Biggest compliment I can give him is that when we go in at half time I have no doubt we'll be better in the second.
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Yeah, he’s pretty much carried us for 2 seasons, now it’s not all about him.
He must get that in the National side though so hopefully he can learn to adapt.
Gilbert..
Player Valuation: £50m
All well and good if those he signed as "short term?" Had been playing all season.
Wether the squad is as good as some others is irrelevant? Thats quite a bizare comment. As the quality and depth of a squad is very relevant.
Whether it was the game plan or not, if one of your players gets a run on slabhead you deliver him the ball. We didn't do that in the first half for whatever reason, perhaps naivety.
I prefer to give James a free role though to wander wherever he wants to get the ball, it's a lot tougher to do vs the better teams but we need to find a balance there as it's like defending with 10 men when he's on sometimes.
The club's aim is to finish 'in the champions league or european places', Ancelotti has said this numerous times. The only bizarre comment is suggesting that you have a better idea of the truth of that than him I would have thought.
There is no question mate that Ancelotti will take us places.
brieverton
Player Valuation: £40m
Europe via the league or cup, any form of it will do for next season. I'd love us to win the F.A. Cup, I don't see that but our league position has to secure Europe.
There has to be some tangible achievement by seasons end that the whole club can take encouragement from and build on that momentum.
If we don't have that, then the world won't fall in and we'll get on with things, but it would be a big blow.
It isn't a particularly huge ask for a club of our size and ambition to get into the Europa League, much less manage the early stages of that with relative comfort the next season. I think Ancelotti expects that and needs that to further the experience of the squad collectively and make his case to the board to give him what the squad needs for next season.
It isn't media bluff or false modesty when he says we are not ready for the Champions League. Everybody can see that. He has set us the goal of Europe by other means. Hopefully we can achieve it and use that momentum to continue to build the squad.
There has to be some tangible achievement by seasons end that the whole club can take encouragement from and build on that momentum.
If we don't have that, then the world won't fall in and we'll get on with things, but it would be a big blow.
It isn't a particularly huge ask for a club of our size and ambition to get into the Europa League, much less manage the early stages of that with relative comfort the next season. I think Ancelotti expects that and needs that to further the experience of the squad collectively and make his case to the board to give him what the squad needs for next season.
It isn't media bluff or false modesty when he says we are not ready for the Champions League. Everybody can see that. He has set us the goal of Europe by other means. Hopefully we can achieve it and use that momentum to continue to build the squad.
Gilbert..
Player Valuation: £50m
Its an aim. Every manager quotes aims.
The irrelevant squad comment came from you. Not ancelloti. dont try and be a smart arse and claim that was his.
How did you come to the conclusion squad quality is irrelevant?
I think playing James at the top of the diamond would only work if we were pushed further up the pitch and had more of the ball. Yesterday he was in the area where he just wouldn’t see the ball.
Ideally, in that kind of game you’d want Gomes deeper to re receive the ball deep and move it forward quickly. Have Davies and Allan either side of him and doucoure in the James position to support quickly once the ball is played into the channel.
the problem is it means gomes is in the area where Fernandes occupies which is a risk in itself and means you are relying on Allan and Davies (and the CBs offering protection). But that will leave the full backs exposed.
It’s a hard problem to solve really (not least because how do you leave James out?).
We did well. Just needed to be a little more aggressive on the ball and move it up the pitch quicker.
My biggest issue with the side across the board at the moment is that we always seem to take an extra touch before releasing the ball. We could move it a lot quicker if we didn’t.
When did i suggest Ancelotti had said it?! How is an aim different to a target?! All that was being said is that our target (or aim if you prefer) for the year should be top 6, and according to the noises coming out of the club, it is. For some reason you're taking issue with that. I genuinely have no idea why.
Gilbert..
Player Valuation: £50m
Im genuinely interested why you claimed the quality of the squad is irrelevant? Its not. As a rule clubs with better quality depth do better than those who havent. Clubs in and around us right now have better depth than us. It undermines what he's actualy done with his squad depth in comparison.
Easier to just reply how you came to that rather than with your nose up in the air like the duke of all knowledge.
I'm saying that our aim is to finish in the top 6. Whether we have a squad that is in the top 6 in terms of talent is irrelevant TO THE AIM. As has been said, nobody is suggesting it would be an absolute disaster to finish 8th and we'd need to sack Ancelotti etc, just that 6th is a perfectly reasonable target to set for the season. You're going on as if it's a criticism of Ancelotti when it's nothing of the sort, it's bizarre. I'm not pretending to be the 'duke of all knowledge' (well i don't think I am, but I have no idea what that actually is so i can't swear to it) i'm literally just giving my opinion on why it was understandable for another poster to say that we were aiming for 6th, I wasn't expecting the spanish inquisition.
Gilbert..
Player Valuation: £50m
Fair enough. But it certainly isn't irrelevant as to the actual stuff that goes on on the pitch. May aswell say sam allardyce's aim was to pull west brom out of the relegation zone. But the quality of what he has is very different to his "aim"
But seeing as I never said it was, that really doesn't matter.
As an extension of the point though, I believe the moves we have made have been with a view to accelerating our improvement. If we were aiming to get into Europe in 3 years then the signings of Doucoure, Allan, James and Olsen (and possibly King) weren't particularly clever moves. Arguably neither was the appointment of Ancelotti. I believe we made these moves specifically because we wanted to push ourselves into those positions in the short term, and then start to build from there. Unless we're able to throw an absolutely huge amount of money at the squad this summer, there's a pretty good chance that we won't have one of the best 6 squads in the league next season either. At some point you have to back yourselves to overcome that, otherwise what's the point. It's why you pay a manager £10m a year, why you forget about sell on value for players etc. I've said before, you can finish 8th-10th in this league with a bang average squad full of plodders. We have been proof of that ourselves over recent years. There's absolutely no point in stretching the wage bill and pushing the ffp limits to settle for the same places you can achieve with a team full of Robbie Bradys and Ben Mees. Thankfully, I don't believe the club are doing, but if i did, i certainly wouldn't be as happy about it as some people seem to be.
Gilbert..
Player Valuation: £50m
You've skipped some of the younger players signed for the future like godfrey and branthwaite.
Lets be real we're not going to get(and certainly wasnt before ancelotti) players in their prime and at the top of their game. We havent won a bleeding trophy for 26 years.
If two to three years of ancelotti can give an injection of better quality mixed with younger players im going for it.
The clubs image was on its knees fella after marco silva. On its knees
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