Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 308

I doubt Poch takes it

 

Son to Barca would probably happen

 

link?

 

I'm sad about this but I think you're right. It will be a shame to lose them from the PL but I can't see any way out currently. Do you think they'll stick with Howe until the end or will they try and save their status in the top flight by sacking him?

 

Moonhead Koeman turned down Barca, too. He said he wants to focus on the Euros...more like he's a dodgy club level manager #biased

 

Be interesting to see. Clubs get so frightened about getting relegated, quite reasonably. For all the great work he's done you'd like to see him given the chance to save them but they might not have much of an option if they continue being this bad.

 

The English press are absolutely burying Jose this morning. It’s quite baffling. I still can’t say I’m a fan of him but criticizing him now is pretty unfair. Especially two days after we played the best team in the world (and deserved a point against).

I’ve read two different media outlets slamming him for his tactics against Liverpool. I loved what he did. It gave us a chance to win. People want all attacking all the time. We don’t have a proper striker. Our midfield is a mess. If he would’ve played a more attack-minded squad and tactics we would’ve been buried.

Meanwhile, these same reporters are completely ignoring the fact that he unexpectedly started a 20 year old academy player. Isn’t Jose anti-young players? That’s all I heard when we hired him. Why don’t any of the articles talk about that?

It’s always negativity in the English soccer media.

 

That’s how it starts. The defence, the “he’s a winner and I don’t care about defending to try win”. Then you go out to Sevilla in the CL round of 16 by defending to win. Then it all goes downhill.

 

I get it lol his track record brings this narrative. But what was he honestly supposed to do different Saturday? Would people be happier if we played aggressive and lost 4-1?

 

I really don’t care about wins and losses at this point. I just want to see the team look competent. I want to see individual improvement. I think there were plenty examples of that against Liverpool.

 

We had no other choice but to play a more defensive game. We literally have 0 strikers, we had to change our tactics, and honestly that game should've been 2-1 with how many missed chances there were at the end. I don't think Jose did anything wrong, and yeah, the media is going to slam Jose because it's what they always do. Still not sold on him but he didn't do anything wrong in this last game. If anything, that last game gave me some home his ideas can work here.

 

The media hates being made to look stupid like they did when Mou first came over and was winning everything in sight. They've been waiting years for this and just can't resist pilling in on him now.

You can say a lot about him, but I agree, doing it over this weekends result is hard to justify.

 

It's not a binary 'play defensive or play gung-ho' though. I think the first half was very poor from Spurs. Mourinho played his formulaic system in these games - the narrow deep backline, two players to track the runs on the flank, one more defensive (Aurier) and one with more freedom (Son). It was more or less exactly what he did last time he faced Liverpool with Man United. Too deep, outnumbered in midfield and too reliant on the forwards to create against strong, quick defenders on the counter. The second half was considerably better but it could have been 2 or 3-0 by that stage.

I agree that the criticism is a bit much but that's broadly because Mourinho's set high expectations for himself. I think he's done about as much as could be expected since he's come in; it's obvious the squad needs some major changes. But when you have a manager like Mourinho you probably just have to put up with the fact that it's going to be treated as an 'all or nothing' situation.

 

King Kun went off yesterday. Went to the bar where the local City supporters go to which also happens to be where the local Aston Villa supporters go. They were actually pretty good considering the results and past behavior towards us.

 

Looks like Setien is lined up to be the new Barca coach.

 

Have they fecking fired Valverde yet? I’m sick of reading that he’s on the verge of getting sacked.

 

literally just did lol

 

Good.

 

Thanks for the titles, we're just going to treat you like shit. Sorry about that.

 

Setien is official. God I really hope this means Poch is available in the summer.

 

Eriksen to Inter Milan is almost official. Eriksen leaving means more Lo Celso which I'm excited for.

 

If he’s anything like Lo Celso in FM he’ll be fucking shit. God he pissed me off a lot. Ndombele though was a hero. Ended up winning the league and league cup double 3 points ahead of Liverpool who have finished 2nd three years running. Kane managed to win the top scorer in the league getting 25 goals. 15 of those came in 3 matches. I’ve never had such a successful but utterly fucking maddening season in that game.

 

lol at least Spurs won something

But so far Lo Celso has looked very promising. It's a shame we haven't been able to have him and Ndombele healthy at the same time. They are definite upgrades to what we've been trying recently.

 

Valverde deserved so much better. Setien teams play some wild ass footy though so it could be really fun.

 

I figured out gengenpress is wildly overpowered in the game so I just think he didn’t suit that style. I had a midfield of Ndombele, Weston McKennie, and Tonali (who I had to sell half the squad to afford) they suited the style much better