A time to blame

[Sionnach gorm]

Can we always blame a manager for a teams poor performance?

 

Just recently a team that ordinarily sits in the top six of the Prem finds itself in relegation zone.  Everton's Koeman recently admonished his players after a Europa league humiliation by a rather weak Atalanta team from Italy's serie A.  

 

The Bergamo team ripped into Everton as though it was a middle of the road team from Greece.  With the additions of Rooney, Sigurdsson, one would imagine that Everton would be, at least, in a slightly better place.  

 

Koeman is hardly an incompetent manager, so what is going on?  

 

A similar thing happened to us last year.  Somehow a team that just recently won the prem, found itself struggling.  The general consensus was that Claudio Ranieri had lost the dressing room (or extremely lucky the year before) and was quickly, as some have said, shown the door.  

 

This year in France, after a slow start, his team is playing above their potential (or at least that is what the french press seems to be claiming) and currently is sitting in seventh place with ten points.  Out of curiosity I watched the game and found Nantes a much better playing team than our beloved Leicester, with what I would consider lesser players.  

 

Odd thing to watch, when you realize that Ranieri was to many, in one year, both our favorite and our scapegoat.

 

I personally was against the appointment of Shakespeare, and felt he just wasn't what Leicester City needed...but can he be totally to blame for our anemic performances?  Probaly not.  

 

So what is that something that makes teams such as Chelsea, come close to relegation after winning the prem, or a Leicester or an Everton who just signed some top players begin to flirt with relegation?

[jayfox26]

They lost Lukaku, they didn't add him. Also its difficult to compare a team like Nantes to us as we play in a far more competitive league. 

[mozartfox]

I really wish we would stop gloating about Everton.  We have enough problems of our own and if we are forced to go with what we have, i.e. no Adrien Silva, i fear we may be in a difficult place come January.  Furthermore, if the current recruitment and player acquisition team remains 'as is', I am not filled with confidence that we would be in a position to bring in the correct reinforcements.

[Sionnach gorm]

7 minutes ago, jayfox26 said:

They lost Lukaku, they didn't add him. Also its difficult to compare a team like Nantes to us as we play in a far more competitive league. 

Fixed...thank you 

[jayfox26]

1 minute ago, Sionnach gorm said:

Fixed...thank you 

No worries. You could have just swapped lukaku out for keane though 

[somebum]

I blame rob Kelly, I mean Craig shakey 

[davieG]

Ranieri is renowned for generally having a good first year and a less than glorious 2nd year.

 

We've always been a team that thrives on adversity many of our best individual games are as a result of feeling hard done by either by the ref or an opposing player.

 

Lacking confidence either as an individual or a team in one, two or all of these, the club, management, the recruitment, coaches, the medics, team mates, where you are playing, the fans and even you personal circumstances can and will have an effect. If that's a key member of the team etc then it can snowball and affect everyone.

[ZeGuy]

The question would be more justified when we'll have a full squad (i.e. Nacho, Silva, Iborra match fit and playing) and still being shit.

 

I hardly can understand the impatience of some considering the fixtures and the injury/transfer woes we had.

[Guest seanfox778]

Why do we have to blame anyone? Can't we just be a little patient and see if the team can get some rhythm when we have a fully fit squad and see what they're capable of instead of looking for a scapegoat after every single game.

[weller54]

23 minutes ago, somebum said:

I blame rob Kelly, I mean Craig shakey 

I blame Wellens! 

[Trav Le Bleu]

26 minutes ago, davieG said:

Ranieri is renowned for generally having a good first year and a less than glorious 2nd year.

 

We've always been a team that thrives on adversity many of our best individual games are as a result of feeling hard done by either by the ref or an opposing player.

 

Lacking confidence either as an individual or a team in one, two or all of these, the club, management, the recruitment, coaches, the medics, team mates, where you are playing, the fans and even you personal circumstances can and will have an effect. If that's a key member of the team etc then it can snowball and affect everyone.

This.

 

I've followed football long enough to know that any football team is so much more than the sum of its parts. I find it difficult to single out the manager or individual players to blame, but also to praise. Brilliant, genius football managers such as Clough, Mourinho, Robson, have all had seasons where they've terribly underperformed; are any of these bad managers? I think not.

[Monsell1976]

Mixture here of naive manager, poor recruitment.

If we are going progress as a club, I think it scandalous that the vast amount of our starting 11 are the same team that struggled before the title win and after.

With the amount of money spent, if spent right, we should have virtually a full new starting 11, and have a strong squad, and not relying on the average players like king and James, or at least a team that can pass a ball, retain possession and not resort to hoof and hope

[Foxy_jim]

Everton have played Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and Spurs. We have played Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. After 10 or 15 games if Everton and Leicester are bottom 4 even bottom 6 I would be very surprised. 

[Fox92]

 

[420Hashish]

To be fair, Everton had the toughest opponents in their first 6 matches, while Leicester had the 2nd toughest.

 

Nantes plays in Ligue 1, which is like the beginner level in FIFA but becomes legendary level to teams only in matches against PSG and maybe Monaco.

 

 

[AKCJ]

4 hours ago, jayfox26 said:

They lost Lukaku, they didn't add him. Also its difficult to compare a team like Nantes to us as we play in a far more competitive league. 

Disagree with that.

 

The league is very competitive, it's just not as high quality (aside from Monaco and PSG).

 

It's similar to La Liga. The competitiveness is there, but the quality outside of Real, Atletico and Barca is poor.

 

In the Premier League every team can beat anyone (in fairness that's looking like changing this season with City and United but we'll see).

[Brainy]

How are Atalanta weak? They might have less quality than the Everton side but the result was hardly a shock what with Everton far from being European regulars and away from home. Granted Atalanta aren't regulars either but they did brilliantly last season

[funkyrobot]

I always like to blame our former Portuguese goalie Ricardo. 

[Guest Bob Hazels shorts]

4 hours ago, Foxy_jim said:

Everton have played Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and Spurs. We have played Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. After 10 or 15 games if Everton and Leicester are bottom 4 even bottom 6 I would be very surprised. 

Bet on Everton wining the league also 2nd bet top four.

 

Possibly get better odds now!!  Edit was 45/1 now 250!!

 

It was pre Rooney's drink driving and being caught with his undies down

[foxy boxing]

Teams that do great one year and bad the next is because the consistency level drops and expectations are much higher!. players get more comfortable the season after they have done well and don't push themselves as harder as they do before! while new players brought in may affect the playing style and the team might not gel as quickly! it is a lot harder to stay at the top than getting there itself!