Happens to all the greats eventually (an argument for Paisley as an exception). Suddenly the aura slips through familiarity. Players no longer willing to run through walls and buy into the excitement of new ideas and methods, etc. etc. Is it resurrectable? Big test.
I’d get him having to play Ake on the left at the moment because Cancelo has been terrible and nobody else is good enough to play there. As Ake can’t really attack or provide width though you’d think the other fullback would be asked to bomb on and provide a bit of width like Walker did on Sunday. Instead we play the other one inverted and we’re more narrow than ever with slow wingers who like to cut inside having nobody to help them create the space to do so. It’s genuinely bizarre how he keeps setting us up.Favourite sides is a personal preference. I have never seen an English side play football as good as we did in 17/18. It was fast, exciting and completely dominant. I get that others will prefer other styles.
I agree re CBs but this comes back to having five of them and Pep trying to keep them all happy. Three of them are top-class. Two of them are useful squad players that are seeing far too much game time. Teams don't get better by consistently playing players who are worse than others in the same position.
He has to give the players new tactical ideas though as it’s not him that’s getting bored, it’s the players. He has to give them something different each season so that the guys that have been here 5,6,7 years still feel like they are learning and it still feels fairly fresh. That’s what he’s trying, that’s why we have this current system. But it’s just not working and the players don’t look up for trying something new or different, they just look fed up. And that’s the major concern regarding whether enough of our players are still 100% up for working with Pep.
Exactly.Is that why we put out full strength sides to beat Chelsea and Liverpool in the EFL cup when the schedule was at it's busiest?
Come on, let's not be the fans who pretend their club was never interested in a cup when they go out.
Yeah agree but he won’t just walk mid season it be at the end of the seasonThis is the kind of performance - the whole team not performing, tactics not working or not being followed, general malaise - that would make Pep walk away if it was repeated a few times.
He always says he'll walk away if the players stop responding to him. There better be one hell of response on Saturday because half a dozen matches like that before June and we could be in big trouble.
We didn’t though.Is that why we put out full strength sides to beat Chelsea and Liverpool in the EFL cup when the schedule was at it's busiest?
Come on, let's not be the fans who pretend their club was never interested in a cup when they go out.
Something went badly wrong in the build up to last nights game I feel. Wrong line up aside, maybe poor motivation, lack of interest etc. We were appalling.
We've had plenty of bad games this season. How many is too many?Funny that against Chelsea we pressed batter than we have all season and battered them! Tonight like pep said Southampton we’re better in all departments there press closing down long balls down our left them winning every second ball we’re just not up to it! For me I want to win every game but that loss will benefit us in the long term! There is 21 league games left and champs league plus the fa cup!
Oh are we not allowed to have a bad game!?
I think our style is fine against teams that don't put XI men on the edge of their own box. When we play United, Chelsea, Liverpool etc, the quality is there.
The issue for me is playing this way against sides that play us looking for a 0-0. They play narrow and our pass, pass, pass, slow motion style, allows them to set and remain compact. The problem is, the vast majority of our games are against these teams. When we played quicker in years gone by, these teams were usually on the end of a hiding. They couldn't cope with us.
Our own style of play has somewhat levelled the playing field against the dross, to the extent that I actually prefer watching us against the better sides.