
You have to say Villa took the initiative and were the better team second half. Olé has a point about their player being offside and obstructing David, and the decisions have to be consistent. There was a similar goal ruled out by VAR last week. Unfortunate.
I think the less said about Bruno’s penalty the better, just a bad kick and we move on.
Chelsea lost, Liverpool dropped points, and whilst we could have been ahead, we still aren’t adrift. With the fixtures coming up we will lift our game, and things will look pretty different after a few weeks.

We will be at least 6 points below league leaders come December 1, 2021. How come you believe we will do better with much, much harder games ahead of us.

 

[iKnowNothing]

Chelsea lost, Liverpool dropped points, and whilst we could have been ahead, we still aren’t adrift. With the fixtures coming up we will lift our game, and things will look pretty different after a few weeks.

I’m not saying Ole out just yet, but given the results you quoted, and the opposition we played, these are definitely 3 points dropped!

 

[Wheato]

Okay, it was a bad day at the office, but the warning signs were there.

There was a bad vibe from the very start, could be the early kick off, but the atmosphere in the ground was was so tense, it made the players nervous and you could see them shitting their pants on the ball. The back 4 were making loads of mistakes. I could tell Shaw was not right, he wasn't making runs and when he sat down I knew he was going off. Then Maguire did the same, he was having a shocker too. I don't recall McTominay having a touch in the first half. Didn't look fit, either. He was chasing shadows. So much for a week off, they all looked shattered.

Fred was actually okay. He was winning tackles, and making interceptions, but his passing was always backwards, and he never even looked up for a forward pass. Literally, the strongest quality of DVB is to take the ball a play it forward quickly, and he cannot even get on the pitch. This slow, laboured, predictable play is easy to defend against. This fundamentally needs to change.

AWB and Greenwood don't have any relationship together on the right. They can't link up and sometimes get in each others way. It was embarrassing at times. "Are you running there, no, oh I'll do it then, oops we've run into each other, here I'll pass it back...oh, it's gone out for a throw in." FECKIN HELL GUYS, DO YOU NEED AN INTRODUCTION?

Because of McFred and the dodgy back 4 having a mare, we couldn't get out our own half, but it wasn't entirely their fault. Greenwood and Pogba are not wingers, so those runs in behind weren't always available. We are missing Rashford and 73million pound Sancho sat on the bench. (That's another debate)

Still, when the ball did reach the forwards, there was no cohesion, and it was a case of everyman for himself. Mason had 8 shots, Bruno and Pogba has 6 shots each. We have the worlds greatest goal scorer on the pitch, and nobody is trying to find him, they are all going for glory themselves.

I have to say, this is all down to poor coaching and tactics. We have an amazing array of talent, but they are not playing for each other, as a team. We were literally screaming for them to pass it out wide where Ronaldo was stood in acres of space, but they were just trying to score for themselves.

How many times do you see City score them goals when someone gets the ball in to the box and squares it to the multiple players running in. Our players don't look to square it, they shoot from a tight angle and either hit a defender or miss completely. This selfishness needs to be addressed and team play need to be prioritised. You can't win every game with individual talent, and isolated moments of brilliance. When Mason picks the ball up in space, he needs to be looking up and thinking, right I'm going play someone in here, but every single time, he just ran at goal with his head down and shot at the legs of the 3 defenders who just waited for him to do the same thing every time. Bruno and Pogba were doing it too. We have all of these great players who can score worldies, but sometimes you've got to pass it to your mate.

Team work makes the dream work.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Please don't give Ole yet another excuse to use he has enough already, has more than enough of his own players now

Was being sarcastic

 

[Hans Wurst]

I'm certain everything is ok because we have been getting keeping pace with everyone around us in spite of rightly being far from our best this early in the season with loads of partnerships still to gel up and down our team.

