A Pattern of Complacency

Glorio

Full Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
6,975
Looked for a thread on this issue and didn't find one.

We seem to have this lasting complacency issue, where whenever it's felt like we should be in a position of strength, e.g. we have had some good press, or are up against a weaker team on paper, or even when we've gone 1 or 2 up in the same game, we visibly drop our intensity. It leads to many silly dropped points like Spurs, Forest, Everton, and almost happened in the game (Brighton?) before the draws as well. It's infuriating - how many times do they have to learn a lesson for it to stick?

On the other hand, they seem to need their backs against a wall to be triggered into real intense action, whether extensive bad press, up against a more fancied team, when we've conceded a goal, they find the spirit to put up a real fight and make a good account of themselves. We get a lot of plaudits about having a good fighting spirit in this team - thing is it feels like it only shows up when the odds are against us.

Has anyone else seen this pattern? It seems to be something that's been happening since Ole (with EtH it got particularly bad as we'd only try when the manager's job was on the line).

What's the fix? Are our players (particularly those who have been here for a while) just so used to being at rock bottom, so much so they can only respond in those situations, and have no idea how to handle better times?

To put it in a decision statement, would read like so:

If [bad press or conceded or against a big side] then
Play purposeful high intensity football
Else
Play low tempo aimless football
End If
 
Last edited:
What we should've done is:

CTRL+C from the Fergie years, CTRL+V into 2025.










oh wait, there's an issue :(

error: legacy code not supported
 
I disagree.

I think intensity is there, most of the time at least.

What they lack is focus and decision making, first half yesterday we were atrocious but still intense and hardworking.
 
I think it’s all down to game intelligence, there’s no pattern of play. Like “you run here, and he overlaps you and then pass it through the box where X will be waiting for a header”. There doesn’t seem to be any sign of something like that. Watching the team play, is like they make it up as they go. No plan, no idea what to do when someone gets the ball. I know it’s not that simple but it really should be. Possession is nice an all, but it’s pointless if you can’t do something with it.
 
We are asking a few bang average players to do things they are uncomfortable with, like passing to a team mate that is 10 feet away under pressure.

This squad lacks so so much, even the basics can be hard work.

I don't understand why we cannot just accept that.

The manager can drill in the basics on the training ground every week but the players need to show it on match day, some seem incapable of doing it every week.
 
So that's how two LLMs speak to each other? Funny that.
 
AaronRedDevil said:
I think it’s all down to game intelligence, there’s no pattern of play. Like “you run here, and he overlaps you and then pass it through the box where X will be waiting for a header”. There doesn’t seem to be any sign of something like that. Watching the team play, is like they make it up as they go. No plan, no idea what to do when someone gets the ball. I know it’s not that simple but it really should be. Possession is nice an all, but it’s pointless if you can’t do something with it.
Click to expand...

I think we were staring to see that with Sesko and Cunha but as soon as we have to change personnel we lose it such is the swing in our quality.

When your passing option is Zirkzee it's tough on the rest.You're left with trying to play outside your focal point striker or watch him feck up your passes.

I'd kill for even Ronaldo back at this stage. We simply need any other striker option.
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
I disagree.

I think intensity is there, most of the time at least.

What they lack is focus and decision making, first half yesterday we were atrocious but still intense and hardworking.
Click to expand...
You think our intensity was there against Everton and against Crystal Palace in the first half?

Or even when we scored early in the games in which we ended up losing points recently? We noticeably let our foots off the gas and sat deeper.
 
Last edited:
SteveCoppellFan said:
We are asking a few bang average players to do things they are uncomfortable with, like passing to a team mate that is 10 feet away under pressure.

This squad lacks so so much, even the basics can be hard work.

I don't understand why we cannot just accept that.

