8 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Sure adaptability is good and Maresca has shown that, his half time adjustments has been quite good general.

It is hard to argue that Maresca tactic is bad we finished 4th which is kinda what most expected. You can argue whether this tactic suit certain player but that is different conversation.

Honestly, your assessment of him early in the season was right all along. He hasn't improved our players at all with his formations, tactics and how he wants to play the game.

He's probably better as a manager in the short term in terms of making a makeshift team. This combined with how our board has setup the framework of transfers has lead to some really awkward teambuilding

Edited June 25, 20251 yr by Deino

Atletico Madrid made the champions league final 9 years ago so we should be happy we made the round of 16 and they didn’t.

MORE bo**ocks FROM COCO THE CLOWN

Enzo Maresca addressed in his post match press conference last night, comparing Santos’ readiness with Liam Delap’s.

We have no doubt Liam will score goals for us. No doubt about that. We expected the [adaptation] process to be quick with Liam. The reason why is because we know him and he knows us with the way we play.”

HERE IT COMES

For Dário [Essugo], Andrey [Santos] or Mamadou [Sarr] it is going to be a little bit more complicated and they need time because they don’t know exactly how we play.

SORRY?

I THINK EVERYONE KNOWS HOW WE PLAY

sideways, backwards, sideways, forward, sideways, backwards…

Rinse and repeat

Edited June 25, 20251 yr by Caps_Lock_King

The opposition certainly know how we play, they even let us ‘control the game’ sometimes🙄.

On 24/06/2025 at 21:25, Scott Harris said:

Not true at all. Against Brighton and Newcastle, we played counter attacking football. We were mixing it up far more in the early parts of the season, now we just play the exact same way in every single game and have done since Christmas. It's sh*te, there is nothing enjoyable about our football in the slightest.

We finished 4th after putting ourselves in such a strong position at the start of the season. Putting ourselves so close to Liverpool early on gave us plenty of room for error, and there were A LOT of errors between Christmas and the end of the season. We got over the line in the end, but it should never have been that close and I blame it fully on Maresca's tactics. He sacrificed the form of nearly every player to force his system on to them.

A simple sequence of our game vs Brighton. I don't pick this chance specifically, I just fast forward through the game and this is the first chance that I saw.

Madueke 1 v 1 and ask the ball behind, Fofana decided to pass the ball back to Colwil who then pass the ball back to Sanchez.

Sanchez back to Colwill

Our 10 in this case Enzo drop, with 4 attacker stay high pinning opp backline to create space for Enzo to drop, Enzo free turn and nice pass to Plamer. 🤑🤑🤑

Is this counter attacking football? And does this remind you of that video that I posted above. Two passes and we are attacking opp box in space.

And everything started with stuff that you hate. Slow pass between CB heck the ball even go back from halfway line all the way to our gk.

Edited June 26, 20251 yr by Bob stark

So you picked out a single sequence where we passed between the defenders and then back to the goalkeeper. Not every single moment was counter attacking football, but one things for sure, we mixed it up, we got the ball to the attackers much quicker and much higher up the pitch, didn't allow the opposition to settle. We didn't keep recycling the ball over and over and over again. We didn't isolate wingers, we actually got into positions where we beat the defensive line and put our attackers in 1v1 situations against the goalkeeper.

Maresca, being so afraid of what will happen to us in transition, decided to kill this completely, which has nulified our attack, made us boring to watch and made our players overthink every pass, cross and shot instead of relying on their natural ability to make something happen. You can pretend that the early season football was the same all you like, but the fact of the matter is that it wasn't.

Don't mind people calling the current style of football boring. That is fine. I want us to play with more pace as well. I like when we run at the opponent with the pace we naturally we have in the side. I like exciting counter attacking moments in games... Well only if we do them actually. Don't want opponent attacking our backline over and over again. That is what we had tons under Pochettino I feel. Postecoglu also is a fan of that. Well neither of them want them but they invite it with inferior quality of players and lack of experience.