Its also 6 games in. I'm utterly uninterested in playing well now. I want us to be playing well when the business end of the season arrives in november

I'm almost not just being naively optimistic. I simply understand the style of our coach. He builds an attacking team structure that allows his players to express themselves then think through situations as they arise. As a result it is heavily reliant on settled partnerships to flourish consistently. Yet rigth now we are far from a settled team

Right now De gea is now back in favour.
He in turn has to gel with Varane and Maguire
Who have to gel with each other
Our full backs have to get used to the extra cover Varane gives and attack more

As those gel one of Fred or Mctominay will have to get sued to partnering one of Pogba and Van de beek full time. Because one a Rashford returns Pogba wont be playing wide left again and he and DVB will prove to good to bench

Our fullbacks both have to gel with Sancho

Our entire attack has to gel with sancho and Cr7

This will take time. Problem is our section of chicken little brigade of fans insisting on judging us by the standards of the teams around us. Teams settled from back to front. and at a different stage of development in their set up. They are all in the plug and play stage, We are still connecting the hardware in to correct terminals to turn the machine on successfully.

Yet even in plug and play stage the all have issues.
Both chelsea and Liverpool have dropped points at home to direct rivals

Sure City won big yesterday. Yet they started the season losing their first game to a second string spurs and failing to score against southampton at home just last week. No to mention leaking 3 at home to red bull in europe. Could have been more if redbull didn't finish with 10 men

Pool to struggled at home in europe vs Milan who they eventually over came. Just had a 3 all draw with a freshly promoted side whilst at full strength.

In comparison we had a fortuitous loss to YB down to 10 men. in a space of a week at OT ( we should have beaten west ham and we should havw drawn yesterday)., And despite not being near our best we aren't leaking more than 2 goals a game.

I'm sorry but I fail to see where this chicken little doom and gloom mentality is coming from that is flooding this place

This was a good read and I fully agree with you. Thank you for giving some perspective.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Okay, it was a bad day at the office, but the warning signs were there.

There was a bad vibe from the very start, could be the early kick off, but the atmosphere in the ground was was so tense, it made the players nervous and you could see them shitting their pants on the ball. The back 4 were making loads of mistakes. I could tell Shaw was not right, he wasn't making runs and when he sat down I knew he was going off. Then Maguire did the same, he was having a shocker too. I don't recall McTominay having a touch in the first half. Didn't look fit, either. He was chasing shadows. So much for a week off, they all looked shattered.

Fred was actually okay. He was winning tackles, and making interceptions, but his passing was always backwards, and he never even looked up for a forward pass. Literally, the strongest quality of DVB is to take the ball a play it forward quickly, and he cannot even get on the pitch. This slow, laboured, predictable play is easy to defend against. This fundamentally needs to change.

AWB and Greenwood don't have any relationship together on the right. They can't link up and sometimes get in each others way. It was embarrassing at times. "Are you running there, no, oh I'll do it then, oops we've run into each other, here I'll pass it back...oh, it's gone out for a throw in." FECKIN HELL GUYS, DO YOU NEED AN INTRODUCTION?

Because of McFred and the dodgy back 4 having a mare, we couldn't get out our own half, but it wasn't entirely their fault. Greenwood and Pogba are not wingers, so those runs in behind weren't always available. We are missing Rashford and 73million pound Sancho sat on the bench. (That's another debate)

Still, when the ball did reach the forwards, there was no cohesion, and it was a case of everyman for himself. Mason had 8 shots, Bruno and Pogba has 6 shots each. We have the worlds greatest goal scorer on the pitch, and nobody is trying to find him, they are all going for glory themselves.

I have to say, this is all down to poor coaching and tactics. We have an amazing array of talent, but they are not playing for each other, as a team. We were literally screaming for them to pass it out wide where Ronaldo was stood in acres of space, but they were just trying to score for themselves.

