"They Wanted It More"

Wolfbot said:
We fell out of the game for nearly the entire second half, definitely felt like we went down a gear from the first half, no urgency and became very sloppy. This part you could perhaps attribute to a lack of quality and/or Palace improving.

However, I was absolutely raging that whilst needing a goal in the last 10 minutes we constantly passed it backwards with players (Martinez the biggest culprit) standing on the ball for what felt like 20 seconds at a time before passing it short or back.

That was absolutely mental to me, I get it if you're drawing 1-1 with Liverpool at Anfield or something, but against teams like Palace we need to be trying to win right up to the last second. Not doing so will cost us the points that are desperately needed to have a chance of playing in the Champions league.

The cowardice shown in some games already this season will see us finish where we did last season or worse.

We have inexperienced or streaky forwards who appear to lack a bit of quality when trying to finish chances, so we need to keep going and trying to create until something goes in. There's no point in just backing off and dropping in energy for large periods of a game, we're going to struggle even more doing that.
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We started struggling against CP after the subs, where we simply didn't have the players to work the ball, that is how it is. We might have a pretty good first 11, but after a few certain subs we drop significantly.
 
I didn't even think our effort was the big problem yesterday. There was some good pressing throughout the game. It's just that this team does not have the tools to consistently create chances against teams that are disciplined and sitting deep.

We don't have genuinely world class players up front, or the coaching to make up for it, so we will continue to struggle with goalscoring. The only real positive is that we have conceded 1 goal in 4 games now. Yes, against poor opposition, but last year it could easily have been 5 or more instead.
 
Bondi77 said:
How many more times are we going to have to listen to this bullshit?
This should only be an issue when two opponents are evenly matched and that applies to any sport.
A lesser team or individual will most likely always want the win more but the superior team or individual will win on most occasions for the obvious reasons.
I would love to ask the question "Why are you not trying hard to win" after we draw or even lose to another opponent that get paid a pittance compared to our players.
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If the truth be told the point your making there is a very good one! As for asking ETH that particular question Im guessing you would have to get on the end of a very long que! The sad thing is a couple of years I really belived he was gonna be the guy that was gonna regain our Title on a regular basis & maybe even add another ECL to the 3 that we currently have to our name but sadly these last few weeks it has become almost impossible to defend his team selections or the type of comments he is coming out with in his press confrences.
 
Plant0x84 said:
Nothing to do with ‘wanting it more’. We aren’t clinical enough to kill off a game, even when we are dominating. Our team is young, and players are integrating. It will come, given time.
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For the sake of all sanity's it all needs to start to gel very quickly & also for their sake of their own career's at this club of our's because if a new manager comes-in this side of Christmas, then he may decide to rip the forward line up & bring in his own players.
 
I don’t really believe this. It’s too simplistic.
I see it more as an attitude stemming from the manager. The TNT commentary team overheard EtH telling Garnacho, just before he was subbed on, to ‘defend, defend, defend’. Bear in mind this was just after half time and we were only 1-0 up.

It’s the opposite of SAF’s approach, where we would always outscore the opponents, and the Stretford End would be roaring ‘attack, attack, attack’. That’s what we should have done last night.- really gone after them and looked to score 2 or 3 nil.
EtH is a frightened manager , and the impressive attack force we have assembled is hobbled by his approach.

The players are playing against their natures. We won’t win anything that way.
 
Lost bear said:
I don’t really believe this. It’s too simplistic.
I see it more as an attitude stemming from the manager. The TNT commentary team overheard EtH telling Garnacho, just before he was subbed on, to ‘defend, defend, defend’. Bear in mind this was just after half time and we were only 1-0 up.

It’s the opposite of SAF’s approach, where we would always outscore the opponents, and the Stretford End would be roaring ‘attack, attack, attack’. That’s what we should have done last night.- really gone after them and looked to score 2 or 3 nil.
EtH is a frightened manager , and the impressive attack force we have assembled is hobbled by his approach.

The players are playing against their natures. We won’t win anything that way.
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If that was said early on it would go a long way to explaining why our performances fall off a cliff into the second half more often than not.

