I'm not sure they can. They looked incapable of raising the effort to compete. The intensity of the premier league has a lot to do with that but it doesn't explain the lethargy we've seen all season. Who knows, maybe there's something amiss with the way the players are being prepared for games.
I would also say that we need to start signing a more athletic type of player. Players like Navas, Clichy and Dinho are able to play 4 or 5 games a fortnight without any discernible dip in performance. If we're genuinely looking to compete on all fronts we need more like that and, as you've said, younger players being given a chance.
I really don't want to go but someone is relying on me that day. If they play like demons & win it will piss me off that they don't do it more, & if they do nothing again (which I worry will happen) it will piss me off even more. I don't want to be there to see either.
I have lost a lot of respect for most of our players after the last two games & I really feel quite hostile towards them & particularly the manager.
I will see if I can talk the others into binning it off.
That's true,but he's got class around him as well,I remember when we had class all over the park as well,ahhhh the memories
For all their possession playing at home they didn't really create that many clear chances - one great Joe save, one deflected goal. I thought for a 20 minute spell around the time Sterling nearly had his leg broken from a horrendous tackle we did ok. Granted first 60 mins I think we looked like a team who didn't think we had a chance and our pressing play was not good enough but they have battered teams at home for some time and they hardly did that to us. Having said that midfield v midfield was a big gulf but we did keep the number 7 quiet!Looked the better side? Wow.
I thought it was boys against men for 94 minutes. They defended better than we did, controlled the midfield, kept the ball far better and were dangerous in attack. They had more energy, were more organised, hunted in packs, closed down better. I thought we were comprehensively outplayed from beginning to end.
Replay that game 10 times and we'd lose all 10 playing like we did.
His movement & enthusiasm for the job though, irrespective of the players alongside. He is starring amongst them not playing 2nd fiddle. Compare that to Silva.
Compare that to Aguero last night.
Our players have collectively lost their mojo, even the best ones are struggling & I recon many of us know why.
1st February is one of the main reasons,when Doctor fucking Who opened his trap
For the first time in the clubs history we have a team and a squad that looks perfectly at home with the elite level of European football.
I recon if you look at the swamp derby from last season, you see exactly the same thing.
I can't dwell no more,I'm worn out with these last few years,did I enjoy us winning the League Cup twice,yes I did,a Prem title,yes I certainly did,a place in the last 4 of CL,yes a bit,am I glad this **** is going in a fortnight,I'm over the fucking moon
Me too.
Not winning the league, not getting to the champs lg final doesn't bother me in itself, it's whether we have made the best possible fist of it with the resources we have at the time.
In both cases it's ended up with a pathetic damp squib of an attempt rather than a genuine challenge.
That's what I can't take.
And makes it even worse that one of the "big boys" we are so called competing with,didn't win it neither !!!
We be right mate,get 6/7 in the summer and we have a good go with a manager that looks like he knows what he's doing
Sticking with Yaya yesterday was a massive mistake, the guy sleepwalked up till he was changed. If all the fans and pundits see it, how come he doesn't?
Seriously? Perhaps not straight away but the last ten minutes we were in their half more than the previous all the preceding 80Were we any better after he had gone off? I certainly didn't notice an improvement.
No such thing as winning in spite of a manager. When a team stops listening to a manager you end up like Chelsea under Mourinho or Rags under Moyes, Liverpool with Rodgers.
Theres a long line of highly coveted and talented players we have acquired that have been frankly ruined by either having their talent coached out of them, or being asked to play in a way or under tactics which are not suited to their skills or a combination of both. Well done boss
^^^ ThisNot seen one shred of evidence this season of any tactics whatsoever.