How many times do you see City score them goals when someone gets the ball in to the box and squares it to the multiple players running in. Our players don't look to square it, they shoot from a tight angle and either hit a defender or miss completely. This selfishness needs to be addressed and team play need to be prioritised. You can't win every game with individual talent, and isolated moments of brilliance. When Mason picks the ball up in space, he needs to be looking up and thinking, right I'm going play someone in here, but every single time, he just ran at goal with his head down and shot at the legs of the 3 defenders who just waited for him to do the same thing every time. Bruno and Pogba were doing it too. We have all of these great players who can score worldies, but sometimes you've got to pass it to your mate.

Team work makes the dream work.

I was following the game on here yesterday and it was being brought up time and again about Ronaldo being ignored. That has to be knocked on the head straight away.

 

[elmo]

I'm certain everything is ok because we have been getting keeping pace with everyone around us in spite of rightly being far from our best this early in the season with loads of partnerships still to gel up and down our team.

Its also 6 games in. I'm utterly uninterested in playing well now. I want us to be playing well when the business end of the season arrives in november

I'm almost not just being naively optimistic. I simply understand the style of our coach. He builds an attacking team structure that allows his players to express themselves then think through situations as they arise. As a result it is heavily reliant on settled partnerships to flourish consistently. Yet rigth now we are far from a settled team

Right now De gea is now back in favour.
He in turn has to gel with Varane and Maguire
Who have to gel with each other
Our full backs have to get used to the extra cover Varane gives and attack more

As those gel one of Fred or Mctominay will have to get sued to partnering one of Pogba and Van de beek full time. Because one a Rashford returns Pogba wont be playing wide left again and he and DVB will prove to good to bench

Our fullbacks both have to gel with Sancho

Our entire attack has to gel with sancho and Cr7

This will take time. Problem is our section of chicken little brigade of fans insisting on judging us by the standards of the teams around us. Teams settled from back to front. and at a different stage of development in their set up. They are all in the plug and play stage, We are still connecting the hardware in to correct terminals to turn the machine on successfully.

Yet even in plug and play stage the all have issues.
Both chelsea and Liverpool have dropped points at home to direct rivals

Sure City won big yesterday. Yet they started the season losing their first game to a second string spurs and failing to score against southampton at home just last week. No to mention leaking 3 at home to red bull in europe. Could have been more if redbull didn't finish with 10 men

Pool to struggled at home in europe vs Milan who they eventually over came. Just had a 3 all draw with a freshly promoted side whilst at full strength.

In comparison we had a fortuitous loss to YB down to 10 men. in a space of a week at OT ( we should have beaten west ham and we should havw drawn yesterday)., And despite not being near our best we aren't leaking more than 2 goals a game.

I'm sorry but I fail to see where this chicken little doom and gloom mentality is coming from that is flooding this place

We've had the easiest run of fixtures compared to our top 4 rivals and apart from the Leeds game, our football has been dreadful and we look clueless as usual on how to break down teams who defend deep.

We've basically averaged a goal conceded a game against some of the lousiest teams we'll play this season, it's not an achievement like you're making it out to be.

 

[Lash]

Though there are certainly issues to discuss, lots of posters here are reacting as though you've Arsenal's start to the season.

Yeah, it's a bit odd. For me there were quite a few chances yesterday we should be putting away, so if we were creating feck all and losing 1-0 I'd be extremely worried. I'm not naive enough to not be concerned at all, but it's not a really a surprise that after a few terrible results this place has a meltdown.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

We cannot afford to wait til November to click into gear, simple as that. We've dropped 5 points in 6 games from an easy start.

We most definitely can. Bar the anomaly of this weekend, which was our fault because we missed from 12 yards, we are keeping abreast with our direct rivals whilst not any where near to their form. Whilst of them are at full strength and close to apex form....

