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2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

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RomanReigns said:
In many ways the 59 points doesn’t even really tell the full story

It makes it look like we had a good season when the reality is we struggled in about 35 out of the 38 games and we won 12 games by a 1 goal margin and defending for our lives in every single one of those wins.

We could have quite easily had about 40-45 points. There were not many games where you came away saying we should have won that one cos we battered them.
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1-0 is the gentleman’s score line!
 
Having decided to not judge performances (on the recommendation of many here) and only results here’s my verdict.
We bottled it.

Carlo and the players.. to a man bottled it.

My analogy is after earning so many points so quickly it was like we went 1-0 up within 10 minutes and decided to protect the lead for the next 80.

We never went for the knock out punch in any match this season, we just tried to protect and defend anything we had.

Carlo I believe reckoned we could defend enough points to the end of the season that he might, maybe even should, get Europe. The play got progressively worse that as Feb/March came round we were totally unwatchable and had forgotten how to use a football.. our play spiraled and the results inevitably followed.

The players could for a few games defend that one goal.. but it wasn’t sustainable and ultimately trying to use the same tactic to defend our position in the table backfired, which 90% of the time is always does.

so after intending to write a thesis after the season that’s my view. In a nutshell.
 
MACCA75 said:
We have signed some injury prone players like. Allan was out with 5 different injuries in his last season in Italy, and we knew James wouldn’t stay fit.
Gomes and Mina were injured when we signed them, Delph had a poor injury record..

Something we really need to bare in mind, especially for midfield as I just can’t bare watching Davies and Gylfi playing there again.
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At least Siggy is an Iron Man!!!
 
NilSatisOptimum said:
Aint no other manager out there that gets current collective squad of players into European football. We were in the mix until the last day, finally had some good wins against sky six. Failed against Burnley Fulham and Newcastle on physical application and injuries. Hopefully the messiah continues to walk on water, parts the dead sea and shifts some dead wood out in closed season.
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Moyes got a worse squad into Europe!
 

Lanolin said:
Can I just point out that there’s another thread with a poll where only 8% - including some ‘dubious’ posters - say they want him sacked. Can we maybe stop with the constant suggestions that much of the fan base wants him gone and a handful of the most virtuous, patient, and intelligent posters are fighting off the knee jerking bedwetters like a scene from 300.
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The football being produced is mind numbingly boring. We also finished tenth. Dress it up how ever you want to, it does not look good at this point in time.
 
paulbefc said:
I don't disagree that the season was a failure as we were aiming to finish in a European position and didn't. In the end though, the league table shows we missed out by quite a narrow margin, in relative terms. When you consider how close we were to e.g. Leicester in the end, the holes in our squad may have been overestimated by our critics and the job done by our manager underestimated.

I think the goal difference suggests we were lacking quality - but we would be, we were ravaged by injuries and nowhere near a finished article Ancelotti side. I think it shows Ancelotti had to fall back on his own nous to win games when the XI simply weren't good enough and that he was successful I.e. the squad overperformed at times.

I definitely think people, not necessarily you, have been too quick to dismiss a 10 point gain on the basis that it only got us 10th position. It got us much closer to the teams above us and much further away from the teams below us. Thankfully it doesn't tell the full story.
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Okay I do get that, and agree mostly. I just don't think the focus is right to be on points totals really. Because what is needed to finish where changes from season-to-season.

Yes, last few years 59 points would have got us Europe I guess, but that's because the share of the points was different and there were either one or two outstanding teams (City in 17-18, City and Liverpool in 18-19 and Liverpool in 19-20). This year there wasn't in the sense of a team having the league officially wrapped up by March (or June in the Reds' case) etc.
 
BornBlue76 said:
Having decided to not judge performances (on the recommendation of many here) and only results here’s my verdict.
We bottled it.

Carlo and the players.. to a man bottled it.

My analogy is after earning so many points so quickly it was like we went 1-0 up within 10 minutes and decided to protect the lead for the next 80.

We never went for the knock out punch in any match this season, we just tried to protect and defend anything we had.

Carlo I believe reckoned we could defend enough points to the end of the season that he might, maybe even should, get Europe. The play got progressively worse that as Feb/March came round we were totally unwatchable and had forgotten how to use a football.. our play spiraled and the results inevitably followed.

The players could for a few games defend that one goal.. but it wasn’t sustainable and ultimately trying to use the same tactic to defend our position in the table backfired, which 90% of the time is always does.

so after intending to write a thesis after the season that’s my view. In a nutshell.
Click to expand...
Not being able to win games with a bang average squad is now considered bottling it, is it?

I don't think you understand what bottling it means.
 

JobForTheMoyes said:
Moyes got a worse squad into Europe!
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Not sure about the difference in quality but the major significant difference between Moyes squad and Carlo's squad was that Moyes squad all put 100% effort and desire into every match for the entire duration whereas at least half of our players couldn't be bothered for the 2nd half of the season so much so that most of the time they struggled to even pass the ball to a team mate, let alone try and move the ball forwards quickly and those same players have been doing that long before Carlo took the helm.

We would have comfortably got 4th this season had all of our players put 100% effort and desire in and you could see Carlo's frustration with them in pretty much every single match since Christmas. He has got them well and truly pegged now imo.
 
Lob said:
Not sure about the difference in quality but the major significant difference between Moyes squad and Carlo's squad was that Moyes squad all put 100% effort and desire into every match for the entire duration whereas at least half of our players couldn't be bothered for the 2nd half of the season so much so that most of the time they struggled to even pass the ball to a team mate, let alone try and move the ball forwards quickly and those same players have been doing that long before Carlo took the helm.

We would have comfortably got 4th this season had all of our players put 100% effort and desire in and you could see Carlo's frustration with them in pretty much every single match since Christmas. He has got them well and truly pegged now imo.
Click to expand...

superb
 
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