The M-myth this season... and our perpetually weak attack

[Listar]

Tbh, this is slightly disingenuous. Yeah, there are people here who definitely go over the top. But the main cause of frustration is down to our performances, as opposed to the results.

Obviously we lost to a newly promoted club on the weekend, so people are naturally going to be a little...emotional, shall we say. But this result has been coming, even going back to the Everton game. The Liverpool game was obviously very poor in terms of our performance, and the Benfica game was a continuation of that.

So i think it's been bubbling for a while, and is not merely down to "one loss".

I'm not sure the result is coming. It's easier to say from hindsight. What about the Swansea game? How did we win that? If losing to Huddersfield left a big question mark on mourinho, then why is conte still in the job? They lost to crystal palace - a team with 0 point 0 goals. Wenger? Klopp? Unless you compare to Pep this season I don't think mourinho is worse than any one else.

If we keep up with this form, then believe me my daggers will be out as well. But one draw and one loss is not a reason to doubt the managers ability, less we forget past seasons.

 

[The Mitcher]

The myth that:

Mata
Miki
Marcus
Martial

Have played particularly well this season baffles me.

I’ve watched every match we have played and I don’t think any of these guys have put in a performance above a 7 in a single game.

It baffles me when people blame Mourinho for our attacks impotence.

The players are simply not that good. Still.

At best, these players could be described as “decent to fairly good”.

They would not get a single minute at any of the top 5 clubs in Europe... maybe more.

Not a single minute.

Lukaku looks a great goal scorer and a good buy, overall. However, he is no RVP type talisman. Without service, he is completely irrelevant in games.

Add a 2007/08 Ronaldo and a Rooney (let alone a Tevez on top) to this team and it would waltz the league.

Are we ever going to get a world class attacker? In the day and age of €220m Neymar, who we supposedly fancied for a couple seasons, I am not so sure.

Until we get a couple (like all the other big teams), we are going to be battling for fourth most likely.

Apart from mikhi (Who has been remarkably productive despite the performances) the rest have been incredibly productive and even if they don't assist or score in a game they influence the goals being scored. Look at our record, speaks for itself. We've equalled our best ever start to a season.

I don't think you've watched much at all. You are literally going against everything most people have seen.

Your opinion, but their numbers and stats suggest otherwise.

How do you know that, are you are football scout/coach?

Lol every striker struggles without service. Even messi and ronaldo.

We bought a world class attacker, you mentioned him.

We're currently in second and if not for injuries we'd be higher.

But of course we have to be the harlem globe trotters to win anything, and just spend spend spend. Because it worked for Van Gaal didn't it? Worst post on the caf this season.

 

[The Mitcher]

Its excuses mate, citeh played Chelsea off the park without there best player, aguero , and Fabian delph was at left back.

It breeds the wrong mentality..aah we can't be so & so without wotsisname. Load of tosh. We won the champions league v Bayern without 2 ,of the greatest midfielder in our history , were truly fecked if fans are using pogba and Baily's absence as excuses for getting dicked off Huddersfield and not mounting an attack against Liverpool's worst defence ever.

Kevin De Bruyne is far more important than Aguero. If Aguero was so important they would be much more severely hampered when he's out.

 

[Bulldogg]

Its pretty simple in my opinion if you look at the big 6 clubs in the EPL we have the least proven established star players when it comes to attacking midfielders/Wingers. I put the genuine star attacking players in bold as you can see we don't have one.

Man City
Kevin De Bruyne
David Silva
Leroy Sané
Bernardo Silva

Chelsea
Eden Hazard
Pedro
Willian

Arsenal
Alexis Sánchez
Mesut Özil
Theo Walcott
Alex Iwobi

Tottenham
Christian Eriksen
Dele Alli
Son Heung-min
Érik Lamela

Liverpool
Philippe Coutinho
Sadio Mané
Mohamed Salah

Man United
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Marcus Rashford
Anthony Martial
Juan Mata
Jesse Lingard

 

[BusbyMalone]

I'm not sure the result is coming. It's easier to say from hindsight. What about the Swansea game? How did we win that? If losing to Huddersfield left a big question mark on mourinho, then why is conte still in the job? They lost to crystal palace - a team with 0 point 0 goals. Wenger? Klopp? Unless you compare to Pep this season I don't think mourinho is worse than any one else.

