Ronald Koeman discussion

[Eggsyblueskin]

3 pointless games left. We are finishing 7th.

Should bin most of them and play the kids the rest of the way.

Sounds a good idea,but when you're sat there watching a bunch of kids being overrun by fully fledged professional footballers , it can be far less appealing. It doesn't do much for the incoming youngsters confidence either.

 

[Jags..class]

I'm not all in on Ron, I must admit. We have the Leagues top scorer, outside the top 2, we have a very average 4 teams below them, and yet, we're finishing 7th. We have a good team, some top class players. I would have expected a little more this season, especially the way the season has panned out, with Utd and Arsenal, and to a lesser degree, City being so poor. Have the RS really got a better team than us? I don't think so, what they have is a Manager getting the most from them players. Reckon a better manager would/should be getting more out of our players. We should be closer to the top4. A Manager of Rons standing/reputation of sorting a defence, add to that a top goal scorer and a very good midfield, I reckon he should be doing better.

Klopp had one more season then Koeman who took over a team who couldn't defend for toffee and players who are not fit enough.its not fair to compare klopp and Koeman right now

 

[Eggsyblueskin]

You have got it spot on. At this moment in time we are going backwards!

Backwards from which point? Please expand your observation I'm genuinely intrigued.

 

[Chimpy Glassman]

You have got it spot on. At this moment in time we are going backwards!

We're in Europe pal.

 

[hktoffee]

I'm not all in on Ron, I must admit. We have the Leagues top scorer, outside the top 2, we have a very average 4 teams below them, and yet, we're finishing 7th. We have a good team, some top class players. I would have expected a little more this season, especially the way the season has panned out, with Utd and Arsenal, and to a lesser degree, City being so poor. Have the RS really got a better team than us? I don't think so, what they have is a Manager getting the most from them players. Reckon a better manager would/should be getting more out of our players. We should be closer to the top4. A Manager of Rons standing/reputation of sorting a defence, add to that a top goal scorer and a very good midfield, I reckon he should be doing better.

This is Martinez level of delusion.

How can another better manager can get the best out of this group? 11th and 12th in the past 2 years. It is black and white.

 

[Tree13]

He brought Koné on as a message to the board. Our squad is terrible.

I did wonder why Kone got the nod ahead of Lookman.

Good Lord.... Kone. Another of those players destined to be nothing more than an obscure answer to pub-quiz questions in years to come.

 

[hktoffee]

I did wonder why Kone got the nod ahead of Lookman.

Good Lord.... Kone. Another of those players destined to be nothing more than an obscure answer to pub-quiz questions in years to come.

Maybe showing the Mosh how desperate he needs to buy a new squad.

 

[Saint Domingo]

He was seconds away from masterminding an away win against a United side no one apart from Chelsea have beaten for ages and yet he's being derided as tactically inadequate?

Let's have it right, what he's working with is horrific (kids excluded):

2 clueless calamity keepers
3 CBs, 2 of which belong in the old people's home, the other one (now injured) erratic at best
He's got 2 full backs (one of which now crocked) who are up to standard with zero cover.
He's then got one striker and probably 3 midfielders who are at prem standard (one went to AFCON, one has missed every important game)
Every other player in the squad is largely atrociously inconsistent.

He's leant heavily on two star youngsters in Holgate and Davies and two not so star in DCL and Pennington. Lookman hasn't featured much.

He's had long term injuries to Bolasie, McCarthy, Besic, Coleman and Funes Mori.

When you consider that Southampton are below us with Forster, Van Dijk, Bertrand, Romeu Tadic Redmond (all of which would walk into our squad probably our team) then you can see what a decent job Koeman has done.

You look at what he culled out in the last window and you still look at the squad and think it may take him 2 windows to sort it out.

Frankly the squad Martinez left him was an absolute abomination which would have been in relegation battles had it not been for Lukaku's goals.

He has Lukaku Schneiderlin Gueye Coleman Davies Barkley who could legitimately feature in a top 6 squad.

Bolasie Lookman Baines Besic Holgate deserve another look or more chances due to injury/age.

