When it comes to buying a striker in the summer we absolutely cannot gamble. We have to be buying a ready made goal scorer even if it means doubling our record transfer fee. I’ll be absolutely fuming if we go out and buy some guy averaging like 15 goals in 40 games in the hope of saving a bit of money.
Slept on it and woke up feeling no better than when I went to bed. Just depressingly average we are at the moment. Done OK in Champs League and have played much better in that for some odd reason. But some decisions have to be made like taking Sterling out of the team!!! Put Bernie back in. One of the few players with tenacity and pace. Obviously him and Laporte are persona non grata at the moment with Pep !
Immaterial mateStill pretty disappointed with last night’s result despite the number of hours having passed. Missed our chance to Kim up table. If scousers win they go 8 points ahead in table ( and we have Southampton to play)
Had we fuck.the ball might have travelled in the general direction of their goal but to call some of the rodri and Cancelo efforts shots would be extremely generous.we had 26 shots yesterday.
Jesus and Sterling are too busy stood at the back post together waiting for some impossible worldy ball from Kev.Another day and still feeling flat after last night. Haven't changed my view on Cancelo, a half-arsed lazy so and so who only seems interested in doing a job at one end of the pitch.
Another poster praised Gundo last night & rightly so, he takes risks with passes at times, just like KDB and he was trying very hard last night to get us moving and playing quicker.
Foden has been average this season, his league performances have been meh and his last 2 home performances in the CL have been decidedly iffy, he got hooked in one of the them.
I have to disagree a bit about Rodri and no doubt will take some flak. He worked really hard last night and won us the ball back quite a few times in the 2nd half when Mendy and Cancelo were giving it away left right & centre. I still think people are wrong about him and he will come good.
Gab disappears in games, why is he never on the end of the cutbacks in the box. The amount of times we have said during games as a ball fizzes across the 6 yard box..."Kun would have been on the end of it"....Gab is never there?
We are just so flat and need a big lift in the forthcoming transfer window, some clever wheeling & dealing is required.
Need to hope for a Liverpool Spurs stalemate tonight.
Long way to go still though.
perhaps, but we do create chances. just completely dreadful at converting.Of which 7 were on target. Other than the 2 in injury time, we offered very little threat to west brom, so saying we had 26 shots is just not a reflection of how bad we were.
No way is Foden starting at Southampton. Nor should he.Another day and still feeling flat after last night. Haven't changed my view on Cancelo, a half-arsed lazy so and so who only seems interested in doing a job at one end of the pitch.
Another poster praised Gundo last night & rightly so, he takes risks with passes at times, just like KDB and he was trying very hard last night to get us moving and playing quicker.
Foden has been average this season, his league performances have been meh and his last 2 home performances in the CL have been decidedly iffy, he got hooked in one of the them.
I have to disagree a bit about Rodri and no doubt will take some flak. He worked really hard last night and won us the ball back quite a few times in the 2nd half when Mendy and Cancelo were giving it away left right & centre. I still think people are wrong about him and he will come good.
Gab disappears in games, why is he never on the end of the cutbacks in the box. The amount of times we have said during games as a ball fizzes across the 6 yard box..."Kun would have been on the end of it"....Gab is never there?
We are just so flat and need a big lift in the forthcoming transfer window, some clever wheeling & dealing is required.
Need to hope for a Liverpool Spurs stalemate tonight.
Long way to go still though.
In the end, i'm happy enough with a point, because it was beginning to look like one of those 'just not your night' games where they would knick a goal at the end, or var would give them a stoppage time pen or something.
Sometimes, things just go against you, the own goal from a free kick that was never a foul, multiple missed chances and top top saves that on another night would have gone in. The game itself, out of context, these ones happen.
Again, we are hugely underestimating the effect fans in the stands would have had in that game, the extra pressure it would put on their defence in those last 20 minutes, the bit of belief it would give our forwards. Enough to get that winner. Let's not bullshit ourselves, we have had these games every time we won the league, we found ways to win them and it was marginal. We also had suckerpunch losses too.
The problem is has been happening a few times.
The bigger issue for me is the narrative this creates. We've already rewritten the last season, and a fair few now seem to be going into kickoff with a low expectation, and then watching the game to try confirm it.
We Are slower than we have been, we are less 'frightening'. But we still keep the posession and we still create the chances. What seems to be missing is belief and confidence. You can see it, from half an hour in, players are in despair and disbelief at missing chances as if it is the 90th minute. It almost looks as if they have convinced thenselves the goals aren't coming.
The narrative around pep will start to build too, can't hack it more than 3 years, anywhere else he'd be sacked, and that will feed into the cycle.
We need a big scoring dominant game to shed the weight, and to follow it up with a basic win. Then it might kick a bit of self belief off.
I think pep should be using torres way more, and regularly, because he is the one player currently not bogged down with this mentality. He is new to the team and league, has that fresh naivity but also that pure hope, has confidence and belief in himself, and the hunger to prove himself and justify his big move. And that will produce goals where a currently fragile sterling or mahrez will miss them.
If Sergio could get fit, id love to see Serg and Jesus start together. Jesus is struggling massively and he just isnt a lead the line kind of striker. Play them both, rotate with Torres maybe and i genuinely think we would be a lot more clinical.Nice to see a sensible measured post (not that I am reading that many).
I still see us as team going through a transition of sorts, during what can only be described as strange times. I agree completely that, for whatever reasons, the team is lacking some belief and confidence and that is perpetuated by missing chances. There's a vicious circle that has to be broken somehow. We had 26 shots last night; 19, which is more than our now league leading average shots per game, missed the target. That's not good enough and it's not just a case of shots from distance: 65% of our shots were taken inside the box. Our players have the technical ability to do better so I am convinced much of the problem is mental (an old hobby horse of mine).
Torres may be our best finisher at the moment but I still think we are waiting for his personality to really come out in games.
I fell Sergio is in the twilight of his career but we need him to get and stay fit to see if he can get everyone firing on more cylinders in front of goal.
Truth is, none of those are shit players. However, some are doing a pretty good impression.The manager isn't getting the best out of these players.
18 goals from 12 Premier League games is an absolutely woeful return. He has Mahrez, De Bruyne, Sterling, Aguero, Foden, Torres and Jesus at his disposal. He needs to be coming up with a better system to give these guys more chances.
I did say it a few weeks back but was shot down that the rumour was there was a training ground bust up between two players. Hardly seen since.
Foden is nowhere near the finished article but, even at this stage, is pretty good and merits more than being shuffled around from pillar to post to bench.For me it is early days but Foden seems a fair weather player. Look at the challenge for the ball in the air for West Brom's goal last night. Hope it doesn't turn into a "Where did it all go wrong for Phil". But last night seemed strange, every player bar Gundogan seemed nervous about having the ball, slipping and falling over even Ederson with nothing to do looked edgy. Very strange. Charlie Austin came on no pace could easily have gone to a back three with Mendy off and brought the extra forward on but still continued with Walker as a sub. What were we hoping for from Walker?
Which two?I did say it a few weeks back but was shot down that the rumour was there was a training ground bust up between two players. Hardly seen since.