Except we are not 'ending up' anywhere right now, as it's not the end of the season for another 28 games.
I can only base my opinion on where we are currently. 8th. Which wasn’t good enough for the last manager. I’m not sure why it’s good enough now. If we improve, I will adjust my opinion. Which would be the logical thing to do.
Weird self-imposed rule. No one is stopping you from basing your opinion also on the performances.
Sure. But the trajectories are in opposite directions. Again, requires you to watch games rather than stare at the table all season.
No one in their right mind would be predicting we finish on 38 points for this season, they were just venting frustration that his overall tenure has been poor.
Given our last ten years of course the doom is constantly lurking. It will be until we prove over time that we don't have to worry anymore. If anything, results like those you are talking about can be seen as progress away from that feeling of doom as well.
I can. I think the performances have largely been mediocre.
It will take more than three games to erase a year of shite.
This thread is an echo chamber proclaiming Amorim to be a great manager?!
You can’t really compare Fergy to now. He was one of two teams fighting for the league with a team full of superstars and most of the competition rolling over. Easy to bring on another attacker when you are totally dominant. There are several teams better than us now and several as good we have a poor defence and midfield and are trying to build momentum after a difficult season with a fanbase that would crucify their own team and manager if they lost. Bringing on players of lower quality up front and weakening that defence would have been asking for it.
Can you define 'a long time'. ETH first season was really promising, I think most of us were behind them despite concerns I had on transfers. We came third, won EFL and lost FA Cup final. That's two years ago. We are a long way from that right now. Second season with ETH was poor and tactics a mess and his awful signings really exposed us. But last season was the worst in living memory, and I am not going to ignore that the worst results of the PL era came under the current manager. Sure we are clearly better than last season, after spending another £250m plus. But still below that first ETH season. Let's see. My fundamental concerns about Amorim are his obsession about a single system and refusal to adapt. No other top manager, certainly in the PL era, has ever shown such dogmatic approach. Refusing to sub off a CB when we are chasing a goal is just insane. So I see his ceiling as quite low. The whole mantra in modern management is now adaptation and flexibility, and how you get the best out of the players you have, look at Glasner as an example. He was not a fixed 3 at the back manager before Palace. There is a wider point as well at United, unlike other clubs, that every manager seems to need to spend £0.5bn and buy half a team before being judged. I really worry at the lack of youth progressing at the moment as well, other than players we bought in its gone super quiet.
Yes, but the other side of the coin is that we are trying to build something here. There is a risk to throwing formation out of the window, and I'm not sure that Forest away (with Dyche newly in place) was the time to throw the kitchen sink at it. We got an equaliser and came close to winning the game - a win would have been nice, but a loss would have put an end to our undefeated run and cracks in our fragile confidence. This wasn't a cup semi-final or the end of the season with a European spot up for grabs, it was a very tricky game for loads of reasons. I was a bit disappointed at the time, but looking back I think it will prove to be a decent point.
True, but this was not a cup game. We probably would have lost had we done this.
I think we need to stop obsessing about formations. When you are losing a game you try something new or throw on some different players. The most simple thing is to take off a spare CB and put an attacker on. Its not like we looked threatening before Amad scored, so we were on course to lose. What does 'throwing the formation out the window' even mean. Every other manage in the league changes formation, we are not talking about a religious gospel here. Amorim has thrown Maguire up front on occasion for example. The lenghts people will go to excuse him not making simple changes is staggering
darling, you've been obsessing about formations since 23rd January!
I actually think our inability to contest the midfield with legs in the midfield, this is nothing to do with playing the 2 or a 3 in CM, we just don't have the profile, you look at the profile difference between Anderson and all our CMs, his work rate and passing created one of Forests goals on Saturday and his ball recoveries stopped our transitions and put us on the back foot.
To be fair, every one of Fergie's teams had at least 4 or 5 who were strong candidates for PL team of the season. In the earlier years, Schmeichel, Giggs, Becks, Cole, Keane, Neville. In the later years, Rooney, Vidic, Ferdinand, Carrick, Scholes, arguably VDS, with a sprinkle of RVP, Ronaldo etc inside. (Btw, Nani, Fletcher and Valencia were included in past PL teams of the season before). In recent memory, all squads challenging for the title had at least 4 or 5 such PL team of the season candidates. During this time, the only consistent candidates that we have would be Bruno and De Gea.
It’s always been an issue blooding young talent. In the past the League Cup was often used but that’s no longer an option. I suspect the FA Cup will be deemed too important to risk inexperienced players just like the PL has become. Amorim did put Heaven on as one of his changes against Brighton which was promising but then things got a tad sticky so he might be less inclined to do that again.
Fair enough.
Forest are not better than us,Mount,Mainoo and Zirkzee were on the bench,they are decent options.
Dorgu/Dalot are not as good attackers as Zirkzee or Mount. It's a negative comparatively.
