Ralf Rangnick | ex-interim manager | does anyone rate him?

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Telsim

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Instead of obsessing over clean sheets he should be working with the forward players to improve in the final third of the pitch. Because if we didn't score that lucky stoppage time winner it would be because of the bad decisions in the final third and too many players shooting and wanting the glory.

I fear he's spent too much time on the defensive side but it's the attack which is the main problem now.
He is focusing on defense because we were leaking like a sieve before that.

The final third is a problem, I agree, but I think we will see improvement there as well. Issue there is mentality and midfield that can't support the forwards consistently.

Greenwood needs to watch yesterday's goal to learn what passing to his teammates can do. Rashford has been terribly out of form. Remains to be seen if he can get himself out of it. I'd also play Martial more as well, despite my dislike for his antics.
 

Thiagoal

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What was ‘lucky’ about our last minute winner? Quite a few posters have referred to it but I thought it was great football!
 

The Hacker

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We said it during Oles tenure that the team weren’t seemingly managed or coached at all. He played his favourites and played them with no plan or real arrangement. Ralf has had to begin to instil some actual management and coaching the team werent ready for it. So they would have pushed back! It seems now though some things are working. a lot of work is needed by Ralf though. But he seems to have the character for it.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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Instead of obsessing over clean sheets he should be working with the forward players to improve in the final third of the pitch. Because if we didn't score that lucky stoppage time winner it would be because of the bad decisions in the final third and too many players shooting and wanting the glory headlines.. Greenwood is still as greedy and selfish as the first day Rangnick joined. So what are they doing in training or video analysts or with this fancy new mental coach?! Where's the improvement from Rangnick there?!

I fear he's spent too much time on the defensive side but it's the attack which is the main problem now.

Let's see now we don't play for 2 weeks if he improves anything in terms of decision making in the final third of the pitch. You know basic stuff you should learn when you are a kid.
Can you just give it a bloody rest. You have posted basically the same nonsense up the page in the form of a rant. The attackers are all looking abit lost still but to blame that on Greenwood Is pure stupidity. Pushing an agenda for the sake of it onto a 20 year old lad. Take a break.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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What was ‘lucky’ about our last minute winner? Quite a few posters have referred to it but I thought it was great football!
It wasn’t lucky, the only reason people are saying so is because it came so late but it only takes a second to score in football and it’s no less valid scoring in the last minute as it is the first.
 

Ixion

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It's an irrelevant and pointless stat. If anything you ought to be comparing both coaches' first 10 matches.
How would that make any sense? Comparing different squads, different opposition, different seasons? It would be meaningless. Comparing the last 10 of Ole's and the first 10 of Ralf has some continuity and is within the same season and squad.
 

antsmithmk

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To play devil's advocate, we have had a really easy fixture schedule since he took over.
Yep. And if yesterday finished 0-0 the vibe on here would be totally different. People need to take in more evidence before jumping to conclusions. For me, the jury is out on RR. I'm happy enough to wait till the end of the season and see what he's got us playing like. After 10 games we seem more solid but then we have played weaker teams as you said.
 

Ixion

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Yep. And if yesterday finished 0-0 the vibe on here would be totally different. People need to take in more evidence before jumping to conclusions. For me, the jury is out on RR. I'm happy enough to wait till the end of the season and see what he's got us playing like. After 10 games we seem more solid but then we have played weaker teams as you said.
I mean Ole lost to Villa, Leicester, Young Boys and Watford, drew (should have lost) at OT with Everton so it isn''t like his problem was just the City and Liverpool games.
 

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Instead of obsessing over clean sheets he should be working with the forward players to improve in the final third of the pitch. Because if we didn't score that lucky stoppage time winner it would be because of the bad decisions in the final third and too many players shooting and wanting the glory headlines.. Greenwood is still as greedy and selfish as the first day Rangnick joined. So what are they doing in training or video analysts or with this fancy new mental coach?! Where's the improvement from Rangnick there?!

I fear he's spent too much time on the defensive side but it's the attack which is the main problem now.