Even stranger is claims of an easier start.
There was nothing easy about facing Leeds, West ham and Villa. We rightly beat both. We were unlucky to lose to villa

Wolves have been a thorn in our sides in recent times we beat them too. Drew with southampton. we rightly hammered newcastle

Liverpool's one really hard game was Chelsea and Leeds. They've played a transitioning palace,
burnley and just struggled to best brentford and faced norwich. Id argue their fixture list was easier than ours
Not to mention they are at full strength and at plug and play stage of development

City might claim to have had a tougher start. Yet they still lost to a depleted spurs away. Couldn't score a southampton at home just last week. They too are at plug n play stage and at full strength.

only chelsea have really had a tough start and bar city have been flying bar the hiccup yesterday on here. They too are at the top of form and at plug an play stage

YET we are STILL a point behind just behind pool. Whilst far from apex form, not at full strength and still gelling. I honestly do not see any valid reason for the preference for a doom and gloom mindset on here

Now we have Everton (h), Leicester (a), Liverpool (h), Spurs (a), City (h), Watford (a), Chelsea (a), Arsenal (h), all before the end of November. We probably need to drop no more than 4 points during that run to be in the title race, maybe 6 at most if we beat City, Chelsea and Liverpool in the other games. That is going to require an improvement on what we've shown so far.

The problem here isn't our fixture list nor our form. It is your pessimism. It has made you decide we are incapable of playing again like we did when we beat up on leeds. Let alone just last weekend vs west ham when it was just bad VAR refereeing that nearly robbed us of fully deserved win

As it happens, I don't think integrating new first-teamers should take two to three months. After all, we will probably have one or two new players next season too, and the season after. The manager has to be able to integrate them while also playing well.
But its fluidity and consistency is heavily reliant on the partnerships formed within the system

The best of this side wont be seen until Maguire and Varane are settled.The midfield in front of them is settled. And the attack further ahead of them is settled as partnerships. That wont realistically be for another 5 to 6 weeks. But nothing about it suggests we cant still pick up points in that period. WE already have ample evidence from our first 6 games.

 

[Plant0x84]

We will be at least 6 points below league leaders come December 1, 2021. How come you believe we will do better with much, much harder games ahead of us.

We always raise our game vs the big 6. Players just seem to be that much more ‘up for it’. Shouldn’t be the case but it seems to always have been that way, especially in the last few years.

 

[Plant0x84]

I’m not saying Ole out just yet, but given the results you quoted, and the opposition we played, these are definitely 3 points dropped!

Yup I agree totally, a proper missed opportunity but its not all doom and gloom and end of days like some would have you believe. It’s still early doors in the league and I tend to think we’ll be alright in the end!

 

[mitchmouse]

Just watched the game on Sky. We didn't deserve much but there's no doubt Watkins was offside at the Villa goal. How does VAR not do anything about i. Again, it's not the tech, it's the absolute dickweed's using it.

And why did Bruno take a much shorter run-up than usual. He goes longer whether he uses the little skip or not and it's successful. why the feck change something that isn't broken

 

[mitchmouse]

Yup I agree totally, a proper missed opportunity but its not all doom and gloom and end of days like some would have you believe. It’s still early doors in the league and I tend to think we’ll be alright in the end!

we've lost three out of the last four games.... not sure what "alright" means. Top four? Because I don't see a challenge for the title materialising. City aren't going to lose many which means we have to go on a winning run - and I can't remember the last time we did that to any great extent

 

[largelyworried]

Even stranger is claims of an easier start.
There was nothing easy about facing Leeds, West ham and Villa. We rightly beat both. We were unlucky to lose to villa

We've played four of the bottom six. That's about as good as it gets.

The problem here isn't our fixture list nor our form. It is your pessimism. It has made you decide we are incapable of playing again like we did when we beat up on leeds. Let alone just last weekend vs west ham when it was just bad VAR refereeing that nearly robbed us of fully deserved win

The problem is that our one outstanding performance was in our first game. We didn't start slow and get better, we started with a bang and have since gotten worse. Now we're on a run of 3 losses in 4. I can't convince you that yesterday's performance was poor, but our current form is the reason why I'm doubtful of our ability to string together a long winning run against good teams.

