nicnac

I like how Carlo being sacked an hour after an away match in an empty dressing room is being deemed somehow as more respectable than in the corridor. Whatever your opinion on the man, it's an absolute disgrace. The Guardian put it well: '"Carlo will always be welcome at Stamford Bridge, where he will be given the reception and respect his position in our history deserves," droned a preposterous Chelsea statement, shortly after the Italian was given the reception and respect his position in the classy club's history deserves in a stairwell at Goodison Park.' It's a total lack of respect for a man who won the club's first Double and maintained his dignity throughout a season where he's been hung out to dry by the club in press conferences pretty much since Ray was sacked. Giving the boot to a 4 time CL winner in an away dressing room, FFS. It's not even about manager stability, it's about giving managers a fair crack of the whip. Give them a bleedin' chance. One brilliant season, one average season. I say average, 2nd place and the QF of the CL are being treated as though it's a stain upon the club's history. It's not as though he won the Double then finished 10th for God's sake. Carlo comes in and wins a Double with the same squad that hadn't been able to for the previous 3 seasons. Scoring more goals than any PL team ever and being knocked out of the CL by the eventual winners. Well done, mate. Here's your reward: a squad trimmed of 5 experienced players and your assistant sacked. Oh and see if you can shoehorn an out of form £50 million player into a team that doesn't suit his playing style. Fergie can drop Carrick and play Scholes/Anderson/Gibson. That's 3 experienced alternative options. Yossi was injured for pretty much the whole season. So Carlo could drop Lampard and play...Josh? He's a bloody youth player! His stamina is nowhere near ready for the PL, he looks done in after 75mins in U18 team matches. Say what you like about Fergie giving oppurtunites to young players - which he does - he wouldn't have played Josh. The United equivalent is someone like Ravel Morrison. An incredibly promising young player who hasn't been rushed through to the first team sqaud but is currently tearing up the U18 matches and reserve league. Hiddink has apparenly been advising Chelsea for the last 2 years. Did he approve the trimming of the squad and the rushed bringing through of the youth players? Did he approve the sacking of Ray? Did he approve the shafting of Carlo? If he did, I'm not sure I want him back. All those that say Carlo should have stood up to RA when he sacked Ray, are you having a laugh? He'd have sacked him anyway! The very reason Jose went was because he didn't take things lying down, he caused RA too much trouble. The squad was too small to be effectively rotated, the players too similar to successfully implement a wide variety of tactical set ups. They can't play anything other than 433. And we have no natural wide players in the whole bloody squad! No natural wingers whatsoever. That's why we have no width. That's why he used to regularly sub the RB; Ash is the best LB in the world and always tries to get forward, nothing was coming from the RB. His subs get far more stick than they deserve. Seeing as most people's main alternative suggestion was to scream 'Bring Josh on!'. It's alright asking for someone to be hauled off - fair enough, most players were below standard this year, for some reason Carlo's getting it in the neck but they aren't - there was hardly any viable/differnt option to be brought on!The bench for the first half of the season was woeful for a team challenging for the title. Bringing Kalou on to snatch a winner in the FA cup away, Zhirkov coming on in the league match against Utd at home, hauling Torres off to boos at SB only for Drogba to immediately provide the assist that gave us the lead are just 3 examples off the top of my head where he's changed a game. Fact of the matter is most of his subs were effective, because we were the 2nd best team in the league. We won the second highest amount of games. We won 31 out of 37 games at home under Carlo, he was doing something right. He wasn't tactically rigid. We tried numerous formations, the players we have couldn't play them. It wasn't his fault we don't have the players to play anything other than 433. The squad lacks variety. He said a couple of weeks ago that he used to ask the players which formation they felt most comfortable with, they always said 433. He tried, they couldn't do it. I feel sorry for the man, you look at his CV and he has nothing to prove to anyone. Injuries to key players and freak illnesses aside...If we'd have given him the support staff he wanted, the players he wanted rather than whatever this bloody 'football board' decide, if the squad would have just had 3+ experienced players in it, who knows what we'd have won? He proved he could do it in the first season and he got us to 2nd with one arm tied behind his back in his second. Hauling us back up from the mid season slump seems to have got him no credit whatsoever. On top of that he seems a thoroughly decent, bloody good bloke who's helped this club's image no end. And we've just undone it all. Thank you for the Double, Carlo. And for your dignity and class in a season that must have been difficult for you for both business and personal reasons. I wish him all the best for the future and hope that he finds a club where he's allowed to do his job and is treated with the respect he deserves

Nice one, Carlo. Subs were spot on and the team talk at half-time must have had some bite to it, we came out so fired up. Good man. Classiest manager in the league, too. Nice to have a bloke in charge who'se gracious and dignified in both wins and defeats. Hope he stays for a long time.