Let's see now we don't play for 2 weeks if he improves anything in terms of decision making in the final third of the pitch. You know basic stuff you should learn when you are a kid.
Interesting you mention the final third because we scored a lot more often with Greenwood et al up front last season. More often then we have done this season under Ralf and under Ole. Why is that? What’s changed? Can you think of any possible reason? Real head scratcher, right?
 

minoo-utd

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It was not a lucky win, even if it was the final ball. We deserved it considering we were the better team and it was obvious to see. Ralf did very good by playing four strikers last few moments.
 

stevoc

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I found it useful

I don't care about the comparison to Ole, but good to see how RR has started compared to our form before he took over. Especially the goals conceded column.
Bear in mind though it doesn't include the 3 games immediately prior to Ralf taking over.
 

stevoc

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Agreed.

He's also the first manager to give youth a real chance imo. He gave Elanga a start despite having Sancho, Rashford, Martial, Cavani on the bench. Our previous managers generally gave young players a chance only when they had to because of injuries. The only exception was Greenwood but you may argue he's competing against only the likes of James, Lingard, Mata.
Sancho hasn't been on the bench though has he? He was given time off.
 

sp_107

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When LVG critised OLE after his blistering start of too many wins in his first 15 matches, I thought it was all soar grapes as LVG mentioned Ole plays nothing but a counter attacking football and soon opposite managers can counter it

But later i realised LVG was bit right, I have huge respect for Ole even now and credit to him for what he did by stabilising the club and steering us away from LVG/Jose negative era's.

As much as I want Ole to succeed I think he is bit limited and a club like UTD defintely need someone like Ralf whose experience/vision will count

Having said that nothing is certain in football but atleast he is trying to coach our players in a better way and he is being transperent to players which will be appreciated sooner or later, on top of that he can use his continental contacts and bring in some players on a good value which is his best asset, he got more success rate of signing top class promossing players which can be handy for us as we didnt do well with our recruitement over last 9 years

One way or other, he is a positive signing for us

I like Conte but its like an accident can happen at any time with him as I am not sure how our players reacts to his methods and soon we could land in another Jose type situation
 

sp_107

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Ralf is honest enough to accept we could improve our possesion / attacking play as we still lost the ball many times from promissing positions.

But I think it will come, first he fixed the defensive side and now he knows what needs to be done. After a long time i felt we played like a team yesterday which is a good thing

And signs were there in Burnley first half / 60 mins against Villa / 2nd half against Brentford, so I am sure our offensive play will improve when he spent more time with our players in coming weeks, Imagine if he fix that side and with the players we got in front 4, we could be devastating to handle....Hope we are in for a good 2nd half of the season!
 

Havak

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I'm not too worried, I think the better attacking play will come. There have been a few games where we looked a bit too open, but overall I'd say we have improved significantly in terms of overall defending under Ralf. West Ham will cause a lot of teams a lot of problems, but other than the Soucek header from a corner I don't think we gave them a sniff.

Of course, we can massively improve in terms of making more clear cut chances, but with the attacking players we have I am confident we'll find more goals as confidence increases. If we could add that midfield general, a destroyer who can actually consistently find forward passes into the creative players, we'll be some way towards challenging for real trophies.

I'm content with Ralf's performance so far, hopefully he can find more time to work with some players over the international/winter break if they aren't involved in other games. Our upcoming games should really be more confidence builders.

Losing to Wolves and not getting over the line against Villa were some big blows, but we have reacted in the right manner. We've as good a chance at top 3/4 than every other side involved in that battle.
 

Son

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I’ve gotta give him credit. We are actually looking like a decent side now defensively and more structured.

