2 hours ago, olderschoolcfc said:

Mate, We're not even giving managers more than six months. I just dont get how a new manager every six months works when you do need just a grain of stability for ideas and tactics to develop. 

We've been absolutely spoiled with the names of the best managers to have graced the game coming and going from CFC. right now, I think we've exhausted most options. 

I dont know who is better than poch who will come and work with the constraints imposed on the manager here currently or do a better job. 

Bingo

I feel like a manager has got to be perfect to win over a big portion of our fanbase. We've had managers instantly win over the fans after a good period, but as soon as the going gets tough many are quick to abandon ship. 

The reality is it's going to be another midtable finish, it's sh*t but we've had a complete restart in the team. We need to ride it out, we chop and change and we're right back where we started and it doesn't exactly send a good message to impressional young players. 

2 hours ago, bisright1 said:

I'm pretty certain that either de zerbi turns us down. Or he joins and he's sh*t. I've got no enthusiasm for us chasing him at all. 

Amorin I have doubts on as well. The more I think about it the more I'd rather we back and then struggle with Poch (or succeed) for another season and then we go for a new manager. There's too many clubs looking for a new coach this year that we will either f**k it up or end up with Poch with no credibility with the players. 

I think these reports aren't a coincidence. The timing of it is, but I feel like the club have been looking for contingency plans since late January. 

Personally, I think the club have had a magnifying glass on De Zerbi since 2022. Everything else has been whitenoise. 

 

2 minutes ago, Argo said:

 

Check out the pass map for that game. Bonkers. 

3 hours ago, olderschoolcfc said:

Mate, We're not even giving managers more than six months. I just dont get how a new manager every six months works when you do need just a grain of stability for ideas and tactics to develop. 

We've been absolutely spoiled with the names of the best managers to have graced the game coming and going from CFC. right now, I think we've exhausted most options. 

I dont know who is better than poch who will come and work with the constraints imposed on the manager here currently or do a better job. 

6 months with 2 months pre-season and we look no better than we did when he arrived, no other top club would accept the results we have had this season, we aren't talking about a team struggling to get in the top 4, we've been turned into a team struggling to get in the top 10 and it's by and large the fault of Pochettino. He's been handed some of the most sought after young players in world football and has us behind Wolves in the table. You might be willing to accept this mediocrity but I'm not, most of the fans are not and to be honest I don't think the owners will either by the time it gets to summer. 
 

I find it impossible to believe that there isn't a manager out there willing to come to us that couldn't turn this squad into a team challenging for top 4. Poch was the best of a bad bunch last season but this season there are some very good options out there.

49 minutes ago, Argo said:

 

There are multiple reasons why we're a top 10 team and not a top 4 team, this is one of them.

Edited March 5, 20242 yr by Gol15

"we aren't talking about a team struggling to get in the top 4, we've been turned into a team struggling to get in the top 10 and it's by and large the fault of Pochettino."

did you see us last season, if so who was the manager? sorry, who were the managers? How is our downturn related to our current manager when he's been here 7 months and we finished the league 12 last season. I get it you folk need someone to blame but when I see another "I won't stand for it" - it just reads and sounds like a man child whining on like you're entitled to win the league every season. I genuinely feel sorry that you feel the way about the club, you'll get over it. 

Despite having admiration for what roman did for us, we are still facing oblivion because of him, how he ran the club and facing a possible relegation via FFP. Im not sure CFC can work any other way aside from buying young and developing them into something and that takes time and patience. 

 

24 minutes ago, olderschoolcfc said:

"we aren't talking about a team struggling to get in the top 4, we've been turned into a team struggling to get in the top 10 and it's by and large the fault of Pochettino."

did you see us last season, if so who was the manager? sorry, who were the managers? How is our downturn related to our current manager when he's been here 7 months and we finished the league 12 last season. I get it you folk need someone to blame but when I see another "I won't stand for it" - it just reads and sounds like a man child whining on like you're entitled to win the league every season. I genuinely feel sorry that you feel the way about the club, you'll get over it. 

Despite having admiration for what roman did for us, we are still facing oblivion because of him, how he ran the club and facing a possible relegation via FFP. Im not sure CFC can work any other way aside from buying young and developing them into something and that takes time and patience. 

 

Fair enough, I thought you'd be mature enough to actually have a conversation about it but if you feel the need to try and get personal and call me a man child because my opinion is different to yours then you can go and bore someone else.

1 hour ago, Victor90 said:

Bingo

I feel like a manager has got to be perfect to win over a big portion of our fanbase. We've had managers instantly win over the fans after a good period, but as soon as the going gets tough many are quick to abandon ship. 

