News: The 2025/26 Season (P)Review Thread [R]

Interesting point, have to see if continues as the season progresses.

Unmarked CDMs are scoring waaay more goals so far this season than normal.

 

Upcoming schedule until the next international break:

Sun Oct 19: Liverpool A
Sat Oct 25: Brighton H
Sat Nov 1: Nottingham Forest A
Sat Nov 8 Tottenham Hotspur A

3 away and 1 home. Our away record is poor, this season lost 2 and drawn 1 so far. Our last away win in the Prem was in March and that was against Leicester.

Any predictions? My quess: beat Brighton, draw Forest and lose to Liverpool and Spurs. 4 points from 12.

 

Happy about this

 

Which ones do you place value in?

Obviously goals. That was a HUGE issue before him.

 

I know this is sponsored by The Sun but this is the best tactical analysis I've seen of what we are doing in our system, covers;

- why it is now working better
- how much improved and key Shaw has been
- the necessary rotations following man-for-man pressing
- changes in keeper passing range
- why the need for subs
- the necessary CB "bingo" on subs (vs constant berating from the likes on Gaz Neville on why Amorim changing the back 3)
- how WBs are covering during man-for-man press

etc. etc.

 

Agreed! I was surprised by the quality of their work and it seems to make sense.

 

Saw this quote;

Sums up our biggest current issue - we are ok when we are the counter-attacking side and there is space against unset defences. When teams sit in an organised low-block and there is no space we struggle.

We need to better utilize and service our #9 Sesko and also changeup the midfielders and forwards (no subs midfield or attack was crazy today). Could have tried Mount, Mainoo or Zirkzee. Also why not try Maguire advanced at end of games in the Fellaini role?

Whatever, Amorim has to find something to resolve this issue.

 

Some credit to Casemiro and Shaw.

Cas is key this season to making the Amorim Bruno pivot work (in so far as it can) and it shows whenever anyone else plays alongside Bruno in the pivot, as seen in the horrendous with / without Casemiro stats given Bruno a lock at pivot under Amorim it seems.

Shaw made some key defensive interceptions yesterday. Since the City game where he was a wet blanket he has stepped up his intensity (though as with the rest of the team only at times, more on that below).

Bruno still a disappointment to me and not helped by where he is playing. The stats from the game at the weekend will show he had two assists, but that was only because they were both set-pieces where everyone gets to push up - so not a function of him playing deeper as a pivot.

I don't think it is any coincidence that we are all over the place with either poor intensity / low energy halves or good ones. Cas is 34 soon, Bruno is 31, Shaw is 30 and we have players like Mount who famously can't play 90 minutes. Wing-back is also a high energy role.

So physically we don't have players or depth to have consistent high-energy halves sadly it seems, even with one game a week. Watching us when we are low-energy like first half at the weekend is an effing grind

 

In all the praise for the season Casemiro is having, he still cant help us build up. Bruno is also guilty of emotional decision-making on the pitch at times, but Casemiro will literally think he's Carrick and try and 40 yard left footed long passes knowing damn well he doesn't have that in his locker.

We cant control games because we dont have good footballers in the right positions. Casemiro and Ugarte need one or even two players next to them to handle that.

 

Yeah and Mount. If the rest of the team were good, you could see where he fits in, but we're not. So him running, pressing and his allegedly cute touches aren't enough.

 

One thing I've always said is, its easier to coach defense than offense. Defending is easier than attacking. So it was always going to take forever for our attack to get better.

But playing long ball in the interim is frustrating.

 

Make it worth watching or ******** off.

 

Coaching young players is key at our club (esp if rebuild is targeting younger players).

Seeing Amorim completely stall Mainoo progress and seeing key players like Dorgu and Yoro looking worse rather than better of late is a real concern.

Mbeumo and Cunha are also looking worse of late after starting brightly for us.

Some legit questions to be asked over Amorim man-management. Of younger players especially.

Coaching a mechanical system will only get you so far ...

 

We have to get rid of Bruno for any real growth to happen.

 

Quite surprised we are 3rd in goal scoring.

 

Most of the goals we've conceded this season came with the other two flop GK's throwing our games. Guehi is good, and I'd take him considering the price tag lol, but if we miss out on him, there's a lot of potential and just overall good CB's around. That was my pushback. Missing out on Guehi isnt like us missing out on Ronaldinho or Obi Mikel or Alan Shearer.

Last year, our goal difference was negative iirc. So while I agree our defense can improve, we are clearly building something and things are getting better.

I dont think there is a major advantage over any other system. But weve tried other systems and looked almost as bad as last season. The only reason Im not complaining too hard is because Im backing Amorim and its his system.