I don't think our squad is implementing Enzo's style yet in the best way either. I think if we scored early and if we finished our chances in a better percentages we'd be fine with this system. Playing 1-0 or 2-0 up we could be more explosive in situations if needed and control games better. I think de la Fuente, Alonso and Pep and probably Arteta has similar idea of football than Enzo.

Deep down I don't believe you can win anything big without balance. I think we want to win big at some point instead of being just entertaining for neutrals.

PSG and Liverpool to me are combining entertainment and balance in a good way. Their squads are also much more completed for that compared to ours. Our squad probably needs a few additions and to gain a ton experience to come close to these two sides. Not sure if Enzo is the coach to give that ultimately in terms of entertainment.

3 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

So you picked out a single sequence where we passed between the defenders and then back to the goalkeeper. Not every single moment was counter attacking football, but one things for sure, we mixed it up, we got the ball to the attackers much quicker and much higher up the pitch, didn't allow the opposition to settle. We didn't keep recycling the ball over and over and over again. We didn't isolate wingers, we actually got into positions where we beat the defensive line and put our attackers in 1v1 situations against the goalkeeper.

Maresca, being so afraid of what will happen to us in transition, decided to kill this completely, which has nulified our attack, made us boring to watch and made our players overthink every pass, cross and shot instead of relying on their natural ability to make something happen. You can pretend that the early season football was the same all you like, but the fact of the matter is that it wasn't.

No, this is not the same screenshot. Just look at the min. It is the next sequence and it is almost identical. Get the ball, press bait, go back to Sanchez, go to Colwil, boom.

Why do our offense slow down in the 2nd half of the season? Teams blocked this easy route to the middle so it is much harder for us to get this action.

In the 2nd half, we scored more goals from loading the box, get the ball to winger 1v1, (Madueke) and cross which is not exactly great idea with Jackson, Cucu, neto as box target.

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

No, this is not the same screenshot. Just look at the min. It is the next sequence and it is almost identical. Get the ball, press bait, go back to Sanchez, go to Colwil, boom.

Why do our offense slow down in the 2nd half of the season? Teams blocked this easy route to the middle so it is much harder for us to get this action.

In the 2nd half, we scored more goals from loading the box, get the ball to winger 1v1, (Madueke) and cross which is not exactly great idea with Jackson, Cucu, neto as box target.

This isn't the same thing that we are doing today at all. First off, this isn't recycling possession like we are currently seeing, this is moving the ball around the pitch with the intent to quickly release our attackers, which is why I said we mixed it up more. Look at Palmer and Jackson, both of them playing off the shoulder of the defenders. We don't do that now, I rarely even see Palmer get behind a defence because of how deep he is.

In these images, the ball has taken 14 seconds to go from the half way line, back to our goalkeeper, then quickly back into midfield with Jackson and Palmer ready to receive the ball to get in on goal. Don't pretend that this is anything like what we see today. We will take more than double the amount of time to move the ball out of defence.

If you want an example of counter attacking, take a look at Jackson's goal against Newcastle. Literally went from our own half with a brilliant pass from Palmer into Neto over the half way line, who then runs passed the Newcastle defender and squares it for a tap in for Jackson. Then there is our 3rd goal against West Ham where Jackson picks it up just before the half way line, sprints forward, passes it to Palmer who hits it in off the post.

Another example of how much quicker we did things was once again in that West Ham game where Caicedo released Jackson for our second goal. Quicker passes through the oppositions defence and midfield. We don't see that now because Maresca is scared of the transition. Riskless, no courage, just play it safe.

Edited June 26, 20251 yr by Scott Harris

On 27/06/2025 at 01:12, Scott Harris said:

This isn't the same thing that we are doing today at all. First off, this isn't recycling possession like we are currently seeing, this is moving the ball around the pitch with the intent to quickly release our attackers, which is why I said we mixed it up more. Look at Palmer and Jackson, both of them playing off the shoulder of the defenders. We don't do that now, I rarely even see Palmer get behind a defence because of how deep he is.