The manager can drill in the basics on the training ground every week but the players need to show it on match day, some seem incapable of doing it every week.
Click to expand...
How do we manage to suddenly jump levels against hard opposition, or when we've been sitting on a lead, get sucker punched by the opponent and promptly wake up and go and score again
? (see Liverpool and Spurs)

I get that we have some technically loose/inconsistent players on the middle of the park and at WB, but that doesn't account for when we start losing 50/50s or put no pressure on the opposition, or do not pick up second balls.

Amorim said it himself after yesterday's game, if you play with more intensity, you give yourself a chance, as you always close enough to the ball to impact the game.
MOTD built on it and showed the massive gulf between our intensity in the first half and the second. There were huge amounts of space for Crystal Palace players to run into with no pressure whatsoever. Second half we got at them and got our rewards
 
Glorio said:
How do we manage to suddenly jump levels against hard opposition, or when we've been sitting on a lead, get sucker punched by the opponent and promptly wake up and go and score again
? (see Liverpool and Spurs)

I get that we have some technically loose/inconsistent players on the middle of the park and at WB, but that doesn't account for when we start losing 50/50s or put no pressure on the opposition, or do not pick up second balls.

Amorim said it himself after yesterday's game, if you play with more intensity, you give yourself a chance, as you always close enough to the ball to impact the game.
MOTD built on it and showed the massive gulf between our intensity in the first half and the second. There were huge amounts of space for Crystal Palace players to run into with no pressure whatsoever. Second half we got at them and got our rewards
Click to expand...
We have been asking questions like this for a few years now, I doubt anyone has the answers tbh.

Our manager can send the players out one week and they play very well, throw out the same players a few days later and its like they cannot be arsed, rinse and repeat and vice versa.

I still think our squad is a work in progress, without two decent midfielders we just do not seem to be able to control a game of football and when that happens every week we are going to get many ups and downs.

I think we just need better players in at least 3 positions.
 
Glorio said:
You think our intensity was there against Everton and against Crystal Palace in the first half?

Or even when we scored early in the games in which we ended up losing points recently? We noticeably let our foots off the gas and sat deeper.
Click to expand...
Yes, I think intensity has not been an issue this season.

It's been focus and decision making, first half yesterday aside from Mount, our players were not focused and made silly mistakes a lot, even against Everton, mistakes and lack of focus were the issue.
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
Yes, I think intensity has not been an issue this season.

It's been focus and decision making, first half yesterday aside from Mount, our players were not focused and made silly mistakes a lot, even against Everton, mistakes and lack of focus were the issue.
Click to expand...

Amorim said before Palace intensity was an issue in Everton game
 
Glorio said:
Looked for a thread on this issue and didn't find one.

We seem to have this lasting complacency issue, where whenever it's felt like we should be in a position of strength, e.g. we have had some good press, or are up against a weaker team on paper, or even when we've gone 1 or 2 up in the same game, we visibly drop our intensity. It leads to many silly dropped points like Spurs, Forest, Everton, and almost happened in the game (Brighton?) before the draws as well. It's infuriating - how many times do they have to learn a lesson for it to stick?

On the other hand, they seem to need their backs against a wall to be triggered into real intense action, whether extensive bad press, up against a more fancied team, when we've conceded a goal, they find the spirit to put up a real fight and make a good account of themselves. We get a lot of plaudits about having a good fighting spirit in this team - thing is it feels like it only shows up when the odds are against us.

Has anyone else seen this pattern? It seems to be something that's been happening since Ole (with EtH it got particularly bad as we'd only try when the manager's job was on the line).

What's the fix? Are our players (particularly those who have been here for a while) just so used to being at rock bottom, so much so they can only respond in those situations, and have no idea how to handle better times?

To put it in a decision statement, would read like so:

If [bad press or conceded or against a big side] then
Play purposeful high intensity football
Else
Play low tempo aimless football
End If
Click to expand...
This thread has predictably gone wildly off topic and folks are already have the same conversations about quality of our squad, coaching, system, tactics etc...