If we keep up with this form, then believe me my daggers will be out as well. But one draw and one loss is not a reason to doubt the managers ability, less we forget past seasons.

Ok, not sure where to start here.

First off, i'm not doubting the manager. I was merely pointing out the disingenuousness of stating that people are peeved off because of one loss. That's not the case (well, for most people anyway). Our performances have been poor for a few weeks. I'm not saying that from hindsight (and most people aren't) i was saying at the time of happening. I'm far from the only to suggest that this result was coming.

If your genuinely asking how we beat Swansea ( i assume you mean last night), then there are many reasons. We performed a lot better, for one. We showed a very positive attitude and produced some great performances. I thought Herrera was very good, Lingard was fantastic and Axel was phenomenal and continues to show the sort of composure that belies his age.

Also, Swansea were exceptionally poor. I think the cup is a hinderance to clubs like Swansea and, as a result, it really was a walk in the park for us. It's the sort of game where it's hard to really take anything from. Also, none of that discredits what i said before about our previous perfomaces. So not sure what point your making there.


And i never said that it left a big question mark on Mourinho, so not sure where you got that from. I gave (what i thought, anyway) some fair criticism; what i thought was pretty valid.

In terms of brining up Conte, Wenger and Klopp. I really, really don't care about them. And, again, really not sure what point your making there, either.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

So what we are saying is everyone involved with the team with an M in their surname is rubbish?

 

[Zoo]

Another excuse to complain about not having galactico signings all over the pitch.

 

[Ish]

Someone mentioned something i agreed with, in another thread, but the issue isn't with our attackers, but the way we approach the game/tactics.

I'm not blaming the manager. It could be injuries or confidence or whatever but we have the players who are certainly good enough to play an attacking game, hell, we've proven it on occasion, this season.

Look at Napoli for instance. Their attackers are no better than ours (man for man), but they play good attacking football, as a unit.

Let's hope we can get it right, consistently, this season. And let's hope some of our attackers show more consistency.

 

[Smores]

Someone mentioned something i agreed with, in another thread, but the issue isn't with our attackers, but the way we approach the game/tactics.

I'm not blaming the manager. It could be injuries or confidence or whatever but we have the players who are certainly good enough to play an attacking game, hell, we've proven it on occasion, this season.

Look at Napoli for instance. Their attackers are no better than ours (man for man), but they play good attacking football, as a unit.

Let's hope we can get it right, consistently, this season. And let's hope some of our attackers show more consistency.

Pogba's injury seems to have ruined our good attacking play. There was plenty of it prior and it looked like the lads were forming a really good partnership.

In general though those saying its not about the draw and loss are talking absolute bollocks. The difference in this place before and after those events is night and day.

I wonder if the same people were City fans would they be as suicidal about their failures last night? A dreadful result

 

[Ish]

Pogba's injury seems to have ruined our good attacking play. There was plenty of it prior and it looked like the lads were forming a really good partnership.

In general though those saying its not about the draw and loss are talking absolute bollocks. The difference in this place before and after those events is night and day.

I wonder if the same people were City fans would they be as suicidal about their failures last night? A dreadful result

Aye, but I also think that draw and loss brought a lot of fans who doesn't really want Mourinho at our club, to the fore.

 

[BusbyMalone]

Be careful of your criticism, for you will be labeled a Mouinho hater.

Also, those who are suggesting that it's all to do with the one loss are equally talking the same amount of bollocks.

 

[Raees]

Might have been just Swansea, but thought everyone moved a lot more off the ball and more naturally in the 3-5-2. It also unleashes Martial and Rashford, the teams only two dynamic forwards.

 

[horsechoker]

I'm sorry for your stutter.

 

[frank lee madeer..]

Kevin De Bruyne is far more important than Aguero. If Aguero was so important they would be much more severely hampered when he's out.

Pogba's injury seems to have ruined our good attacking play. There was plenty of it prior and it looked like the lads were forming a really good partnership.

In general though those saying its not about the draw and loss are talking absolute bollocks. The difference in this place before and after those events is night and day.

I wonder if the same people were City fans would they be as suicidal about their failures last night? A dreadful result

Somebody made a good post and included a vote, its called , flattering to deceive or the real McCoy ( something like that anyways, you get the gist ) it was up way before the Liverpool game, when we were smashing teams 4-0, but somebody felt the need to make that. Why do you think that was ?

