Hazardousman
Audere est Facere
- Jul 24, 2013
- 4,619
- 8,944
We can sit here and blame the players but I think that would be too easy at this point, Poch seems to have granted himself lots of excuses because of last season but we seem to be massively regressing and fast.
There are a few reasons why I believe we are, the first is his absolute persistence with Wanyama in midfield, don't get me wrong, Wanyama is a tidy player, I like him, however we have basically taken away what was working last season for no apparent reason other than to force Wanyama in the side. Tactically it has made us more predictable, less offensive, it is congesting our central midfield and suffocating our attacking play, Poch needs to remove his favouritism and stop being stubborn, that was the very thing that got AVB sacked.
Wimmer and Verts are perfectly capable of playing at CB, we need to take more risks going forward, introduce Dier/Dembele in midfield and let Wanyama sit one out on the bench, I thought that was why we brought him in anyway? As cover? Not as a replacement for Dier?
We may be unbeaten in the league but it is utterly destroying us going forward, once we lose our first game (and trust me, it's coming, West Ham was a get out of jail free card) then this season is going to start looking a lot worse than it is currently.
Secondly, our performances in the CL have been not only utterly disgraceful but completely embarrassing, we spend years trying to get back into this competition and then this is how we perform? We somehow managed to perform worse than we did in the EL, how that is even possible I will never know, is he not motivating the players anymore?
That brings me to my next point, something has changed, you can see it, the players aren't running as hard as they were last season, they aren't pressing like they were, you can see the passion isn't there, I have to seriously ask the question now, what's going on? Has he lost a few of them? Are some of them getting a little bit too big for their own boots? Is Poch training them too hard? Are they losing faith in him as a manager slightly? Is his favouritism annoying certain players?
I mean, it's hard to really understand what's going on but I certainly do believe a lot of the issues we are having right now are because of Poch, we should not be regressing like we are in terms of the football we are playing, I know many will say we are unbeaten and cite us coming back to beat West Ham as proof of passion remaining and I do agree to some extent but I also think that West Ham game was a team in 17th place, shipping goals for fun most weeks who gave away two very sloppy goals, I don't think it's an indication of how great we were because frankly West Ham could have beaten us, they were very comfortable for the majority of the game and they are a team in turmoil, the fact is this, that Man City performance was leagues above anything we have seen since and we have had a worrying drop off since then.
I don't think our injuries are the problem either, I think tactically we are suffering, we are not going wide enough, not using our FB's enough, we are congesting the midfield trying to play the ball through, our attacking players are not moving around enough, not unpredictable enough because the system is too defensively rigid, we are a far cry from last season frankly and on top of all of that our pressing is basically gone, it just isn't happening anymore.
Poch isn't above criticism, I think something needs to change and fast because the way we are going it is only going to get worse, it can basically go one or two ways, we are going to improve and improve fast and this season will turn out to be one to remember or we are going to regress even further and if the latter happens well, I worry for us, I really do because the team morale isn't exactly high as things stand, we start adding a few losses and it could get really bad.
I hope Poch isn't feeling too comfortable, he needs to ask questions of his own decisions and the players and rectify the mistakes before it's too late, last season means nothing now, it's over, we have to start understanding that if we want to go forward as a club we have to start showing we have the mentality and the heart and the spirit to do so but more importantly, the intelligence to do so as well.
There are a few reasons why I believe we are, the first is his absolute persistence with Wanyama in midfield, don't get me wrong, Wanyama is a tidy player, I like him, however we have basically taken away what was working last season for no apparent reason other than to force Wanyama in the side. Tactically it has made us more predictable, less offensive, it is congesting our central midfield and suffocating our attacking play, Poch needs to remove his favouritism and stop being stubborn, that was the very thing that got AVB sacked.
Wimmer and Verts are perfectly capable of playing at CB, we need to take more risks going forward, introduce Dier/Dembele in midfield and let Wanyama sit one out on the bench, I thought that was why we brought him in anyway? As cover? Not as a replacement for Dier?
We may be unbeaten in the league but it is utterly destroying us going forward, once we lose our first game (and trust me, it's coming, West Ham was a get out of jail free card) then this season is going to start looking a lot worse than it is currently.
Secondly, our performances in the CL have been not only utterly disgraceful but completely embarrassing, we spend years trying to get back into this competition and then this is how we perform? We somehow managed to perform worse than we did in the EL, how that is even possible I will never know, is he not motivating the players anymore?
That brings me to my next point, something has changed, you can see it, the players aren't running as hard as they were last season, they aren't pressing like they were, you can see the passion isn't there, I have to seriously ask the question now, what's going on? Has he lost a few of them? Are some of them getting a little bit too big for their own boots? Is Poch training them too hard? Are they losing faith in him as a manager slightly? Is his favouritism annoying certain players?
I mean, it's hard to really understand what's going on but I certainly do believe a lot of the issues we are having right now are because of Poch, we should not be regressing like we are in terms of the football we are playing, I know many will say we are unbeaten and cite us coming back to beat West Ham as proof of passion remaining and I do agree to some extent but I also think that West Ham game was a team in 17th place, shipping goals for fun most weeks who gave away two very sloppy goals, I don't think it's an indication of how great we were because frankly West Ham could have beaten us, they were very comfortable for the majority of the game and they are a team in turmoil, the fact is this, that Man City performance was leagues above anything we have seen since and we have had a worrying drop off since then.
I don't think our injuries are the problem either, I think tactically we are suffering, we are not going wide enough, not using our FB's enough, we are congesting the midfield trying to play the ball through, our attacking players are not moving around enough, not unpredictable enough because the system is too defensively rigid, we are a far cry from last season frankly and on top of all of that our pressing is basically gone, it just isn't happening anymore.
Poch isn't above criticism, I think something needs to change and fast because the way we are going it is only going to get worse, it can basically go one or two ways, we are going to improve and improve fast and this season will turn out to be one to remember or we are going to regress even further and if the latter happens well, I worry for us, I really do because the team morale isn't exactly high as things stand, we start adding a few losses and it could get really bad.
I hope Poch isn't feeling too comfortable, he needs to ask questions of his own decisions and the players and rectify the mistakes before it's too late, last season means nothing now, it's over, we have to start understanding that if we want to go forward as a club we have to start showing we have the mentality and the heart and the spirit to do so but more importantly, the intelligence to do so as well.
