Wish I'd been wrong

[barak81]

This post was coming win/lose or draw today. As it is anything but a win pretty much amounts to a loss today.

Im sure it’s not going to be the most popular post because now day’s your vilified if you dare to mention anything negative. I await the burning effigies

Right back when anchaloti was appointed I referred to it as massively underwhelming and probably one of the most over rated managers in world football. I offered one scadeto in 8 years as evidence. One scadeto despite having some of the best players available on the planet, in there prime.

We started the season brightly enough and despite not being a big fan of the diamond I had to admit that it seemed to be working, But something kept happening. We kept conceding school boy level goals. And it was the same goal, over and over again, set pieces where killing us. You would think once bitten twice shy and we would analyse what went wrong and made sure it didn’t happen again. We also seemed very comfortable inviting teams on to us at 1-0. Rather than change things up to exploit the weakness of a team chasing a game we just keep to the status quo. Remind you of anything? CL final in istanbull?

Make no mistake, comparatively this is a week premiership. We should have been done and dusted by x-mass but so many stupid points dropped when Carlo lacked the ideas. He looks like a startled rabbit in the headlights of an oncoming skoda. To day I used the words what a f**k wit! He looks clueless when plan A doesn’t work. Truth of the matter is he is ONE DIMENTIONAL he can not adapt!!

After our loss to inter, It was good to see that we as fans for the most part accepted that we were beaten by the better team however the excuse of an aging squad was all to frequent.

Have a look at the team that dumped us out of the cup. Lucia, Samula, Cambiaso, Eto, Zanneti, right back who’s name escapes me at the moment, Pandev… we’re hardly talking spring chickens. Did inter have better players, NO… where they better managed. YES

In the first leg at home 2-1 up and Jose threw on another striker for 20 miniutes I had to laugh, he wanted it done and dusted there and he made the risk assessment and decided to go for it. 5 minutes to go he decides he will settle for what he has and plus one of his strikers of. Today, we have a fired up Blackburn coming at us and what does are manager do… I’m f**ked if I know. Seemed to stand there and watch

I have to admit that we have brought badly in the last few years.

Malouda is not fit to lick the dirt out of the stitches of robben’s boots.

Jose had the luxury of Cole and Duff in fantastic from which we haven’t seen since from either really. We no longer have the Makalaly. Zirckov is 18 million of back up leftback, Deco was past it a year before he joined but must have seen the great deal that sheva and ballak got at the Chelsea retirement home for the once great.

So it’s not just Carlo’s fault. I don’t know who’s buying the players but it’s clearly not the manager.

That said we still have enough to have won the league this season. We haven’t, We wont. Carlo’s fault!

In all honesty I think I’d rather have Claudio back.

[Valerie]

I confess to optimism when we signed Scolari, and once again when we signed Ancelotti. I really thought with their wealth of experience, we'd be a powerhouse of a club, competing for all the prizes. Both managers started brightly enough, then got trapped in the quagmire that is a tough Premiership, and being outsmarted in the CL.

People have been posting responses to criticism to Ancelotto along the lines like: how is being 2nd or 3rd a bad thing, semi final FA cup, blah-blah-blah. I would be pleased with 2nd or 3rd spot if we were a team with a never say die attitude, with a manager who throws on everything he's got in plan A to Z, even if we were outplayed by better clubs. But we're not such a team, haven't been for a while. The players are lacklustre, I doubt there's even a plan A, and putting on Sturridge in the 90th minute, what is that all about?

Wealth of experience or not, it's time for a younger manager with the right experience: in the Premiership, that is our bread and butter. Let him sign his own players, let them play with passion and don't expect silverware after 6 months. I would like to see Mark Hughes in that role, but I'm open to other suggestions.

AAaarrggh, I'm so frustrated!

Edited March 21, 2010 by Valerie

[Mod]

Agree with all that Val, great post!

[PloKoon13]

Did inter have better players, NO…

I'm not sure I agree with you on that.

Turnbull vs Julio Cesar

Cesar is pretty much the best keeper on the planet, and Turnbull is our third choice, who is more often than not a heart attack waiting to happen.

Ivanovic vs Maicon

Again, Maicon is pretty much the best right back on the planet. Ivanovic is hardly poor, but he's a converted centre back and can't compete with the athletic attacking pace of Maicon.

Terry / Alex vs Lucio / Samuel

Typically, I'd pick Terry as the best out of these four, but on current form he makes the odd mistake. Lucio and Samuel are seasoned pros who have competed at the highest level for years and are better than Alex, and on current form, Terry.

Zhirkov vs Zanetti

Zanetti has played in midfield and at full back for a long time, and has at various stages of his career been considered amongst the best on the planet. Zhirkov, while still good, is second choice, isn't as experienced, and is still fitting in with a new team.

