lionsden

And his exquisite passing and world class vision

That was very shit. are we now expected to drop points everytime we face a parked defence. no imagination, no offensive tactical patterns and organisation, poor hold up and link up play by the striker(s), poor movement and so on. How long are going to continue to rely on luck and indidvidual brilliance to bail us out against these teams.

He had better movement than our players in the 1st half

Much better

we only practice defending since that's the only important aspect of football. offense is overrated apparently.

Are we going to struggle to create and score whenever we face a parked defence. How long can this go on. If we don't improve in this regard drastically next season then Jose fully deserves every criticism that comes his way and I wouldn't be surprised if Roman loses his patience because there's only so much dross one can tolerate.

Yet some think our only issue is the lack of a world class striker and we will be back amongst the European elite once we sign costa. smh

Nothing new then.

At this rate we need Jesus

Something is fundamentally wrong if the team jose's selected cannot beat Norwich without Hazard. we have barely created any chances which further proves that we rely heavily on individual brilliance going forward as our attacking tactics is non existent

We are only a striker away from world domination they said

The one in bold use to be on our books but we decided he wasn't good enough or worth keeping. fantastic decision there, NOT

But you are saying people "without pedigree" are not at liberty to criticise the mistakes you admitted these managers do make?

Exactly. There are plenty of footballers that fit the mold. A top team can get away with a technically brilliant player with poor/average athleticism but not the other way round not in the modern game anyway. you need good technique to adapt to the tactics smaller teams enforce against you in the league and in Europe where space is at a premium and players ability to function with tight spaces are constantly tested.

And certified football managers, like the mere mortals that they are, constantly prove on a weekly basis that they are not without flaws and are prone to judgmental errors and poor decision making. How often do teams fail to reach their objectives due to bad judgement and decision making in the transfer market, poor tactics and team selections, inability to make the right adjustments during a game and so on. I see it happen quite a lot to know that managers, even the best of them, are not above criticism and should be criticised when its merited.

This is what happens when one values workrate over substance. I wouldn't be surprised if he sold hazard to buy a donkey that can track back and defend well.

I hope so too but you have to admit that quote and the amount of games ramires has played/started this season when available does indicate that he's a Jose favourite. We need to do much better than ramires.

"plus the stability that Matic and Ramires can give" I guess we will be seeing more of Ramires next season as a starter to my disappointment. The dream of a DLP to partner matic can die for now.

So It's because they have good strikers and not because they were able to break down the resistance of oppositions that defend deep with crisp interchange, incisive, accurate passing, overlapping runs, sharp, intelligent movement and so on. let's just attribute our inability to create clear cut chances against parked defences on the lack of world class strikers shall we.

Southampton, Arsenal and Swansea as well.

I can't look past Baker. Btw why's there so little vote for the Willian goal. I must be missing something. If it wasn't for the sheer difficulty and audacity of Baker's goal he would have received my vote.

A bit of a soul searching and moment of brutal honesty. Can anyone give argument why we don't deserve to be one of the most hated clubs in Europe. With the combination of sugar daddy route to stardom, Our senseless transfer spending which generally came from the money that wasn't generated by the club which meant we were able to outbid most clubs for players. some believe that us and madrid were single highhandedly responsible for the first wave of wage and transfer inflation in the first half of last decade. Then there's the constant managerial sacking, lack of youth development and integration, The believe that we ruined the careers of many promising player (that's open to debate) , ugly football,The Jose Mourinho,John Terry and Cole factor, The reputation that preceded our fans from the 70s and 80s.. . . . . The question I will ask again is, is our status as one of the most hated clubs in Europe justified or not?

People are complaining about parking the bus but neglecting the far bigger issue which is our non existent build up play and inability to break down parked defenses. Our general play is like watching a paint dry. incredibly painful and frustrating to watch. atleast when we park the bus, it's usually done against teams that are superior to us to get a result. The other 85% of the matches were we aren't parking the bus is what needs massive massive improvement.

I saw enough of Mauro to know what he is and what he isn't. He wasn't a flamboyant player but had impressive technical ability. He, alongside Riijkard, Deschamps,Keane, Viera, effenberg, davids, makelele and Redondo were the dominant central midfield force of the 90s and I enjoyed watching them all bar Keane who was just a nasty human being. 90s had so many genuine world class players it was ridiculous.