It was always a work in progress so he’s bang on target so far. Moved up the table even in the beginning stages which is promising. We are moving in the right direction.
 

sp_107

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Looks like he is a quick learner,

4-2-2-2 didnt work - he switched to 4-3-3
Defence was not good--He put Harry/Shaw on bench to give them a proper kick and now we can see the old Harry
Bissaka Problem : He promoted Dalot and we can see a better play on right side of the pitch
Bruno Form : He started playing him more in NO-8 role or close to McFred and we can see the improvement.
Midfield Problem : He knows McFred is not our solution but he praised Scott by telling he is the captaincy material and since then Scott started giving us regular 8/10 performances instead of an occasional 1 or 2 good matches
Players domination : He told Pogba that he should request us to extend rather we are asking him to stay (excellent bit) and called back from Dubai / Put Martial's agent in check / Told Ronaldo club comes first than anyone else
Giving youth a chance : Promoting Elanga and playing both Rashford/ Greenwood even they are not in best form / Ralf said he is really looking forward to bring in Hannibal as he is very much impressed with him (music to my ears)
Giving our players a bit of home work (video analysis), payback time for taking it so easy for years :)

Once he gets the tune out of |Rashford/Greenwood/Sancho with Ronaldo/Cavani as a backup, we could be devastating

Seems media made up so many wrong stories after Wolves defeat but it feels like players are buying his methods / happy to see Ronaldo joking with C|hris Armas after the game yesterday shows the relationship is bulding with Ralf's coaching team.

I am happy Guys, in the end its not all gloom and doom and his best asset is finding best deals in the transfer market, so I am looking forward to good days again.
 

evil_geko

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Instead of obsessing over clean sheets he should be working with the forward players to improve in the final third of the pitch. Because if we didn't score that lucky stoppage time winner it would be because of the bad decisions in the final third and too many players shooting and wanting the glory headlines.. Greenwood is still as greedy and selfish as the first day Rangnick joined. So what are they doing in training or video analysts or with this fancy new mental coach?! Where's the improvement from Rangnick there?!

I fear he's spent too much time on the defensive side but it's the attack which is the main problem now.

Let's see now we don't play for 2 weeks if he improves anything in terms of decision making in the final third of the pitch. You know basic stuff you should learn when you are a kid.
Calling Greenwood selfish while desperately defending Ronaldo at every possible corner, you are hilarious. :lol:
 

Adam-Utd

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he’s started to make the team assert control over games which we’ve sucked in recently.

with control the chances will naturally come, but we do need to make better decisions in attacking areas.

We’ve only had 2 clean sheets which says everything. We have to stop leaking easy goals before we start scoring 3 or 4 a game.
 

Maagge

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Great to have a game where we weren't giving away silly chances for fun for half of it.

We seem to be moving in the right direction. I hope the two week break until the next game will be used on working on some attacking stuff and set-pieces.
 

UnofficialDevil

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Looks like he is a quick learner,

4-2-2-2 didnt work - he switched to 4-3-3
Defence was not good--He put Harry/Shaw on bench to give them a proper kick and now we can see the old Harry
Bissaka Problem : He promoted Dalot and we can see a better play on right side of the pitch
Bruno Form : He started playing him more in NO-8 role or close to McFred and we can see the improvement.
Midfield Problem : He knows McFred is not our solution but he praised Scott by telling he is the captaincy material and since then Scott started giving us regular 8/10 performances instead of an occasional 1 or 2 good matches
Players domination : He told Pogba that he should request us to extend rather we are asking him to stay (excellent bit) and called back from Dubai / Put Martial's agent in check / Told Ronaldo club comes first than anyone else
Giving youth a chance : Promoting Elanga and playing both Rashford/ Greenwood even they are not in best form / Ralf said he is really looking forward to bring in Hannibal as he is very much impressed with him (music to my ears)
Giving our players a bit of home work (video analysis), payback time for taking it so easy for years :)

Once he gets the tune out of |Rashford/Greenwood/Sancho with Ronaldo/Cavani as a backup, we could be devastating

Seems media made up so many wrong stories after Wolves defeat but it feels like players are buying his methods / happy to see Ronaldo joking with C|hris Armas after the game yesterday shows the relationship is bulding with Ralf's coaching team.

I am happy Guys, in the end its not all gloom and doom and his best asset is finding best deals in the transfer market, so I am looking forward to good days again.
Yep, agree. And he has done all this in such a short period of time. Whether he stays on as manager or some other role in the club I’m also looking forward to much better days.
 