Returning to the theme of 'intensity', think about your own motivations. When you're operating at max. effort, it usually comes from two places-. belief / confidence or urgency.

When humans are confident / have belief, they are energised and focused. We set about our tasks with relish, clarity and enthusiasm. Think doing a job you like or completing a project you enjoy.

In addition, when we are presented with some sense of urgency, that also helps us really focus intently on the problem at hand, which in turns leads to a renewed vigour and energy. For normal people 'oh bugger, I have an exam / presentation in 48hrs, I better knuckle down'.

It's the same for footballers. I don't know why people forget this and treat them like they're robots.

This United team doesn't currently have that sense of belief / confidence deep-rooted in it's collective conscience, so the only time you see that real urgency is when something bad happens and they react - 'oh crap, we conceded!'.

It can also be mentally liberating too at times to have nothing to lose. See how frightened, scared and complacent we looked vs Everton at home. Then 'the bad thing' happened and suddenly we drove them right back and totally dominated the game. Everton take a step back because they have something to protect. We take a step forwards because we have nothing to lose.

It's why we have sports psychologists!
 
red_de_pologne said:
Amorim said before Palace intensity was an issue in Everton game
Click to expand...
Fair enough, but we didn't need intensity to beat a 10 man Everton, we needed quality in terms of decision making and focus.

With EtH I felt intensity was always an issue

With Amorim, I feel like the players are putting in a shift during games, it's their quality that is lacking.
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
Fair enough, but we didn't need intensity to beat a 10 man Everton, we needed quality in terms of decision making and focus.

With EtH I felt intensity was always an issue

With Amorim, I feel like the players are putting in a shift during games, it's their quality that is lacking.
Click to expand...
Decision making was the key one for me, we were mess, just kept throwing the ball forward without really thinking.
 
Lentwood said:
This thread has predictably gone wildly off topic and folks are already have the same conversations about quality of our squad, coaching, system, tactics etc...

Returning to the theme of 'intensity', think about your own motivations. When you're operating at max. effort, it usually comes from two places-. belief / confidence or urgency.

When humans are confident / have belief, they are energised and focused. We set about our tasks with relish, clarity and enthusiasm. Think doing a job you like or completing a project you enjoy.

In addition, when we are presented with some sense of urgency, that also helps us really focus intently on the problem at hand, which in turns leads to a renewed vigour and energy. For normal people 'oh bugger, I have an exam / presentation in 48hrs, I better knuckle down'.

It's the same for footballers. I don't know why people forget this and treat them like they're robots.

This United team doesn't currently have that sense of belief / confidence deep-rooted in it's collective conscience, so the only time you see that real urgency is when something bad happens and they react - 'oh crap, we conceded!'.

It can also be mentally liberating too at times to have nothing to lose. See how frightened, scared and complacent we looked vs Everton at home. Then 'the bad thing' happened and suddenly we drove them right back and totally dominated the game. Everton take a step back because they have something to protect. We take a step forwards because we have nothing to lose.

It's why we have sports psychologists!
Click to expand...
Really interesting response there. If I were to interpret your argument, are you saying we actually have two situations which could result in high intensity:
- High belief in what they're doing and confidence (high intensity) - not where the lads have been too much over the past few years. Ideal spot.
- Rock bottom, so they either have nothing to lose or a sharpened focus on righting the wrong in front of them (high intensity) - this is where the team has been at points and where we enjoy the occasional newsworthy heroics.


- Somewhere in the middle where belief is not quite at the point to energise and focus the minds, and things are not bad enough to force that sharpened focus (low intensity) - this is basically the state we find ourselves in when we drop stinkers at presumed positions of strength.

It makes a weird U curve of intensity :lol: and does make some sense, but I feel some of these players will either not be energised by high confidence at all, or will be energised but not for long.