The reality is it's going to be another midtable finish, it's sh*t but we've had a complete restart in the team. We need to ride it out, we chop and change and we're right back where we started and it doesn't exactly send a good message to impressional young players. 

Surely there's a middle ground between being 11th and being perfect? Unless you're overly optimistic I think most fans would have accepted around 6th this season if there were signs of us going in the right direction but there isn't. At the start of the season we dropped points against teams like Forest and Bournemouth which was crap but you can put that down to teething problems with a new team. We're now in March and we've just set up defensively against one of the worst teams in the league and drew. As a team we look not better than we did in August and the fault of that has to fall on the manager, there's only so often Poch can put the blame on everything but himself.

Go back to the f**king league expectations thread and you will see the general consensus was 6th-4th, progression on the pitch and winning a domestic trophy. 

Expecting to win the league. Give me break. 

4 hours ago, strider6004 said:

I just think he might be good in the longer term yet the reaction of the home crowd will not give him time and that will determine the situation. 

 

I'm not convinced the Clearwater people will take our supporters into account in their decision making process 🤔 There's a 'we know best' vibe about them.

I don't think Poch is completely blameless but compared to last season, I do see improvements.  Last year we went about 20 odd games with scoring like 4 goals, that is atrocious.  As a season ticket holder, since the early 80s, I don't recall one game last season when I left the Bridge thinking that was a good game.  This season, I have....  There has  been poor games too but there has been some good, exciting games.

When we go behind, I think we can come back, last season zero chance of coming back.  Its frustrating that Poch can't get a run together, but equally, he hasn't had a bad run of loss after loss either (i.e. it's like W, W, L, D, L, D, W etc), so for most games, I'm thinking we have a chance, just depends which team turns up on the day.

I'm willing to give him next season with a proven striker.  If we are in the same position then no excuse but if we had a proven striker this year, we would be where say Spurs are in the league and we would have won the league cup based on all the chances we have missed throughout the season.  Most of us would be happy with that.

I see Poch more of a transition manager, like Ranieri was when he had to create a new team after the Wise, Di Matteo, Poyet, Petrescu team got old.  Get us in a good position and them make way for a winning manager (after Poch has done most of the ground work.....).

53 minutes ago, olderschoolcfc said:

"we aren't talking about a team struggling to get in the top 4, we've been turned into a team struggling to get in the top 10 and it's by and large the fault of Pochettino."

did you see us last season, if so who was the manager? sorry, who were the managers? How is our downturn related to our current manager when he's been here 7 months and we finished the league 12 last season. I get it you folk need someone to blame but when I see another "I won't stand for it" - it just reads and sounds like a man child whining on like you're entitled to win the league every season. I genuinely feel sorry that you feel the way about the club, you'll get over it. 

Despite having admiration for what roman did for us, we are still facing oblivion because of him, how he ran the club and facing a possible relegation via FFP. Im not sure CFC can work any other way aside from buying young and developing them into something and that takes time and patience. 

 

Just because we were crap last season (and even then a lot of the performances in Potter's last month or two eclipse anything we've seen from Poch) doesn't mean Poch can't be crap.

Two things can be true. And this is more than about just results, even if we were doing a United and sh*thousing our way into outside top 5 contention the problems many are having with him will still be there.

33 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Surely there's a middle ground between being 11th and being perfect? Unless you're overly optimistic I think most fans would have accepted around 6th this season if there were signs of us going in the right direction but there isn't. At the start of the season we dropped points against teams like Forest and Bournemouth which was crap but you can put that down to teething problems with a new team. We're now in March and we've just set up defensively against one of the worst teams in the league and drew. As a team we look not better than we did in August and the fault of that has to fall on the manager, there's only so often Poch can put the blame on everything but himself.

I would say you're overly optimistic given the fact you said these players are capable of challenging for the title a couple of pages back. 

I don't think we're as sh*t as Whats_The_Mata does (god forbid) but we're definitely a distance away from being as good as the likes of Liverpool, City, and Arsenal on paper. I would say the likes of Enzo, Colwill, and Caicedo are playing to about 3/10 of what they're capable of, the rest of them I'm really not that sure... The only players in this team that I think are top drawer and are typically showing it week in week out are Palmer and Gusto, everyone else is miles away. 

I've said it so many times, I think Pochettino is underdelivering, the team shape is just not acceptable and I expected better performances. But I most certainly believe this goes far deeper than the manager and I don't think sacking him right now is the ideal solution. 

2 hours ago, Argo said:

 

Unfortunately this is something we've seen time and again from Poch - a defensive unit, an attacking unit, and absolutely nothing in between. It's one of his hallmarks and the fact he doesn't seem to be learning is I think why many have lost patience.