I'd say most managers knew last year how to stop us from playing, they knew how to tackle our 4-3-3. It's a popular enough formation that many other teams use, they knew how to stop it. But when it came down to the head-to-head battles on the pitch, our players were better. It's like what I said to another poster, Cole has been pegged back by both Seamus Coleman and Martin Kelly in the last month. Moyes/Dalglish sent out their players to do the same job as Ashley had for us - to get forward and keep the opposite number pegged back. Coleman/Kelly both did their job better than Cole did his. Carlo can't play their battles for them. He tells them what to do, they should do it. Not all of them have been doing it. Hmm I see your point. But we came back against Sunderland the other week, Newcastle we came from behind to draw, Villa we went behind to come back then switch-off and concede at the death. We can do it. But I do feel that our bench is seriously lacking in options for him to effectively change it. He had Kalou, Mikel or Sturridge to bring on and change a game. The number of formations he can shift the starting 11 round into is limited by the limited type of players we have. We basically have to stick with formations that aren't reliant on width as we have no wide players. I really do think the squad limitations have hampered the extent to what Carlo can do. We have the highest average number of shots per game in the PL: 19. It's our finishing that has been off this season. We haven't been taking our chances. After relying too heavily on Frank and Drogs in the past, no-one has stepped up to fill their place while they've been suffering from injuries and poor form. The way I see it is that if we keep the squad exactly as it is over the summer - bringing no-one in and letting no-one go - but change the manager to absolutely anyone else, we still won't challenge for the title. There are 4 teams ahead of us with better squads, maybe not better starting 11s [on paper] but better squads. Over a 38+ game season, squad depth, size and variety is essential.

? It's something like 6-3 in favour of Carlo with regards to their head-to-head meetings.

The way the club is run has nothing to do with Carlo. He is Roman's Puppet. Every manager that works under Roman will be Roman's puppet. Managers are given players that they don't necessarily want, back-room staff are brought in that they don't necessarily want - Jose chose to walk, Carlo chose to stay and do his job. Don't attack him for showing loyalty to the club and the players and his contract. Man United's equivalent to players like Kakuta and Josh are players like Ravel Morrison (18), Tom Cleverly (21), Danny Wellbeck - young players who are getting regular reserve playing time or who are out on loan. Our board decided not to loan our youth team players out to PL teams to get experience but to drop them straight into the first team squad - a completely bonkers idea. There's no way Fergie would consider playing Josh in the midfield of a key PL match [whether as a starter or a sub] - and let's face it, most matches for us this year have been key PL matches. He'd have sent him out on loan to Sunderland at the start of the season like Wenger did with Wilshere at Bolton. Blooding in youth at a big club can only be done with managers who have stability - managers like Fergie and Wenger. Mangers who know they can give a couple of younger players a run in the FA Cup and risk getting knocked out without fear of the sack. Carlo hasn't got this luxury - he's expected to be challenging for everything - otherwise the trigger-happy owner and some of our fans will start calling for his head. It's clear you don't rate Carlo for whatever reasons so there's no point discussing it. I'm more than happy with his CV, what he achieved for us last year and how he's dealt with certain situations this year. I'd like him to stay here for a few years.