That citeh comparison youve made is a bit strange . A dreadful result ? Seriously ? they went through, its the carabou cup , and in general theyve been the standout team so far this season. There's a guy further up , listar, he's been been on moaning that people are not consistent in their moaning because they failed to moan as much after the Swansea game ? I find that a bit strange too.

 

[KirkDuyt]

Been satisfied with Rashford and Martial personally. Sure, they're not giving consistent world class performances, but hell, they're about 12 years old, give them some time.

I don't think Mata ever got his real form back after that player of the year season and I don't rate Mkhitaryan, decent player, but not a world beater. Germany just has some really weak teams in the league, which makes playing for the attacking BVB side a dream.

 

[Decomposing In Paris]

Its pretty simple in my opinion if you look at the big 6 clubs in the EPL we have the least proven established star players when it comes to attacking midfielders/Wingers. I put the genuine star attacking players in bold as you can see we don't have one.

Man City
Kevin De Bruyne
David Silva
Leroy Sané
Bernardo Silva

Chelsea
Eden Hazard
Pedro
Willian

Arsenal
Alexis Sánchez
Mesut Özil
Theo Walcott
Alex Iwobi

Tottenham
Christian Eriksen
Dele Alli
Son Heung-min
Érik Lamela

Liverpool
Philippe Coutinho
Sadio Mané
Mohamed Salah

Man United
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Marcus Rashford
Anthony Martial
Juan Mata
Jesse Lingard

De Bruyne & Silva are two of a midfield three, leaving only one player as a defensive midfielder. Do you consider Pogba to be a defensive midfielder?

 

[Smores]

Somebody made a good post and included a vote, its called , flattering to deceive or the real McCoy ( something like that anyways, you get the gist ) it was up way before the Liverpool game, when we were smashing teams 4-0, but somebody felt the need to make that. Why do you think that was ?

That citeh comparison youve made is a bit strange . A dreadful result ? Seriously ? they went through, its the carabou cup , and in general theyve been the standout team so far this season. There's a guy further up , listar, he's been been on moaning that people are not consistent in their moaning because they failed to moan as much after the Swansea game ? I find that a bit strange too.

One thread does not equal the overall mood, oddly enough this place is never aligned but lets not be revisionist in the opinions prior to Anfield.

I'm not sure how its strange to call out a very strong City side being unable to score against Wolves especially in a thread about attacking performance and reactionary knee jerking

 

[Foxbatt]

What I noticed was that our lack of the ability to keep possession after being tackled. How I wished even for a half fit Anderson. He rarely gets dispossessed.

 

[RedPnutz]

Good job we didnt get Mbappe then

Better sack Mourinho too. Maybe rename Manchester.

 

[frank lee madeer..]

One thread does not equal the overall mood, oddly enough this place is never aligned but lets not be revisionist in the opinions prior to Anfield.

I'm not sure how its strange to call out a very strong City side being unable to score against Wolves especially in a thread about attacking performance and reactionary knee jerking

Imo you are failing to use the perspective you accuse others of lacking to make your case .Kneejerk .You called citeh..a dreadful result , not really , they achieved their objective and went through. A poor performance , very possibly, I didn't watch it. If you describe that in such a negative way, what adjectives did you use to describe our huddersfield result ?In the grand scheme of things, is the carabarabou cup a yardstick to measure them with?

 

[Smores]

Imo you are failing to use the perspective you accuse others of lacking to make your case .Kneejerk .You called citeh..a dreadful result , not really , they achieved their objective and went through. A poor performance , very possibly, I didn't watch it. If you describe that in such a negative way, what adjectives did you use to describe our huddersfield result ?In the grand scheme of things, is the carabarabou cup a yardstick to measure them with?

Not at all, its par for the course over a season that even on form teams struggle. Thats football and was my original point, that people won't afford us the same leniency as they will the flavour of the month.

Also we've achieved our result in other games so equally does it not matter if we were poor in them? We've done so at 4-0 to have people complain well they were all in last 20min.

Jose's approach to Liverpool pissed people off, the Benfica result was just a tough CL game and then Huddersfield was one of those days.

We should certainly be allowed leeway given our results so far. Off days happen in football, trends in results are all that matter and we have not reached that point at all

 

[AR87]

It took one loss for this forum to completely lose their shit and blame everyone from managers to players.

