News: The 2024/25 Season (P)Review Thread [R]

I want to see more rotation and creativity in getting results.

Here I what I want to see

Onana (we got no one else)

L to R
Yoro
Slab
De ligt

Amass
Collyer
Casi
Antony

Bruno
Eriksen

Razzle

Rest Maz
Dalot is not enough of a threat. He gets into good spots then ********s it up
So give Amass a try with the added protection of a back 3 and Yoro behind him or flip Yoro and De Ligt

To rest Ugarte, you have to use Case but give him a chance by putting him with some young legs to help cover ground
Antony has the work rate to do the job as a WB.

Razzle does better with creative wingers who can find him. Playing with 2 10s should help that.

 

Why does he have to do those things? All he HAS to do is not get relegated. You’re high if you think making Europe again next year is anyone’s goal except the owner’s and only for monetary reasons. We’re not making Europe through the table even if he does change, so the only way he’d make it is by winning Europa, and even if he changed, we know that’s a 1/1000 shot with how terrible this team is.

 

Although it was fun and memorable to beat Arsenal in the FA Cup I was actually looking forward to us going out of it. Europa to a lesser extent too.

This is extended pre-season for me (as long as we avoid relegation) - so the more time he gets with the players the better (as we saw in the Liverpool game).

Need to see some improvement as he gets that time, then need to see how things go once he hopefully gets at least one wingback (LWB) a DCM and a striker in the summer to help this system work.

From a purely selfish point of view I just want to see the games being more watchable (this one shot on target game certainly wasnt) and if binning the remainder of the season for the training time is the price, then am ok with that.

 

Replying to SF19.

For this season? No way that’s reasonable in my opinion. He was clear with the media that coming in mid season and changing the structure was going to be very difficult and he wanted to wait. He would certainly have conveyed that to the board and they pushed to bring him in now.

We were in 13th then. I expect this season is a wash for the board with a few of treating this as a long get to know you stage so that next summer real work can begin and he will know what he has and what he needs.

The risk of waiting was he could have gone elsewhere and we were going nowhere anyways.

 

Agree we should slowly start using a few academy players here and there now. See what they can bring and do. They won’t be ready for starts etc but they will bring some energy, desire etc and we can see how they do. Some could be the next Mainoo type and be able to step in as an 18 year old.

 

There are a lot of limitations with this squad and I certainly do think Amorim is in a right pickle, but he took the job and if he thinks he can play his sustem without compromise here and there, then I believe he will fail here.

Ole made the Europa final with essentially the same squad. If Amorim wants funds to build a squad he wants, he has to make UCL. I don't believe he can afford to not make every effort possible to achieve that end.

As far as Amorim's system goes, he has pretty much admitted these players aren't good enough. I see little reason to bother implementing his system with players he doesn't rate. Backing Amorim to get the players he wants may in fact mean selling Garnacho and/or Mainoo, that applies moreso if we miss UCL.

I was really disappointed with our approach to Brighton. We effectively played a back 5 because of how Mitoma and Minteh stretched us. Welbeck and Pedro dropped and left Yoro and de Ligt having to get pulled out of position, making swiss cheese of our defense. Our CMs struggled to impose themselves as they were often outnumbered. Pressing, passing from the CM was missing. It's easy to fault Onana for conceding the goal that killed the game, but there was a lot wrong with the team as a whole tactically in the build up to the goal. Ugarte, who has generally looked good under Amorim, looked just as lost as Mainoo. Just to givd you an idea of how non-existant our CMs were, Maguire completed more passes than anyone else.

I wish Amorim success, but he has to make some compromises. Keep 3 at the back, but be flexible enough to switch to 4. Play a front two of Hoj and Zirk at times. A front two might get some life out of Rashford. Add an extra CM in certain games. When it's not working, adjust things tactically. Any good manager worth his weight can do this.

 

Couple points: it’s not like he’s going to be able to overhaul the squad in one window, so why not get the players as familiar as possible now. Like someone else said, this is an extended preseason.