Take Grimsby for instance, surely we would have had enough belief and confidence going in? I think some of our players may say the right things, but have a falsely inflated sense of their abilities, which leads them to think they can cruise through some games.

I remember Pep (I think it was) saying on one occasion that the natural instinct of a person is to relax, and it takes real discipline not to fall into that trap, which was something he was trying to drive, or something along those lines of that anyway.
 
Glorio said:
Really interesting response there. If I were to interpret your argument, are you saying we actually have two situations which could result in high intensity:
- High belief in what they're doing and confidence (high intensity) - not where the lads have been too much over the past few years. Ideal spot.
- Rock bottom, so they either have nothing to lose or a sharpened focus on righting the wrong in front of them (high intensity) - this is where the team has been at points and where we enjoy the occasional newsworthy heroics.


- Somewhere in the middle where belief is not quite at the point to energise and focus the minds, and things are not bad enough to force that sharpened focus (low intensity) - this is basically the state we find ourselves in when we drop stinkers at presumed positions of strength.

It makes a weird U curve of intensity :lol: and does make some sense, but I feel some of these players will either not be energised by high confidence at all, or will be energised but not for long.

Take Grimsby for instance, surely we would have had enough belief and confidence going in? I think some of our players may say the right things, but have a falsely inflated sense of their abilities, which leads them to think they can cruise through some games.

I remember Pep (I think it was) saying on one occasion that the natural instinct of a person is to relax, and it takes real discipline not to fall into that trap, which was something he was trying to drive, or something along those lines of that anyway.
Click to expand...
That's basically my argument yes.

Grimsby is actually a perfect example. Start the game very lazy, make individual errors. Focus in the face of a humiliating loss, big increase in energy, score two goals, including late equaliser.

I agree with Pep by the way, but I don't think his comments change anything. Complacency kicks in when we don't have that common belief in a goal / cause, like winning a cup or a league title, or the energy that comes from believing bad things will happen if we don't show some immediate urgency!
 
I would agree, I do feel there is an issue with complacency, and I think it is due to a wider, culture issue at Man Utd. Some players feel like they have the Man Utd shirt, their job is 'done' and they don't see that as something to fight for. I think Amorim is trying to change that, and in many ways he is.. but he needs players to be leaders, and take the initiative, and make a difference.. Man Utd is a Theatre of Dreams, not a space for mediocrity, ego's, without objective. And this goes back, before the SAF era.

Man Utd should be a team that has a squad of players, totally committed (not chaotic, or disorganised...) but focused, talented and play with a sense of pride in their performance. Sometimes we seem to drop in those standards, through a lack of focus. I wish some vocal personalities would emerge in that squad. Maguire, Shaw.. Dalot, these are player who have been there for some time now. Mainoo and Amad should go speak to Giggs, Butt etc and ask them about how they should wear the shirt as a young player. Because they should play with intelligence, application and without fear.

I was surprised (pleasantly) with our result yesterday... and I hope we can take this forward. Casimero is a great example of someone who knows how to wear the shirt, but he needs energy around him.

Ray Wilkins said that it can be 'easy to play for Man Utd.... if you choose to hide..'. Sometimes it seems we are reluctant to embrace the challenge and that's not good. I blame Lindgard, Sanchez, Sancho, Lukaku for this...
 
I dont think it comes down to lack of talent. We definitely arent the most talented team in the league, but we're not bottom half. It comes down to the personality and leadership in the team. When SAF left, we slowly lost the players that had his mentality and thanks to Woodward, we replaced them with mercenaries chasing money. It killed the culture.

As for the current squad, we lack leaders outside of De Ligt, Casemiro, and Martinez. I know it gets thrown around a lot, but this team would kill for a Keano type that would two foot a teammate in practice for lack of effort. The manager can only do so much. The players need to hold each other accountable and make training 10x harder than the games. I dont get the feeling that happens in this team. I think it would do a world of good to clear out some of the weak mentality players in the team, even if they still contribute. Im looking at names like Shaw, Maguire (although he has matured), Dalot, Bruno, Rash, Sancho, Zirkzee, etc. I love Bruno but he never struck me as a leader. Hes petulant and whiny. I want the captain to be a killer. Sell Bruno this summer and give the band to De Ligt or Martinez.
 
