13 Mar 2026 14:39:38
I'm going to withhold judgment on LR at least til the end of the season but the eye test says we're playing better offensively and the stats back that up by saying we've created the most xG in the PL since he joined and we've outperformed that xG too.
Defensively we're still suspect but pretty much everyone on here agrees we need a better GK and a CB, so unless we switch to parking 10 men behind the ball, we're likely to still see mistakes at the back until we make signings.
Most of our dropped points since LR's come in can be attributed to Red cards which were an issue before he joined too. So given all of that I struggle to see how LR's being written off already. Do I think he's the long term manager for us? Most likely not. Is he an improvement on Maresca? Possibly but it's too soon to tell. Will we challenge for cups/titles under him? It depends on signings imo. If we were to get Luis Enrique in the summer but stay with the exact same squad now, we'd undoubtedly see some improvement but we'd likely still be in a similar position we are now.
13 Mar 2026 15:16:12
Fuser, as always, enjoyed your post, mate.
13 Mar 2026 16:10:08
Fuser, you make some good points. As for signings, I don't expect any that will excite the fans or immediately improve the squad. Also, we must accept that we are not at the top table anymore; top class players want to win trophies and often want to play for elite coaches.
The best we can hope for is to keep our better players like Enzo and Palmer.