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The same people praising him would be on here criticising him if we drew with West Ham (we got lucky with a 90th minute winner let's be honest) or we don't beat Middlesborough or lose against Burnley. It's the constant flip-flopping that grinds my gears.
You say this but most people aren’t concerned that we won or drew. It’s the performance against one of the best teams in the league that was encouraging. We controlled them, they didn’t have a clear cut chance.
 

Ixion

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You say this but most people aren’t concerned that we won or drew. It’s the performance against one of the best teams in the league that was encouraging. We controlled them, they didn’t have a clear cut chance.
Yes, you could see with the reaction to the Villa draw, people were upset we drew but were happy with the improved performance. The same would have been true yesterday
 

mctrials23

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And people were saying there hasn’t been any new manager bounce…
There hasn't. New manager bounce is when the players go from playing like utter shit to suddenly playing 100% better for pretty much no reason other than motivation. We most certainly did not get that. This has been more akin to a manager coming into a dysfunctional office, knocking bad behaviour on the head and starting to restore some semblance of professionalism to the place. The players clearly weren't any happier when Ole was gone and hes had a struggle to get them working for him over the past 2 months.

Its slowly turning around and the players are finally working for the manager and each other and as results improve you will probably see more of a "new manager" bounce than we saw at the start of RRs tenure.

He came in, stopped the rot, settled us defensively and has been trying to figure out what sort of squad he has. I think he has settled on something that works as well as possible within the constraints of the players he has and the time he has. I'm not expecting miracles but fingers crossed we can finish the season in the CL positions.

Yesterday was an important game because it was the first one where we actually controlled the match and seemed to work our asses off to do so. We were still low on quality and there are still serious issues but in the past games under RR we have ridden our luck a lot and teams have got at us a lot more than WH did. Good signs.
 

Laurencio

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Looks like he is a quick learner,

4-2-2-2 didnt work - he switched to 4-3-3
Defence was not good--He put Harry/Shaw on bench to give them a proper kick and now we can see the old Harry
Bissaka Problem : He promoted Dalot and we can see a better play on right side of the pitch
Bruno Form : He started playing him more in NO-8 role or close to McFred and we can see the improvement.
Midfield Problem : He knows McFred is not our solution but he praised Scott by telling he is the captaincy material and since then Scott started giving us regular 8/10 performances instead of an occasional 1 or 2 good matches
Players domination : He told Pogba that he should request us to extend rather we are asking him to stay (excellent bit) and called back from Dubai / Put Martial's agent in check / Told Ronaldo club comes first than anyone else
Giving youth a chance : Promoting Elanga and playing both Rashford/ Greenwood even they are not in best form / Ralf said he is really looking forward to bring in Hannibal as he is very much impressed with him (music to my ears)
Giving our players a bit of home work (video analysis), payback time for taking it so easy for years :)

Once he gets the tune out of |Rashford/Greenwood/Sancho with Ronaldo/Cavani as a backup, we could be devastating

Seems media made up so many wrong stories after Wolves defeat but it feels like players are buying his methods / happy to see Ronaldo joking with C|hris Armas after the game yesterday shows the relationship is bulding with Ralf's coaching team.

I am happy Guys, in the end its not all gloom and doom and his best asset is finding best deals in the transfer market, so I am looking forward to good days again.
Pretty much spot on in every way. I did not know he wants to bring in Mejbri - will be looking forward to that one
 

Bilbo

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Such fine margins in football. If Brentford had gone ahead on Wednesday, or Bowen's glancing header had gone in, we could have been looking at a dreadful week. Instead, thankfully, there is a positive feeling around the club and the players will be looking forward to the next match. We might go on a run now.

I like Ralf. He's come in with an idea of how he wanted us to play, but hasn't hesitated to change things where other managers egos might have caused them to drag it out for longer. Ultimately we've gone around in a circle and ended up back where Ole had us, but I think come the Atletico tie we'll look more organised and hopefully a little more confident in the final third.
 

Kag

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We’re conceding fewer goals and he deserves credit for that. We’re not creating an awful lot, but we need reinforcements in midfield before we can do both.
 

