Transition season excuse

[TheThirdDeano]

I've already told you all this is not a transition season, this is a recovery season.

 

[Afterthefact]

Hate it but david is slow and old. We have no runners anymore. And when we have the ball it’s ponderous and people take way too many touches before making a decision. This is so much like pep season 1 and pellers last couple not even funny

 

[balotellishaircut]

Nothing in football surprises me, I reckon Pep will go at the end of this season, no rym or reason just a gut feeling.

 

[Keeper!]

It is bollocks, we are not in transition, we have had unkucky injuries.

Still the teams we have put out that have lost are better than the oposition.


Realy we have no excuse

Nothing unlucky about injuries, they are part and parcel of sport, sh1t happens.

It's how you cope with them and how you prepare before the season starts in terms of recruitment.

We went into a 60 plus game season with 1 world class CB, one who was happy to leave , 1 whom has gone MIA in each of his season's with us and a 35 yr old central midfielder, utter madness.

 

[BosnianBlue]

This is what frustrates me. I think the central defence may well be sorted with Laporte, Stones, Garcia and Harwood Bellis, whilst Foden and Jesus are top quality players who are on the periphery of our side but should be starting more games.

That CB set will never win a CL and probably not the PL too. Two kids with zero experience, Stones who has a good game in half a season and only Laporte as top CB. Add to it that we're not really blessed with great defensive fullbacks and it's a receipt for more disappointment of current one scale.

 

[WRicko]

It’s our philosophy. Yes, Pep did brilliantly to get 100 points, and a quadruple, can’t argue with that.

Fact is, Pep inherited the best squad in the league, spent a ton of money, and we look worse than we did in his first season.

Buying Stones who can pass but not defend. Relegating one of the best players in the world to 4th choice winger because he doesn’t ‘track back’ (he does, more than most wingers). Mendy is average defensively. Playing Bernardo on the wing. Using Rodri, Gundogan and Silva as 2 of a midfield 3. Not bedding in Foden when it’s Silva’s last season (and he’s ‘the best talent he’s ever worked with’). Garcia not getting games behind Fernandinho.

We’ve got 3 of our best ever players on the way out, and still not replaced Kompany.

Still love the guy to bits and don’t ever want him to leave, but these are big concerns.

One of the best players in the world is 4th choice winger ?

 

[balotellishaircut]

It’s our philosophy. Yes, Pep did brilliantly to get 100 points, and a quadruple, can’t argue with that.

Fact is, Pep inherited the best squad in the league, spent a ton of money, and we look worse than we did in his first season.

Buying Stones who can pass but not defend. Relegating one of the best players in the world to 4th choice winger because he doesn’t ‘track back’ (he does, more than most wingers). Mendy is average defensively. Playing Bernardo on the wing. Using Rodri, Gundogan and Silva as 2 of a midfield 3. Not bedding in Foden when it’s Silva’s last season (and he’s ‘the best talent he’s ever worked with’). Garcia not getting games behind Fernandinho.

We’ve got 3 of our best ever players on the way out, and still not replaced Kompany.

Still love the guy to bits and don’t ever want him to leave, but these are big concerns.

Pep didn't inherit the best squad in the league when he joined mate.

We still had the likes of Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna, Fernando, Iheanacho, jesus Navas, I think the rags squad was on a par if not better.

I agree with you as regards Foden and to some extent Garcia, both need to be trusted and played in the first team.

We need a plan B n C, I wouldn't mind getting a Dzeko type striker, Passing out from the back may have run its cycle, who knows.

 

[Vish]

Pep didn't inherit the best squad in the league when he joined mate.

Passing out from the back may have run its cycle, who knows.

Need taller , more physical players.
Liverpool may not be as pleasing as us on the eye when scoring goals . but we have only one way of scoring.
They score a variety ..
We do nothing with set-pieces apart from conceding soft goals.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

We have had an incredible couple of seasons under Pep , the bar has been set so high to expect a repeat every season just isnt possible , players will have dips in form , we have had more than our share of injuries to big players and some dubious decisions from officials and VAR . All these facts have contributed to our current malaise , maybe a bit of realism and an average season collecting only a couple of trophies should be acceptable , and we can re-group and give the title another go next season. Shit happens.

You are being far too generous, jimmy. We have been cheated by the application of VAR in games where we've ended up with one point or no points. Yesterday was yet another example where the explanation as to why we didn't get the HT pen will be expunged from PiGMOL, PL and FArce communication and never used to explain why The Dippers or MANUre weren't awarded a blatant penalty in future matches.

 

[CatMan]

We all know football dominance is cyclical, and the rather like 11 pieces of fruit becoming ripe at the same time, they also then start to rot and fall apart simultaneously. This is what has happened with us and it is almost unavoidable. In fact those that argue we could have blooded younger players earlier will need to concede that with such an approach we would never have been as fantastic last season and in effect not 'peaked'.

Our problem now of course is that every part of pur team look broken and as such it's very difficult to sensibly identify who needs to go. This, and I hate to say it, was where SAF was brilliant at United. He never had favourites and if you were not cutting it then you were being cut from his plans.

As one poster in another thread said, ' Just how have we ended up with that defence and a captain who needs a zimmer frame', and to be honest that is a question only Pep can answer. It could be that he is indeed a 3 year manager and as most teams have 3 year cycles then he has never previously had to manage a team rebuild and run the risk of becoming unpopular by telling players their time is up. I think it's plane to see that Silva is too old and not a captain, whilst others are simply not as good as their price tag suggests! Yesterday our bench, less Foden supposedly totalled more than £250m, yet we had nothing credible to change the game, and just how have we ended up with just 1 centre forward? Like it or not, the answers can only be provided by Pep! My guess is his dealing with this situation in the coming games will give evidence to his long term desire to rebuild. In short, if he doesn't call time on the likes of Silva, and the poor performers like Stones and Mendy then it's evidence that he wI'll not be here himself next year.