youlots

mmmm.....Zola - just a tip - Gab Marcotti is quite possibly the most respected football journalist there is & he is very well connected. And he is very rarely wrong about anything. When he provides an opinion you listen.

^ are you Charlie Holloway?

well.....apparently loyalty is causative of ocular cancer which no amount of vampirism can fix...or somefink....

well.......I'm sorry alnitak but I don't know whether you bothered doing the comparison exercise between the two squads at all before providing your reply: so let's start with the two CL squads - I've bolded who I think our best 23 players are from the two lists for the purposes of meeting the UEFA rules: 2009-2010 (CL Squad) 2015-2016 (CL Squad) Cech Courtois Hilario Begovich Turnball Blackman Ivanovic Ivanovic Cole Zouma Terry Terry Carvalho Cahill Bosingwa Azpilicueta Alex Rahman Belletti Hutchinson Essien Fabregas Mikel Ramires Lampard Oscar Ballack Hazard Malouda Mikel Zhirkov Matic Deco Traore Bosingwa Willian Kenedy Loftus Cheek Pedro Drogba Costa Kalou Remy Anelka Falcao Sturridge Now some will obviously disagree with my choices for the 23 but leaving goalkeeping aside (which I think is pretty even), I'd argue that we were that much stronger in defence, midfield and attack.

Of course none of us can know what is being exchanged at present between the owner & the board, the owner & his advisors and between them all & the manager regarding our present predicament; obviously all are concerned. For me it all coalesces into two questions: is Jose getting the best out of our 1st team squad? Is the 1st team squad good enough? In answer to the first I think it is self evident that Jose managed to get the best out of the 1st team squad last year & particularly over the last half of the season - our performances over that last 5 months weren't that convincing & we did what we had to do, or were capable of doing, over that period in order to secure the title and let's be frank, we probably looked a lot better simply because city & arse were surprisingly abject over all given the strength of their squads. Now Jose is without a doubt in the top three as far as managers go - that cannot be questioned. There's no reason to think that his abilities have lessened or evidence that his relationships with our various players have diminished since the end of last season. So I'd like to think that Jose is still attempting to get the best out of squad. Given the above, and in answer to the second question, I've come to the view (given our performances from January this year) that our 1st team squad is simply not good enough: whether it be the age of some players and/or the overall abilities of certain players. I think it was bobby above who, at least for me, made a very telling comment as concerns the difference in the 1st team squad in respect to abilities/strength (that Guus inherited & that Carlo then took over) as against our current squad. It's an interesting exercise to compare the two squads because I think when you do so, very few of our current squad cut the mustard. How many of our current 1st team would find its way into that previous 1st team? Two, perhaps three at most. If one shares the views above, and I'd like to think that the owner/board & advisors do, then the reality is that it's not really a management problem at all & that it's simply the fact that we no longer have the roster.

well said...hard to avoid using the odd cliche at times for all of us ;-)

well said Bob...anyone pressing for a new manager at present shouldn't ignore that fact.

....will we never be set free...

My Hitchens, you're such a tosser.

Can you provide us with any article at all that has direct quotes from any player that maintains there is 'unrest in the camp'? If not, then do us all a favour & don't post anymore.

na...reckon he's suited to play midfield...

Welcome to the Shedend Sam! If the Manager's position does become available in the future then at least you'll be able to tell Roman et al that you've been made fully aware of the supporters' views when applying ;-)

must have been because he didn't win the double the year before....

ok....so now we get down to it....the 'buck stops' argument. That's all you've got left really isn't it? as for the excuse (in a belated attempt to try and clothe your previous arguments with some sort of weight) that 'assumptions is all people have to go on these days' is pretty desperate wouldn't you agree? Then the resort to cliche - 'lost the plot' etc. and the final flourish being the resort to herd mentality (being your last sentence) which again does not progress or lend any weight to your previous suppositions. Still waiting for the evidence......still waiting for the answer to the Real question I put to you.

^ now the resort to AVB who clearly lost the dressing room & of which it was painfully clear to most. But, and again, you have made an assumption that a team that has lost form has done so 'deliberately' and/or you have made an assumption that a team that lost form means that a Manager has 'lost' the dressing room. Unless & until you provide evidence of 'deliberateness' or evidence of 'loss of confidence in the Manager' by one of more players then both assumptions are not founded, are they?

Why do I have to do better than that? I've shown you up for cherry-picking & mis-reportage so as to found a false & provocative conclusion. That's what you did did you not? Yes. And because you did that you should be brought to account. Which is what I did. Have you the honesty to admit same? No. Instead, now you're trying to evade by resort to a hyperbolic straw-man: "he is not the 2nd coming etc etc"....& then throw in the reference to Real et etc. Let me ask you this: what is the average tenure of managers at Real in the last 15 years?

more crap from you....first you say (w/o any evidence for same mind you) that one or possibly two players have 'fallen out' with Mourinho & thereafter imply (by reference to Van Gaal) that certain players are deliberately 'playing like sh*t' in order to get Jose the sack ala Moyes. you then proceed to assert that because the entire team is 'playing like sh*t' then it follows that there must be a blanket conspiracy by the whole squad who must be involved: so, supposition upon supposition to found a baseless dichotomy. Why do you bother us with such dribble?