Amir

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What was ‘lucky’ about our last minute winner? Quite a few posters have referred to it but I thought it was great football!
There was some degree of luck, as the ball got to Ronaldo from a wayward clearance attempt by a West Ham player which allowed us to attack with them not having many players at the back (which you would not have expected in the 93rd minute).
 

mctrials23

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People need to stop looking at this period as a results game. A results focussed approach meant that we stuck with Ole for nearly 3 years because the results were "good enough". Its like not taking your car into the shop because its still working. It sounds like shit, doesn't change gear properly and makes lots of weird noises but it works so why would you be worried.

This is my biggest gripe with our fan base. Most of them would be happier to win 1-0 through a doggy penalty after being battered all game than than lose a game we had dominated and created chance after chance. Its that sort of thinking that means we never actually build for the future despite everyone clamouring for it.

Most people with a brain could see that Ole was out of his depth from quite early on and that he wasn't adding any value to the squad beyond being a "nice guy" and spending a lot of money on players. It was always destined to end badly and it did.

Now we have a manager who puts more focus on the things that matter in the modern game and people are still obsessed purely with results. Results will come with time and adjustment. Results will come when the team is fitter, better organised and coached. Liverpool had some really poor results for a while under Klopp and they would blow hot and cold but you could damn well see that overall they were on a fantastic path. Thats what we need to keep in mind. Long term rewards sometimes require short term sacrifice.

I wouldn't have been that annoyed if we drew yesterday because we controlled the game. We barely gave WHU a sniff. I can't remember the last time that happened. We also didn't do it by going full turtle and defending for our lives. Good signs IMO.
 

Chairman Steve

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People need to stop looking at this period as a results game. A results focussed approach meant that we stuck with Ole for nearly 3 years because the results were "good enough". Its like not taking your car into the shop because its still working. It sounds like shit, doesn't change gear properly and makes lots of weird noises but it works so why would you be worried.

This is my biggest gripe with our fan base. Most of them would be happier to win 1-0 through a doggy penalty after being battered all game than than lose a game we had dominated and created chance after chance. Its that sort of thinking that means we never actually build for the future despite everyone clamouring for it.

Most people with a brain could see that Ole was out of his depth from quite early on and that he wasn't adding any value to the squad beyond being a "nice guy" and spending a lot of money on players. It was always destined to end badly and it did.

Now we have a manager who puts more focus on the things that matter in the modern game and people are still obsessed purely with results. Results will come with time and adjustment. Results will come when the team is fitter, better organised and coached. Liverpool had some really poor results for a while under Klopp and they would blow hot and cold but you could damn well see that overall they were on a fantastic path. Thats what we need to keep in mind. Long term rewards sometimes require short term sacrifice.

I wouldn't have been that annoyed if we drew yesterday because we controlled the game. We barely gave WHU a sniff. I can't remember the last time that happened. We also didn't do it by going full turtle and defending for our lives. Good signs IMO.
Pretty much all of this.

I‘ve lost count of the number of times we’ve won games under Solskjaer and it was a knife edge game throughout. The signs of a good team is winning by a slender 1-0 but controlling the game and not letting the opposition get close to you. We did that yesterday.

Satisfying wins don’t necessarily come through routing a team or playing exciting football throughout. Some are like yesterday when you can subdue a pretty decent team. That barely happened under Solskjaer (if ever). Almost every Solskjaer game felt like a rollercoaster in the dark. We could be 1-0 up and the opposition would still be carving out chances until the 90th minute and either the opposition gets the equaliser or they overcommit and we hit the classic Solskjaer counterattack and win 2-0 to make it look more comprehensive than it really was. I think a lot of people read between the lines and saw that (including myself), and hence why those people wanted a change in management.

Ralf likes to emphasise control a lot and I wonder whether he knew that was our weakness right before he joined, because we barely had that in games before that.
 

tenpoless

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I have been away from home, couldn't watch matches. It's surprising to me how just 2 weeks ago people were doubting him but apparently after the game vs Westham we looked like a proper team....? not to mention all the negative stuffs being put by the media regarding how the players don't trust him, etc. So it's fair to say anything that comes out of Mirror is as trustworthy as IndyKaila.
 