Would explain the lack of chances being created and urgency to get forward If it's actually by design and instruction. If it's true they need to get this guy to feck ASAP.
 
Wolfbot said:
If that was said early on it would go a long way to explaining why our performances fall off a cliff into the second half more often than not.

Would explain the lack of chances being created and urgency to get forward If it's actually by design and instruction. If it's true they need to get this guy to feck ASAP.
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Agreed.
 
I think we are set up to avoid defeat rather than go for the win in the final minutes of matches. Got stung late too many times last season. Mind you, that would not be a problem if we actually took our chances in matches and scored more than a goal a game. It’s all intertwined in a shit way.
 
We seem to rate our players based on the jersey they wear instead of their actual game. Top players put out top performance 9/10. That's what actually makes you a top footballer.
Any footballer can put in a couple of top performance but top players maintain it because it's their level. We are just not good enough.
 
Such nonsense.

It's the managers job to motivate the team. But it's unrealistic to expect peak motivation every single game. So it's also the managers job to implement a system, a base level of coaching which hides mistakes and helps us control games even on those days where we don't have peak motivation. Especially against lesser sides. Yes, if you want it less than the opponent against a quality side and you've shown good play in other games, go for the players. Shit like this game is an all too common occurrence because that's just our base level under Ten Hag. It's nowhere near good enough
 
It's an overall mentality, and it starts from the top. We always seem to play worse in the second half, and it's a reoccurring theme.
 
Bondi77 said:
How many more times are we going to have to listen to this bullshit?
This should only be an issue when two opponents are evenly matched and that applies to any sport.
A lesser team or individual will most likely always want the win more but the superior team or individual will win on most occasions for the obvious reasons.
I would love to ask the question "Why are you not trying hard to win" after we draw or even lose to another opponent that get paid a pittance compared to our players.
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Agree on the nuance. I couldn't care less how much they wanted it.

There wasn't a more awesome sight in football than Manchester United chasing a game. Now they just stand there, devoid of ideas and drive.
 
Pretty neat our players have reached the level of "I couldn't really be bothered to give a shit" and that's a perfectly acceptable, normal remark these days.
 
And why didn´t we wan´t it more?
That´s a question that needs to be answered right? So who works with these players every single day?
The state of this clown.
 
These fecking players already threw van Gaal, Mourinho, Solskjaer, Rangnick and Atkinson under the bus. Now they are doing the same to Erik.
 
PieCrust said:
Pretty neat our players have reached the level of "I couldn't really be bothered to give a shit" and that's a perfectly acceptable, normal remark these days.
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Well at least Eriksen has told us what we probably all suspected anyway.
But it doesn't make it any easier to hear.

Quite honestly, that is on of the most appalling things for any football player, of any standard of have to admit.

Some things are non negotiable. And lack of desire to compete against your rivals is definitely right up there as one of them isn't it.
 
Get In Scholesy said:
I think we are set up to avoid defeat rather than go for the win in the final minutes of matches. Got stung late too many times last season. Mind you, that would not be a problem if we actually took our chances in matches and scored more than a goal a game. It’s all intertwined in a shit way.
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Quite right.
That is the problem when a manager feels under pressure.
They are scared to take any risks and take an overly conservative approach. But as we all know, with risk comes a reward. But he still seems to have zero confidence in his squad.
 
All of these comes down tp lack of winning mentality. It's seeped through the club for a while now. There's no real urgency or determination to win and players like Eriksen embody that. More clear out and ruthless needs to be applied. Starting from the manager - how is he not able to motivate his players to win games?
 
Yeah looked like we lacked desire and energy out there. Zirkzee and Rashford both jogging about on occasion we didn’t have the ball. Wasn’t just them two, mind. Everyone was a yard off, seemingly,
 
What I hated about us last season was the fact that any team can get something out of us simply by wanting it more than our players, any team, even teams in League 1 or smaller leagues, let alone PL teams, our players are kinda brittle and are usually outfought and I was really hoping we changed that this season.
 