You're as bad as the tabloid press in mis-reporting what he has said in the article you've referenced: First, no mention by you of the fact that JT has come out in full support of Mourinho (which the article does in fact mention). Secondly, the article reproduces all of what Mourinho has stated whereas you've just latched onto one sentence & put a different spin on it: what in fact Jose stated, according to the article, is: "People can say what they want. I think you should go straight to the players," said Mourinho, who has received the public backing of John Terry. "Get a table at Cobham next week - John Terry doesn't go to the national team, Diego Costa doesn't go, Ramires doesn't go. Ask them. "If they tell you they don't trust me, that is the only thing that can make me resign. The only thing. But not fake sources. The players at the table." So.....if Mourinho has 'lost' the dressing room as you say, why would he be inviting the press to talk one on one with the players? You're just being provocative aren't you? Tell you what: why don't you f**k off from this site for good instead.

^ err Davey - management 101 in that situation mate so if you're wrong on that (which you are) then the rest of what you say is w/o foundation. Matic would have totally understood.

^ exactly chip - down two goals you hardly need a holding midfielder.

Kurzel's Macbeth with Fassbender. Don't know what to expect - apparently Fassbender has great difficulty with capturing the required nuance, timing and cadence of Macbeth's lines & I've always been a big fan of Polanski's version....however, Aussie director, so it's a must see.

Well...you're doing a banged up job so far....

mmmm....lost the plot...what an entirely meaningless cliche. As for the dressing room - what evidence is there of that? None that I can see. And I can't remotely see without the necessary foundation being laid by you as to how you could infer from what I posted that either of your conclusions are on point.

^ hey mate - yeah look you're right - it's not new & we were shown up on several occasions last year as well but it has become a persistent meme this year. Barney Ronay's article was on the money then & even more so now so plaudits for referencing it. Where does that take us: I suppose the first thing is that we haven't addressed it & put all our eggs in one basket during the off season in trying to land Pogba so as to address the problem when we should've had other serious negotiations with others as well. Perhaps we did - I don't know. If not then I think it's fair to say that Jose must wear some criticism for not having found a solution. The other more difficult issue to grasp though is that some of our hitherto stead-fasts have all seemed to coalesce at one & the same time in the age and/or immobility stakes. Could that have been foreseen? Answers either way I suppose.

mmmm....I have to say that this is a somewhat myopic view in that whilst you identify certain obvious tropes it is, as well, highly selective and, therefore, somewhat false. It seems to me & others that the main problem we have this season (eg. FC's post above yours) is that we are struggling to maintain any consistency & focus during games. And Jose is well aware of this - his pertinent views expressed after our outing against the toons were as follows (lifted from today's Guardian): José Mourinho looked puzzled – he just didn’t know it. “What’s that?” he asked, “‘puzzled’?” It means confused, he was told. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. It was almost as baffling as the Chelsea performance, because Mourinho then tried to clarify. “About the game, no,” he said. “I could perfectly read the game and understand why we were so poor. It is easy to analyse the game and all the items that make a football game, that is completely clear for me. The reason why we did that, or didn’t do that – that’s the question mark. And I have to understand why.” So underwhelming were the league champions that Mourinho gave their first half “minus one out of 10” and said he could have made “six” substitutions at the interval. He made none but that was not a sign of satisfaction. Far from it. “I am concerned,” he said. “I do not understand it and I do not accept it. The reason I did not make substitutions at half-time was because I did not know which decisions to make. There were six players I could have taken off. I wanted to make six substitutions. That is how bad we were. I sat there trying to work out what was best for the team and had so many doubts. I decided to wait to see what happened in the second half.” We did at least then secure the draw after certain subs were made during the 2nd half. So not a bad result. But - and back to the main point - this is mind f**k territory for any manager let alone Jose: very good players who are going missing during games and/or making elementary errors such as the lack of decision making by both Zouma & Ivanovic in respect to the toon's 1st goal & then gifting a free header for their 2nd. How and in what capacity can Jose know from week to week what those same players/defenders are going to do or not do in similar circumstances - ie. that such aberrant defending will occur again? You can't really plan for that, can you? How do you know whether Hazard, to give another example, is going to be effectively asleep for an entire half? You don't do you? At present the problem we have is that most everyone in the team apart from maybe two or three at most is not playing with any sort of consistency at all. Winning matches week to week is all about consistency & focus from most if not all of the players week to week - ie. last season. To maintain that sort of consistency is sometimes out of a manager's hands - especially so with this team where we play with a lot of structure & in a certain way. Usually our players do the basics very very well - but this season it is the obvious problem. Why are those basic errors re-occurring in most matches this season?