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2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

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Agree, it’s the offensive side of the performances which make you want to jab your own eyes out with rusty coat hangers. Yet we only had Allan missing yesterday who would have improved the starting XI (or Godfrey).

It’s all very dependant on Rodriguez as Richy is way off form.
Holgate should always play ahead of Coleman now. Or we sign a new rb before tomorrow deadline.
 
We don't have a top 6 squad. We maybe have a top 6 first 11 on our day. He's done well with what he has to work with.

When things don't go to plan (and the plan is generally to be tight defensively and score on counters and set pieces) there's no options to change this team. We don't have a single player on the bench you can look to change the game and take the initiative with. That's on those we've had responsible for building this squad.

We did play 3 games in 6 days and this squad can't rotate without weakening the first 11. Four out of 9 points isn't great but with that context it is alright.
 
See I said performances though. To me Leicester and Wolves were not top class performances even if the results were passable.
I am not arsed one bit about winning pretty, I will take winning ugly every time. As long as we win consistently enough to keep us up the table I am happy. If we do it with "not top class performances" but still win matches then great. Still winning.

That was a Martinez obsession that led to pointless passing in the back line because we don't have the quality to be Barcelona.

Atletico Madrid might not play the nicest footy on the eye but when they take La Liga this year I don't think anyone of their fans will be crying about it.
 
The clamour for more offensive football needs to stop after yesterday. We played attacking full backs and didn't have a true defensive midfielder. And we got absolutely schooled.

We need to play to our strengths and stop worrying about aesthetics. We win that game yesterday with Godfrey and Holgate. Our two full backs effectively cost us the game because they were woeful at both ends of the pitch.
 
I am not arsed one bit about winning pretty, I will take winning ugly every time. As long as we win consistently enough to keep us up the table I am happy. If we do it with "not top class performances" but still win matches then great. Still winning.

That was a Martinez obsession that led to pointless passing in the back line because we don't have the quality to be Barcelona.

Atletico Madrid might not play the nicest footy on the eye but when they take La Liga this year I don't think anyone of their fans will be crying about it.
Spot on. I don’t get this pretty football mind set. I rather take 1-0 win weeek in week out. As long as we win am not arsed with tikki tikka.
 

Spot on. I don’t get this pretty football mind set. I rather take 1-0 win weeek in week out. As long as we win am not arsed with tikki tikka.
It's not about tiki taka, but having a purpose. Our attacking play is slow, and it usually goes horizontally. Football teams that defend themselves far back in the field, usually play vertical fast counter-attacking football. Something that can be effective and entertaining. But we are nowhere near that.
 
It's not about tiki taka, but having a purpose. Our attacking play is slow, and it usually goes horizontally. Football teams that defend themselves far back in the field, usually play vertical fast counter-attacking football. Something that can be effective and entertaining. But we are nowhere near that.
Getting 3 points and finish as high as possible in the table is the purpose. I just hate these “attacking” nonsense under MartInez and Silva when we had no clue in defending.
 
The clamour for more offensive football needs to stop after yesterday. We played attacking full backs and didn't have a true defensive midfielder. And we got absolutely schooled.

We need to play to our strengths and stop worrying about aesthetics. We win that game yesterday with Godfrey and Holgate. Our two full backs effectively cost us the game because they were woeful at both ends of the pitch.
Yeah on paper our line up yesterday was very attacking. But not in reality as Gylfi and Coleman offer nothing going forward and our attackers are out of form.

It wasn’t attacking, it was just weak defensively.
 
It's not about tiki taka, but having a purpose. Our attacking play is slow, and it usually goes horizontally. Football teams that defend themselves far back in the field, usually play vertical fast counter-attacking football. Something that can be effective and entertaining. But we are nowhere near that.
Carlo is winning us more points on average this season than we have since the Martinez 72 point season. It might not be the prettiest footy but we don't have the best footballers in the squad.

We play slow footy because we have slow players bar Richarlison, DCL, and Iwobi. They will sometimes break on the counter but there are very little options keeping up with them so they inevitably move the ball up the pitch and turn backwards.

Carlo also isn't a huge fan of just committing everything forward on counter-attacks because if we turn over the ball then suddenly we are at risk ourselves. Especially if we are playing with Mina and Keane at the back who both turn like cruise ships. He prefers the team to be patient and craft openings.
 
The clamour for more offensive football needs to stop after yesterday. We played attacking full backs and didn't have a true defensive midfielder. And we got absolutely schooled.

We need to play to our strengths and stop worrying about aesthetics. We win that game yesterday with Godfrey and Holgate. Our two full backs effectively cost us the game because they were woeful at both ends of the pitch.

I think the problem is that if we play a more defensive line - up like we did in games against Chelsea, Leicester etc against Newcastle and they had come and parked the bus like we thought they would do then the onus would have been on us to break them down, it then becomes difficult when our tactics are to be defensive and hope to nick one.
 

I wonder if Leicester fans are having a meltdown right now and calling the competency and ability of Rodgers into question. Or demanding that half their team to be fired into the sun. My guess is probably not and yet despite the fact that I've been avoiding social media since the game and can't say for certain, I'm still fairly confident that all of those things will of happened with our fans.........
 
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Yeah on paper our line up yesterday was very attacking. But not in reality as Gylfi and Coleman offer nothing going forward and our attackers are out of form.

It wasn’t attacking, it was just weak defensively.

It was just the wrong line up. Coleman should not start anymore full stop and Digne has to defend properly if he wants to play at full back.

Davies should also always start when Allan is out. The decision to play Sigurdsson deeper over Davies was baffling.
 
I am not arsed one bit about winning pretty, I will take winning ugly every time. As long as we win consistently enough to keep us up the table I am happy. If we do it with "not top class performances" but still win matches then great. Still winning.

That was a Martinez obsession that led to pointless passing in the back line because we don't have the quality to be Barcelona.

Atletico Madrid might not play the nicest footy on the eye but when they take La Liga this year I don't think anyone of their fans will be crying about it.
This is still not what I'm talking about. Atletico still perform at a very high level even though they take a more defensive stance. I would be fine with that style but it really isn't what we're producing right now or to be honest something our players are capable of doing.
 
I think the problem is that if we play a more defensive line - up like we did in games against Chelsea, Leicester etc against Newcastle and they had come and parked the bus like we thought they would do then the onus would have been on us to break them down, it then becomes difficult when our tactics are to be defensive and hope to nick one.
We might be ”weakened” going forward (which was not the case see West Ham and Newcastle home games) but the results had proved that we were solid and still win games with the defensive lineup. We won 5 and draw 1.
 

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