Keyblade Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 Hope he can put it right this week. Win against West Ham and Ajax and we're still chugging along nicely. Spurs' game in hand is against Chelsea lest we forget, so it's not a foregone conclusion. We're still very much in the driving seat of our own destiny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 5 hours ago, Risso said: Sunday was a major down though. It was a gutless display from the manager and all the players. I'm still hugely pissed off with it. The set up, the actual game, Konsa, McGinn, and wiping out our goal difference advantage, listening to Emery chuntering on about "teams who are more contenders to be in the top 7 than us". All of it. It had a very strong feel of the O'Neill years about it. Spurs will definitely overtake us now, and I'm pretty certain Man U will too. Sunday was our 'Stoke' moment. Bottled it, completely. 6th was always my fancied finish....sure I dream, like everyone else....but I am not convinced with aspects of this team....despite some great exceptional games. I think Unai has worked wonders to be honest.....He needs better players in certain positions, to realise our dreams. After the first game of the season, we have worked a miracle.....but traits of that first game are still there....we have been riding our luck, but eventually it runs out, and reality kicks in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DJBOB Posted March 12 Popular Post Share Posted March 12 Nah I'm still a believer. Unai just needs to go back to trusting the team. 5th at worst - but I think 4th. 6th would require both a monumental collapse by us and an incredible run by United. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 1 hour ago, DJBOB said: Nah I'm still a believer. Unai just needs to go back to trusting the team. 5th at worst - but I think 4th. 6th would require both a monumental collapse by us and an incredible run by United. I agree, no use getting all negative towards the important end of the season. There's plenty to be optimistic about, I hope Unai instills that mentality in to the team that takes the field. I would rather us try and win every game we play and fail courageously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
479Villan Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 4 hours ago, TRO said: like it. but when a good point is being made.....who said it, can be a convenient distraction. It is perfectly fine to shoot the messenger if they're a talking head, who exist solely to have opinions but yet are never held accountable for how shit they are. It's the perfect semi-retirement for footballers: after working in a profession where there is a statistic for literally everything you do, you go earn a living where not a statistic is kept about your job performance aside from how many people watch it. That would be a relevant statistic, but plenty of people slow down to stare at car accidents, so "horrible actions resulting from mistakes" clearly draw eyeballs while we all agree it'd be nice to be rid of them (being car wrecks, and shite takes). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post romavillan Posted March 12 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted March 12 1 hour ago, sheepyvillian said: I agree, no use getting all negative towards the important end of the season. There's plenty to be optimistic about, I hope Unai instills that mentality in to the team that takes the field. I would rather us try and win every game we play and fail courageously. Don't think it's lack of trust or being negative, genuinely think he's been trying to manage fitness/energy levels/fatigue. We've got key players out already, running the rest into the ground when we have a difficult run in with an enormous prize to play for would be foolhardy. We don't have a few hundred million pounds of talent on the bench to rotate with and we're thin on the ground through injury. 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 Just now, romavillan said: Don't think it's lack of trust or being negative, genuinely think he's been trying to manage fitness/energy levels/fatigue. We've got key players out already, running the rest into the ground when we have a difficult run in with an enormous prize to play for would be foolhardy. We don't have a few hundred million pounds of talent on the bench to rotate with and we're thin on the ground through injury. I would rather have tried to take the initiative from the off against Spurs. We certainly had the players available to be more offensive, instead, we tried to contain their threat. It should have been the other way round, especially when you consider how we have the knack for getting early goals. The players didn't even get the crowd going, it was like a library. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 4 hours ago, TRO said: 6th was always my fancied finish....sure I dream, like everyone else....but I am not convinced with aspects of this team....despite some great exceptional games. I think Unai has worked wonders to be honest.....He needs better players in certain positions, to realise our dreams. After the first game of the season, we have worked a miracle.....but traits of that first game are still there....we have been riding our luck, but eventually it runs out, and reality kicks in. Maybe at the start of the season 6th wouid have been good but having got ourselves to the points total we have it wouid be a major disappointment. We've had a lot of bad luck with injuries and I know all teams have them but to loose Mings and Buendia (who I think wouid have had ab exceptional season) for the entire season was devasting but we recovered. Then Torres, konsa and Digne who were all playing at the top of their games before injuries. Then Kamara our only real CDM player hss taken its toll. Emery has done brilliant and yes we have rode our luck at times but to finish 6th below Man u would be difficult to stomach. