- Mar 14, 2004
- 13,646
- 11,974
Mind the gap, you slags.
Sorry I will shut up now.Is this thread only 4 pages long?
Well, I was never anti-Mourinho myself, but I know and remember there was a few a year ago. I can accept a team which is defensively well-organised and where counter attacking football is the preference. But, then we have to attack when we can and entertain as much as possible. To Dare is to Do.. Seems like “everyone” is happy as long as we win, no matter how..?! I’m not.Hahaha, football is so hard for you. Mourinho has shown he is really one of the best tactician in this game. If you couldn't look beyond this and appreciate this jewel we are having now, where we are possibly gonna have the ultimate crown at the end of the season, you are better off supporting other teams until Mourinho left us. It really is for the good of you.
I see it from totally the opposite perspective. You see controlling a game as dominating possession, having the most shots, corners, crosses et al. If we’re not doing that then we’re negative and “lucking out” against the dominant team.If every team played like Jose’s team we would all stop watching football. I hated when we lost to ultra negative teams who would score from their 1 chance. But that’s how we play now and I hate it. I wonder what we will do against Palace who play the same way.
Good job they’re not playing for the neutral then, just us.
I said it before, his Chelsea team was regarded as being boring by all but Chelsea fans. Neutrals want a spectacle, fans want goals and wins.
I love the fact that we are frustrating everyone by neutering them whilst we go and help ourselves to a couple of goals. The fact that it’s pissing off a number of fools I have zero respect for is just the icing on the cake.
Incidentally, Tony Adams describes our performance today as magnificent. He may not be much when it comes to coaching, but he knows what dominant defending looks like.
I agree to a certain point. But, there must be more counter attacks then if I’m gonna be satisfied. This is a sport and entertainment after all. It’s not just a battle in WW2 which must be won no matter how and with the tactical manoeuvre needed. At least not in game after game. Football must and shall be fun and attacking.I see it from totally the opposite perspective. You see controlling a game as dominating possession, having the most shots, corners, crosses et al. If we’re not doing that then we’re negative and “lucking out” against the dominant team.
What I see is us controlling the game by letting them have the ball in the areas WE want them to have it, allowing them to manoeuvre the ball around without penetrating with it. We then set traps and spring them. They might dominate the meaningless stats of shots, possession etc, but we dominate the meaningful ones, goals scored and quality chances created.
I’ve seen some worried on here about our conversion rate being so high, why? It is high because we are creating more clear chances and not wasting time with speculative shots that just pad out the stats. We’re about quality, not quantity. When you have that then your conversion rate will naturally be higher.
Personally I’m loving this Football. I find it intriguing from a tactical sense, exciting when we win the ball back and explode forward (look at Son, Kane, Reguilon et al bombing forward for our first goal, absolutely devastating). I’m also finding it a lot more comfortable to watch as my confidence grows more and more at our ability to nullify attacks.
Not a chance I’d give up watching us, I’m loving everything about how we’re developing as a team.
And you're wrong. There is no anti-football. Without meaning to sound horrendously aggressive, the idea of anti-football is bullshit.I’ve said I hate the way Jose’s teams play because it is anti football. I think the more he has been in the game the more he has learnt all of the negative tactics struggling teams have devised. He has found out with his time wasting tactics in the past. He would do anything to win a game. I just hate that. Every team bends the rules but his teams will bend all of them because he doesn’t care about the game - only winning. I love football.
And you're wrong. There is no anti-football. Without meaning to sound horrendously aggressive, the idea of anti-football is bullshit.
Negative tactics are part of football. If you didn't have "negative" tactics, you wouldn't have "positive" tactics. And in point of fact, you don't have either - you just have tactics.
Game management is part of football. Playing ultra-defensively (not that I'd actually accuse Mourniho of that) is part of football.
There is only one commonality that every single player, manager, fan and chairman wants and that is to win.
And Mourinho is a winner. And rather than excoriate him for it, every single one of us should be celebrating the fact that he uses every tool at his disposal to give us the best chance of securing the win. If that means time-wasting, so be it. If that means playing six at the back, so be it. If that means playing mind games, so be it.
No manager or player was ever hired to do anything other than win:
"Ah, nice to meet you Mr Levy. Yes, I'm going to be spending many tens of millions of pounds of money you control, but I think this whole winning games thing is so passe. You know it's very pre-Covid, yah? I think I'm going to set up my team in a 1-0-10 formation. We'll score a lot of goals and it'll be exciting, but we're not going to win much. Oh, that's the exit? Yes, thank you. Thank you for your time."
Yeah?
Mourinho is honest in his approach. He does not lie, he doesn't obfuscate. He doesn't dress it up as anything other than a desire to do what he is hired to do - win.
And if you think that the likes of Pep or Klopp or Bielsa or any of the others is any different, you're deluding yourself. They too want to win. They use different methods, but that's all they want - to win.
Mourinho has a weaker hand than the likes of Chelsea or Liverpool or Man City and so he has to do what he can to win. That means having to use every single tool he can lay his hands on to get his team over the line and get the points. We don't have to like it, but we do have to respect that he has the same objective in mind as every single one of us - to get us wins and he will do everything he can to do so.
That doesn't require liking it, but it does demand respect.
Incidentally, Tony Adams describes our performance today as magnificent. He may not be much when it comes to coaching, but he knows what dominant defending looks like.
Probably wants a free gilet for Christmas.My stream switched over to supersport at the end and I watched that analysis, Sherwood was praising us to the hilt too.
Drunk!You've been here for 7 years, why have you chosen now to try and make yourself relevant?
Liverpool in two weeks, that's the real test.Just brilliant, got the 2 goals then set up shop and defended like their lives depended on it.
Forget all the bullshit about it being negative or boring, we won, and won well.
Every arsenal attack was shut off, headed out or booted out, it was cleared 99% of the time.
We keep doing this against the top teams, we win the league.
We are so solid now and set up so well against the top teams i'm actually more confident against them than I am against the lower teams. We need to really assert our dominance against the lower teams in the future to make sure we don't drop points. I'd like to see more of Bale and Vinicious in those games when we struggle to break down the teams that want to sit back against us.
For now it's looking pretty fucking sweet.
If every team played like Jose’s team we would all stop watching football. I hated when we lost to ultra negative teams who would score from their 1 chance. But that’s how we play now and I hate it. I wonder what we will do against Palace who play the same way.