Did you say this in the summer? Because nobody (or barely anyone) else on here did. We also deservedly finished above them last season. It’s puzzling to me that the narrative is now shifting to ‘Arsenal have a squad that is clearly stronger than ours so what do we expect’
Because it’s completely absurd to try and divorce how well players play for 6 months from the tactics and system they play in those 6 months.
Its not some deep insight that the league leaders players have played better than ours this season.
The disagreement is about why. And looking at just this season you cannot possibly remove the effect of the coaches from that.
Why would you consider more than just the last 6 months? Common sense.
They also have a manager willing to give their younger players a chance.If Arsenal beat us in NLD at Lane, watch the stands turn against Levy.
The only way, majority will voice their opinion in stadium, will be if Arsenal beat us and go on to take the title in May.
Arsenal do not have a better XI or squad than us. But what they do have is a manager for all his idiotic behaviours is being backed organically window after window. There is harmony in their camp with DoF to manager to players. For us, Levy gets in the way and nothing is seemless. Everything is adhoc in nature - so ofcourse , inspite of good players, we are all stuck in groundhog day.
He hsa 18 months left if the club decide to trigger the clause in his contract.
You don't get it clearly, they aren't going to get the backing required none of them have!!!!!!!!! The lesser the manager the less they get.
Six months ago is highly relevant. Would you say Newcastle have a better squad than us? I wouldn't, even though they're way better than us at the moment.6 months ago is irrelevant, the question was regarding the squads right now.
Essentiallly they added three players last summer who made their starting XI better in Jesus, Zinchenko, and probably most importantly Saliba. We have yet to see an improvment from any of our signings, maybe Perisic arguably.You wouldn’t have said that for a second at the end of last season.
The biggest difference between us and them right now is their tactics work and ours don’t.
This forum will become more divided than it has before, and it's getting pretty stretched lately.
It is convenient. In the summer when I was saying our window was worse than Arsenal’s and no more than a 6/10 I was getting dogs abuse on here. Now the narrative is we haven’t backed Conte at all.Did you say this in the summer? Because nobody (or barely anyone) else on here did. We also deservedly finished above them last season. It’s puzzling to me that the narrative is now shifting to ‘Arsenal have a squad that is clearly stronger than ours so what do we expect’
To the extent that Conte was originally promised? That doesnt appear to be the case. I'm sure ITK has alluded to the fact that;I'm confused. To date we have backed Conte havent we? He knows full well we can't just give him a blank cheque and tell him to go for it.
I think the main backing we have lacked in the laast 20 years is when managers inevitably hit a sticky patch / season. We are way too quick to pull the trigger, and thats on the fans as well as the board. Arsenal ignored their fans for 3 years. The board had a vision and stuck to it and are now reaping the rewards.
Six months ago is highly relevant. Would you say Newcastle have a better squad than us? I wouldn't, even though they're way better than us at the moment.
For Arsenal, it's more of a toss up, but I'd argue that most of the players you mentioned would look as bad as our players if they were to play for us tonight.
My point is, you can't gauge the quality of a squad based on performances over a six month period. Arsenal are a well coached side and that makes them better than the sum of their individual parts. We're a poorly coached side, and that makes us worse than the sum of our individual parts.
And in this thread, that is used a stick to beat Levy and the owners with, and as an excuse for Conte. Which is why I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts from six months ago.
Based on the performances of us and Arsenal last season, most of us were confident that we had a better squad than Arsenal, and most of us would barely have any of their players in our XI. And that was absolutely fair. But today the tables have turned. How can that be down to the quality of the squads and not the quality of the coaching?
The problem is the board have created an instant success culture. We hire Jose and Conte, two managers who are built for quick results but we don’t get quick results. Fans were patient with the like of Poch due to their being a clear plan, right now it’s all quick fix. Unless the club can show they have a clear plan that makes sense we will just go from one crisis to the next. This is what Levy created hence fans have no time for quite frankly the BS that comes out of the club anymore.
Which is happening as we speak anyway. If Levy isnt going to sort his shit out then he needs to cut Conte loose and get the next victim in. He backs him NOW and we move forward or he lets him go, there are not many other options.My God, there are some entitled and ungrateful posters on here. For the first time we have world class manager willing to fight our corner and take on Levy and all his poweful hierarchy.
Do we back him and support him? Do we hell. Its all. "We want winning football that looks good and we want it now. Sack the manager and get another one"
When he walks we will find on this particular game of Snakes and Ladders that we will be able to watch the likes of Newcastle climb as we slide a long way down.
So this core group of players who have won F all under 3-4 consecutive managers are not the problem? Conte is? Are you actually serious? I mean personally I don’t hold the players overly accountable because if you don’t bring in enough upgrades or even competition for places the minute form or fitness declines you’re done for. DL has been fantastic commercially for the club, but it’s obvious his recruitment on the football side of things has been terrible. If us as a fan base aren’t willing to except bumps in the road with a manager like conte at the helm then we deserve what we get.And you think if we trigger that against Conte’s will, that’ll be successful will it?
He’s had enough backing to have us playing 1000x better than we are this season. That’s what you and the Conte defenders are apparently in complete denial about.
We can talk about the deeper problems at the club, none of that means Conte is the right person for us to back or that there aren’t serious concerns about his performance.
He’s had plenty of backing. I’m not asking to win the league right now,
I’m asking for us to not get played off the pitch by every bottom half team we encounter. The squad is not the problem there, Conte is.
I think our summer window was broadly on par with Arsenal’s. We were closely matched last season and conventional logic would suggest we would be closely matched again this season. I suspected we would be a bit better than them again.It is convenient. In the summer when I was saying our window was worse than Arsenal’s and no more than a 6/10 I was getting dogs abuse on here. Now the narrative is we haven’t backed Conte at all.
Of the 9 (?) players brought in while he has been coach, how many has he not wanted or signed off on?To the extent that Conte was originally promised? That doesnt appear to be the case. I'm sure ITK has alluded to the fact that;
Conte knows the budget and knows we cant compete with the likes of Chelsea, City financially etc
there is money available but how it is being spent is the issue (Levy moving the goal posts)
Levy reverting to type by micromanaging etc