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted March 13 VT Supporter Share Posted March 13 10 hours ago, sheepyvillian said: I would rather have tried to take the initiative from the off against Spurs. We certainly had the players available to be more offensive, instead, we tried to contain their threat. It should have been the other way round, especially when you consider how we have the knack for getting early goals. The players didn't even get the crowd going, it was like a library. yeah I said before the game in the pre match thread we should go after them right from the off as that's how they've been beaten this season. Maybe though he felt if we had we were risking not just running out of steam in that match but picking up some more injuries as a result, being way out of whack for the Ajax game and risking our chances in the remaining games this season, I don't know, like I say I thought we should have gone right at them and tried to score more than them. Unai sees them every day though, might be that they just don't have the conditioning to do it and he's trying to manage the games and the training as best he can to bring home the bacon this season. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DakotaVilla Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 If you lose critical players and have to play a lot of games your performances will be affected, it’s really that simple. Emery chose a set up due to the players he had available and that included a number just back from injury. After every disappointment, Emery has always managed to get the team back on song relatively quickly. The utterly stupid McGinn red card though has made his job a lot harder than it needed to be. Hopefully we squeeze a result in the west ham game as the international break will serve us well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mantis Posted March 15 Popular Post Share Posted March 15 This thread was somehow on page 2. Just had to say what a magnificent job he's done for us. He's not even been here for 18 months and in that time he's taken us from relegation battlers to genuine top 4 contenders and into our first major European quarter final in a quarter of a century, all while dealing with one of the worst injury crises in recent memory. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Platt Posted March 16 VT Supporter Share Posted March 16 The Don, The Sultan of Unai on page 2 not on my watch! Needs to be a sticky the man deserves it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Terrible starting set up again. Lenglet uncomfortable at RCB. Konsa at RB not his best. Lightweight midfield. Two strikers with barely any touches. Overthinking the situation instead of trusting some academy players. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Needs to stop messing around with experimental formations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 But credit to him for making an immediate change at HT. Just wish he would start trusting the players a bit more instead of shoehorning others in to avoid playing Zaniolo or Tim or Cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 So much for Emery being "stubborn". At the end of the day he's juggling so many different factors right now. With injuries and suspensions we really are down to the bare bones in certain departments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Needs to start trusting and getting the best out of Diaby again. Get back to what we was doing start of the season despite the injuries. Players in the right positions. Firepower around Watkins. Diaby and Bailey need to both start. I feel like we're a bit lost atm now in formation and plans when before the system was king and players could come in and out. Bringing Duran in away from home after barely kicking a ball in a two is truly bizarre stuff. If any other manager did that. It's Steve Bruce stuff it really is. He'd often just pull a Davis and Kodjia or Hogan out of his arse. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 He got it wrong but Duran proved why he's not ready to start games yet. He changed it up and we were far better second half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 2 minutes ago, rodders0223 said: Needs to start trusting and getting the best out of Diaby again. Get back to what we was doing start of the season despite the injuries. Players in the right positions. Firepower around Watkins. Diaby and Bailey need to both start. I feel like we're a bit lost atm now in formation and plans when before the system was king and players could come in and out. Bringing Duran in away from home after barely kicking a ball in a two is truly bizarre stuff. If any other manager did that. It's Steve Bruce stuff it really is. He'd often just pull a Davis and Kodjia or Hogan out of his arse. Emery is king but Spurs and West Ham lineups are Gerrard-ish and Bruce-ish. Looks ridiculous on paper and obviously then terrible in game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farlz Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 2 league games on the bounce he's made a mess of it. I don't understand. It definitely seems as if he's trying too hard to be clever. Today though he fixed it at half time and we looked a lot better. Yes we have injuries/suspensions but we don't need to be starting Jhon Duran ffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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