This win will give him huge head now. We are stuck with him for another 4 years after that.

Difficult to gauge this win given Liverpool were on the beach, but I thought this was a coming together performance.

Thought first half plan was spot on. Second half little of the same but Slot’s changes made us panic a little bit but Maresca addressed it accordingly by putting on Gusto + James.

If we just embrace the creative elements of our players vs “trying to control matches” we’ll be fine.

Jackson smh. This guy.

Edited May 4, 20251 yr by Sconnie Blue

It looked to me today that the players want to play for him again!

I will give Maresca credit today, I thought the plan to hit them on the counter was great. I didn’t expect him to actually do that was expecting the usual pass pass pass.

Very slow on the changes though to address the ones made by Slot, could have cost us on another day.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Jackson smh. This guy.

😂

We've made it very difficult for ourselves relying on these 3 final fixtures, but if we can get 5th place that is a good achievement and big turnaround from the sh*te we've had to endure.

Still not sold on Maresca at all, but I'll always give the manager credit where it's due.

What mostly frustrates me about it all is that this season was the perfect season to build on something and comfortably grab a top 4 spot with so many top teams imploding. We've dropped some very silly points that should've been easy wins.

17 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

We've made it very difficult for ourselves relying on these 3 final fixtures, but if we can get 5th place that is a good achievement and big turnaround from the sh*te we've had to endure.

Still not sold on Maresca at all, but I'll always give the manager credit where it's due.

What mostly frustrates me about it all is that this season was the perfect season to build on something and comfortably grab a top 4 spot with so many top teams imploding. We've dropped some very silly points that should've been easy wins.

Nevermind 5th, we should be targeting beating Newcastle and going above them.

8 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

This is the wrong club to make these kinds of comments. How many times in Abramovich's era did we manage to do the opposite of what he is saying?

There was more to this interview as well and he went into why we don't play quicker football

The only thing I agree with is that we are poor in transition when we play a quicker style, but he talks like switching to a slower style has improved things. He's partially solved one problem with the slower style, but he's thrown more problems on top. The performances are worse, the results are worse, the wingers are doubled up on, nobody can find space and our best player may as well not even play anymore.

Well, we played quicker today and see how that’s worked! And the stands were jumping with excitement. The bloke is full of BS.

On 02/05/2025 at 12:15, Mod said:

RW here, Pacey as f**k…. Then I discovered Benson & Hedges!

Centre half, then Beer.

Maresca said, after the game, we did not play the way he wanted us to play but we had to adapt due to how Liverpool pressed us back.

Maybe try adapting to other sides too when Maresca ball is failing.

On 02/05/2025 at 23:02, Sconnie Blue said:

Interesting.

I've always been on the side that the greater the volume of explosive moments that put stress on the hamstrings, like sprinting, creates more risk of injuring the fast-twitch muscles in the hamstring. Wingers/Wingbacks will always have more explosive movements sprinting up and down the pitch to get back to position vs a midfielder.

I played left wing in college. Tore my ACL and had a hamstring graft. Couldn't play left wing anymore without chronic hamstring injuries. Finished my final year at DM and didn't experience a single injury. It was sore after every match, but no reaggravations.

In conventional theory it isn't just volume or intensity, it's also direction, which is what the studies above expand upon. If you look at a diagram of a knee joint it is fairly intuitive as to why - the cruciate ligaments form a X, which is strongest moving forward and back, not side-to-side.

Once an injury occurs though, that is the most likely cause of further injury. Scar tissue just isn't the same. So the same movements, muscles etc all become the most likely point of future failure. This is probably where players like James and Chilwell will suffer. The game completely changes once that first injury occurs - which again, is why I believe football is truly f**king up its young players with the crazy schedules etc.

Changing position and role can reduce overall volume and intensity, so that's two main factors ticked off even if the 3rd is slightly increased. And let's be honest, if you're playing more like Jorginho than Kante, you're not going to be making too many energetic lateral movements at DM!

15 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

This is the wrong club to make these kinds of comments. How many times in Abramovich's era did we manage to do the opposite of what he is saying?

There was more to this interview as well and he went into why we don't play quicker football

The only thing I agree with is that we are poor in transition when we play a quicker style, but he talks like switching to a slower style has improved things. He's partially solved one problem with the slower style, but he's thrown more problems on top. The performances are worse, the results are worse, the wingers are doubled up on, nobody can find space and our best player may as well not even play anymore.

From enjoyment pov, I hate slow tippy tappy football but for result, it is a fine way to play football. I have no problem with it.

My problem is more "manager need time" which is what Maresca was saying. I used to believe in that statement but I have never seen it work.

In Conte first season we won the league, surely we should be better the next season but we replaced Costa n Matic with Morata n bakayoko and we dropped to 5th.

Klopp finished 8th in his first season and 4th the next. Do they get better because they spend more time with Klopp or because they signed mane n wijnaldum?

