Juventus (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

[Roachy]

Two poor transfer windows, injury prone and aging players would suggest that at some point, wouldn’t it?
Hopefully a couple of astute purchases/loans in Jan may reinvigorate the club

My point is no one mentioned it then. It's all being done in hindsight now. Anyway it's an irrelevance really in the large scheme of things. Any Jan incomings will hopefully, as you say, have a positive effect. The problems run much deeper than that though right now. We are in a tailspin with the whole team in a turgid, limp state.

 

[Roachy]

People have moaned about our recruitment for years. The squad has been been a ticking time bomb in keeping up our high performances but I don't think anyone would predict we would look like relegation fodder over a 2-month period and probably the worst team in the CL. As should not be expected with our resources.

Can't disagree.

 

[ScottSinclair]

Other teams have caught up and overtaken City, Fulham,Bournemouth etc,are quicker, more mobile than us,we have no movement, teams still play 10 back ,but break quickly against our square defence, we make it easy for them

This is the main issue I have with our sporting director. How you can sit and look at the obvious shift in world football towards pace and athleticism (and a more direct playing style, but I don't think the style in itself is the issue) and then let the squad become old and completely devoid of any of any of that is beyond me. It is basically letting every top team in the world leapfrog us from a position of strenght. We have half-heartedly tried to adress it with the likes of Kovacic, Nunes and Doku but the result of the job that has been done in maintaining a competetive squad is visible on the pitch every week now. Farcical

 

[Keeper!]

The fact he keeps saying we played good and were unlucky is mental , we can see with our own eyes we are miles off it

What he says in public and in private are two very different things.

As said, if we lose on Sunday this could become very serious and could well get very much worse.

Something is very wrong, I think Pep has called a few of these players out in private and they don't like it.

 

[Gabriel]

What situation? Losing a few games?

We're over reacting to a ridiculous extent on here. Is the solution to get big Sam in to steady the ship?

I don't see us as 8 or 9 short, more 4 or 5.

Fucking everything the guy has done and achieved at our club and the first time he hits a rocky patch we've got fans questioning his credentials. A complete joke.

As I've said, if we're struggling this time next season it might be worth having a discussion but until then, it's not difficult to ride it out - wait for transfer windows, wait for players to come back from injury and see where we are.

Depressing reading these views. The moment Pep leaves is the moment we regress as a club, and not just for 2 fucking months. Likely a turbulent time ahead of hiring and firing managers, just be grateful for who we have.

On the number needed, I agree that we need 5 to improve the current team, but going forward we also need to improve the quality of the players that come off the bench, which means a reappraisal of the small squad ethos and holistic loyalty that has served us so well. If we don’t, then we accept a cyclical system where a squad is assembled, wins a Champions League every 5 years, and then then enters decline.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

What he says in public and in private are tow very different things.

As said, if we lose on Sunday this could become very serious and could well get very much worse.

Something is very wrong, I think Pep has called a few of these players out in private and they don't like it.

The great man doesnt escape scrutiny or critism.

Last nights tactics were a rinse and repeat of many games in recent months.

Slow build up, possession passing in front of 10 defenders, no penetration to the byline, no crosses,in game positional changes dont work,2 substitutions when were losing,1 substitution on 89 minutes, rinse and repeat,rinse and repeat !!

We have a shortage of fit players and a shortage of pragmatism by Pep.

His tactics have made us so predictable and easy to play against.....lose possession 75 metres from goal,3 passes later we've conceded AGAIN !!

The players need help and Peps tactics arnt helping them, him or us !!

 

[tonea2003]

possession with no point
any incisiveness has gone out the window
I have to look away every time we get countered and I'm doing that a lot

 

[Aeromania]

It’s not so much the players we’ve brought in but the players we’ve let go in recent transfer windows that gets me. I realise we got big money for them but Alvarez and Palmer could probably have been very useful last night. There’s no competition for Haaland up front either. Now we’re left having to recruit more players in January when we let two exceptionally good ones go not so long ago.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

Another absolute shitshow with a lot of players hiding. This will sadly carry on for the remainder of the season as well, and Pep has said when he feels he no longer has the support of this squad he will walk. The players are letting him down badly at present and he needs to start cracking the whip with several of them

What about Pep,his tactics and absence of pragmatism ?

He's part of the team too !!

 

[Father Paul]

Better times ahead, Blues.

Those who aren't Blues, can go and fuck their own faces.

Charming

 

[Gone for a Burton]

Its all just character building for our younger fans :)

Lot of surgery needed but we’ll be back. Feels a lot like peps first season again, hopefully next season will be like his second again…

More likely to be his last season.

He says he'll go if he cant get the players up.

Currently he cant get them or himself up !!

 

[Keeper!]

The great man doesnt escape scrutiny or critism.

Last nights tactics were a rinse and repeat of many games in recent months.

Slow build up, possession passing in front of 10 defenders, no penetration to the byline, no crosses,in game positional changes dont work,2 substitutions when were losing,1 substitution on 89 minutes, rinse and repeat,rinse and repeat !!

We have a shortage of fit players and a shortage of pragmatism by Pep.

His tactics have made us so predictable and easy to play against.....lose possession 75 metres from goal,3 passes later we've conceded AGAIN !!

The players need help and Peps tactics arnt helping them, him or us !!

100% agree.

Just get back to basics, keep clean sheets and try and start to build back trust and confidence.

Make no mistake, we are in serious doo doo.

 

[Fordyboy46]

What about Pep,his tactics and absence of pragmatism ?

He's part of the team too !!

I know, he doesn't escape criticism

 

[Suffolk Blue]

Two words

Concentration
Penetration

 

[Gone for a Burton]

6 out of 7 league tiles. 4 titles in a row. Champions league winners. Treble winners. Setting record after record.

Then a bad 2 months and people on here have turned on the team, turned on certain players and some have even turned on the manager.

......and some are posting legitimate comments about a coach and team who have lost their way.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

I don't think he needs to change his philosophy, he just needs to tweak it.

We should be making sure that first and foremost, we don't concede goals. If we played 5 yards deeper then I don't think we'd have lost tonight. Surely we have enough quality in Bernardo, KdB, Doku, Haaland to score at least one goal per game?!

We need to go back to basics and build on it.

Haaland had 5, FIVE, 5 touches !!

 

[Benarbia’s Backheel]

My point is no one mentioned it then. It's all being done in hindsight now. Anyway it's an irrelevance really in the large scheme of things. Any Jan incomings will hopefully, as you say, have a positive effect. The problems run much deeper than that though right now. We are in a tailspin with the whole team in a turgid, limp state.

I’ve seen/heard hundreds of people lament the club for not signing the required number/level of players to keep the squad competitive over the last couple of years.

 

[Benarbia’s Backheel]

Two words

Concentration
Penetration

My wife has the same team talk for me sometimes

 

[Father Paul]

Awful,but I’m beginning to think pep was going end of season and for whatever reason we convinced him to sign for another 2 years,and he’s actually mentally checked out,this with a few other factors is were we are at now ..

Unless he starts to turn around this form he may not even get to the end of the season. We are very nearly in free fall. Even the best manager of all time has a sell by date.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

If only we had another striker so we could occasionally try two up front? Or real full backs that know how to position themselves. Poor recruitment is the real problem here

Dont forget that Pep is part of the playing team and part of the recruitment team.

He doesnt escape scrutiny or critism, last nights game management,tactics and substitutions were 'rinse & repeat !!