Magic Lamps

This is probably a pension contract like Azpi’s. Rewarded for years of loyal service in the past and not for future performances. Good for him but not every fan will be happy

Rumours are boehly would look at Glasner as eventful replacement for potter… not sure that’s wise. Same calibre of coach who makes mid table club outperform . We need someone used tl handle big expectations, money egos and lazy millionaires. A proven winner. Boehly does not want someone who previously failed at a big club which narrows the spectrum considerably.

He gets like triple the salary here and who gives a damn about Portuguese league title. The contract we handed him gives him lifelong security at age 21. also it appears to me that Boehly and Eghbali are more convincing when selling our project to players than to fans

Except we have no played well under potter since October our standards have just dropped.

Unpopular opinion but we should not sign Felix. He has already shown he is not worth 100m+. He is clearly a talented player and technically superior to most of our AMs but he also is exactly what we do not need. Another fancy second striker/pseudo no.10 with no real output, terrible finishing and squishy confidence. He embodies everything that is wrong with our attack. We need to get rid of all those fair weather players, nearly-scorers who like to play it easy on the eye and just don't bring it in front of goal cos the ball bounces unluckily last minute or there is a breeze or the fans are too loud. Even if we managed to dump Mount and Havertz, we would be replacing them with a player with the exact same shortcomings. There is also no need to sign a backup for Nkunku for 100m+. They will not fit into the same formation. Nkunku has to be flanked by pacey, direct wingers like Madueke and Mudryk, who hopefully are the future. Felix is not.

It probably was a mistake but it is also about the message it sends. A great club has to reward its most loyal servants so the younger ones know that it is worth it staying loyal and performing. I hope he gets well soon.

sure their offence has improved and Lobotka is a great stability anchor but I was talking more about their defence. Look at how high Napoli can press up the field without Koulibaly and how disciplined Min-jae Kim marshalls their D as opposed to KK' impro style defending. They have conceded just 15 goals so far. Never had conceded this few after 23 games in any season Koulibaly started for them.

That's not entirely accurate tho. In terms of playing style Bayern have tried everyting there is in their history amidst chopping and changing managers all few seasons. What they have consistency in however is how they select managers. They always pick those whose styles can be transitioned easy to and ideally built upon each other. They used to have a way more makeshift approach under Magath and the coaches that followed him brought together some eclectic stuff which put them into crisis in the late 00s. Then van Gaal came basically set the footballing identity that culminated in Guardiola with lots of poseesion, cycling through the middle and more conservative fullbacks allowing high quality wingers to stay up drift inside with an all round CF to mop up the chances. They used the Ancelotti and 2nd Heynckes term to switcht o a more direct approach with optional counters which has been cultivated by Kovac and now Nagelsmann, who also uses flying fullbacks in a 3atb occasionally... The conclusion is, if you have robust, structures in place, processes, know -ow, traditons that are handed down by board generations on to the next (BAyern also gradually transitioned from the old Hoeneß-Rummennigge axis to now Kahn-Salhihamdzic with herbert Hainer as the economic-strategic brain in between with minimal frictional churn in the last few years) , it does not matter too much who is manager and what their specific philosphy is, cos they are handpicked so that they fit the experience and profile of the squad as well as the imprint previous coaches have left on them. To bet everything on one specific coaches philosophy without taking preconditions into account is just hella risky cos there is no guarantee the coach will even be able to transmit his ideas correctly and fit in personality-wise. We hopped back and forth with our managerial switches quite a lot. the change from Ancelotti to AVB was drastic and ultimately stupid, it did not fit the style we were used to and the strengths of an ageing but still highly gifted squad. Similarly appointing Sarri after Conte was a complete u-turn which might have worked cos we were rebuilding anyway and Sarri was somewhat competent but he did not suit the club or squad personality-wise at all. Lampard for all his shortcomings has to be given credit for bringin in Chily, Silva and promoting James built a good foundation with that emphasis on dynamic midfield and flying fullbacks, so TT succeeded giving it more control and solidity. Potter's style at Brighton was not too dissimilar from TT's. So I pondered maybe GP might be able to again built upon TT's ffoundations again hence I was not that critical of him at first. Albeit, I was disappointed for TT not been given more time I never expected him to be our man long term so like most ppl here gave GP a chance. But while I do not think GP is incompetent, he is clearly unable to get his messages across. he does not have the trust of the squad and I do not see how this will change only bc Todd persists with giving Potter time. We will just waste valuable years our younger players need to develop and build confidence.

Come on, no Chelsea manager has ever gone to Dortmund and been able to win just 3 days later. Surely he has to be given more time, there are clear signs of improvement 😄

Hows mason mount still on? ffs he has been the worst player on the pitch. When trailing 1-0, take off your only striker... well done GP

some of the players are not good enough; individual errors, lack of confidence in finishing is not on potter alone, but he has us on low xG and underperforming even that, playing turgid, boring, predictable football with a holey defence... there is just not a single metric we can see any kind of either larger plan or gradual improvement in. You can't blame it on injuries or too many new signings either. The ones who have worked with him from day 1 are even worse than new newer incomings. Something is just dragging everyone down.

Losing to an interim coach who is repeatedly wearing his son's communion suit to matches surely should be one too many to take for Boehly.

Surely that's a hyphen too many in her name there. It is a possibly explanation sadly, given how Kepa collapsed in a similar situation. Suspect the contract talk putting bigger pressure on him tho. But we don't want players who can not perform under pressure

FFS Azpi no angle to shoot. Madueke and Fofana look promising with their searing pace just so raw. It will be years till they can consistently produce. Decades possibly with Potter in charge.

At least no Ziyech, have to find joy in the modest gifts

Koulibaly won the ball clean there, still gets a yellow. Can we pls stop this "follow thru" BS. When you miss the ball, sure book him but when he wins the ball and an opposition player happens to be there it's his fault.

what a terrible corner Villa were an embarrassment today defensively and on set pieces on both ends

you can bet your house this would have been chalked off for us. Indeed it was last season.

OFFSIDE lol

FFS since when can Jorginho shoot? own goal tho

who is also wasteful AF. Possibly Mount is left wing and Joao is no.10? we will see I guess. With the pace we have now a good counter attacking coach like Conte could work wonders

I looked a bit into Napoli's season and defense set up after KKs departure. As everyone knows they are on course of having their best Serie A season ever and leading the table by a huge margin with a massively improved backline. But when you look at how they defend, they have a lot more variability in how high they defend and are able to extinguish opposition attacks way earlier now then they used to, which allows them to win balls high up the pitch. A pattern that is very much novel to their play. Contrary to the outdated view that KK was their leader and best defender another notion imposes itself with quite some urgency. One could say KK was Napoli's reverse Maradaona. The ony carried an average team to a league title, the other captain prevented a great team from doing so. Especially given how his replacement Min-Jae Kim who is a lot more solid and conservative in style than the adventurous Koulibaly, my conclusion would is that while KK papered over his poor overall positional discipline by headline grabbing tackles every once in while he effectively held Napoli back as the rest of the defence had to compensate his shortcomings.

here they go again... ffs how terrible is Villa's defending in the channels all the goals have been pretty well worked and struck. entertaining game

Maybe to City if they don't get wrecked by the PL or ManUre if they get a rich enough owner. Top English players usually don't fare too well abroad and only very few clubs will be able to offer competitive wages... possibly only Real and PSG.

Coutinho showing Felix how you finish from that sort of chance. I also liked how Ramsdale leapt for the wrong corner late lol