Jose is not admired for style of play . He's admired for being a winner and he won against every single opposition reaching the highest point tally since SAF retired. We were reaping the rewards of his management by coming runners up
He's not a winner with us. LC and EL credit have run out due to 2 years of mediocre tactics and man-management. Secondly, it's not even that he doesn't have a style of play, when it's more that we are a mess. He's the highest paid manager in the world and 2 minor cups is not being a "winner" with us.
Thirdly, Jose teams at Real and Chelsea did have identity. It's just that his United team doesn't. Wrong to say he doesn't have a style of play at all.
What rewards? Arsenal finished second too once, was that progress for them?
Have to disagree with this. Jose knows what style will get him results. As i pointed out he did exactly that to win against these lot last season. He didn't have to go pressing like this to achieve results. We could've played like we played against them last year and would have had a good chance of winning or drawing. The change in the way we played clearly indicates that he wants to make our team quicker, attack well and play good football. That is a change in direction.
He doesn't even know his best XI yet, what makes you think he knows what to do to get results? At the moment he is doing whatever he feels in the vain hope shit sticks.
If this amateurish, awkward pressing for 30 minutes is what you define as quick, exciting football, then the standards are low.
Agree with you on not all the games are going to be like this. The take away is that the manager is trying to induce a change not against some relegation fodder but one of the best teams known for pressing and it was positive(atleast to some of us). This shows that 1) The players are still playing for him 2) The style which was criticized for all season could change for better. The pressing wasn't perfect but as i pointed out earlier its not a On/Off switch the players can do and stop doing. THey will get better when its done more times.
He really wasn't. He was just trying to do something different after the Brighton loss and it backfired horribly. It's like asking Simeone to play Pep-ball, it won't ever work.
The reality is that Jose at the moment, is trying to figure out what to do to get misfiring players like Sanchez, Pogba and his leaky defense to do better. Hence he is trying out things he didn't do for the past 2 years -- like asking them to press. He's getting desperate, that's all there is to it.
And in between the idea of playing Herrera as a CB was his own ego coming in the way, trying to show Woodward how hard-done by he is without the CB signing he wanted. Every bit of selection and tactics is founded on wrong approach.
It has nothing to do with wanting to develop a long term style of play.
What a ridiculous argument. Would you point fingers at city and say they reached record points because 12 teams were battling relegation at one point? You'd be laughed out. If you cannot see the progress after best point tally since SAF retired ,then i cannot help you.
But it's true. Even the likes of Everton were extremely poor. WBA, a usually frustratingly solid mid table team, were relegated (never mind we lost to them too...). It was an unusually weak league last season apart from the top 6. That's why we reached 81 points. If we had teams like Wolves or Fulham last season, I think we would have suffered a bit more.
I'd point fingers at City as well. While they were incredible, this weak league did contribute a bit to their 100 points. A normal strength league and I'd have City at 85-90 points and United at 70-75.
Let's see what City do this season.
That's the difference. We were second best team for most of the season. If we'd dropped out of second plays it would've been unfair because we were the second best team in the league.
Chelsea were creeping up on us and imploded. As it is, their slow start which placed them marginally behind us at 3rd was due to a lack of motivation for Conte as he battled his board. They downed tools in the second part of the season and yet beat us in the FA Cup!
Arsenal -- no explanation required.
Liverpool -- They were horrendous defensively for the 1st part of the season until they signed VvD in January. Post-VvD, they were easily the better team and were close to catching us when Klopp decided he should focus on CL and started resting players.
Spurs -- Only team that we actually did better over the course of the league season.
You can discount the fact that we finished above Chelsea and Liverpool as anomalies due to the above. Look at what's happening this season.
This jargon of "we finished second" is getting tedious. It is quite similar to extraneous circumstances which helped Arsenal to 2nd in Leicester's title winning season.
Never finished this high under LVG nor beat all the teams and the playing style was even worse during LVG. Jose dosen't deserve the hate for getting us second.
Read above. 2nd is not progress. And no, I don't hate Jose. But if he doesn't show a modicum of improvement in the next 5 games, he should be sacked.