Shows us how bad McTom and Pogba were for so long, both jog about, one is very a talented passer.
Only good midfield we've had was Herrera, Pogba and Matic.
Only good midfield we've had was Herrera, Pogba and Matic.
Mctominay for Mainoo at HT
- Thread starter Desert Eagle
- Start date
Come on the midfield was shite in the first half too. Mainoo hardly had the ball. Agree it's strange but lets not make it like he subbed someone having a belter.
I don't know what would be worse. It being tactical because that's crazy, or him being injured because that would be gutting.
I missed as the reason as was having a coffee break so thought it was injury when I came and saw Mctominay on. I knew straight away Forest would start getting more clear cut chances and said if the sub wasn’t due to injury then the manager has to be held to account if we loss
Mainoo did look below his usual level but Ten Hag has a habit of making cowardly substitutions. Regardless of performance, he routinely substitutes the less senior players even if it doesn’t make tactical sense. Garnacho was a victim of his cowardice last season.
I think, it was a bit of a gamble that didn't pay off. He brought on a nominal midfielder with a knack of scoring (probably also more of a nominal knack if we are at that). I wouldn't have done it as well but I think, to a certain degree the manager is the one who has to make decisions and if he didn't do anything, people would complain as well. That being said, at this point I am not going to defend the manager. If he wants to die on the hill of McTominay and Eriksen, then may his wish come true.
Idiotic sub
The worst thing to happen to this season is McTominay scoring those 2 late goals against Brentford. Long term like we’ve seen for years now he’s costing us points and before then he wasn’t getting minutes
Can only assume he wanted more physicality and a goal threat but it went very wrong. My heart sank when he came on though 
His subs are baffling. Mctominay should be playing for Rangers or Celtic and that’s being kind. Shameful that he was captain a couple of weeks ago
A sub that asked for trouble and got it. Just a brainless bit of management.
The day... the midfield died
I started singing my, my Mr Erik Ten Hag
Pulled off Mainoo Put on TomiMac left he midfield to die
Bruno 'n the boys were passing into the sky
Now we're going home without points in the bag
Yet another trip back without points in the bag
Quietly effective. Forest created nothing in the first half. Our problem wasn’t in midfield, it was the attack. Against Villa we had Rashford left and Garnacho right, getting in behind and stretching the play. All we needed to do today was play anyone as a target pivot instead of Hojlund, or a false nine. Instead he changed the entire recipe - from the first attack structure which has actually worked - to one which has been proven ineffective countless times. As a result we had zero threat and our midfield kept us in it. He then sabotaged the midfield.
ten Hag has lost so many games it’s a disgrace. He continually makes baffling decisions. The sooner he goes, the better for everyone.
It is all good. He’s disciplining them to show them that lower level of performance will not be tolerated.
Unless they are older than 25 or have been brought to the club by the coach in which case it won’t matter.
As I said though he has taken McT out for Mainoo in starting lineup. So he's corrected that part.
It is a mind-blowing substitution. If he wants more attacking threat, take off Antony, who's worthless, and replace him with McTominay. Play McTominay up top, Rashford on the left, and Garnacho on the right. Instead, he decided to concede all midfield control without actually adding anything to the attack. We end up with McTominay failing to track runners twice and conceding the same type of goal because of it.
A “gamble”? It was absolutely suicidal, we all knew what was going to happen. A gamble would be to take Antony off, put Rashford on the right, and McTominay up front. That’s a gamble. Taking your DMF off and replacing him with a player that absolutely cannot play that position is lunacy. I just don’t understand it. I really do want Ten Hag to succeed but every game you can make a list as long as your arm of things he’s got wrong.
He needs to discipline himself.
Why would the commentators know things like that?!
The media usually get fed info like that from the sidelines.
Managers
the midfield was poor in the first half but it was much worse in the second especially defensively.
ETH is suicidal with his in game tactics.
Complete madman.
Complete madman.
Can only assume he wanted more physicality and a goal threat but it went very wrong. My heart sank when he came on though
That's exactly what he wanted and he sacrificed our only midfielder capable of providing defensive cover to do it. He's also done it many times recently usually by starting Mctom ahead of Mainoo.
If we are a serious football outfit he shouldn't survive to make the mistake again but here we are!
Yeah, I’m pretty sure he already blocked 2 shots from similar situations in the first half. Very strange decision if it was tactical.
I take the attack working against Villa with extreme caution. We can not deny that it worked in a large part because Villa played an extremely high offside line with no pressure on the ball, even at 2-0, gave Utd a ton of space, that was never likely to be repeated today. The recipe was reliant on generous context.
Sackable offence.
It's a fair point, but in the first half we were struggling to create chances more than anything. The kindest criticism of the sub is that it was basically like for like in terms of where McT came on to play, which was as the DM. This, despite the fact it's become very obvious that he's much better for club and country as a goal scoring 8.
It didn't really make sense and failed to address the real area of weakness which was in attack, especially down the right, where both Antony and AWB were having poor games. I don't know what was wrong with AWB, he didn't seem to have any energy at all.
The more obvious sub at HT would have been to bring Reguilon on so Dalot could switch to RB and Antony would have had more support, or taken Antony off. Even if it was for McT, maybe tried Bruno on the right for a bit before Amad. Or gone really left field and tried something different, like Bruno/McT dovetailing as a sort of false 9 and Rashford LW and Garnacho RW. Even if it didn't work, we could have seen he was trying to find a solution to the lack of options available to him today.
Instead, he made a nothing sub and we actually got worse in the second half. I'm not sure how much McT was to blame for both their goals, but it certainly looked like he should have been closer to both goal scorers.
Eriksen also had a poor game and shouldn't have lasted the 90 mins. His inability to track back also cost us and probably made McT look more at fault than he was. Perhaps Eriksem should have gone off at HT instead of Mainoo.
I'm going to wait and see if Mainoo was injured. If not, then it was as close to a sackable offense as you can get, even for EtH.
Edit: Just saw the tweet. Yeah, he's tactically clueless. That's the straw that breaks the camel's back for me - time for him to go.
Edit: Just saw the tweet. Yeah, he's tactically clueless. That's the straw that breaks the camel's back for me - time for him to go.
No regrets for that? What a clueless prick, cost us 3 points for that stupid subs.
Agree 100% with the first two
We were better in the 2nd half according to ETH.
Even if we were I think Forest were the slightly better team in the first half and the much better team in the 2nd half.
Even if we were I think Forest were the slightly better team in the first half and the much better team in the 2nd half.
£80m for that useless fail son Antony
That is an awful take but what else is he going to say.....not a good day for Erik.
Everyone apart from ten Hag can see that McTominay isn't a holding midfielder, so I agree the sub was odd in that respect. He could have taken any of Eriksen or Bruno off too.
Mainoo needed a bit of support in there but we don't really have anyone who can help. Bruno is inconsistent with his passing, Eriksen looked tired.
McTominay's main problem is his awareness defensively. He just doesn't have the 'knack' of knowing how to position himself properly.
Thought mainoo was injured. If tactical ETH struggles with tactics.
He can get players back but injuries are not forcing the moronic set up he prefers.