11 hours ago, Gordon Bennett said:

When we pushed Enzo high it was without an inverted full back so we basically had a 4-1-5 formation with Caicedo isolated.

With full back inverted Enzo pushes forward and has the ability to unlock a defence with his passing.

Enzo playing high. 

Gallagher, Caicedo deeper. 

I just dont see Enzo as a 10 no matter how much cover he has. Rivaldo was a 10 shame we can't bring him in. I don't even see Enzo as an 8 in the mold of Lampard. that would be Chukky if ever fit. Surely Enzo is more like Pirlo?

Edited May 31, 20242 yr by ozboy

As well as building a great team spirit Ancelotti's particular skill, it seems to me, is to find a system to fit the players rather than the other way round. And to put players where they will shine.

I am trying to be positive but it is so hard. We went from hiring the special one to hiring the anonymous one. The idea that he would come good, just because he was bringing coffee to Pep for a season doesn’t convince me. 
He will come in a really toxic environment and I don’t think that he will have time to build his style of play for a season, but will need to instead hit the ground running. Let’s hope we are lucky and maybe there is something in him.

gusto  (fof) Colwill cucu

enzo

caicedo Chukwumeka

sterling jackson nkunku

cucu helps enzo out defensively, Chukwumeka will have to work hard coming deep. James and Gusto share the job since neither stays fit for long. A new ball playing centre back is the highest priority in my mind ( a weird place to be sure) I am thinking Silva from Benfica might fit the bill.

8 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Enzo playing high. 

Gallagher, Caicedo deeper. 

Not at all structurally the same. 
 

Colwill playing touchline LB. 
Slow backline 
Who will feed Mudryk? 
6 defensive players. 

 

As opposed to this. 

 

Enzo will be an 8 under Maresca I reckon with licence to attack. I’m really hoping Lavia and Caicedo are able to play together as a double pivot.

That’s the midfield I’ve wanted to see all season. Lavia is a very good player and Maresca knows all about him from his City youth days prior to being Pep’s assistant.

I’ll be absolutely shocked if Gallagher is here next season.

 

Have no high hopes. Don't think the board have a clue. What's the point of a 5 year contract and only giving Poch 2? I'll be amazed if he sees it through. Tough times when I don't expect anything positive.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Not at all structurally the same. 
 

Colwill playing touchline LB. 
Slow backline 
Who will feed Mudryk? 
6 defensive players. 

 

As opposed to this. 

 

So if maresca push Enzo up high, it is not a player misprofile because the fb invert. 

43 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

Have no high hopes. Don't think the board have a clue. What's the point of a 5 year contract and only giving Poch 2? I'll be amazed if he sees it through. Tough times when I don't expect anything positive.

His salary demand is probably much lower than poch. 

21 hours ago, Bob stark said:

We have tried pushing Enzo high, not a good idea. 

You can push Caicedo up high and enzo low which mean one of Nkunku/Palmer has to play as winger 

Makes sense for Palmer to play as a winger, seeing as he's a winger

Death, taxes....and a new Chelsea manager every 6-18 months. I hope Maresca does well here. I like him, and he seems to have good ideas that will match pair with our squad nicely.

The decision to chase Pochettino out of town though doesn't sit well with me. Poch did a good job all things considered. Clearlake and Eghbali have decided to pursue a model though that looks good on paper, but is very hard to execute in practice. At some point they will realize they need to change course, but it's a shame that we are in this situation now.

18 hours ago, strider6004 said:

If Maresca is coming with 8 backing staff we need to applaud the club for backing the chap.

One of the staff is meant to be a set piece specialist. 

I wouldn't hold your breath, although we managed to stem the flow of goals conceded from corners in our relegation season, our set piece stats were still appalling in the championship. Only 9 goals scored from SPs, 15th in the championship (probably because we lost Madders) and 11 goals conceded, 11th in the championship, behind the likes of Huddersfield 😱

Anyway, looks like it's a done deal now, just waiting for the formal announcements.  TBF I do think Maresca will be a top manager in time, not sure that he is ready for a top job yet but we'll see.  Good luck folks.😉

We will definitely need a shed (scuse the pun) load of luck to stay up this season with our impending points deduction and restrictions on transfers.🤞

See you in the Prem in the summer.