Yep

 

[ghagua]

We get a lot of posts how our players our not "world class" and stuff, but people do not explain why Spurs and Liverpool's (attack in Liverpool's case) looks so good. I mean their squads are not full of world class players either, and in Spurs case, their transfer budget is about half the cost of of Lukaku's rumored 24 inch whatever. I'm leaving City out of this for now as it would not even be fair at this point.

 

[Lentwood]

I think the OP is correct. Blame Jose and his 'negative tactics' all you like but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, I'm calling it a duck

Our attack has failed to fire now since SAF left. We blamed Moyes, we blamed LvG and now people are blaming Mourinho

How about we offer a frank and fair assessment of our attackers?

Mata - Just not an elite level AM. Too safe, too slow and can't carry the ball forward. If anything slows our attacks down.

Mhiki - Incredibly inconsistent, disappears in the big games and seems to want to nutmeg someone every time he gets the ball. There is talent there but it's not on show often enough and especially not when the chips are down

Martial - Incredibly inconsistent, another "homer" who looks great when conditions are in his favour and confidence is high but who often struggles when our backs are against the wall. I still believe in Martial but he is not yet at the standard required on a consistent basis too challenge for a title

Rashford - The opposite of Martial. Has the confidence, has the guts, has the desire but unfortunately his actual raw ability and technique don't match up to the Frenchmens. If you could combine the two you would have the next Messi/Ronaldo but as is we've got two talents that frustrate more often than they create!

Lingard - Do we need to cover Lingard? I think we all agree he I a decent enough player with limitations who shouldn't be starting league games for Utd.

Now when you look at it like like that, and I don't think I am being harsh, all of a sudden it's not hard to see why we have really struggled to break teams down

 

[Lentwood]

We get a lot of posts how our players our not "world class" and stuff, but people do not explain why Spurs and Liverpool's (attack in Liverpool's case) looks so good. I mean their squads are not full of world class players either, and in Spurs case, their transfer budget is about half the cost of of Lukaku's rumored 24 inch whatever. I'm leaving City out of this for now as it would not even be fair at this point.

Countinho, Mane and Salah would all get into our XI. In fact, put those three into our side and we win the league.

Tottenham are more of a unit than being about individual flair but still Eriksen would walk into our side as I believe would Son and Alli

 

[Pacificgi]

We must be doing something right if we've scored 4 goals in a few games this season. Rashford and Martial have had good spells, i would say they havent really done it over 90 minutes but then the way we set up to play makes it difficult to. Matas not been great but Mikis been hugely disappointing. If he gets into form his link up play would make us look much stronger

 

[Jim Beam]

Its pretty simple in my opinion if you look at the big 6 clubs in the EPL we have the least proven established star players when it comes to attacking midfielders/Wingers. I put the genuine star attacking players in bold as you can see we don't have one.

Man City
Kevin De Bruyne
David Silva
Leroy Sané
Bernardo Silva

Chelsea
Eden Hazard
Pedro
Willian

Arsenal
Alexis Sánchez
Mesut Özil
Theo Walcott
Alex Iwobi

Tottenham
Christian Eriksen
Dele Alli
Son Heung-min
Érik Lamela

Liverpool
Philippe Coutinho
Sadio Mané
Mohamed Salah

Man United
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Marcus Rashford
Anthony Martial
Juan Mata
Jesse Lingard

De Bruyne, but no Pogba inside. Where is the logic in that? Put Pogba in there and can't see much between the clubs. Sanchez and Ozil are great individual players who can not elevate their team anywhere close to challenging EPL all these years, along with their fecked up attitude.

It would take few months for our fans to turn on many highlighted players if they were here now. Silva would be past it, Ozil with the same attitude would be a passenger who we can't afford to have, I think even Mane would be called nothing but a speed merchant.

As for OP, not a single performance above 7 with us considerably outscoring everyone in EPL bar City? They are all very good players, I'm fairly certain they would be looked differently if they are playing for someone else.

 

[ghagua]

Countinho, Mane and Salah would all get into our XI. In fact, put those three into our side and we win the league.

Tottenham are more of a unit than being about individual flair but still Eriksen would walk into our side as I believe would Son and Alli

Nothing to do with them being coached on the training pitch at all. Looks like we have to go on a spending spree again. I wonder what Klopp and Poc would be able to do with Lukaku, Martial and Rashford. We already know what Klopp was able to do with Mkhitaryan.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Nothing to do with them being coached on the training pitch at all. Looks like we have to go on a spending spree again. I wonder what Klopp and Poc would be able to do with Lukaku, Martial and Rashford. We already know what Klopp was able to do with Mkhitaryan.

