A New Frontier To Conquer - The 2025 Club World Cup Thread

Notice how there is no comment about his ability to stop the penalties, however his counter part actually could.

Courtois always is trying to blame someone so people won't check under his hood

 

I was not a fan of Tibo and thought he would be an odd fit for the team because we had always had quick, 1v1 type of GK's with Iker and Keylor.

My biggest concern was his footwork, but he improved alot in this area. While I think he did improve in this area he's still not exactly Neuer and I can't help but feel like the more he's asked to contribute the more likely he's going to make costly mistakes that end up in goals. It's just not his forte.

And now he's invited alot of unwanted attention and pressure on himself, not smart.

The man has the gaul to criticize the team for playing "too slowly" but didn't have a word to say about anyone playing too slowly for years while Hazard was around.

The only reason Tibo got his starting spot back was because of good guy Carlo and his Friendship F.C. philosophy.

Other than that Lunin had more than earned the right to keep his starting spot.

 

Hilarious to see people turn on Courtois because they still cant face the truth about Ancelotti. I mean that man probably saved his job multiple times lol

 

The truth about Carlo is.... he won and all the players that played under him did the jobs they are paid handsomely to do whilst winning, everything else is garbage..

 

I really don’t see why people are reading too much into it. He stated the obvious; we have a new coach, his ideas are yet to be implemented, and, obviously, there are still elements from our play from last year(s).

Is it criticism or just stating the obvious? Is it an attack on Ancelotti or a defence of Xabi? Or just simply him saying, “hey, it’ll take time, we’ve been playing a certain way for so long and it’ll take time to move on from that” without it being criticism or praise, just plain simple facts.

Honestly I think people are creating this Xabi vs Ancelotti theme around everything, it’s neither fair on Carlo nor Xabi and above all it’s boring and pointless.

 

We didn't play that well and didn't get the desired result, but there's still no need to overreact.

 

Guy actually gave us that CL vs Liverpool... 9 saves, a few heroic and we had like 2 shots on target... I can't believe people are either so pressed or have amnesia or I dunno what.

 

Honestly this is all just overanalizing, I don't see anyone talking about it but a few posts on bs.

 

Thibaut has been our best player on many occasions. And last year our defense was hemorrhaging goals.

I'm sure he is genuinely pissed off about that. But just as he'd have a point in feeling like Ancelotti "let him down" by consistently playing Lucas Vazquez, he would also have a point if he felt the same way towards the board who never did anything to try and improve our defence last January transfer window.

And between Ancelotti and the board, he is only throwing shade at Ancelotti who is no longer here.

So maybe the smart thing would have been to let bygones be bygones and not mention Ancelotti at all. He's an incredible goalkeeper, but he also makes mistakes, and now he's put a spotlight on himself.

 

Thibaut's comments simply underscore what was a glaring problem last season - that the atmosphere in the club is not the best.

 

This is the key. People need to accept how FAR we are from being a great football team. The task ahead of Xabi is colossal.

I think yesterday's game for him was almost a let's see what I have in a competitive game and then start working on solutions. This was very much last season's Real Madrid overall.

It was nice to see him make the change at half time and not wait too long. Second half was slightly better.

 

We didn’t play well

that’s not on Carlo who isn’t here anymore
Or on Xabi who just simply started

it’s on the players who couldn’t beat a Saudi team and not one of those with the super names from Europe.

At some point these dudes have to take accountability

 

Vinicius just lost... i mean seriously. He is not playing football for a long time now.

 

Yep, people don't want to talk about it. But yep.

 

It's not an attack on Carlo. It's just our resident Carlo simp is just over sensitive with regards to possible comments that don't flatter his idol.

The players are still adjusting to a new system. Simple as that. It's the same reason why we aren't blasting the team for an uninspiring draw against a team perhaps two divisions below us level-wise. We ain't stupid.

 

Again, I don’t think he’s necessarily assigning blame. I don’t even know what he was asked, to me it reads like “we didn’t play well” broadly or “it’s still early days we’re still the team from last year”. I don’t think he’s throwing shade at Ancelotti.

But assuming he did, which I don’t necessarily agree with, you mentioned a few players from Leverkusen throwing shade at Xabi, allegedly, but in that instance it was used to highlight that he has flaws, but that doesn’t seem to apply here? Couldn’t the same be said about Carlo?

 

Because the Castilla players aren't ready.