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happy to see Ronaldo joking with Chris Armas after the game yesterday shows the relationship is bulding with Ralf's coaching team.
I saw this too and it made me very excited that if the leader in the squad is getting on well with the coaching staff and is referencing a training move that was executed well on the pitch it is an extremely positive sign.
 

Roux

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His ability to react to poor performances by players is excellent, drops them and gives someone else a chance - it creates a culture that nobody is safe, whereas under Ole it was the complete opposite. Dalot and Elgana are a perfect example of this - its just great, fair man management.
 

UncleBob

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So I think this is correct

Ralf's first 10 games: 6 Wins, 3 Draws, 1 Defeat. 14 goals scored, 6 conceded
Ole's last 10 games: 3 Wins, 2 Draws, 5 Defeats. 14 goals scored, 22 conceded

We also had a stupid record like 1 clean sheet in 24 games or something similar. We have 4 in 10 now.
Looking at PL stats:

Ralf first 8 PL matches (5 wins , 2 draws, 1 loss). 12 goals scored, 6 conceded: Expected goals against us: 8,53
Oles last 8 PL matches (2 wins, 1 draw, 5 losses) 9 goals scored, 18 conceded: Expected goals against us: 15,4

If we look at the stats for those teams:

Teams VS Ole's United:

Average goals scored combined: 13,55
Average expected goals combined: 13,1
Actual XG: 17,51
Actual goals scored vs United: 18

Average goals against: 11,1
Average expected goals against: 10,27
Actual XGA: 11,02

Teams VS Ralf's United:

Average goals scored combined: 9,09
Average expected goals combined: 9,04
Actual XG: 8,53
Actual goals scored vs united: 6

Average goals against: 12,4
Average expected goals against: 12,02
Actual XGA: 12,48









I think people are going slightly overboard in terms of just how much we control matches and how big the difference is. Under Ralf we've generally played against teams that will sit back and try to hit us on the counter. Yet, teams have generally had a higher xg against us than they do on average. The major offsets are Crystal Palace, Ralfs first match, and West Ham yesterday, but it wasn't until the 92,5min that we created the chance that completely changes the stats, otherwise we'd be way below the average, and even that was a result of a counter rather than sustained pressure. We were lucky not to be 2 goals down at half time against Brentford as well, which would have made it very difficult.

I thought Crystal Palace was the best match we've played under Ralf, so I'm a bit surprised that the West Ham performance is being praised so much in the media. We were extremely high up the pitch and didn't allow Crystal Palace to do much. Crystal Palace had 350 passes with av pass streak 3 and a 71% pass succ rate, much closer to how I expected us to generally try to play under Ralf. West Ham had 432 passes, avg pass streak 4 and with a 75% succ rate. West Ham were happy to allow us to have the ball and rarely put us under much pressure until we went past the midfield, they ventured forward a bit more in the second half and the match became more open, but i thought they were surprisingly negative yesterday, but that might be a direct result of their huge loss against Leeds, who had an XG of 2,27 against West Ham (avg is 1,4) and scored 3 (avg is 1,34), not to mention Moyes and his horrible stats at OT.







Brentford put us under plenty of pressure the times they decided to apply collective pressing high up the pitch, one of their biggest chances was a direct result of that.

For me, it's still a fairly valid concern that our control so far is more a result of the opposition rather than a major improvement on our side. I think we look much better as a team, especially in terms of putting pressure at the right time and as a team rather than individuals, but is that because of the opposition and Ralf, or just Ralf. How much improvement can be seen when we play against sides that will more or less constantly put us under pressure and allow us very little time on the ball, will our stats remain similar or will we revert to giving away goals. It's also a major concern that our attackers spend most of the match looking completely disconnected from each other, not to mention the rest of the team. Given the players available up top, i must admit that i expected more of an instant change in direction, better communication and attacking football.

Then again, I could be completely wrong as well and simply not seeing the obvious.

Our next 10 matches: Boro, Burnley, Southampton,Leeds, Atletico, Watford, City,Tottenham, Atletico, Liverpool.

It'll be very interesting to see if there's a general improvement in our attacking football by the time we play Atletico.
 
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