In these images, the ball has taken 14 seconds to go from the half way line, back to our goalkeeper, then quickly back into midfield with Jackson and Palmer ready to receive the ball to get in on goal. Don't pretend that this is anything like what we see today. We will take more than double the amount of time to move the ball out of defence.

If you want an example of counter attacking, take a look at Jackson's goal against Newcastle. Literally went from our own half with a brilliant pass from Palmer into Neto over the half way line, who then runs passed the Newcastle defender and squares it for a tap in for Jackson. Then there is our 3rd goal against West Ham where Jackson picks it up just before the half way line, sprints forward, passes it to Palmer who hits it in off the post.

Another example of how much quicker we did things was once again in that West Ham game where Caicedo released Jackson for our second goal. Quicker passes through the oppositions defence and midfield. We don't see that now because Maresca is scared of the transition. Riskless, no courage, just play it safe.

If you are talking West Ham away. It was because west ham pressing. I wrote about it a while ago in tactic thread.

I wrote about how team will change the way they defend against us in December after Everton.

"As you can see above Everton has 4 player in the middle all the time which mean our two dm, two 10 are marked. The most interesting to see here is Everton two winger positioning. Both are playing very narrow, you can see harisson in 2nd pic marking Palmer as if he is a cm.

This is a very interesting idea, it is better than 442/541 that team has used against us because against those system if we recycle the ball we can get a free man in the middle but with winger tuck in to create 4 in midifeld, it is very difficult. I can see smaller team copying Dyche idea against us."

This is why everything slow down. It is not Maresca say to our player, we are winning but we are playing too fast, let's slow down.

The gap/free man that exist before are gone. The gap now is mostly on the wide area. So the ball goes to the wide area and if your winger are direct and more importantly strong at 1v1 (Madueke) you can go fast. But if they can't the ball will go back, recycle. Repeat.

Edited June 29, 20251 yr by Bob stark

He is flogging Palmer and Caicedo.. they need rest too- make a few subs and rotate more Maresca.. still think this tournament is a stupid idea of greedy football administrators.. a tournament when players should be resting.

U just hope this direct lead to a long term injury .. so much heat, poor pitches and a tournament after the season has ended.. crazy

On 26/06/2025 at 04:33, Bob stark said:

A simple sequence of our game vs Brighton. I don't pick this chance specifically, I just fast forward through the game and this is the first chance that I saw.

Madueke 1 v 1 and ask the ball behind, Fofana decided to pass the ball back to Colwil who then pass the ball back to Sanchez.

Sanchez back to Colwill

Our 10 in this case Enzo drop, with 4 attacker stay high pinning opp backline to create space for Enzo to drop, Enzo free turn and nice pass to Plamer. 🤑🤑🤑

Is this counter attacking football? And does this remind you of that video that I posted above. Two passes and we are attacking opp box in space.

And everything started with stuff that you hate. Slow pass between CB heck the ball even go back from halfway line all the way to our gk.

28/09/2025.

FFS, Bob.

What players are in teh bomb squad this season. Notice no one has left yet... Maresca's best signing will be to get planning permission in cobham to enlarge the changing and physio rooms

8 minutes ago, salmonjumper said:

What players are in teh bomb squad this season. Notice no one has left yet... Maresca's best signing will be to get planning permission in cobham to enlarge the changing and physio rooms

Sums up the total incompetence of our owners, long big contracts given ad hoc to a vast array of at best everage players.That are no longer / never needed in the first place. They now need to sell. No one wants them and they are in no rush to leave. Why would they? £100,000 a week, some on much more guaranteed for years.

For the money (in their words invested) to the real world wasted we should have a couple of World class players in the positions we obviously need.

But hey ho i'm just a fan of football. WTF do i know.

