shelfboy68
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- Jun 14, 2008
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Surely though the longer we go without buying that be considered panic buying, certainly if our main target falls through you are then left to scrap and panic for bargain buys not ideal.
Man City vs Spurs: Match Thread
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Surely though the longer we go without buying that be considered panic buying, certainly if our main target falls through you are then left to scrap and panic for bargain buys not ideal.
Hitch
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- Jan 4, 2012
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Been saying this for a time myself, that we appear to have no answers against teams who press more effectively than we do. I dread games against Liverpool for this reason and now City too given Pep appears to have figured things out. I'd really like for Poch to change up his approach a bit for these rare type of opponents (i.e. accept we're going to have to get men behind the ball and focus on breaking) and/or his personnel. It sounded slightly outlandish at the time but prior to our game at Anfield last season I was for dropping one of the big boys (to come off the bench when 'Pool's energy levels dissipate) in favour of N'Koudou. Not that he warranted it on merit but we desperately lacked that pacy option to scare them in behind. In order to give the likes of City and 'Pool food for thought we need at least one player who can provide us a kind of a Mane/Sane/Sterling/Salah presence on the field (preferably at a higher level than GKN).
Woodyy
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Maybe I worded it badly saying "the season to come" but the fact of the matter is we just lost 3-0 to a team we should be looking to challenge and the season starts in 13 days. I can't bring myself to write that off as a nothing result. I bet, despite what is said in interviews, the team won't dismiss that game as nothing but a match fitness builder.
what's funny is the contradictions in SC world....during the season we have acknowledged the Pool for instance can't keep up their pressing the whole season (they can barely keep it going for 1/2 a season) and last year Poch managed our fitness brilliantly....look at the way we finished the year. Now, for some reason:
1. we should be expending tonnes of energy in a friendly in bloomin Nashville TN!
2. the evidence of not doing that is we are going to get worked out and out pressed throughout the season
It is a long season and it hasn't even started yet!
1. we should be expending tonnes of energy in a friendly in bloomin Nashville TN!
2. the evidence of not doing that is we are going to get worked out and out pressed throughout the season
It is a long season and it hasn't even started yet!
LexingtonSpurs
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Not great quality (the video) but Eriksen's freekick shot on goal.
Vincent30
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Hasn't this been the case the past two seasons where we have finished above them. Both years people expected City to walk the league, each season they came to WHL 4 or 5 games in, with all wins and we beat them and the rest is history.
It's bloody pre-season. Would people be celebrating on here like we are going to win the league if we beat them 3-0, i would hope not. This is a rather hilarious over reaction thread.
What if we did play with super intensity and Ali or Kane got injured because of it, but we played with that intensity to boss all our pre-season games, what would that achieve. We are unfortunate at the moment, having Rose, Son, Wanyama and Lamela all out injured and the likes of Dembele and Winks recovering from injuries. We are never going to have the squad depth of Chelsea, City, United, or at least for a fair few years until the stadium is done and dusted, so we have to keep doing what we do. We have to keep showing we are the best at bringing youth into the team rather than spending 40m on various players, we have to keep putting our trust in Poch and we have to calm the fuck down over pre-season friendly results.
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Not based on our performance.
shelfboy68
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Just because it's pre season doesn't mean that discussion is off limits does it simply because we were very poor on the day.
I agree no one wants injuries but they can happen in training so are you saying don't tackle to hard me old son just in case I don't get on the team sheet for Saturday.
I think people are a tad frustrated with a limp performance admittedly against a better side, but also because on the transfer front we look as impotent as Freddie mercury in a changing room with page 3 birds.
A question of depth seems to have come up after the Citeh game. First, clearly the petro clubs will have more depth because they can afford to pay a subset of players a fortune to play less than they would at other good clubs eg Batshit at Chelski.
SO the question is how much depth do we have for an elite PL but non-petro club:
Presuming 3-5-2
Kane Alli
Erikson
Dembele Wanyama
Rose Verts Dier Toby Trippier
Hugo
Who are our quality subs:
Keeper --- sorted with Vorm
Left back (covered by Davies and KWP)
Left CD (covered by Davies and Wimmer)
C CB (the Dier position, probably would shift formations if he wasn't fit --- possibly Wimmer)
R CB (Dier as we'd likely shift positions, CCV but I think there is a gap in the squad here)
RB (KWP, Dier, possible gap here just depends on how ready Poch thinks KWP is)
Mid (cover for Dembele and Wanyama --- Dier, Winks and then probably Josh Onomah)
Left FWD: Son, GKN (looking decent pre-season and third in line for that slot is reasonable)
R FWD: Lamela (also gives a huge pressing/ energy, Edwards possibly but need a little depth perhaps)
Striker: Janssen --- divides opinion, Son, Sterling ---- who can we get who is better than Janssen AND willing to accept a bench role without petro money?
Looking at this: cover at R CB would be useful, particularly if that person also provided some cover at RB....that we have passed up Veltman and Forsyth for eg suggests that there is some confidence in KWP, Dier, CCV as cover for those to spots but would not be surprised if someone came in.
R FWD seems to be a spot that could do with strengthening due to Lamela's injury record
Striker/ FWD --- a young attacking fwd willing to bide their time would be useful to provide depth.
Options: R CB/ RB Toljan and then rely on current players for R CB?
R MD surely Barkley
Young forward ???