Visiting Fox signing off

Actually, I've just read that you are retaining your own existing set piece coach... A wise move 😂

 

8 hours ago, DarkMata said:

Man Utd just released/leaked some new rules Radcliffe is implementing.  No players over 25, no galacticos, Wilcox determines the style of football, and the players signed not the manager.  It definitely seems to be a new trend.  Don’t think the fans are too happy with it but these lot don’t give a sh*t what we want.

If us fans were listened to in the past Jose 1.0, Conte and Tuchel would have never arrived.

The last thing I'd want are owners who factored in the average fan opinion, we'd have current Jose back right now if they did.

12 hours ago, JM7 said:

It is interesting what clubs are doing now. Managers like Conte, Tuchel, Jose etc are all available and no big clubs are touching them. They’re going young..

Ironically all those three managers got their first big club job a similar way.

Jose and Tuchel were poached from mid table while Conte after a promotion.

Imo inverted fb stuff is not the most important

How do we get a balance team with Enzo and now Caicedo in midfield? 

Potter tried multiple combination and the best one was 343 but we all know this is not what the board want to do. 

Lamp tried 

Kante - Conor 

Enzo

I wrote a simple analysis last season when we played against Arse. Enzo was lost many times. 

Poch tried many different combination and

Conor 

Enzo - Caicedo 

is kinda the best, not sure it is super balance, but it is what it is. Preferably you want one of the winger of be good defensively but that is whole another story. 

Some want us to play 

Enzo - Caicedo 

DM

This is fine but you need both of your fb to give you something in final third and if you want to push both fb high, 343 is probably the more balance system. 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 20242 yr by Bob stark

On paper one thing I'm looking forward to is actually being able to control games. There weren't many occasions last season in games we've won where we the other team didn't look like they were going to equalise.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

If us fans were listened to in the past Jose 1.0, Conte and Tuchel would have never arrived.

The last thing I'd want are owners who factored in the average fan opinion, we'd have current Jose back right now if they did.

Ironically all those three managers got their first big club job a similar way.

Jose and Tuchel were poached from mid table while Conte after a promotion.

It's not the hiring of managers I was thinking more of these directors choosing to play this slow possession based brand of football that is not what the fans want or what the clubs have been known for historically.  The Premier league is eventually going to be a slow paced boring pass-a-thon with every director dictating this style.  Are we going to lose the clash of styles and differing philosophies like the Heavy metal football of Klopp vs Peps possession football?   Is it possible now for a Conte to win the league by changing to a wingback system?   Mourinho, Fergie, and Wenger etc seemed to change the league in a way that teams adapted tried to one up the competition, it seems Peps dominance has forced the league to say if you can't beat 'em join 'em.  We'll all be forced to watch Spurs to watch any entertaining football at this rate and no-one wants that.

Edited May 31, 20242 yr by DarkMata

repeat. bollocks

Edited May 31, 20242 yr by DarkMata

8 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Enzo playing high. 

Gallagher, Caicedo deeper. 

This is a bit different, you are providing a scenario where Enzo is playing further forward at the expense of another creative player e.g Enzo is 1 of 4 attacking players

With an inverted fullback, Enzo would be pushing up to join 4 other attacking players, becoming 1 of 5.Theres a huge difference in him being played as a 10 with only wingers and a forward around him, compared to playing as an 8 thats expected to go forward but having the ability to affect play from slightly deeper.

There is an argument to be had that if he has the support of players such as Nkunku and Palmer (+Another winger and forward) it takes the pressure off of him to force passes and be out main creasive outlet. The lineup you have picked from, he is playing with Mudryk, Jackson and Sterling. 

