cityfanlee23

I'm really not sure what to make of Winks at the moment, I started off thinking he was wasted at this level, and I still think he could easily slot into a bottom half prem team, but I'm not sure if we have just overhyped him or if we have hampered his ability with the inverted full backs which often results in a congested midfield. I think he's been great for us overall, but I do feel like there are many other midfielders who could do similar at this level, and I think that is purely because his options are limited when we congest the midfield. He's made 3538 pass attempts this season, 2764 of them (78%) have been sideways or backwards, 17 shots (35% accuracy), 6 through balls. Are we hampering him?

True, but under Arteta we saw them making constant improvements, even at the beginning where they were struggling for points, they played okay and adapted, we have been average for months, and even in most games we have won we havent exactly been amazing. Pep took a season or so to get going, the difference is, Pep and Arteta actually changed their system and adapted it. We don't have the finances to make this work, unless of course people think Rudkin can pull out 8-10 rabbits out of hats.

The teams in the premier league won’t sit back, but they likely won’t have to, because they are vastly superior defensively, and even though we will have more space, we will also probably have less chances to score due to the overall organisation of opponents being better. This coupled with the fact that we aren’t exactly flash with the cash needed to improve, I would rather get rid of him and this turgid football before we have a chance. And the main issue for me is “as a team grows and improves” Where? Our best games were pre December, we are getting worse.

Neil Warnock would have this squad multiple points clear. Sad, but in my opinion, true.

I think a big problem we've had with this system is that although there is logic to the idea that it takes more effort for a player to run across the pitch to reposition himself than it does for us to pass the ball, and logically that would tire the opponents out, we do it so slowly that the opponents often just walk around the pitch repositioning whilst we aimlessly hold the ball waiting for space to open up. I said this from game 2 or 3, if we just passed the ball side to side and onto the wings QUICKLY, we might just be able to create space elsewhere, instead by the time we've got the ball from Mavididi to the other wing, the opponent has managed to slowly drift across and reposition, and it's back to square one.

Pep this season has played a 4231, 433, 3421 and a 4141, all of those formations are fluid and change throughout the game depending on the opponent.

Actually ESR wouldn't be a bad shout, just concerned about his injury history really but I think he's a really solid player and would do well at a smaller club, Brighton/West Ham/Wolves etc

Genuinely curious if you have anyone in mind?

Whilst this is true, It's also true for pretty much all of our opponents this season, we are VERY lucky to have such a good defensive record.

Every single time we have played poorly or lost, you've tried to convince everyone it's because we deviated away from Enzoball and you've tried to blame the fans on most of those occasions I respect you and your opinions, but this is like a cult

Can we get him gone now? Give it Cooper, give it Nige, Give it Giggsy for all I care.

Hopefully somewhere else.

Honestly I feel like some fans need a reality check at the moment, they clearly don't realise how lucky we are to have a future top 5 manager in charge. 650 passes with 3 shots on target, what a system! We really need to start doing the lottery.

But hey, lads, 650 passes though… ignore the 3 shots on target. 650 passes.

Hopefully we wake up soon, we've reverted back to passing it sideways. These are here for a 3/4-0 if we get at them. Not sure why we look so much less intense.

We need to continue to isolate Flemming. I genuinely believe he could play at lower prem level, he will punish us if we let him.

The question is how? We need 7-8 players bare minimum who are premier league quality and can play this system. So who is going to be responsible for signing players who are: A) Prem quality B) Willing to accept low wages relative to league C) Cheap fee D) Can play the system Friendly reminder we have Rudkin in charge 😂

Potter is currently linked with Dortmund so can’t see us getting a sniff even if we go up sadly

Another really strange moment alongside Mads moment of madness where both players seemed to ignore every instinct that every footballer would naturally have to just stab at it or clear it down the pitch, can’t work out what either of them were thinking 😂

Huge confidence booster that one, we made hard work of it but in the end we came good, Yunus went from zero to hero there. We desperately needed that, Happy Birthday Vichai!

Yunus has retrieved himself there, what a cross, what a header, what a move from Vesty.

I cant quite believe what I saw a few minutes ago.

It doesn't really make sense anyway, Vesty has the best long range passing accuracy of any of the defenders/mads, if you're going to play it long, just put vesty on it and play it long, why does Faes need to pass back to Mads? I can't imagine that's an instruction, just 2 footballers make really complacent mistakes?

If anyone disagrees with you it's a bad one

I do agree, I will say there is part of me that does understand the idea of composing yourself after a goal, you are generally at your most vulnerable after just scoring, but we take it to the next level, there is a difference between composing yourself and organising for the inevitable opponent going for it for a few minutes, and what we do, which is completely let off all pressure and encourage teams to attack us. It's a logical thing to do but for some reason under Maresca we do it far too often and allow teams to completely dominate us after we score. Very frustrating, the sad thing is our clubs next 5-10 years could very easily rest on these last few games and we are pissing about with it like this.