20 Jul 2020 09:05:29
Last night was an absolute horror show, just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Firstly, I believe Ole got the tactics wrong, in theory repeating the tactics that had got us 3 wins out of 3 against Chelsea didn't seem like such a bad idea. However, I think Frank had worked us out and knew how to beat us if went to three at the back.

I also think you can now see that we have had three teams press us aggressively in Southampton, Palace and Chelsea and we have struggled, certainly by the 60th minute mark half our team were running out of stream. Personally, to me this highlights the importance of rotating the squad around and we should have been doing this from the Southampton game.

I feel the fact that we hadn't rotated little and often from the Southampton game meant we had to make several changes not just to personnel but to tactics as well for this game and that contributed to the loss.

We have to address the elephant in the room next which is David De Gea. It seems we are almost at a weekly discussion about mistakes he has made which is a massive fall from grace, considering that only a couple of years ago we could showcase 3 or 4 world class saves he's made in any given match. Personally, I think he is culpable to an extent for all three goals.

The first one Lindelof was too easily brushed off the ball by Giroud, while DDG got a weak hand to it but couldn't keep it out. Two years ago he would have saved that.

If the first one the blame is shared between the defender and the keeper, the second one is entirely the fault of the keeper. Just weak hands and too easily beaten from range, which oddly is the same issue he had during his 18 months at the club.

The third Maguire got a weak foot and defected the ball in his own net. Yet DDG was beaten at the near post, even had Maguire not got a touch ahead of Rudiger DDG should have still had the near post guarded. That's pretty much goalkeeping 101.

Two limp wrist saves and beaten at the near post does not make good reading for DDG, the pressure from Henderson will start to feel very real for De Gea.

Maguire had an absolute mare which will do nothing to quell his detractors. Bad defending and injuring a teammate is a bad day at the office. While getting onto two really good crosses is a good, his finishes were poor and on another night he could have had a brace.

So, the tactics were wrong, we were forced into making big changes because of a lack of rotation prior while several key players had an absolute nightmare. All in all, a real bad day at the office.

However, of the three games in 7 days we have starting yesterday with Chelsea, if you had to pick one to lose, I feel most would have picked the FA cup semi-final as the one to lose. Ultimately, while chances of silverware should never be sniffed at, qualification for next seasons UCL will be more impactful to our immediate future. We are already looking at an estimated loss of between 40-50m due to the current disruptions in football. Failure to qualify for the UCL would add at least another 20-30m in lost match day and prize money revenue, while we could be looking at 30-40m lost though clauses in sponsorship deals. A further 70m drop in revenue on top of the 50m from C.V. would severely damage our ability to compete in the transfer market for the next season or two. While a lack of UCL football would further make it hard to attract top level players. No top four definitely rules out Jadon Sancho or anyone who would cost north of 50m in all likelihood.

We need to draw a line under yesterdays result and hopefully the loss of our 19 match unbeaten run might take a little pressure off of some players, while hopefully the pain of the loss will give the lads a kick up the arse to give their absolute all in the final two games of the season. There is no need to flip flop, panic or forget the huge progress we have made since January. When building something it is often the setbacks that define the quality in the end.

All focus now needs to be on beating West Ham, if we can beat West Ham by a big score such as 5-0 then Leicester would need to beat us by 3 clear goals on the final day to finish above us. Which would put us in a commanding position. I can't remember who said it on here, but goal difference may very well be vital in deciding who finishes 4th and who finishes 5th . We need to remember how it feels to lose out on goal difference, and we need to use that going into the West Ham game to make sure we give ourselves the best chance possible to make sure that we don't miss out again. Beating West Ham is vital, beating them by 3, 4 or 5 needs to be the aim.

1.) 20 Jul 2020
20 Jul 2020 09:36:49
Thats a funny funny post Shappy. Beating West Ham by 5? We should now be worrying about losing by the same margin.

2.) 20 Jul 2020
20 Jul 2020 09:55:53
Shan that's the kind of ridiculous overreaction that creates so much joy in the fans of our rivals.

I said the aim should be to beat West Ham by 4 or 5, not that we will. A win isn't a guarantee, but if we are winning then we need to have the mentality to keep going for another goal and another and another. There is every chance Leicester could beat us on the final day of the season. We need to make sure that we have enough goals in the bank so that in the worst case scenario we could lose and still finish above them on goal difference.

Since the restart we have hit 5 past Bournemouth, 3 past Sheffield United, Brighton and Villa. While two past both Southampton and Palace. While in truth we have created many more good chances against those sides and could easily have scored more.

The only game West Ham haven't conceded in since the restart is the 4-0 thrashing of Norwich. They have conceded 2 or more against Wolves, Chelsea, Spurs and Newcastle. And 1 against each of Watford and Burnley.

While unless they lose their last two games by 6-0 then they are safe. So there might be a letting off of the gas from them. I say might as I'm sure Moyes would want nothing more than to beat us.

3.) 20 Jul 2020
20 Jul 2020 10:00:06
Shappy

Interesting you mention money, no doubt the owners would be happier with top four than a cup. We should have been in for both.

Yesterday was not caused by a lack of rotation previously, Ole could have rotated several players and kept a winning shape. I couldn’t believe he thought James playing up front through the middle was an answer. The question you should be asking is Why did Ole change tactics so dramatically? Why did he rest 5 players in a game which could have put us in a winnable final, for silverware he has never shown he can win?

Our actual problem came directly from the tactics as well. The first goal came from when we had to change from the ridiculous tactics, we didn’t have an organised back line due to the mess and the Chelsea right side player was played onside giving him time behind our defence to put the cross in.

Huge progress? There has been some good performances against the lower teams but do you think the manager has progressed given that tactical shocker yesterday?

West Ham, I think we will do well to win by one goal. The problem is the result against West Ham will define how we play at Leicester. A narrow win against WH means we can’t afford to lose at Leicester, a draw the same, so will our manager go to Leicester and try not to lose? after all he is fairly obviously negative afraid to lose type.

Lastly, what has yesterday done for the team confidence, morale and belief? What has it done for confidence in the manager, whose tactics were awful for all to see? The next two games are squeaky bum time.

4.) 20 Jul 2020
20 Jul 2020 10:02:49
Apart from ddg nobody left at the club remembers what it feels like to lose out on goal difference, this bunch never got close enough to worry about goal difference. Only supporters remember.

5.) 20 Jul 2020
20 Jul 2020 10:42:35
The long unbeaten run merely papered over some of the cracks whilst yesterday brought us reality- we still as a club have a fair few problems with both the playing staff and coaching staff; (dont know enough about the behind the scenes stuff but will take the word of eds that it is amateurish at best)
DDG has been guilty of schoolboy error mistakes at various periods for 3-3 seasons but its masked by some wondrous saves: maybe time to give henderson or romero a shot? awb cannot cross a ball and refuses to try and go past a man (he started as a winger ) maguire needs a satnav, and pogba tries to beat a man thrice instead of doing the simple thing. Our frontline and fernandes have gotten us to joint4th at the moment and still in the europa but when they have an average performance we look really vulnerable. Ole got it wrong yesterday but let's hope he and the team don't this week and then we can hopefully bring in the quality we need but we got to ship out the driftwood.