46 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

It's not the hiring of managers I was thinking more of these directors choosing to play this slow possession based brand of football that is not what the fans want or what the clubs have been known for historically.  The Premier league is eventually going to be a slow paced boring pass-a-thon with every director dictating this style.  Are we going to lose the clash of styles and differing philosophies like the Heavy metal football of Klopp vs Peps possession football?   Is it possible now for a Conte to win the league by changing to a wingback system?   Mourinho, Fergie, and Wenger etc seemed to change the league in a way that teams adapted tried to one up the competition, it seems Peps dominance has forced the league to say if you can't beat 'em join 'em.  We'll all be forced to watch Spurs to watch any entertaining football at this rate and no-one wants that.

We can't have an attitude of 'This isn't the type of football we are known for histrocially'. United have been stuck in that loop for over a decade with their fans and pundits pressuring the existing set up and comparing to what came before. 

Football is massively diffferent to what it was when we last won the league, to when Jose first rocked up and long before. Whilst you could be correct, football may get stuck in a period of everyone playing a 'boring' style of football. But it will evolve again. Either someone will tweak it slightly and it will be much of the same or someone will come in with something completely new that exposes weaknesses in the possession style of football.

21 minutes ago, Niall1905 said:

We can't have an attitude of 'This isn't the type of football we are known for histrocially'. United have been stuck in that loop for over a decade with their fans and pundits pressuring the existing set up and comparing to what came before. 

Football is massively diffferent to what it was when we last won the league, to when Jose first rocked up and long before. Whilst you could be correct, football may get stuck in a period of everyone playing a 'boring' style of football. But it will evolve again. Either someone will tweak it slightly and it will be much of the same or someone will come in with something completely new that exposes weaknesses in the possession style of football.

Mostly an over exaggeration on my part, and I do agree with what you're saying, but would we ever have had the Pep revolution if he's was told how to play rather than he himself deciding.  Just feel we are going backwards with this philosophy.   What I would say is if this doesn't work out the directors need to be held responsible rather than the manager alway being the fall guy, but aren't they the ones doing the hiring and firing?

Hopefully they've finally got the man to implement their vision and everything will workout brilliantly.

Edited May 31, 20242 yr by DarkMata

Maresca might push for a striker like Osimhen or Vlahovic that isn't up for a new contract, which would mean a tough competition for Jackson.

8 hours ago, Bob stark said:

So if maresca push Enzo up high, it is not a player misprofile because the fb invert. 

Correct. The issue was the structure, mainly Caicedo and the LW isolated.

 

 

 

On 28/05/2024 at 12:50, Niall1905 said:

Having had a bit of a think about this appointment, im glad we have gone for Enzo over McKenna. For me, the fact that Leicster didn't walk the league and the fact he isn't the hottest prospect in the world comforts me slightly. McKenna would have been a 'flavour of the month' appointment. He's been getting all the media attention and praise for what he has done, and rightly so. But that can often lead to people getting carried away with themselves and ignoring flaws or simply buying into the hype.

Maresca is clearly highly thought of, but in a similar way to how Bayern have decided on Kompany, we're hiring him based on his philosphy, how he's interviewed with the board and what we percieve his strengths to be. That is scary given our current set up's track record, but at least they have gone slightly against the grain with what could have been seen as an 'easy appointment' with McKenna. Wether people like boring Sarri style football or not, the board clearly want more control in our performances with the money being spent. I do get that to an extent, you dont want to spend 1bn and have to play sufferball evertime you play a top team. It would be nice to be the team on the front foot and in control.

I wanted RDZ once the 'shortlist' came out. But now the dust has settled a bit, we were right to not go with him if there were concerns about how he would work within our set up. Wether you agree with the set up or not, I can only imagine the meltdown if he got us top 4 but fell out with the board and we started this again next summer after sacking another manger for 'non sporting' reasons.

Would have much preferred McKenna if I'm honest. Have seen plenty of interviews with him and he always comes across really well. What he has achieved at Ipswich is phenomenal. They were going nowhere under previous managers and he has won them back to back promotions and has them in PL AND playing a decent brand of football. For me, he looked the much better appointment but that said and done, it's refreshing in this day & age how he has committed his future to Ipswich and good luck to him and them. No doubt he will move on at some point (probably to United due to the connections etc), but happy for Ipswich supporters who must have been fearing the worst.

So will just have to get behind Maresca and hope he surprises us.