I agree, for me Ole has failed to break the cycle of caution and/or pragmatism adopted by Moyes, LVG and Jose. No attempt to address the lack of movement when we have the ball and too passive off the ball.
Easy task, we just need to sign 2 players who're probably among the top 10 players in world football right now to be good enough to win the league. Strange how the solution for Ole's problems always seem to boil down to getting better players despite us looking lost on the pitch on most weeks.
I mean, this is an odd premise. If it was so easy to just add two players to your team and have them be the best in class of their generation/age group, any manager would be able to challenge. But that's not how it works. You usually don't end up getting in the very best CF talent in the game, or arguable the 2nd best CF of his generation. If we can't add a CF that good should we just give up? If we dont get a VVD should we give up? City have neither a CF that good (Aguero is missing forever) and neither a CB of that level. Heck, they havent even had KDB and Rodri, Fernandinho's replacement looked awful last season. But they're running away with the league. Because the collective is brilliant. They defend well as a unit, Foden and Gundogan have more than made up for KDB and tactically they set up well enough to make up for no Aguero.
There is more to a team than just putting 11 good players on the pitch. While simplified, this is the main reason, IMO, OGS and his coaching team are not going to take us anywhere close to City...
Well, he wasted his chance of getting someone near VVD's level after buying Maguire and making him his captain.
The board backed him to buy a VVD but he chose Maguire, which means buying another defender and less money to spend elsewhere. That’s reality rather than these pie in the sky scenarios.
Yep. Vvd and maguire are both similarly priced. Both have the same profile (mid table players by then).
the point about City is well off for me, they've spent hundreds of millions on defenders many of which have failed and have finally seemingly found a combination that is working with Dias, Stone and Cancello (though they've got to prove this for the rest of the season).
Very well articulated. Great managers build great squads, they just don't buy extraordinary teams.
Klopp owe's his job to VVD it seems then.
They've spent a lot. But that doesn't mean one ignores the excellent coaching as it would be a case of missing the deeper point. Stones, Foden, Gundogan, no number 9, the maligned Rodri and Zinchenko are part of a record setting run.
Awfully coached team that happens to be 2nd out of 92 professional football clubs in the country.
We are still second in the league. Too early to panic like that.
So only another £200-300m required? What a manager we have! He's already got one £90m CB and multiple other to choose from. He decided to get rid of Smalling who was part of one of the best defences in the league not long ago.
Just curious. If we sacked Ole today and appointed Nagelsmann or the manager of your choice, do you think he should just make do with what he got, no further recruitment nesscary?
Not ignoring or discounting the role of the managers/coaches but they're not comparable to where we are at under this manager, the context is not comparable. Both Pep and Simeone are working in much more stable environments, Pep has been at City almost five years (with the team built for him at least one season before he arrived), Simeone almost 10! Ole has been in the job for just over two full calendar years, picking up a chaotic squad / situation that needed huge work.
A good manager would actually get players that fit his formation or build a formation that suits his players.
Wouldn't put a lot of money on that.. he's got one more year to really prove he can elevate us, otherwise the axe will be wielded by those above. That is with or without backing in the summer window.
But if we look away from the youngsters and the back up players (James, Telles) 4/5 of his signings have played very regularly and have been one of our more consistent performers. There is this myth going around on here that Maguire is a bad fit because he lacks pace, which is just rubbish imo. The most important attributes for a CB in a high line is strength, positioning and aerial dominance. Pace is nice, but if your CB's constantly end up in footraces with strikers who weigh 30 punds less than them, you are going to be in a lot of trouble. AWB is not the best offensive fullback in the world, but hes still only 23 and has plenty of room for growth. Brunos stats speak for themselves
Don’t be daft, he’s got one more year on his current contract and that’s got nothing to do with proving anything. I dare say he will get a new better contract at the end of this season anyway.
No problem.. We agree to disagree.It’s been over a year but are we really back here? A few bad results and people who dare not criticise the manager are reverting to questioning whether the squad is better than fecking Leciester?
It’s always the same with some of you, drop to 8th and it’ll be “is our squad really better than West Ham & Everton when you analyse it”.
This kind of post is exactly what I meant @Bastian when I said the excuses will never stop, whatever happens it’ll be the squad, or Ed, or the Glazers.
Yes our squad is plenty better than Leicester ffs (and Spurs for that matter).
I'm not biased, in fact, I'm one of few here saying let's not make sweeping statements until we see where we are at the end of the season.No problem.. We agree to disagree.
But why are you talking about 8th and start talking about ex West Ham.
The problem is you think I say this to defend Ole or assume I have some kind of intention.
I’m sincere when I assess our squad to not be significant better compared with the teams I mentioned. I don’t have a problem with your opposite conclusion, except it’s wrong
Seems like you are more biased in the fantastic Ole inn/out discussion (strong feelings). Recommend you to rise above the Ole inn/out discussion and not interpret everything in that context.
This is what I was getting at with my posts in another thread. Most of that is to do with Liverpool being poor than us being massively improved. They are on course to drop 35 points; we are on course to gain 6. That is in no way reflective on us being so improved that we managed to overcome the mighty Liverpool for second place.
The board are not going to go out and get a top centre back. Ole made his Maguire-shaped bed and he'll have to lie in it. A CB signing is going to be about getting someone affordable who will complement Maguire. And given our track record that almost certainly won't work out. If and when Ole does get sacked, I think signing off on £80m for Maguire and instantly making him captain will actually go down as his single biggest feck up.
Keep on dreaming mate.
He’s already been here a lot longer than many people wanted. The sooner the people who want him sacked wake up and realise that they don’t set the bar, they don’t make the calls, they don’t have influence, the happier we’ll all be. CL qualification every year will be enough for our board. If you don’t think so, keep on dreaming yourself.
We're still a few weeks away from panic. Even though we only have 1 win in our last 5 games, we had built up a bit of a cushion on our top 4 rivals, which has kept us looking good in the table, even while we've looked dreadful on the pitch.
You don’t know that. He could be gone by May. (Hopefully)
CL qualification will get a lot harder next season if the other teams return to their normal levels. Don't take it for granted because this season, with Covid and injuries to certain teams has proved to be an anomaly. Yet we look like we'll still make a meal out of it yet.
It is always hard to qualify for CL. COVID is not specific to a few teams and I’m pretty sure the use of COVID as an excuse would get laughed out of town. Injuries can affect anyone at any time.
I'm not panicing just saying we need to match Bruno's ambition and quickly start winning the big trophies. We need another couple with the skillset, drive ambition and not frightened to bollock the other players.
All of those clubs have owners and a culture of wanting to stay at the top.
Good post.