> The difference between Rafael, Fabio, Smalling etc and Kakuta, Josh etc is that it's young players vs youth players. Smalling came from Fulham! He'd already had PL experience. Rafael/Fabio have been at United since 2008 - this isn't their first season of PL football - they haven't been thrown in at the deep end. This is the first season they've made a real emergence - at the age of 20. Josh, Bruma and PVA would not be dropped straight into United's first team side after coming staright from the Youth Academy - look what they've done with Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverly, sent them out on loan to PL teams for a season to get some experience. And I doubt even next year they'll become regualr first team players for United. Where the board has gone wrong is to expect the jump from Youth team to PL to be so small. Bruma, PVA and Josh should all have been sent out on loan this season from the start, get them some experience, rather than expect themto make up for the loss of Ballack, Belletti, Deco, Cole and Carvalho. > I don't know what you're expecting of Carlo to be honest. If he changes the formation then our internationally reknowned players should realise that this also requires for a different style of play; a different formation naturally leads to a different style of play. We continue to battle down the middle because we have NO WIDE PLAYERS and the full-backs aren't doing their job. Cole is widely regarded as being the best left-back in the world - recently he's been pegged back by Seamus Coleman and Martin Kelly. Carlo can't fight their battles for them, the players have to show their quality. Carlo and Moyes sent their full-backs out to do the same job - get forward and keep their opposite number pegged back - Ashley didn't do this. He didn't play well enough.

> What is all this Plan B nonsense that keeps cropping up? It's like someone's said it and everyone else has used it as a stick to beat him with. Does no-one watch any of our games and notice the different formations we keep trying out and switching to during games? There's been 4-3-3, the diamond, christmas tree, standard 4-4-2 in the last few weeks. We switched formations at the end of the Everton match and against Fulham. Liverpool is the only match where he got it wrong, but I can understand why he played the way that he did after we thrashed Sunderland. The problem he has is that we have too many similar players in our squad and little variety. Yossi would have helped out a lot in recent weeks. It's difficult to make effective changes when your only potentially, as yet inexperienced option is a 17 year old. He sees Josh in training every day, he knows his capabilities more than we do. > To say that Man City don't have a much stronger squad is unbelievable. They have 2 top quality starting 11s. They should be top of the league with the squad they've got, not 3rd. > Drop the core and bring in who? Josh..? Who else? There have been times this season where he has been working with a squad of 13 fit senior players. For a club that hopes to be mounting a title challenge, that is unbelievable. Look at the squad up to January: Goalkeepers: Cech, Turnbull, Hilario. Not much wrong here. Defenders: Ivanovic, Cole, Bosingwa, Ferreira, Zhirkov, Alex, Terry. Three players that could play as centre halves is not good enough, full backs are fine but when Bosingwa's out Ivanovic has to fill out which leaves only two centre halves - again, not enough. Central midfielders: Essien, Lampard, Ramires, Mikel. Cannot complain. Wingers: Malouda, potentially Benayoun. One good winger in the whole squad, how you expect to play with that I don't know. Strikers: Anelka, Kalou, Drogba. Kalou is average, two reliable strikers are not enough. Compared to Man Utd: Defenders: Rafael, O'Shea, Evra, Fabio, Smalling, Evans, Ferdinand, Vidic. Two players for each position, one is superior than another but with the exception of Evans everyone has done their job this season fine. Midfielders: Carrick, Scholes, Anderson, Gibson, Fletcher, [MIA Hargreaves] Again, two players for each position, lacking one back-up when playing 4-3-3 but Giggs can fill up, and they used to have Hargreaves. While none of them are really top class, nearly all have had their moments this season and are relatively reliable. Wingers: Nani, Valencia, Giggs, Park. Another position where they have got two players for each flank, Valencia has been out a lot this season but Park and Giggs both did well filling the void. Strikers: Rooney, Berbatov, Hernandez, Owen, used to be Macheda. Four strikers is enough, Hernandez has been very reliable, Berbatov has been great, Rooney is a top class player even though he's been rather dreadful so far this season. Owen is better than having nothing, cannot comment much on Macheda. > He motivated the players last year, he's proved he can do it. Especially after the little blip we had around this team last year. JT didn't have to come out in that press conference and say that this slump is not the manager's fault and that the player's need to take responsibility. In fact he didn't even have to show up at the press conference at all. But he did. No other manager has received such public backing, so he's doing something right. To think he's not been arsed to motivate the players these last weeks is absurd, he knows he has to, it's him that will take the bullet if they don't get motivated. Players can not pick and choose which managers they decide to put in a performance for. They're playing for THE CLUB first and foremost. > Saying all this, I don't think it is a question of motivation. They were trying hard enough, we had enough wayward attempts in games. 23 attempts and 2 on target or whatever. It was the quality that was off. A lot of players - some as a result of big injuries - are off form. Rooney's been out of form for the last 8 months. Unfortunately no-one else has stepped up for us after an over-reliance on Frank and Drogba for so long to score our goals. Carlo is nowhere near deserving of the sack in my opinion. If winning the club your first ever Double doesn't buy you a comparatively avergae season the one after I don't know what will. I want him to stay even if we finish 5th. There comes a point - as JT says - when the players have to take responsibility. Up to now, it's always been the managers that have. And when you have a team that's entering the twilight of the career like ours is, it make more sense to let a couple of the players go, rather than a proven quality manager.