Neymar Auba and Greizmann can maybe do the trick

Edit: On second thoughts, we have a crap coach anyway. So wont work

 

[snk123]

Football fans have short memories but never knew they were this short

 

[Bulldogg]

De Bruyne & Silva are two of a midfield three, leaving only one player as a defensive midfielder. Do you consider Pogba to be a defensive midfielder?

De Bruyne can play as a winger or AM and Silva has Played as an AM most of his career only sitting deeper in recent times. Pogba is a pure CM all these guys i listed are proven genuine stars in the final 3rd and that's what we don't have. Pogba at his most attacking has played a free roam type of style on the left side of midfield 3 for Juve where he would still drop back to defend get the ball deep and set up from there, our issue is having no genuine consistent star occupying the field in the third as a AM or Winger.

For example if you look at the central midfielders of the big 6 i feel we have proven elite quality like Matic and Pogba compare us to the other 6 and we have a clear advantage in terms of star quality compared to a lot of them, look at Liverpool they have Henderson, Can and Wijnaldum....leaves a lot to be desired. I know Pogba can play as genuine AM but he just doesn't play that position he's more of an advanced midfielder in the midfield 3 when he plays a more attacking role.

 

[Bulldogg]

De Bruyne, but no Pogba inside. Where is the logic in that? Put Pogba in there and can't see much between the clubs. Sanchez and Ozil are great individual players who can not elevate their team anywhere close to challenging EPL all these years, along with their fecked up attitude.

It would take few months for our fans to turn on many highlighted players if they were here now. Silva would be past it, Ozil with the same attitude would be a passenger who we can't afford to have, I think even Mane would be called nothing but a speed merchant.

As for OP, not a single performance above 7 with us considerably outscoring everyone in EPL bar City? They are all very good players, I'm fairly certain they would be looked differently if they are playing for someone else.

De Bruyne can play and has played as a winger or AM and Silva has Played as an AM most of his career only sitting deeper in recent times. Pogba is a pure CM all these guys i listed are proven genuine stars in the final 3rd and that's what we don't have. Pogba at his most attacking has played a free roam type of style on the left side of midfield 3 for Juve where he would still drop back to defend get the ball deep and set up from there, our issue is having no genuine consistent star occupying the field in the third as a AM or Winger.

You mention Ozil i agree that he goes missing in a lot of games but the bloke is a genuine attacking star and if Arsenal had better players in central midfield they would have won a lot more games over the years and Ozil would not get even half of the criticism he's gotten.

For example if you look at the central midfielders of the big 6 i feel we have proven elite quality like Matic and Pogba compare us to the other 6 and we have a clear advantage in terms of star quality compared to a lot of them, look at Liverpool they have Henderson, Can and Wijnaldum....leaves a lot to be desired. I know Pogba can play as genuine AM but he just doesn't play that position he's more of an advanced midfielder in the midfield 3 when he plays a more attacking role.

Our team is complete all we lack is a genuine star to play as a pure AM or winger. Martial and Rashford are just not there yet in the future maybe yes but the time is now.

 

[Lentwood]

Nothing to do with them being coached on the training pitch at all. Looks like we have to go on a spending spree again. I wonder what Klopp and Poc would be able to do with Lukaku, Martial and Rashford. We already know what Klopp was able to do with Mkhitaryan.

Come on. If you are going to go down the 'coaching" route why can't Klopp 'coach' Mignolet, Matip, Lovren, Klavan and Moreno?

Neither Klopp nor Poch would do any better with those players than Jose because they are so inconsistent. I'm not having any excuses for them, good players don't need excuses over and over again

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I think OP is partially correct.

Rashford and Martial have certainly produced the goods at times this season, but they're still inconsistent and blow hot and cold.

Mata to me is a luxury player and not good enough to be a starter anymore and the less said about Mkhi the better.

I thought we needed to sign 2 attackers in the summer and we only made a like-for-like replacement essentially with Lukaku for Ibra.

Not to excuse Jose though. Plenty of teams in Europe don't have better players than us and play better attacking football and are more than the sum of their parts.

We need Jose to elevate the team.

 

[breakout67]

Come on. If you are going to go down the 'coaching" route why can't Klopp 'coach' Mignolet, Matip, Lovren, Klavan and Moreno?