24 minutes ago, Gonoir Beniashile said:

Unfortunately this is something we've seen time and again from Poch - a defensive unit, an attacking unit, and absolutely nothing in between. It's one of his hallmarks and the fact he doesn't seem to be learning is I think why many have lost patience.

 

Compared to De Zerbi it's like night and day

3 hours ago, Argo said:

 

Same sh*t it's been all season. No midfield. Just a back 4, maybe Caicedo on his own if we're lucky, then everyone else is pressed right forward. He changed it for one game against Villa and had Enzo and Caicedo much deeper and closer and it worked well, then he immediately ditched it and went back to the same old sh*t. It's pathetic how obvious this issue is and yet a manager paid millions of pounds a year can't seem to see it, or is just too stupid to change it.

1 hour ago, timetowaste said:

Surely there's a middle ground between being 11th and being perfect? Unless you're overly optimistic I think most fans would have accepted around 6th this season if there were signs of us going in the right direction but there isn't. At the start of the season we dropped points against teams like Forest and Bournemouth which was crap but you can put that down to teething problems with a new team. We're now in March and we've just set up defensively against one of the worst teams in the league and drew. As a team we look not better than we did in August and the fault of that has to fall on the manager, there's only so often Poch can put the blame on everything but himself.

I would take it a step further. I think most would accept us being even lower in the league, if there were signs of progression.

I have no issues with losing every game between no and the end of the season, if it means we get to see the team develop a spine, and identity and a system. At the moment, we seem to be put of ideas - and its the shame dross week in week out.

18 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

I would take it a step further. I think most would accept us being even lower in the league, if there were signs of progression.

I have no issues with losing every game between no and the end of the season, if it means we get to see the team develop a spine, and identity and a system. At the moment, we seem to be put of ideas - and its the shame dross week in week out.

At the same time it needs to develop a winning spine, identity and system. Those two cannot be excluded. We need to learn to win. This is something I see Pochettino struggles really much. He wants the players to learn his system with the knowledge of losing here and there but keeping hold of the system and identity and balancing all that with the need to win. This is something you can see he is frustrated about. The injuries really don't help.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Go back to the f**king league expectations thread and you will see the general consensus was 6th-4th, progression on the pitch and winning a domestic trophy. 

Expecting to win the league. Give me break. 

I had us down for anywhere between 9th and 13th before a ball was kicked.

Expectations were massively inflated because we're called Chelsea and spent huge amounts on players but anyone who looked at the players themselves was lying to themselves if they thought top 6 was realistic.

If Luton had gone into the season with Jackson and Broja as their strikers and Madueke and Mudryk as their wingers no one would have backed them to stay up because no one has shown they can score goals at PL level.

That's all we had + Palmer a kid with a total of 0 career league goals and a Sterling who many don't rate.

it's been a huge improvement since last season when we couldn't buy a goal but  I have doubts about Poch's ability to manage games and he probably isn't the man to take us to the top but very few of our players are ever getting near the top regardless of the manager.

Edited March 5, 20242 yr by Whats_The_Mata?

56 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Same sh*t it's been all season. No midfield. Just a back 4, maybe Caicedo on his own if we're lucky, then everyone else is pressed right forward. He changed it for one game against Villa and had Enzo and Caicedo much deeper and closer and it worked well, then he immediately ditched it and went back to the same old sh*t. It's pathetic how obvious this issue is and yet a manager paid millions of pounds a year can't seem to see it, or is just too stupid to change it.

And yet we're suppose to believe that adequate coaching won't change anything.

Just the most basic change you've pointed out will in and off itself be a huge improvement.

Someone else pointed out that brentford started punting long balls at the defence in h2 and we didn’t deal well wiith them. 

we are better than last season to watch, particularly in h1. Might as well leave at half time though, we are relegation fodder in h2. Poch has had 2/3 of a season to work that out, no doubt assisted by his sports scientist son the assistant coach . Quick on the uptake those young fellas. 

The thing is, are we better to watch because of the change in manager or the change in players or both? I think the 

Maybe if we go for De Zerbi he'll get the best out of Mudryk, since he was his manager at Shakthar. I think of the options available: De Zerbi, Amorim, Alonso, etc... he seems the most likely and probably the best choice. Though it's annoying going to Brighton yet again

19 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Maybe if we go for De Zerbi he'll get the best out of Mudryk, since he was his manager at Shakthar. I think of the options available: De Zerbi, Amorim, Alonso, etc... he seems the most likely and probably the best choice. Though it's annoying going to Brighton yet again

Aye, De Zerbi also got Caicedo playing at a world class level, so definitely positive reasons for an appointment. He does however have an appalling relationship with Robert Sanchez and I wonder whether tactically he's been sussed out at this point?

De Zerbi gives off big fish small pond vibes. No idea how he’ll be at a big club.