Bitter welcome to the premier league. Unlike most other european leagues where you have maybe 4-5 quality teams, the premier league has 12-15 decent sides who play extremely competitive football in terms of how they set up & their tactics depending on the opposition they face. This is why its the most competitive league in the world.
EtH knows this & knew it is a long road ahead ahead.
Today's game was as bad as it could have got. Unlike what we saw in the pre season, we were awful from the start. Giving away easy passes, no rhythm in our game our pressing was no cohesive & shaky at the back. This was what we saw last season. Once we went two goals behind, players heads, shoulders were down. Second half we gave a decent reaction but no where near what everyone here expects.
But this is not the end but a harsh reality check to what we can expect in our next 37 matchdays. Man Utd are no longer a dangerous team & everyone thinks they can beat us. Today Welbeck was prime Benzema & he will go missing for most of the season. This is how every player will turn up against us. They know we are not the force we were once.
Playing a false 9 will not work for us most of the time & we really need a CF or Target man. A team like man city can effectively play a false 9 as their main man & really affect/change the game for them. Two main reasons, Their inverted wingers (Top quality) & second being team fear them even before the game begins (reputation).
For Eth these are the mostly the same players that have been so poor for the last 2 managers. This will take time & if he is supported well in what he wants (New Players), we can see a drastic change in 2-3 transfer windows. If not, it will take about 4-5 transfer windows to get to where he wants us in terms of our play & performance. But Eth also has good youngsters at his disposal. Garner, Gernacho, Mejbri, Shoretire, Savage & Iqbal. He can develop them & introduce into the team sooner that expected.
Hoping to see a good reaction next saturday against Brentford. Hopefully we can break the away losing streak against them with an empathic win...