04 Jan 2026 18:41:53
While l completely understand RAs point of view on his system, he doesn't have the midfield required to make it work and in that system everyone has a job to do, you cannot carry luxury players. The club are slowly rebuilding the squad and it will take time What we as fans and maybe the board are frustrated with, the current team can play much better in a different system.
RA as manager should be able to adapt until he has the squad needed to fully implement his system, he is being stubborn. No matter what the system if the team wins games no one will care because wining bring champions League and trophies which brings the money and on you go. RA just needs to adapt slightly until he has the players he needs, otherwise he won't be around to implement it.
04 Jan 2026 19:23:41
Redcon, he should've been able to get the best out of what he had when he came in. He has been unable to do so.
04 Jan 2026 19:35:49
You say that so definitively. How do you know we'd be better in a different formation? You don't. Before Amorim we constantly turned in performances where we were beaten by several goals.
We aren't doing that now. Instead we are drawing too often. By changing in the way so many are calling for, it seems so many are convinced we'd be winning those games. It could be we lose instead.
04 Jan 2026 20:32:07
We are joint 5th at Christmas guys, Amorim is doing a good enough job, with the tools at his disposal.
Take the most recent game against Leeds. He had Ugarte and Casemiro available to stop Leeds playing the way they played all season, and it worked for large parts of the game. Even Ugarte stepped up and played well enough for that game.
There was a piece on here about metrics on his success, and it is clear, since RA has come in, we and on and upwards trajectory, there can be no debate about that.
There are of course, and always will be, areas that need addressing.
I still suspect this is a tussle about where any assigned funds are placed in the January window. RA wants them in a specific area, the club perhaps see other targets or longer term targets potentially available, that will solve a future problem.
I sit in the middle, as the centre mids, whilst not the greatest, have performed enough to get us to joint 5th, and perhaps that is the point of the board. But make no mistake, we are in dire need of some reinforcement in that department as a priority, that's why the potential signings of a Gallagher, Neves, Sangare make a lot of sense as it gives us options and cattle for next year, when we will hopefully be in UCL and competitive in all 4 comps, we would need 6 heads of cattle in there.
Who are the 6 centre mids for next year? One of (Anderson, Wharton, Baleba), Bruno, Mainoo, Kone? Not convinced yet by the Fletcher's.
Signing a relatively low cost player like Sangare fixes a now problem and a next season problem for little cost.
As I said in another post, if you wanted to be brutal, you could sell Ugarte for the suggested 30m euro and replace him with both Sangare and Gallagher.
Maybe the club are planning on drop 200m on 2 of Anderson Wharton Baleba in the summer, like they did with the front line this summer?
The point is there is a middle ground to be achieved without the turmoil of switching management again, afterall, he is getting us playing better football than the last 15yrs, metrics aside, just watching with my own eyes, I am enjoying watching them more now under Amorim than anyone else since Fergie.
04 Jan 2026 21:29:48
Jimbo and Don Red how dare you talk sense.
04 Jan 2026 23:24:38
They knew they were getting a manager who plays a 3-4-3
What’s laughable is if he’s being told to change how he’s setting up. you don’t signed a manager known for playing one way and expect any different
And if they are telling him to change it then it’s pointless him being here
Either get the players to play it or sack him and move on
But let’s be honest for the last 5 games we’ve had kids on the bench
Our squad is rubbish and if anything we are overachieving
But as always the noise outside will determain the noise inside that club bec non of them have a backbone to ride something out.
04 Jan 2026 23:38:09
I want to add. it is clear to me having watched the presser a few times now.
The message from RA is that he is not influenced by the external noise from the likes of Neville, and he is advising the board to also not be so reactionary to external noise and to stick to what was agreed when they moved heaven and earth to sign him mid season from Sporting.
They need to back him now, not in the summer. If that means churning the squad again mid season, so be it, get it done. Support the manager, be ruthless with the squad.
05 Jan 2026 00:49:03
We are also closer to 16th than 3rd despite sitting 6th, so I think the league table position is an irrelevant argument at this stage. RA should be judged on his performances and results. Neither has been good enough.
Some will say we've improved, but if they're measuring against last season, it's hardly a benchmark.
05 Jan 2026 02:27:28
The target is 4th though, not 3rd, 2nd or 1st, so deliberately pulling that from nowhere is irrelevant Kurtis.
Use the same approach but with 4th and not 3rd.
05 Jan 2026 08:21:02
Jimbo and Don, as alluded to above, talking sense here simply gets you shot at.
05 Jan 2026 09:31:16
Apart from the commercial benefit of CL football. The prospect terrifies me based on our current performances. RA cannot get any consistency out of the team with only one game a week. Would playing two games a week with - let's be realistic - probably two new midfielders change anything?
I would have a different view if we were sat in 6th, competing in games and only dropping points in games we deserved to win. But that hasn't been the case this year.
I'm not calling for RA to be sacked, but he's not getting a free pass either. Players are not that one dimensional they cannot adapt to change or a formation, and we have hardly got a team of Championship players. There are international players in the squad.
The Karate Kid springs to mind - There are no such things as bad students, only bad teachers.