Lentwood said:
That's basically my argument yes.

Grimsby is actually a perfect example. Start the game very lazy, make individual errors. Focus in the face of a humiliating loss, big increase in energy, score two goals, including late equaliser.

I agree with Pep by the way, but I don't think his comments change anything. Complacency kicks in when we don't have that common belief in a goal / cause, like winning a cup or a league title, or the energy that comes from believing bad things will happen if we don't show some immediate urgency!
Click to expand...
Pep was talking about a very dominant City at the time though. In the trophy hunt, multiple successes, and yet there are individuals that can motivate themselves e.g. Kompany, Bernado Silva and there are those like Grealish for instance.

I get your wider point, and I think it's largely valid, but I genuinely don't think belief is the issue with some of these players - I'm with you on the rock bottom scenario though.

The lads had a chance to get into Champions League places against a 10-man Everton and they were lazily passing at snail's pace and not pressuring the Evertonians in possession. These boys played Arsenal off the park (even if they were probably off the pace at that point in the season), they can replace rock up at Anfield or anywhere and do very well.

The common denominator seems to be the size of the challenge in front of them. Don't forget, even against Sunderland, that was a team that was flying at the time.
 
Complacency is definitely an issue,tied in with consistency. Very plain to see during Atkinsons day. At a time when Liverpool were strong and consistently winning titles, we could go out and beat them almost at will.. and then drop into complacency vs WBA or Sheffield Weds eg. Somebody mentioned Wilkins, who, for me epitomised the issue. He wasn’t alone. In a team of Whiteside, McGrath, McQueen, Moran etc all hard men who stood up to the best of teams when they were motivated. Not only vs Liverpool but the famous 3-0 vs Barca to overcome a 0-2 deficit. Robson was probably the only one who rarely let standards slip. It’s only half the battle to create a talented side, as opposed to one that is relentlessly motivated as in Ferguson’s reign. The discipline needs to come from the top, through the coaching staff along with recruitment of players with the mentality and drive to motivate each other. We’ve a bit of a way to go. Managers who can drive this mentality are quite rare. We’ve seen it recently with Guardiola (albeit aided with unprecedented fund) Klopp and even Duplo man, to a degree. We’ve also seen the flavour of the month type, who shrink as the challenge increases. The difference is finding the right type. Always felt it was a shame, in Atkinsons reign, he just seemed to be enjoying himself a bit too much :) and never quite had the discipline that SAF brought but that’s another argument,
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
I disagree.

I think intensity is there, most of the time at least.

What they lack is focus and decision making, first half yesterday we were atrocious but still intense and hardworking.
Click to expand...
You think that Everton game had high tempo and intensity?
 
I think there is probably something to the idea that the team can be a bit too quick to forget their current level and settle back into the assumption that we just have to show up and be Man Utd to win.

I do think that's a tiny part of it though. I think we are just really imbalanced in terms of quality and playing in a really competitive league so we have lots of mixed results.
 
This squad lacks mentality discipline. They can't consistently hold each other accountable to the highest standards. Thats why ever now and then they put up performances like Grimsby and Everton. Where they a bandon focus, intensity, theccollective and what the gane plan is. Descending into purposeless, glory hunting individualism. Shirking responsibility and not doing the basics of their job.

Once you do that with the personnel weakneses we have you get exposed and thoroughly embarrassed.
 
The big issue is we are just one of the pack now in terms of the quality of our players. We lacked intensity and consistency under SAF at times but we had the quality to get away with it, more often than not man for man our players were usually amongst the top 2 or 3 in their position. And when that dropped off we had a manager that made the difference or players that papered over cracks like RVP, Ronaldo and Rooney.