Most of the players above Koeman has brought in or promoted from the youth team.

The majority of the rest of the squad is terrible.

I'd give him two more windows before judging Koeman he has a huge rebuilding job to do.

 

[Ernie]

An utter bang average season with two disasters in the cups

Let's see if he up's his game next season or big questions need to be asked

 

[Eggs]

Koeman had no one left unless you want to play Barry against Chelsea.

...it's not hindsight because I said before the game that Barry had to play. RK tried to be clever in the Derby but the lack of a defensive foil in front of the back four played into the Reds hands. Mane and Coutinho play 'between the lines' meaning our back four was exposed and Gueye/Davies were the wrong side of the threat. As was said on commentary, "Everton are playing Coutinho back to form".

Koeman alarmingly didn't change the tactics during the game but he introduced Barry at United. He was outstanding and we looked solid again.

Like Mane and Coutinho, Hazard and Pedro play 'between the lines'. Without Schneiderlin we had to play somebody in his position - Barry. To counter the threat, RK asked Gueye to man mark Hazard but it disrupts the whole balance of the team and still leaves us exposed. When we desert the system that works so well for us we have come unstuck.

I like the manager, we have definitely made progress this season but he has got things wrong on occasion.

 

[Kinghowie]

Klopp had one more season then Koeman who took over a team who couldn't defend for toffee and players who are not fit enough.its not fair to compare klopp and Koeman right now

I didn't compare, I just said they have a Manager getting the most from a group of players, I believe, are inferior to ours. thats what good managers do, get the most from the players they have. Something Ron has failed to do IMO.

 

[dublinbluenose]

Koeman had no one left unless you want to play Barry against Chelsea.

Like I said without the proper cover it was a tactical error. With the right cover it may have worked.

 

[KUEFC09U2]

An utter bang average season with two disasters in the cups

Let's see if he up's his game next season or big questions need to be asked

No mate, bang average was the two seasons previous

 

[Tree13]

Seems to be getting his tactics wrong consistently against the better quality opposition.

Without proper cover in schniderlin or McCarthy the decision to try and emulate Utd's man marking of Hazard with Gana was a disaster.

Koeman's tactical capabilities appear more limited than I first thought.

Apart from City and maybe Arsenal at home we've been tactically deficient against better opposition.

Maybe he will get it right with an improvement in the squad, hopefully anyway.

Manifestly untrue.

Had Koeman NOT deployed Gana to man mark Hazard, what do you think the end result would have been? Sure, we missed Schneiderlin in midfield, but allowing Hazard to roam the park would not have improved the situation. As it stood, Hazard was largely stifled and for a while it looked like Barkley and Davies might just manage against Chelsea's midfield. The absence of Schneiderlin, Besic and McCarthy did mean that we had to go with a less than perfect choice in midfield in order to allow Gana to shadow Hazard, but not shadowing him would have seen us concede goals in the first half, leading to a bigger loss IMHO. This way we had a shout of scraping a draw.

 

[Gwladysstreetlad]

A few weeks ago there was clamours to challenge for CL place. Eight wins on the bounce and we're formidable at home and can beat anyone.

Now we've lost to the potential champions in a close encounter and the world is falling apart again with Koeman getting a fair lashing of the stick.

Jeez... we all know that the project has a long way to go and there's issues to be resolved, especially away from home, but the future is still bright.

A lot of our fans are just idiots and have zero self restraint. Lots of them have hated Koeman right from the start and are looking for any excuse to give hin a verbal kicking. I'm not going to pretend he hasn't made decisions at points this season that I've found odd and he's made mistakes but in context this season has gone far better then anyone could of hoped. I just wish some of the fools following our club would clalm down a bit and not talk about the title or champions league after a 3-1 home win against Burnley or cry about being better off with the guy who only won 12 home league matches in two years after we end a run of eight successive home wins against the best team in the country.

I think Koeman has us in the right direction and with proper investment this summer I see no reason we can't seriously compete for the top four and/or a trophy next season. It would however be helpful if our fans could try and be less bipolar every week and understand that a single game isn't the be all and end all.