04 Mar 2024 09:53:10
Poch saying performances have been very good, and Leeds, Brentford had extra days to prepare / rest, which is fair, although we had over a week for Cup final and he used the fatigue excuse when LFC played the Wednesday before and had injuries also, but more importantly I'd like his talking to lead to a performance, some Newcastle none of this tired rubbish, a week to prepare.
We need to stability of a long term manger otherwise no self respecting manager will leave there current role to be sacked after 10 months because of the squad issue. We can go back to Jose. Reactionary as we are watching the dross at the moment but come on, it's as a short term as they come, Amorim, plays specifically for counter attacking / press resistant football, good luck with that v Luton Everton Forrest west ham, when they go long and direct with 9 behind the ball?
Alonso, has he worked under such pressure and scrutiny as he would get at us.
Naglesman, people moan about Poch playing players out of position. This guy had Havertz as left back.
Stick with poch, he seems out of his depth like potter, so is it the club the players him? What is it. Not been good enough with this squad what we the issues with it are. So who knows the right manager, but do we think Clearlake will get it right. Not a chance.
04 Mar 2024 11:07:02
Bring Jose back and back him when ans if things go bad. Atleast he's won things and we're guaranteeing a trophy. If we stick by poch highest league position we get will be 6th.
04 Mar 2024 12:17:09
Jose finished tenth when sacked with hazard, cesc, costa, terry, matic, Willian, azpi. let’s not rewrite history as in Jose who won 3 titles was the same man who left us, at some point someone has to build a squad cos we have some very inexperienced data lead people who have spent a fortune and not got the fundamentals, Jose would want / demand the same as poch needs, alonso would need Ancelotti would need, de zerbi would need,
I don’t think we nearly as an attractive proposition as we were even a year ago, let alone 5 and 10,
04 Mar 2024 13:31:53
How on earth would employing Jose be "guaranteeing a trophy"?
Matt, there are NO guarantees. Just except it.
The owners of clubs like Spurs (one trophy in over twenty years) and the current owners of Liverpool, who found it difficult to win a trophy until about two seasons into the Klopp era are just two clubs that prove that point.
04 Mar 2024 13:35:16
From what we can glean from media reporting, signings are being directed by three people above the manager. These three supposedly see this summer as the last in a phase of rebuilding the squad. Since they have spent an obscene about of money and left the squad lacking in a striker, and based on what Ed said a couple of weeks ago, we can assume that this will be the priority this summer. In addition to that, from other reporting we can reasonably assume that there is interest in a wide player, goalkeeper and a centre back.
(I would suggest that the first two solve immediate, glaring needs that arguably should have been addressed earlier in this 'project', but that is besides the point. )
In short, we can say with reasonable confidence that the manager is not in charge of signing players and regardless of who is manager next season an effort is going to be made to upgrade in two or three extremely important areas of the squad.
My argument would be; if you add a reliable goalscorer up front and a better winger to this team then we will probably win more games no matter who is in charge. Maybe if you give those tools to Poch we can instead assess this time next year whether he is the man to move us forwards in the longer term, while providing something resembling stability in the short term?
04 Mar 2024 15:25:49
RBD, good post.
I’m an advocate of judging players over time. Surely it’s not unreasonable to apply the same principle to managers?
04 Mar 2024 20:52:54
Agree RBD. A striker who can score goals, a better winger, staying relatively injury free and simply more time together as a squad will all see a big upturn in performances imo.
05 Mar 2024 07:24:16
RBD I completely agree with your post. I’m not happy with how this season has gone - however I am prepared to try and weather the storm in hope of improvements next season (hopefully improvements to our fitness levels too) . I do however think that Poch is luck to still be manager, based on our history of impatience. I do also wish that Potter had been given more time, as I really do think that he would have come good for us (again I was not happy with how we performed under him last season) . But this constant turnover of managers needs to end to show that we can stick with someone for the long term, otherwise no one is going to want to take the helm (unless they are happy for a quick payday) .