Now a combined eleven with the opposition is probably fairly even for half the league and the top teams would be heavily weighted in their favour. Not many of our players are the 2 or 3 best in their position anymore and we don’t have any of those elite players either.

It’s fine margins now, we got 5 points from the last 4 games, all were draws or decided by a single goal. We could have won, lost or drawn any of them and couldn’t have argued much with the result. So may teams fall into the same category now and we need to find a way to elevate ourselves from them consistently.
 
I do think we're a chameleon side. We'll match teams at their level. Its a pretty underdog mentality.
 
Roboc7 said:
The big issue is we are just one of the pack now in terms of the quality of our players. We lacked intensity and consistency under SAF at times but we had the quality to get away with it, more often than not man for man our players were usually amongst the top 2 or 3 in their position. And when that dropped off we had a manager that made the difference or players that papered over cracks like RVP, Ronaldo and Rooney.

Now a combined eleven with the opposition is probably fairly even for half the league and the top teams would be heavily weighted in their favour. Not many of our players are the 2 or 3 best in their position anymore and we don’t have any of those elite players either.

It’s fine margins now, we got 5 points from the last 4 games, all were draws or decided by a single goal. We could have won, lost or drawn any of them and couldn’t have argued much with the result. So may teams fall into the same category now and we need to find a way to elevate ourselves from them consistently.
Click to expand...
There's definitely an element of this. In Fergie's day, there was a gulf in class in most positions (at the very least at the top end of the pitch). These days, it doesn't matter who you play, they've got very decent quality levels all over the pitch.

Case in point - at one time, Crystal Palace had Zaha, Eze, Olise, Mateta (obviously not all at their peak but still). I don't know how many Wharton's emergence overlapped, but that's a serious team.

Thing though is it's the games were we actually have a clear advantage (on paper at least) that we tend to take our foot off the gas and get punished. To your point though, perhaps the gap is just that small these days, that if you're not on it, you're getting turned over.

You do need a crop steady players through the spine of the team that won't usually drop below a 7/10 performance and their intensity and leadership could carry the rest.
 
Roboc7 said:
The big issue is we are just one of the pack now in terms of the quality of our players. We lacked intensity and consistency under SAF at times but we had the quality to get away with it, more often than not man for man our players were usually amongst the top 2 or 3 in their position. And when that dropped off we had a manager that made the difference or players that papered over cracks like RVP, Ronaldo and Rooney.

Now a combined eleven with the opposition is probably fairly even for half the league and the top teams would be heavily weighted in their favour. Not many of our players are the 2 or 3 best in their position anymore and we don’t have any of those elite players either.

It’s fine margins now, we got 5 points from the last 4 games, all were draws or decided by a single goal. We could have won, lost or drawn any of them and couldn’t have argued much with the result. So may teams fall into the same category now and we need to find a way to elevate ourselves from them consistently.
Click to expand...
Very well said, and I think too many don't like to accept how many other teams have a good squad now. Very very few weak teams now.
 
Art said:
I do think we're a chameleon side. We'll match teams at their level. Its a pretty underdog mentality.
Click to expand...

I think the biggest frustration is how low our intensity is at times. Everton at home, I was expecting us to press high and be aggressive, instead we were timid and backing off, same with Palace.

Its really concerning that we cannot get that level of aggression going.
 
AaronRedDevil said:
I think it’s all down to game intelligence, there’s no pattern of play. Like “you run here, and he overlaps you and then pass it through the box where X will be waiting for a header”. There doesn’t seem to be any sign of something like that. Watching the team play, is like they make it up as they go. No plan, no idea what to do when someone gets the ball. I know it’s not that simple but it really should be. Possession is nice an all, but it’s pointless if you can’t do something with it.
Click to expand...
Thank you.

