cityfanlee23

To be honest I have considered that maybe it’s just a language barrier and he was maybe just telling them to compose themselves, don’t get carried away sort of thing, but it seems like most people saw it the same way I did that he was trying to slow us down again, some mentioned that he was having a few words with people in the stands because they were criticising the slow speed, which obviously contributes to me thinking he was trying to slow us down, hard to tell but frustrating nonetheless, they were there for the taking for a 5-6 goal game, more than happy with 3-1 though.

Yeah I have to be honest it really frustrated me, I’m really glad the players ignored it!

We don’t change the system regardless of the players, if we fielded 11 Danny wards he would still play the system. It’s gambling the future of the club. You play a system similar to the one you want, and over time make the transition, Klopp took 2-3 seasons to really dial in the gegenpress, even pep took a couple of seasons to build the style, today was a perfect example of what we should have been doing all season, we dominated the game because we ditched Enzoball and played direct attacking football, the only time we took the foot off the gas was in the 2nd half around the 70th minute when Norwich started to come back into it, that was the perfect moment to hold the ball and compose ourselves and it worked great for the 10 mins or so that we needed it, for 80 mins today when the vast majority of fans were excited and happy with the football, we had largely ditched the philosophy of passing the ball across the middle of the pitch to tire teams out, we were spraying balls diagonally and playing through the lines quickly. Something most of us that were complaining all season have been asking for. If we end up not going up because Enzo has stubbornly played a system that his players can’t play very well then he will never be forgiven.

I fear we won’t have a choice if we don’t go up. There’s no way I trust him with a full squad of run of the mill championship players when we have to get rid of everyone this summer.

But most of those players will be gone as they are out of contract or simply not good enough. so why are we so hell bent on a system when if he stays until next season will have to be completely restarted next year.

Regarding retreating at 70 mins I think we can all accept that as part and parcel of the game, there will always come a point where Norwich regrouped and started to get hold of the ball a bit more, and I think we agree that in those moments conposure and a reset it sometimes needed. We had a great blend today of attack, defense and control. And you are right, in a lot of way it was anti-Enzoball. hopefully we see it more often toward the end of the season.

Huge win, intensity, we defended as a team and attacked as a team, we mixed up fast play through the middle, to direct diagonal classy passes to the wings from defence, we also controlled the game for about 15 mins of the 2nd half with our usual ball control style. It’s amazing what we can do when we play pragmatic football. We attacked when we needed to and controlled the ball only when it was necessary when Norwich tried to come back. Great subs today also. Credit to Enzo but was very annoying to see him trying to get us to slow the game down when we scored. Overall one of the better performances this season. Drop the system, be pragmatic and we can win this league.

The usuals were well and truly proven right today

It's amazing how much better we are when we ignore the managers calls to slow the game down Dominant, credit to Enzo for only seemingly telling us to calm down early on, since we scored we have been far more aggressive and direct and we've been unplayable for Norwich. Could have been 5-6 today. And we were EXCITING. Do this for the rest of the season and I might believe properly again.

Hope so oh... you meant

KDH would give him a run for his money

Enzo

One reason. One reason only.

Amazing how much better we are when we press with intensity as a team and drive the ball forward as opposed to mindlessly passing it sideways for 50+ passes every phase, who'd of thought. At this point we basically just need to Ignore Enzo.

Daka needs to be subbed a month ago.

Probably a penalty, but would be quite a harsh one I think, the ball was going at his stomach. Harsh but could easily be given.

It really is mindblowing that Enzo can look at this and think “I’m going to do the exact same thing next week” and half this forum applaud him for it and say the fans are the problem….

I would say if Wednesday go down and we don’t get promoted I’d 100% take Danny Röhl, he’s done a phenomenal job at Wednesday with a league 1 squad and a board in meltdown. The turn around there is far exceeding what it looks like on paper.

Not gonna lie I’d actually take him over the current trajectory. I genuinely believe he would come in for the final games and get them running through brick walls. We need a bounce, for weeks I’ve been saying we will finish 2nd and believing Enzo will pull something out, or the players would pull something out, but that faith is gone now. The future of the club lies on promotion essentially, so it’s a huge risk to get rid but it’s also a huge risk to keep doing the same thing. Pearson would get this lot fighting. I don’t think he should be a permanent choice though.

Right but realistically he doesn’t *need* to sign anyone to get this team promoted when we were 14 points clear of 3rd. He just needs to do the basics and stop trying to turn players like Choudhury into Beckenbauer. He's trying to turn pigs ears into silk purses with this current system. Just go back to basics and play to the teams strengths and we don’t really need to sign anyone. Obviously wish we could have strengthened but when it fell through you change the system to adapt. He refuses.

It’s a difficult one because we need to sign a manager who has the capacity to grow with the club should they get us promoted, which means signing a manager who could promote us and keep us up, that isn’t cheap. And then if we sign that manager and we don’t go up, we are financially screwed. I think right now *IF* the board pulled the trigger (they won’t) it needs to be someone who can fire them up for the final games. We would need a “firefighter” style manager to get us over the line essentially then regroup and look forward in the summer. Someone to come in, kick everyone up the arse, explain to them that they are playing for the badge and every single passionate fan out there and make them run through brick walls. The problem is I genuinely don’t know who’s available that could do that job. Big Nige on a short term deal with an agreement that it won’t be extended?

Please don’t take this as me making a suggestion because I’m not. But I even think Warnock would be able to come in and get this lot fired up for the final 8 games. “You’ve gotta f’in die to get 3 points”

It’s definitely not just a manager problem, but the managers job is to make the best of the situation he has, which requires flexibility. Short in midfield but have amazing flanks like Ricardo and Mavididi? Overlap. Simplistic example but you get the point, it everything is going wrong, and the manager still refuses to change he’s going to get a large part of the blame. Unfortunately players can’t be signed until summer, the board aren’t going anywhere just yet, all we can do is talk about player performances and manager performances.

Statistically if they had come in 2-3 games earlier they probably would have kept us up based on PPM. The margins were just too fine thanks to the board.

The really sad part is, I actually think Dean Smith would have got this lot up. And I was not happy with him at all by the last game.