SO the question is how much depth do we have for an elite PL but non-petro club:
Presuming 3-5-2
Kane Alli
Erikson
Dembele Wanyama
Rose Verts Dier Toby Trippier
Hugo
Who are our quality subs:
Keeper --- sorted with Vorm
Left back (covered by Davies and KWP)
Left CD (covered by Davies and Wimmer)
C CB (the Dier position, probably would shift formations if he wasn't fit --- possibly Wimmer)
R CB (Dier as we'd likely shift positions, CCV but I think there is a gap in the squad here)
RB (KWP, Dier, possible gap here just depends on how ready Poch thinks KWP is)
Mid (cover for Dembele and Wanyama --- Dier, Winks and then probably Josh Onomah)
Left FWD: Son, GKN (looking decent pre-season and third in line for that slot is reasonable)
R FWD: Lamela (also gives a huge pressing/ energy, Edwards possibly but need a little depth perhaps)
Striker: Janssen --- divides opinion, Son, Sterling ---- who can we get who is better than Janssen AND willing to accept a bench role without petro money?
Looking at this: cover at R CB would be useful, particularly if that person also provided some cover at RB....that we have passed up Veltman and Forsyth for eg suggests that there is some confidence in KWP, Dier, CCV as cover for those to spots but would not be surprised if someone came in.
R FWD seems to be a spot that could do with strengthening due to Lamela's injury record
Striker/ FWD --- a young attacking fwd willing to bide their time would be useful to provide depth.
Options: R CB/ RB Toljan and then rely on current players for R CB?
R MD surely Barkley
Young forward ???
LexingtonSpurs
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Getting ready to march over a pedestrian bridge to the stadium:
Shadydan
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Seems to be lost on some
StartingPrice
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I disagree.
It showed that a team who were absolutely desperate for new signings because half their team were octogenarians and much of their team just plain not suited to the way their manager wanted to play, got their business done early. It also showed that the other team, who has the youngest squad in the division, that would find it very difficult to improve the first team, have for a number of reasons taken their time in the market.
There were a lot of other factors to explain why they were at it and we weren't - and, as I said above, their defence still doesn't look all that, it was just that we weren't playing with our usual intensity and press so didn't punish them as we could have done and usually would have done.
Vincent30
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I think it's more a human nature thing, it's far easier to be negative than positive and the build up of no 50m signing or not playing like Barcelona in a pre season friendly is putting various people on suicide watch.
Arsenal lost 3-0 to Chelsea
Chelsea have lost their last two to Inter and Bayern
Real Madrid lost 4-1 to City and just lost to Barcelona
Blah blah blah. Does that mean all of the above are in shit street as well?
I would love some great statistics to shut me up, where it shows if you win all of your pre seasons and look like the best team in the world then you win the league or are guaranteed success? Because we know for a fact that isn't true as we have been amazing in pre season and had a terrible start to the season. I'd much rather iron out the issues now before the season starts then go into it beating City 3 nil, smashing Juventus etc and the players than having an over exaggerated opinion of our team.
Shadydan
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Let's face it the only reason people are citing our lack of signings is because they're impatient and frustrated and last night's result put that into context, sorry Ross Barkley or Josh King for example wouldn't have made a difference to that result or performance, you're just reacting and typically looking for any scapegoats you can find.
city last two seasons started really strong finished below us, we will see.
StartingPrice
Chief Sardonicus Hyperlip
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StartingPrice
Chief Sardonicus Hyperlip
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Indeed.
You don't just learn from wins. And you don't just learn bad things from defeats.
For instance, one thing I took away from the game is that Guardiola had his team really up to play us. Even in a friendly. Even in a friendly they were fired up and perhaps a little excessive in the challenge (certainly for a friendly). I take that to mean that he sees us as a very serious threat and him and his players felt like they really had a point to prove last night.
Another thing I learned was, in spite of the number of folk saying they have sorted their defence out now (and will be invincible), I actually didn't see anything to write home about from their defence. It might turn out to have improved, but looking at their performance and not their shopping list I saw them constantly play the ball very dangerously across their box, give one another Hail Mary balls, play to and receive the ball with their back to goal and just plain lose control of the ball in their own half, stand about and only have one of them react and retrieve it when it was apparent that none of our lot was going to do it. Isn't that exactly what they were doing last season? The difference was, our lot didn't play with their usual intensity and relentless closing down - so whether the failings were there or not, we didn't put ourselves in a position to expose them.
There were questions regarding Guardiola, similar ones to those regarding Klopp: is there an ability to adjust thinking to cope with the peculiarities of the English game? Poch has emphatically answered these type of questions. Guardiola hasn't, and neither has Klopp. To my mind, Wenger never really did either - he would still, after all this time, whine and whine about how physical the English game is rather than just accept it as a fact and produce a team that can cope with it. These are questions of competitiveness, they are managers who come from leagues (even Spain and Germany) where there are only a few truly competitive teams, and the further down the league you get, the more inclined teams are to just give in to the big boys and give them a walkover once they go a goal down. You very really get that here.
If their incoming and new defensive signings prove me wrong, then fair enough. But last night I saw nothing to suggest that they wouldn't have seriously struggled playing like that if our lot had been remotely on their game with their usual pressing and intensity. We'll see, I suppose.
shelfboy68
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- Jun 14, 2008
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SP when you consider that they haven't stopped spending I believe they are looking for a CB probably VVD who with all their signings improves them no question.
Just look at their bench last night to ours full of kids my grandsons at 8 and 7 wouldn't look out of place on our bench, it's a scenario of the haves and have nots.
I would be surprised if we finished above them I really would unless say they got to a CL final which might distract them.
TEESSIDE1
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- Jul 3, 2006
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As it stands we won't bother City. Yes expensive signings doesn't equal success but we're heading into the season without Rose, Wanyama? Lamela, Son, Walker (sold) and question marks over the fitness of both Winks and Dembele. We cannot under any circumstances cope with these injuries and no signings. Our bench against City was woeful for an elite club.
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