Now there is a come back to this, in that there is a plan. It's just that plan falls short. The vast majority of the time it's incompetent, ineffective and unfit for purpose of consistently winning football games organically as opposed to via luck. And if we break that down in to the metrics of today's game, it's even more apparent. xG. Quality of chances created. Territorial advantage. Prevention of big chances or passes leading to them. If we dig very deep, there's a reason we're called Moments FC or Banter FC, because in general it's often chaos.

Our setup hampers our own effectiveness. In what world is it sensible having both wingbacks cutting inside along with the 10s on each side doing the same. It's absolutely mental. Unless that player is regularly capable of taking the opponent down the line and putting incisive balls in with the weaker foot, then it shouldn't be done. Every yard, every half second is vital. And all of those are sacrificed with the setup we often play. And if we're not playing that, we're playing FB's who lack that creativity, rendering it useless in an attacking sense that they're actually on the side of their stronger foot.

Our 10s don't know how or when to get in to the box unless it's a set piece. The half spaces are constricted. The striker doesn't get in to striker positions. We don't have balls in to the channels as either a pressure relieving option or an attacking option, we have to wait for the WB's to get back up there after dropping in to a back 5.

There are SO many things wrong with this formation and personnel choices and the way it affects both our defensive solidity (including the reduction of chaotic moments) and our attacking output not just in terms of goals, but in terms of the quality of chances created. And yet, because we've still got a certain quality of player, moments will be created, shots from distance will present themselves, that suddenly because we still seemingly get close to scoring each game, all is forgotten.

In elite sport it's about creating small advantages and taking them. The taking of them is down to the player on the day. The creating of them is down to the system and the manager. We give up so much edge based on our approach. I'm disgusted that more people don't see it like this.
 
McGrathsipan said:
You think that Everton game had high tempo and intensity?
Click to expand...
It did until the sending off and Everton decided to sit deep, they scored the goal because they were high up from a corner kick, and our players were disorganized when the ball went to their GK (lack of focus and a collective wrong decision making) which allowed Everton to score, who then absolutely had no reason to come out and even press let alone play any football, intensity was not required (in terms of physically competing with a team) what we needed was quality which was lacking.

Also in the game vs Palace, I didn't think we lacked intensity, aside from Zirkzee, everyone was giving maximum effort, that's why even though we were atrocious on the ball first half, Palace didn't dominate us even though they created the better chances, second half our players did well in terms of focus and decision making which resulted in the goals we scored.
 
As I say ... Whenever we're fancied, we duly drop points. It's been a pattern for years, but it's been particularly heightened this year.
 
I see your point and during all season, was always more worried for results when it was against teams where we were expected to have more of the game. Thats what we don't do well, whether it is complacency, I don't know, difficult to rule it out for sure. But I think a bigger issue is the total inability or willingness or both to exert any sort of control. Its pinball bullshit, drilling hard passes into players or right into the mix to hope for a happy outcome.
 
Gary Neville has mentioned that he spoke to Amorim before the game and Amorim said he was looking for more urgency, intensity, movement. Now unless he says one thing and coaches another, I don't believe this is a directive from the bench that players just drop levels of urgency.

There's something about these players - the press hasn't really come after us this time, which is perhaps a shame , because I can almost guarantee that if we have a couple of days of really bad press, we'll have a right go at Wolves to prove a point, we'll batter them, get lot's of good press, then drop off again



One feels the crop of senior players we have should just be replaced. These ones are just not suited mentally for consistency.
 
Disagree. I think it was more to do with the players. Amorim has realised certain players faded after 70th (Casemiro) hence put on sub. Problem is that those sub such as Ugarte, Yoro, are worse, much worse than those being sub. Fresh legs alright but no-where near the quality of the starting 11. Maguire & Mount are about the only quality sub that he can produce, with somewhat limited contribution. May be Maguire better as desperate #9.
 
I don’t think I’ve seen this one, is Jason Statham in it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.