I hate to draw parallels to real life, but have any of you ever set foot on a pitch and not been hell bend on winning.

Coming second best doesn’t enter my mind. Play better, cheat, wind them up, kick feck out of them……I’m only here to win.

The idea that you lace up your boots limp-wristed, limp your way into the pitch expecting to be beat …….get the feck out of here. Soft cnuts
 
T00lsh3d said:
I hate to draw parallels to real life, but have any of you ever set foot on a pitch and not been hell bend on winning.

Coming second best doesn’t enter my mind. Play better, cheat, wind them up, kick feck out of them……I’m only here to win.

The idea that you lace up your boots limp-wristed, limp your way into the pitch expecting to be beat …….get the feck out of here. Soft cnuts
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Games can be lost before the teams even take to the field. You hear oppo players from the old days talking about standing in the tunnel and looking across at Giggs, Cantona, Kanchelskis and the rest and knowing it wasn't going to turn out well.
 
Obviously not the same team as back then but I recall Jose saying he had real problems motivating the team to play in the Europa League, implying they felt it was beneath them, which is ironic as we ended up winning it that season.

I didn't really see a lack of effort yesterday (although the goal we conceded was comical) but just a very inefficient attack and midfield.
 
It's a game that we would have won comfortably if we had more predatory finishers.

In SAF's time, there were plenty of players in the squad who were natural finishers, not just the likes of RVN, Cole, Rooney, etc, but across the whole team.

Statistically, we were the better team, but that is exactly what happens when you don't finish sides off, and that's mainly down to the fact we don't have enough goals in us. There's not many players you would feel confident in finishing off a half chance.
 
NicolaSacco said:
This is not actually overly impressive, do t you think? Possession at 60/40 for example.
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Twente played a lot of passing round the back because we didn't have the players to realy press them, we had plenty enough possession but lacked tempo and too many static players, our off-the-ball movement is dreadful most of the time and has been for a long time
 
Buster15 said:
Quite honestly, that is on of the most appalling things for any football player, of any standard of have to admit.
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There are times when it's acceptable, like if it's patently obvious the team has given everything and more but still came up short, like a tight and competitive 4-3 loss.

Last night was not one of those times, though. They looked sluggish, uninterested and bereft of ideas.
 
Dr. Dwayne said:
There are times when it's acceptable, like if it's patently obvious the team has given everything and more but still came up short, like a tight and competitive 4-3.

Last night was not one of those times, though. They looked sluggish, uninterested and bereft of ideas.
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They did indeed.
 
Buster15 said:
Quite right.
That is the problem when a manager feels under pressure.
They are scared to take any risks and take an overly conservative approach. But as we all know, with risk comes a reward. But he still seems to have zero confidence in his squad.
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Yeah you are correct. I think conceding so many shots, being easy to play through and being on the end of some harsh beatings has made him overly conservative.

Conservative to the point that it seems he is willing to prioritize defence as a foundation before we sort our attack, which means we will be in for a long season given that our attack still seems miles off it in the final third.
 
JJ12 said:
We didn't want it enough in the end against Palace too. Last 10 minutes we looked content on a draw, was infuriating.
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You can call me crazy, but true players never ever have that. Even when i played in a low level till the last minute i was busting my ass to get a win. I don’t think you can coach that instinct out of a player.
 
Remember the geese said:
By making this comment it implies that we still have a group of players with the wrong attitude.
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Agree. They ought to have their wages docked every time this happens. You are supposed to put in 100% every mtch, so if the other team wanted it more, you aint putting in 100% and should be docked.
 
Wolfbot said:
If that was said early on it would go a long way to explaining why our performances fall off a cliff into the second half more often than not.

Would explain the lack of chances being created and urgency to get forward If it's actually by design and instruction. If it's true they need to get this guy to feck ASAP.
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If thats the case then this alone should get him the sack. Defend against the lowest rated team we have to play in the Europa at home, is a sackable offence.
 
Defenders dwell on the ball because everyone ahead of them doesn't move. It's infuriating and it happens every match, the only player often moving at all is the one with the ball. It can't be coincidental and must be due to instruction.
 
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