6 minutes ago, Kev56 said:

Sums up the total incompetence of our owners, long big contracts given ad hoc to a vast array of at best everage players.That are no longer / never needed in the first place. They now need to sell. No one wants them and they are in no rush to leave. Why would they? £100,000 a week, some on much more guaranteed for years.

For the money (in their words invested) to the real world wasted we should have a couple of World class players in the positions we obviously need.

But hey ho i'm just a fan of football. WTF do i know.

Like you I just dont get it.

With City getting knocked out watch this home bargain Pep fluff his way to winning the CWC

And you know the result of that from the 🤡 broad and SD’s extend his contract past 5 years.

Mark my words if he wins the CWC these clowns will extend Home bargain Pep contract.

6 minutes ago, El regreso said:

With City getting knocked out watch this home bargain Pep fluff his way to winning the CWC

And you know the result of that from the 🤡 broad and SD’s extend his contract past 5 years.

Mark my words if he wins the CWC these clowns will extend Home bargain Pep contract.

If we win the CWC he will deserve it

The negativity on here to a manager in his first season is maddening.

4 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

If we win the CWC he will deserve it

The negativity on here to a manager in his first season is maddening.

Should try beating the Brazilian farmers first before he thinks about Madrid/Bayern/PSG etc.

31 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Should try beating the Brazilian farmers first before he thinks about Madrid/Bayern/PSG etc.

Well yeah I think we're odds on to lose in one of the next two rounds.

But I strongly believe managers like him need 2 seasons.

3 hours ago, bisright1 said:

Well yeah I think we're odds on to lose in one of the next two rounds.

But I strongly believe managers like him need 2 seasons.

The notion of Manager need more time has been proven wrong again and again and again.

Conte started very well, 2nd half struggle ball, 2nd season awful.

Sarri started well, absolutely unwatchable 2nd half of the season.

Maresca, the same thing.

Edited July 2, 20251 yr by Bob stark

7 hours ago, bisright1 said:

If we win the CWC he will deserve it

The negativity on here to a manager in his first season is maddening.

Most managers work better short term because they have to use the best of what they have. It goes sideways when the manager then wants to play a certain type of way that doesn't mesh with the players at his disposal (current and future ones)

16 minutes ago, Deino said:

Most managers work better short term because they have to use the best of what they have. It goes sideways when the manager then wants to play a certain type of way that doesn't mesh with the players at his disposal (current and future ones)

Usually a new manager come in and play something that other team either have never seen before or not used to face and it give you big advantage. Of course after a while they adapt and it is no longer as effective.

Edited July 2, 20251 yr by Bob stark

7 hours ago, Bob stark said:

The notion of Manager need more time has been proven wrong again and again and again.

Conte started very well, 2nd half struggle ball, 2nd season awful.

Sarri started well, absolutely unwatchable 2nd half of the season.

Maresca, the same thing.

That's not always the case. Also Sarri was at his peak in the final month with us. I will always wonder what would have happened in his next season.

Conte is a manager that explodes after 2 years.

Pep was awful in his first season at city. Arteta has improved arsenal (even if they can't win anything).

I suspect there's a chance you'll be regretting the Maresca out position in 12 months time.

6 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

That's not always the case. Also Sarri was at his peak in the final month with us. I will always wonder what would have happened in his next season.

Conte is a manager that explodes after 2 years.

Pep was awful in his first season at city. Arteta has improved arsenal (even if they can't win anything).

I suspect there's a chance you'll be regretting the Maresca out position in 12 months time.

honestly, who will regret gettign rid of Maresca - Id have Sarri back tomorrow over him - Sarri's system got the very best out of Hazard - Maresca has reduced Palmer into a mid table winger.

1 hour ago, salmonjumper said:

honestly, who will regret gettign rid of Maresca - Id have Sarri back tomorrow over him - Sarri's system got the very best out of Hazard - Maresca has reduced Palmer into a mid table winger.

If we get rid of Maresca and finished 4th or 5th next year, I'd regret it.

But thankfully we aren't getting rid of him. He will get next season to show if he's worth a 3rd.