Mhsc

Definitely not Poch's fault in entirety, I think a series of bad decision from him has not helped us but can't blame all of this on him. Of his many mistakes playing Nkunku in that preseason game on the dodgiest pitch I've ever seen and getting him injured killed our season before it started. But the fact we are nothing without Nkunku is not his fault in entirety. Obviously, he could have been stronger willed in pre-season about who he wanted and let the others have less say but that's not easy when you're new to a club. The club should have backed him a little more with some more players with experience which he asked for repeatedly all preseason. I still think given the money and long term thinking involved EVENTUALLY we'll become a really good team, but the pressure to win immediately only seems to be felt by Poch - I can't believe PW or LS would have snubbed so many ready made options if they felt that pressure.

The squad today sure, but a fully fit squad with Reece James and Nkunku (nevermind the rest) is different level to Palace.

Chilwell's injuries have finished him IMO, been thinking it for a while, but hoping that there is gonna be a turnaround. He's our new Alonso.

Sanchez MOTM so far?

Enzo had a poor game by his standards

Somehow have to learn how to enjoy the journey I guess. Cause we are a mile off of being a finished article

How have we not scored there lmao

So does Chilwell and Cucu maybe Maatsen is good 1v1 but not had a chance to see it

What a fucking save. Kepa literally never.

Chilwell also gets repeatedly cooked in 1v1s defensively by pacy players, and needs help to 2v1 them. Only Malo Gusto in our squad looks like a great 1v1 defender.

Personally I think the Colwill at LB experiment is the more interesting/clever of the stuff we've seen so far that is a bit odd on paper. Can totally see the reasoning behind it at least.

Mudryk / Colwill is actually a pretty good left hand side potentially, imo. Chilwell would want to occupy the same spaces as Mudryk. Colwill will let him cook and try to play him through instead of stepping on his heels. Whether it will actually work is another matter, but I reckon the concept is sound.

No one saw this lineup coming at least. I'm interested. Lets see what we're cooking. Main disappointment is Palmer on the bench.

Well, it is an interesting move. Don't know what to make of it. Caicedo on the bench? Oh wait, not even in the squad?

Hoping just to not see Chilwell play out of position again. Not that fussed about the rest. Just stop this meme.

Most are concerned about his injury record and sky high salary combination. He can obviously score goals. Just don't think many are convinced we should buy another really expensive player on huge wages with a persistent injury problem. I was on the fence about it all summer but was up for it if Juve would offer a fair deal. Don't think they ever did.

It is almost definitely the right business decision, if we could get that much money for him, but could we? Maybe if he had an injury-free run into a transfer window and a top club had a big need. I don't think many will jump to buy him at the mo for big money or big wages unless he can be seen to 'turn a corner', like if he had some surgery that was supposedly going to fix things and then he had a good run. Of course, if that happened, we'd probably then not sell and before long he'd be injured again. It is a shame he is on such massive wages, he got quite lucky with the timing of it (/ he didn't fuck around and said yes immediately). Might be the best academy product since JT but the injuries are unreal.

I don't think the Ivan Toney rumours are true tbh, it seems clear that we have an U25 policy. I imagine if we make any signings for over 25s it will be where there are favourable release clauses or free agents.

I think one article ages ago claimed this but it has otherwise not been repeated at all. You'd have thought if we had option we'd have already activated it while he was doing well at Burnley?

I think he would be pretty good on the left wing playing in Chilwell's spot tbh. That said from our currently fit options, who would you play ahead of Palmer in CAM? Enzo, or Gallagher?

I only see two sources of optimism: 1. The underlying stats suggest we are much better than results so far, over time our average results should start to line up with them 2. Poch has transformed Sterling back into the player we bought, and all of the players are publicly singing his praises - maybe, given time, he will bring a lot of these players to peak form There are however many many points for pessimism and this season could become incredibly frustrating. I have the sad feeling that Poch will put out an unaltered lineup.

We clearly do not have a good medical setup still.

Yep. Imagine you magically transform all of these guys to their peak form and it is still just Sterling and Jackson that might get us goals regularly. Madness to put all our hopes on 2 players every game. Being generous maybe we have 2-3 players who are dangerous at heading in set piece situations as well. Over a season if this lineup played every game maybe we would have an xG of ~2.5 and convert ~1 per game. It is like a team selection for an away day at City where you've decided you want to sneak a point. I honestly don't think the tactical setup is the problem, we're using pretty much exactly the same system tonnes of really good attacking teams use but they don't put out a lineup with ~8 players who's best attributes are defensive / work horse related and just assume that a good tactical system will turn into scoring loads of goals. The tactical setup / strategic setup lets us control the game and deliver players to dangerous positions with support around them, but it is not much use if the players themselves when in those positions are not dangerous attacking players who can utilise the opportunity.

Yes but Enzo/Ugarte would have been a very good double pivot, I don’t think there’s any chance we spend 115m on an extra midfielder if that’s our starting point, it would be a completely nonsensical transfer if we were not in a state of total desperation.

Yes I agree the personnel selection is poor, but I don't think the problem is the formation / system or that he's changed it. He's just been putting loads of square pegs in round holes which he didn't do in preseason, except for maybe Maatsen who he kept playing anywhere except for LB and Gallagher as a CM but we always thought that was because he didn't have options.