Neither Klopp nor Poch would do any better with those players than Jose because they are so inconsistent. I'm not having any excuses for them, good players don't need excuses over and over again

Pep the attacking coach gives freedom to his players in the final third. There is probably no top manager in the world that coaches attacking play in great detail. They understand that attacking players thrive off improvisation and risk taking.

 

[ghagua]

Come on. If you are going to go down the 'coaching" route why can't Klopp 'coach' Mignolet, Matip, Lovren, Klavan and Moreno?

Neither Klopp nor Poch would do any better with those players than Jose because they are so inconsistent. I'm not having any excuses for them, good players don't need excuses over and over again

You obviously missed the part where I specifically mentioned Liverpool's attack. Even Rogers before him managed to get some very good football out of players who many of us United fans would turn our noses up at. Not sure how long we can continue with out spending spree, but at some point there will be a need to coach the players we have in getting good football out of them.

 

[yo@Kirk]

In Pogba's absence, Rashford and Martial have combined for 7 goals and 9 assists with most of their playing time coming at the same position, LW. In Pogba's absence, Mhki has 2 goals and 1 assist playing primarily at ACM while Mata has contributed 1 goal playing primarily at RW. Rashford and Martial should be starting and Mhki and Mata should not.

I believe Rashford is best suited for LW because he plays the position like a natural winger by maintaining width. Martial plays LW more like he's an ACM by attacking the penalty box trying to score goals and provide assists instead of maintaining width. In current form, I believe Martial's play making skills would make him a better choice for ACM than Mhki in his current form.

As for RW, Demetri Mitchell is about the only reserve player getting positive reviews for his play in the U-23s. His skillset as an inverted RW would be very similar to what Rashford provides as an inverted LW in Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 scheme. Their similar skillsets would bring more balance and width to the attack.

Obviously, a line of Rashford at LW, Martial in the middle, and Mitchell at RW behind Lukaku would be young and inexperienced but the players who provide the best chance of scoring goals while providing the strongest defense are old enough and sufficiently experienced, IMO.

 

[Lentwood]

Pep the attacking coach gives freedom to his players in the final third. There is probably no top manager in the world that coaches attacking play in great detail. They understand that attacking players thrive off improvisation and risk taking.

Well you see this is funny because when LvG was in charge he tried to implement a system that Pep "the attacking Coach who gives freedom to his players in the final third" Guardiola would go on to basically replicate (dig out the Thierry Henry interviews where he says as much) and yet our attack still looked turgid and woeful

At the time, we of course blamed LvG. It must be his style. He plays boring football we said. Our attackers are being stifled we said. If only we gave freedom to our players in the final third we said.

I say we, I pointed out at the time it might just be that our attackers aren't as good as we think they are...

 

[Lentwood]

You obviously missed the part where I specifically mentioned Liverpool's attack. Even Rogers before him managed to get some very good football out of players who many of us United fans would turn our noses up at. Not sure how long we can continue with out spending spree, but at some point there will be a need to coach the players we have in getting good football out of them.

No I didn't miss it I'm just pointing out that you can't credit a manager when players play well and then not hold him accountable when players play badly, if that's your logic

You say we can't keep spending - I am afraid we are going to have to. You do realise City and Chelsea have spent 100s of millions every year since 2004? I am getting bored of saying it now, this football club didn't decline when SAF left or when Moyes/LvG took over. It declined when we sold Ronaldo, when Giggs, Scholes, Neville, Keane, Evra, Ferdinand and Vidic all left without being adequately replaced. We held onto the purse strings for too long and now unfortunately yes we do need to keep spending for the foreseeable until we have 18 players minimum who can turn in 8/10 performances minimum 90% of the time. At the moment we are playing in patches because our players are so individually inconsistent, not because of any manager

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Well you see this is funny because when LvG was in charge he tried to implement a system that Pep "the attacking Coach who gives freedom to his players in the final third" Guardiola would go on to basically replicate (dig out the Thierry Henry interviews where he says as much) and yet our attack still looked turgid and woeful

At the time, we of course blamed LvG. It must be his style. He plays boring football we said. Our attackers are being stifled we said. If only we gave freedom to our players in the final third we said.

I say we, I pointed out at the time it might just be that our attackers aren't as good as we think they are...

Extremely naive to think that all coaches that value possession are identical in their ideas, their implementation or indeed quality.