12 hours ago, Victor90 said:

We've made it very difficult for ourselves relying on these 3 final fixtures, but if we can get 5th place that is a good achievement and big turnaround from the sh*te we've had to endure.

Still not sold on Maresca at all, but I'll always give the manager credit where it's due.

What mostly frustrates me about it all is that this season was the perfect season to build on something and comfortably grab a top 4 spot with so many top teams imploding. We've dropped some very silly points that should've been easy wins.

So many teams are 'imploding' because the league is at its height on its level. Every relegation fodder side has a coach that actually knows football and has tons of quality. Use data to prepare the team and learn the opponent.

I would say City is the only side that really dropped off but they lost their Ballon dor winner in Rodri and DeBruyne was off most season.

This is the Prem now.

We lost 4 points to Ipswich. On a day any team can lose to Ipswich. The margins are so small.

I think Newcastle, Arsenal and Villa held on to their levels. All have great squads and tons of experience.

Liverpool were above and beyond everyone else and they had a perfect season in the Prem.

51 minutes ago, evissy said:

So many teams are 'imploding' because the league is at its height on its level. Every relegation fodder side has a coach that actually knows football and has tons of quality. Use data to prepare the team and learn the opponent.

I would say City is the only side that really dropped off but they lost their Ballon dor winner in Rodri and DeBruyne was off most season.

This is the Prem now.

We lost 4 points to Ipswich. On a day any team can lose to Ipswich. The margins are so small.

I think Newcastle, Arsenal and Villa held on to their levels. All have great squads and tons of experience.

Liverpool were above and beyond everyone else and they had a perfect season in the Prem.

Only 4 teams have this season. If the margins were so small, then they would have won more games. The tactics in our games against Ipswich weren't anything special. We got bullied by Delap in the away game and didn't turn up for the home game until the 2nd half.

3 hours ago, Bob stark said:

From enjoyment pov, I hate slow tippy tappy football but for result, it is a fine way to play football. I have no problem with it.

My problem is more "manager need time" which is what Maresca was saying. I used to believe in that statement but I have never seen it work.

In Conte first season we won the league, surely we should be better the next season but we replaced Costa n Matic with Morata n bakayoko and we dropped to 5th.

Klopp finished 8th in his first season and 4th the next. Do they get better because they spend more time with Klopp or because they signed mane n wijnaldum?

Conte squeezed out everything from the squad and he was as good as gone after that. I don't think we need his profile of a coach in the club. Tuchel is very similar as a coach. They won a lot with us I don't deny that but left the house burning as well.

I think we need consistency in squad building and a coach that wants to work with that. I think we need to look at what Arsenal and Liverpool are doing in terms of that. If we need to replace the coach we find a coach that fits the profile. Under Roman we didn't really have that in terms of players or coaches.

Doesn't scrub up too badly when he ditches all the training gear !

I missed the very start of the game, but my daughter pointed out that there was a team huddle with Maresca, and most of the players showed no attention to what he was saying. as soon as he moved away, they all went back into a huddle and concentration altered completely. I think we didn't play how he wanted, because the players decided how they wanted to play. Like the game he was banned for, which Willie openly encouraged them on the sidelines. We suspect the players and other coaching staff are deliberatly changing the style, more to suit the team.

My man of the match would have been Trent-Alexander, had his collision with Maresca sidelined him for the rest of the season.

Just seen that United have the Europa League final that Wednesday the week after they play us. They will definitely rotate against us.

Get a result against Newcastle we could put ourselves in a great position before Forest.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Just seen that United have the Europa League final that Wednesday the week after they play us. They will definitely rotate against us.

Get a result against Newcastle we could put ourselves in a great position before Forest.

The United game is on the Friday beforehand. Lots of recovery time.

47 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

The United game is on the Friday beforehand. Lots of recovery time.

Their entire season is defined by that final. One game.

There’s zero chance they take our game seriously.

20 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Their entire season is defined by that final. One game.

There’s zero chance they take our game seriously.

You might be right, they do sometimes step it up for the big games though

Edited May 5, 20251 yr by axman2526

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

You might be right, they do sometimes step it up for the big games though

They have been quite hard to crack vs the big teams - they’ve taken points off most big teams this season. That said, a week before their big final, I suspect they will rotate heavily and we will still need to be at our best.

Wow wow wow! Hang on a second @axman2526, I think that we (Athletic) still have a chance? If the ref doesn’t help Utd as they normally do, we can beat them 4-0

Just realized that if we beat Newcastle and Liverpool beat Arsenal, Arsenal are only 1 point ahead of us with them having to face Newcastle (who is their bogey team) and we face a United side that will likely field their B/C team.

There's a possibility we could finish above Arsenal 💀

1 hour ago, RMH said:

Wow wow wow! Hang on a second @axman2526, I think that we (Athletic) still have a chance? If the ref doesn’t help Utd as they normally do, we can beat them 4-0