At this point, after 13 years, does it matter if he fails? The whole point is to try something new. We’re in a death spiral as a club, and I’m pretty agnostic regarding “success.” I’d just like games to be watchable again. And my hope is that after this season and a preseason with a few additions, maybe we’ll be watchable again.

Also, I already like Amorim more than most of our players. He’s not “everything is fine” like ole or sulky like ETH. He’s “these players are shit and I will do my best.” Which is hilarious and refreshing.

 

Hopefully this link works - roughly 32min into the Talk of the Devils podcast from the Athletic - Carl Anka discusses the club and why everything doesn’t fit.

https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1495072403?i=1000684716794&r=2181&t=1947

 

Based on what Amorim has said and based on what we can see on the pitch, Amorim is only half way through training the team to implement his system.

He has clearly been working on the defensive shape but by his own admission has not spent any time yet on the attacking shape.

From an attacking sense, his system is meant to have plenty of width - teams should be facing a striker and spread out line of four (2x wingbacks 2x #10s) across the pitch with an #8 bombing through from deep as well.

We are currently attacking nothing like this. Our "wingbacks" are playing like fullbacks and our #8 has been playing too deep while they find their feet defensively and Amorim has erred towards defensive options in these positions for the most part as he understandably focusses on getting the defensive base working first.

Hopefully over the next few months of this extended pre-season he gets bolder in his choices as he has time to train on attacking shape.

 

Crappy source but actually makes some decent points about our issues last few games as it matches what I've been seeing.

Summary is that teams are finding simple ways to pull us out of shape and we are reacting very badly to it.

Brighton strikers dropped off, De Ligt & Yoro followed them out and the Brighton wide players had great fun getting in behind them with just donkey Mag to cover. Later our WB drop deeper to counter but kept being deeper than CB line and playing Brighton onside.

There were too many changes to the CB three for me. Plus cant have Maguire as the deepest CB with players running behind him (as we saw for the first goal). Much happier when we have De Ligt as the CCB. Also not fair to keep moving Yoro from RCB to LCB given he has enough on his plate to learn this league, let alone another unnatural position in a new system.

Mainoo has been a real concern last few games, he does wander into areas that he cannot recover quickly enough from. Don't think we have a better solution than Ugarte / Mainoo but they need to play more compact (especially out of possession).

Agree on the Onana playing out from the back issues too. For a supposedly ball playing keeper should have been the one thing he actually could do.

We probably need Amorim to stick to a starting eleven and those eleven playing this system until they get it right. Transitioning to this system is clearly difficult enough without shuffling the CBs into new positions.

 

Ive seen a shit ton of complaints about his tactics. Those same guys never answer this question.

Makes no sense. ETH did change the tactics and look where it got him in the long run.

 

You're either a good troll or a ********ing retard.

 

It did not work for me, but thanks for the attempt.

 

Try this link.

https://lnns.co/vRyTxpwc7b4

Good episode overall, but the section I was highlighting starts around the 30 min mark

 

Thank you!!!

 

On a YT video, Zealand called Antony a "sentient trashcan".

LMFAO

 

Seeing reports this am that Shaw suffered another injury setback and will be out a further 4 weeks….

 

Fortnight.

 

Anyone see this?

https://www.thetimes.com/sport/foot...brailsford-premier-league-champions-29nc25wf9

^ Paywalled. From the tidbits I found:

Brailsford taking a more hands on role now that Ashworth left. We are hiring a lot of experts on everything from improving athletism to improving the facilities. A lot of bold talk about winning a 21st league title by 2028.

Sounds almost like he unveiled a plan for a Brave New World run by technocrats.

 

In last 10 games we are actually won 7 lost 2 with one draw, which for recent us relatively speaking is actually a good period.

It just doesn't somehow feel like it given the inconsistency / performances and has taken some good fortune. The lack of watchable football and shots on target for much of this period has been hard to take.

Finally some decent time in the schedule though for Amorim and his staff to work between games on improving things. Hopefully the performances improve and we at least become more watchable and for sure we need the luck to remain

 

So its not as bad as the past, where we were getting EPL side after EPL side. But this sucks. Another tough game.