But nothing about it suggests we cant still pick up points in that period. We already have ample evidence from our first 6 games.

Dropping 5 points in 6 games against that opposition already isnt good enough. We need to drop fewer points than that, from more games, against better opposition. That needs an improvement on our form.

 

[Plant0x84]

we've lost three out of the last four games.... not sure what "alright" means. Top four? Because I don't see a challenge for the title materialising. City aren't going to lose many which means we have to go on a winning run - and I can't remember the last time we did that to any great extent

We’ve played six games and lost one. We’re 1 point off the leaders and in a group of 4 other teams on 13pts.
There’s no doubt that signing Ronaldo has changed the way we play, and it’s going to take some adapting especially if Cavani is going to get regular games. Varane and Sancho are settling in to the PL too. We’ve got Marcus to come back in too, which I am excited to see. I still see more reasons to be positive than negative and there is every reason to believe we will put a run together and take points of our title rivals.

 

[Maticmaker]

Coming so close after the West Ham 0-1 loss this game was very different, but yet ended up the same score?
Against West Ham we had some creativity in mid-field and made a whole host of chances (27 attempts) but no one up top to take advantage. Yesterday we had no creativity from midfield some sparkling talent up front, but failed again. Admittedly the loss of Shaw and later Maguire did make things worse, but our midfield was woeful throughout, in terms of helping to get the ball forward to the likes of Greenwood and CR.
Also although Greenwood was the busiest of our front players he did lamentably fail to take advantage of two world class runs made for him by CR and he did not return the ball when he should. OK, Mason is still learning and he is most definitely capable of scoring, but when he's not scoring and he's not contributing with his assists, then his presence can be counterproductive. Mason needs help to mature quicker in his thinking, we cannot wait forever for him to start making some 'right decisions' when he is in such positions.

My MOTM was Varane, he showed his composure and CB skills throughout and his heading ability is fantastic, he rises from the ground almost 'salmon-like' his body straight and powerful and the power he gets from his shoulder and neck muscles into his heading of the ball is great. With all due respect to Maguire I would like to see Varane more of a target in the opposition box for our corners.

A bit worried that Ole seemed to wait for the crowd to tell him to put Edison Cavani on... will it be tossing a coin next!!!

 

[croadyman]

The excitement of the transfer window starts to fade when you realise it’s pretty much the same pattern as last season.

Sadly, one of the best squads the prem has ever seen will go to waste let’s be honest it could win the prem it could win the CL, but we all know why none of those two things will happen.

Yeah when even rival fans say you have one of the best squads in England, however not the manager to match it that's hard to ignore. Ole's status will always buy him so much patience with many in our fanbase and the fact we are only 1 point off the top (maybe 2 if Brighton win tomorrow).

Yes he will probably get results against City/Scousers/Chelsea in next couple of months but just want to see us control a game once in a while. We are far too reliant on counter attacking and moments of individual brilliance.

 

[Ronaldo's Love Child]

it's perfectly clear from my post what my conclusion is.

Actually you are right. Thanks for that insightful analysis

" The problem - at least in some of our games - have rather been what we do and don't in the attacking third. "
" They took one of their (few) chances, we did not take ours. If we had, we'd have won. Even though they probably played more or less up to capacity and we didn't."

 

[croadyman]

It won't be 'panic stations' until it's mathematically impossible to achieve what we want to. In other words: unless it's a complete disaster it's good enough.

Yeah we all know board only ever react when atmosphere goes toxic like under Jose or top 4 mathematically out of reach. I am not asking the born winners to make it hostile for him but needs someone to make it clear he badly needs coaching help.

 

[Stig]

Liverpool conceded 3 goals to a newly promoted team.

Are they melting down and wanting Klopp out ?

 

[lex talionis]

Liverpool conceded 3 goals to a newly promoted team.

Are they melting down and wanting Klopp out ?

Klopp has won Liverpool trophies.