Do our players think they're suddenly a great team?

Same shit different coach with a lot of these players tbh. It's been a disappointing couple of months, the team seems to have reverted to type.
 
No, I think they're a very tired team running almost on empty, with very little time to recover/train/analyse between games.

As we know, ETH is tactically demanding. He has very specific ideas about how he wants to play. Currently we're spending so little time on the training pitch its no wonder we see these somewhat 'Jekyll & Hyde" performances at times.

And...lest we forget...we just reached our 2nd cup final and are actually in decent form at the moment, all things considered. Look back 12-months...we'd have snapped your hand off to be in this position.

My only gripe...stop bringing on Wout bloody Weghorst!!!!
 
Probably. Mentality still an issue but that should be expected until Ten Hag has a few windows to chop and change.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Yes, another negative thread right after a bad game, but this one has been a long time coming. We've dropped so many points this season after going up because our players just start fecking about. You'd think that with them being so wasteful in front of goal they would keep the foot on the pedal until we're well ahead, but it seems like they still haven't figured out that we can turn a win into a loss or draw quite easily.

I know that fatigue is likely a major factor, but what is it about their attitudes that stink? Is it because we've been so shite for years that the majority of these players think they can rest easy now that we're winning every now and then? We still have too many players just willing to coast.
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Good post. ETH is on the way to fixing the mentality, but a ways to go obviously. I do think our players are dead tired but that excuse only goes so far.
 
I think it's tough to stay mentally focused to bring that level twice a week every week. It's what is needed, but takes time to hit consistency... Especially you need the players who can do it. So will take some more transfers to fix that side of it.
 
When Klopp called his team mentality monsters peopple laughed at him but when they were good they really were masters of mentality.

The other day City against Arsenal, after the 3rd goal Citys performance dropped by a huge margin and Arsenal end up scoring one as a consequence. It seems very hard for our boys to stay sharp and on it in a game. Someone said it earlier, Sancho scored and he just seemed happy with himself.
 
Europa embarrassment and scraping 4th (who knows what the cup final holds) might be a blessing in disguise. If we rode that post WC wave all the way to the end of the season then some higher ups might’ve thought ETH can compete with scraps. Now it’s very clear that there’s still a lot of work to be done.
 
I think it's a symptom of the squad still being made up of players brought in for different philosophies and styles of play. Ten Hag is far from being able to implement his vision, which should see us control games more. Right now he's having to work with puzzle pieces from different boxes. Until we have a massive clear out and recruit properly, we're likely to see this continue.

I also believe we have far too many players that lack elite football IQ and suit a side that sits back looking to counter, playing without much intuition.
 
I don't think that it's a mentality issue. We lose control or don't even get close to control for the same reasons, there is a lack of technical proficiency, it's also why our possession game isn't close to top level. What I noticed is that if the opposition crank up the pace, play a bit more aggressively our players are done because too many of them require that extra second or that extra touch in order to control and pass the ball, so when we are pushed we make mistakes generally small mistakes but many small mistakes which sometimes leads to goals against us.
 
Son said:
The problem we face now after years of underachievement and richer clubs competing against us is where do we get these first choice signings?

So many players we have wanted since Sir Alex retired who could have won us trophies rejected us for greener pastures. Toni Kroos, Bale, Haaland, list could go on and on.

City have Pep’s pull so the best go there currently. Real, Barcelona and Bayern naturally have a pull too due to easy trophies and glamour.

How do we beat those clubs to the best of the best is the question? Not when they are 30 either and want a new challenge after already winning everything.

To win a premier league title you need to be front of that queue consistently. We are 2nd or third choice as a club. Probably always have been so we relied on a great manager who retired sadly.
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I think Newcastle has shown that great players, with the right mentality, can be found. Imagine Bruno G and Isak on this team.
 
Did it again today. fecked around with the ball in the first half just happy to keep possession. Tried a few long range shots and showed zero urgency to actually kill off the game early.

After their first goal we just buckled. They opened up and created spaces and we did nothing to capitalise because we had given up. Second half we didn't have the legs to keep up with them until reality sunk in during the 90th minute that we should really try and fecking score.
 
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