Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 339

The Irn Bru cup exists between the Scottish Leagues and the League of Ireland. Giant waste of time as nobody gives a shit about it. Would probably need to include a lot of prize money to get non English teams to give a shit.

 

lol

 

Wow

 

Sir James Milner is the greatest №7 in the world.

 

People mad at Jose for the line up today. Not sure what they want him to do lol

 

I mean you are playing five centre backs...

 

We’ve had guys playing every minute of every game because of injuries. Players needed a break and the only options are more defensive players. And Tanganga has played FB more than CB this year. Dier slid up to DM as the game went on. Jan has played LB plenty of times. But people like to run with their narrative so it is what it is.

 

Sure, but you can see why people might find it odd. Going into a big game against Burnley with Verthongen and Tanganga as wing backs doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Or begs the question about which games should have been prioritised so you don't end up playing such a starting team against a close rival in the table.

 

Prioritizing is another conversation. But let’s say he put out a weaker team in the cup match earlier in the week. People would’ve been equally as mad.

He has very few options up top. We have attacking mids playing in forward positions which then makes the midfield thin. Then all those players are tired from playing so many minutes (or from coming back from injuries themselves) and it makes the defenders jobs harder.

I get it. Looking at JUST the lineup, it looks bad. But when you consider context it’s reasonable and shouldn’t be too hard to understand why he went that direction.

 

Then you don't do things like play a back five with Verthongen and Tanganga as wing backs. If it's somehow not feasible to play Sessegnon and Aurier in those positions, play a back four. Against a direct 4-4-2 like Burnley play, that sort of setup is inviting pressure without the ideal wing backs to push out, and use pace and mobility to control a flank. That's when a supporter watches a game and thinks the manager maybe isn't optimising his squad, regardless of injury crisis.

 

No disrespect to Burnley, but calling this game a big game is a joke, right? I mean, by these standards 3/4 of all Spurs games are "big games"...

 

It was a big game but not because it was Burnley. 4th place was in our grasps and now we’re fading away. And we’d had lost 4 matches in a row coming into it. But I think Jose was prioritizing the CL match coming up.

 

What @Swoos said. Burnley are two points behind Spurs.

 

Ok, but still, by these standards pretty much every other coming game is a big game for Spurs.

And I like that Jose prioritises the CL game. I hope you beat fucking RaBa and advance to the next round. I am always rooting for German teams but in the case of Leipzig I'll gladly change my priorities.

 

Jose clearly brings all the hyper-analytic criticism upon himself. I get it. And I know I’m coming off as super defensive of him. But I really just don’t understand the expectations people have right now. The team is in shambles and there isn’t much he can do about it.

I’m just looking for individual performances that look promising for next year. And there are several of those. So I’m still optimistic for next season. But the only thing to look forward to for this season is the documentary.

 

We have so many injuries. Who do people expect him to field at this point lol come on

 

why was Aguero defending that? great goal btw.

 

Mike Dean is a joke

 

Should Martial be the one to come off and leave Daniel James up front? Surely should be the other way around?

 

Every single Ole substitution makes me so angry.

 

I love McTominay. I love him so much.

 

Ole is the greatest manager in the history of Man United.

 

Great win. Fully deserved and would have been a lot handier if it wasn't Mike Dean in the middle. City were shite going forward for the most part.

 

Never doubted him