Mikel vs Motta

Mikel is more often than not a pedestrian defensive mid, and doesn't possess the skill and experience of Motta. This is no contest.

Ballack vs Cambiasso

While he may once have been an international heavyweight, Ballack's new role has been to shoulder some of the defensive responsibility that Mikel cannot handle. He offers very little going forward, whereas Cambiasso is very creative and is comfortable with the ball at his feet.

Lampard vs Sneijder

Last season, this would have been no contest. Lampard used to be among the best in the world at tearing defences apart, but since Ancelotti's arrival seems to have degenerated into a mix of Ballack and Gerrard at their worst, uninvolved and restricted to taking potshots from outside the box in order to grab some headlines. Sneijder was their best man on both nights and wiped the floor with us. Lampard just isn't the same player any more, and Sneijder is hitting the top of his game. No contest.

Pandev vs Malouda

Both fairly inconsistent but are capable of producing quality if they are in the right mindset. I can't say there's a great deal between them.

Anelka vs Eto'o

As much as it pains me to say it because I hate the little c**t, Eto'o is a world class striker who has been among the very best for the lion's share of the last decade. His finish at the Bridge was brilliant, and while Anelka can punch with the best of them and is as classy a player as you will find, he is just not as consistently excellent as Eto'o is and has been.

Drogba vs Milito

Two completely different players, but Drogba is as strong as an ox, extremely fast, and is, on his day (to use the pundits' favourite word to describe him) completely unplayable. Drogba is quite simply one of, if not the best centre forward on the planet, and while Milito is promising, probably just as fast and very skillful, he just isn't in the same league as Drogba. Yet.

So Inter were better for us, man-for-man in nine out of eleven positions. If Ashley Cole, Essien, Bosingwa, etc had been playing it may have been a different matter entirely, but I think their first eleven is quite a bit better than ours.

[barak81]

Point taken on bored plokoon, and valid - cirtainly not the part of my poast I thought I would be debating.

Ok so What I would ask is, A year ago things may have been different, 4 years ago we arguably may have had one of the best starting 11 in the world. So how come we now coming of second best player to player to an inter team just as old if not older that our's. How did we get here, I mean zhirkov is 18 million.. hardly pocket money for a full back

[barak81]

Val, its always very annoying when some else sums up your redicuolsly long post in about 3 paragrphs... could you not have dragged it out a few more sentances

[german-blue]

Ok so What I would ask is, A year ago things may have been different, 4 years ago we arguably may have had one of the best starting 11 in the world. So how come we now coming of second best player to player to an inter team just as old if not older that our's. How did we get here, I mean zhirkov is 18 million.. hardly pocket money for a full back

I wouldnt really agree with that.

That player vs player comparison is not really fair because its not our fault that Essien and Ashley have been out. Without injuries our line-up is superior to Inter´s line-up imo.

[PloKoon13]

I wouldnt really agree with that.

That player vs player comparison is not really fair because its not our fault that Essien and Ashley have been out. Without injuries our line-up is superior to Inter´s line-up imo.

If Ashley Cole, Essien, Bosingwa, etc had been playing it may have been a different matter entirely

[Valerie]

Val, its always very annoying when some else sums up your redicuolsly long post in about 3 paragrphs... could you not have dragged it out a few more sentances :)

Don't worry, you're still superior:

Malouda is not fit to lick the dirt out of the stitches of robben’s boots.... Deco was past it a year before he joined but must have seen the great deal that Sheva and Ballack got at the Chelsea retirement home for the once great.

:D

[DetroitBlue]

......

[g3.7]

Ok so What I would ask is, A year ago things may have been different, 4 years ago we arguably may have had one of the best starting 11 in the world. So how come we now coming of second best player to player to an inter team just as old if not older that our's. How did we get here, I mean zhirkov is 18 million.. hardly pocket money for a full back

the respective ages of the sides doesn't matter much... players peak at different ages in any case, a 31 year old maka is a far better player than a 24 year old one for example.

look at what has happened over those four years- instability has cost us.

I posted this a few weeks ago and I still think it applies:

what I don't want to see is the board / roman / fan pressure cause us to push the massive reset button (i.e. sack ancelotti in the summer). that is how you end up with a squad comprised of signings by four or five different people (with different ideas about how to construct a side). what we have is a squad that when scrutinised or compared against the standard we aim for clearly looks thrown together. they are very good individuals, but we've ended up with a squad that doesn't suit any system perfectly. either too many players here, or too few there. a situation where players have to be crowbarred into positions where it is hard for them to be at their best.

whether ancelotti does the signing or not, we need to sign in the summer, and EVERY first team signing needs to be coherent with the managers ideas.