If the players aren't motivated to wanting to do well in the CL after the way the PL and FA Cup has gone then they don't deserve to be at the club. Carlo shouldn't have to motivate them for games of this magnitude. It's unfair to judge the quality of his team talks/motivational skills on the basis of 10secs worth of footage during ET of the Everton game. For what it's worth, I saw him talking to Essien, Frank and John during that period. The topic of motivation is a harsh one to lampoon Ancelotti for as we have absoluetly no idea what goes on in the dressing room. He could be bollocking them every half-time for all we know. Cech said the other week that Carlo had given him a bollocking after the Liverpool game, so he does do it. I daresay Carlo is doing his bloody best to motivate them, as he knows that if he doesn't then it'll be him that takes the bullet for it. He motivated them last year beyond all expectations, he can do it. He's proved he can. Form is not simply about motivation. Look at Rooney - he's not been at his best for 9 months now. Fergie can't wave a magic wand and get him playing again. Things have to fall into place. If it comes down to getting rid of a manager who has proven success in the PL and CL or a group of players in the twilight of their career, I know who I'd be more willing to move along. Give Carlo the chance to build and shape his own team, he deserved that right last year but it wasn't given to him. Instead he has the aging remnants of Ranieri's/Jose's teams. It's time to take the long-term option rather than the quick fix. Ancelotti can do it - he turned Kaka into one of the best players in the world and moulded Pirlo into one of the greatest playmakers of his generation.

Ancelotti is not the sole reason for this season's form. Nor do I think he's the main reason. So he shouldn't take the bullet for it. I don't think the players have stopped playing for Carlo. We know what they're like, they've got history; if they weren't happy with him they would have gone and have a word with Roman to chuck him out. I do think this squad is reaching the end of it's cycle. A World Cup year has tired out a lot of ageing internationals, Lampard and Drogba are not at full fitness and for seasons they've been our main goal scoring players. That coupled with a small squad, some freak injuries and the sacking of Wilkins [that obviously shook up the dressing room] are all factors. You only have to look at the performances of Ramires and Luiz to see how much of an impact younger legs can have. They have a drive and a sharpness that the senior squad members at present do not. People question Ancelotti's team choices and tactics but apart from playing McEachran today -and I can understand why he didn't- there isn't really that much else he could have played. We were back in the favoured 4-3-3 that ripped teams apart earlier in the season/last year. He's tried 2 different formations in recent weeks to fit Torres in, he's not tactically inflexible. The players are. They only know how to play one way; 4-3-3. The lack of variety in the squad also impacts upon the kind of tactical changes he can make. We have no wide players. I mean, that's just mad. It's alright to say he's not motivating the players. We don't know what's happening in the dressing room. The second half always seems to start with a bit more oomph so we can presume he gives them a bollocking. Didn't Cech come out last week and say he got - and deserved - one from Carlo after the Scouse game? Too many managers have took the bullet for this squad's shortcomings, at some point they need to take responsibility. Some changes need to happen in the summer, more pressing one's than that of the manager. I honestly don't believe that keeping this squad but getting rid of Carlo would get us back to being title challengers next year. Man City and Spurs have improved their squads vastly, we haven't. It shows.

I know, and that's the boards fault. Carlo wanted to keep Ballack. If you get rid of an important member of your squad against your manager's wishes then at least replace him or some of the others that you're also showing the door.

You've gotta wonder how much squad size effects the quality of the training. If they're practising going past/tackling inexperienced players like Sala and other reserves as opposed to Belletti, Ballack etc.

Drogba's having the best game he's had in a while. Nothing like his best but...he's improving.

Lampard's having a shocker.