5 minutes ago, 19seventyone said:

The last sentence of your post is why I believe Carlo is the best Manager of the 21st century. He stands alone for me. Above Pep, Jose and anyone else you care to mention. Almost every player that’s played for him absolutely loves him. Pep and Jose wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable to play for I reckon.

And Ancelotti came and managed an average team in the premier league for a season. Didn’t win but he did it. Pep has always managed at a club that basically has the best players in its league. 

Mavericks, flair, and entertainment are slowly being eradicated from the game.  Thanks Pep.  As much as it pains me to admit it I’d take Klopp over Pep everyday of the week for this exact reason.

Praying to all the gods Maresca isn’t just Pep lite.  Hopefully he’s studied Carlo over the summer.

Edited July 26, 20241 yr by DarkMata

The number #8s in his system have to be constantly moving. Fitting into pockets during build up and overlapping/underlapping to support the wingers. 

12 hours ago, DarkMata said:

Mavericks, flair, and entertainment are slowly being eradicated from the game.  Thanks Pep.  As much as it pains me to admit it I’d take Klopp over Pep everyday of the week for this exact reason.

Praying to all the gods Maresca isn’t just Pep lite.  Hopefully he’s studied Carlo over the summer.

Stats nerds have ruined the game, it's all data driven now, all far too "percentage". If we keep the ball for 65% then we have 35% more chance of not conceding, but we need the ball in the 48% position, whole having 75% of socks rolled up. 1-0 guaranteed......

Utter f**king dross, games now dictated by nerds who were last last pick their entire lives.

34 minutes ago, dkw said:

Stats nerds have ruined the game, it's all data driven now, all far too "percentage". If we keep the ball for 65% then we have 35% more chance of not conceding, but we need the ball in the 48% position, whole having 75% of socks rolled up. 1-0 guaranteed......

Utter f**king dross, games now dictated by nerds who were last last pick their entire lives.

I think that's also down to the media and pundits spewing garbage week in week out about how some team deserved to win solely based on possession numbers. They consider a team to play well by default when they have more possession that the opposition and having less than 50% is somehow equated with parking the bus and playing defensive football.

58 minutes ago, dkw said:

Stats nerds have ruined the game, it's all data driven now, all far too "percentage". If we keep the ball for 65% then we have 35% more chance of not conceding, but we need the ball in the 48% position, whole having 75% of socks rolled up. 1-0 guaranteed......

Utter f**king dross, games now dictated by nerds who were last last pick their entire lives.

Genuinely nothing annoys me more than these 20 year old social media gimps who will claim drogba wasn't that great because his g/a wasn't as high an Henry or Aguero. They'd rather make their opinions based on graphs and numbers rather than actually watching the game.

27 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Genuinely nothing annoys me more than these 20 year old social media gimps who will claim drogba wasn't that great because his g/a wasn't as high an Henry or Aguero. They'd rather make their opinions based on graphs and numbers rather than actually watching the game.

Remove penalties Drogba is up there with the best. 

Totally prepared to give him a chance but if the Leicester fans are correct and "Marescaball" ends up resembling "Sarriball" I will give up pretty quickly. I'm not going through that again.

Sarriball on the whole was, for me, the most cautious, slow, mind-numbingly dull football I saw under the Roman empire. The only relief was the individual brilliance of Hazard who was undoubtedly one of the top six footballers in the World at that time. I would take another dose of"Potter ball" over "Sarriball" any day of the week.

2 hours ago, dkw said:

Stats nerds have ruined the game, it's all data driven now, all far too "percentage". If we keep the ball for 65% then we have 35% more chance of not conceding, but we need the ball in the 48% position, whole having 75% of socks rolled up. 1-0 guaranteed......

Utter f**king dross, games now dictated by nerds who were last last pick their entire lives.

The nerds who used to take their ball home as kids when they were losing have developed a tactic to essentially do that in professional football.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Remove penalties Drogba is up there with the best. 

Drogba is the best big game striker, id have him in a final over pretty much any other forward in history.

4 hours ago, dkw said:

Stats nerds have ruined the game, it's all data driven now, all far too "percentage". If we keep the ball for 65% then we have 35% more chance of not conceding, but we need the ball in the 48% position, whole having 75% of socks rolled up. 1-0 guaranteed......

Utter f**king dross, games now dictated by nerds who were last last pick their entire lives.

Hmm...maybe this is a bit over board..? When the competitiveness is on such a high level you turn every stone and do everything to succeed. I am glad people with brain and education 🧠 are involved in the sport. 

I personally have always loved big personalities in sports and I don't like how that side of it is not valued anymore that much. That is in line with what you are saying a bit. Sort of Niki Lauda vs James Hunt. Hunt was much more personable as he was all feel and Lauda was extremely industrious and technical. 

We have Lauda at helm atm and not Hunt. Pochettino was much more like him. 

If you want your side to be one of the best you need all the information you can get. It eats the charm, I agree, but we remain competitive which I prefer.

My prediction is that his model will get found out pretty quickly. He’s basically trying to copy Pep. Except elite coaches are few and far between so it will be a poor imitation of Pep. It won’t take long for the opposition to work out how to deal with it. 

Edited July 27, 20241 yr by JM7

22 minutes ago, JM7 said:

My prediction is that his model will get found out pretty quickly. He’s basically trying to copy Pep. Except elite coaches are few and far between so it will be a poor imitation of Pep. It won’t take long for the opposition to work out how to deal with it. 

Even Pep adapts and changes. Maresca seems fixated and arrogant with his set up to the point where he is trying to reinvent the wheel. 

Edited July 27, 20241 yr by Sconnie Blue

On 26/07/2024 at 13:07, OriginalS said:

Did you not recently say that James should be the one to invert?

I agree with everything you said here in any case but where you put a fit James in this system is more of a conundrum. Simply because we won't be playing with marauding and overlapping fullbacks and its on the flank that he excels. Unless we somehow try to turn him into a right winger or 8 I don't see how you get him into attacking areas on any consistent basis.

 

Yes, then i watched him there the other night. If its a choice of him inverting into midfield or sitting in the back three, i'd rather him invert.

Overall though i'd rather we just played a system that gets him high and wide.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Even Pep adapts and changes. Maresca seems fixated and arrogant with his set up to the point where he is trying to reinvent the wheel. 

This is the problem isn’t it. The young unproven managers all think that they are doing something special and new..but in reality they are producing a poor version of an elite team. 

3 minutes ago, JM7 said:

This is the problem isn’t it. The young unproven managers all think that they are doing something special and new..but in reality they are producing a poor version of an elite team. 

Not good. 
 

 

Lampard 3.0 before or after the end of October?

4 hours ago, JM7 said:

My prediction is that his model will get found out pretty quickly. He’s basically trying to copy Pep. Except elite coaches are few and far between so it will be a poor imitation of Pep. It won’t take long for the opposition to work out how to deal with it. 

Also unlike us Pep has elite players at his disposal. Spurs also found out quickly last season even with a decent CB pairing.

Edited July 27, 20241 yr by the special one

He’s not even copying Pep he’s taking one idea of his and arrogantly sticking with it at worlds end. 

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

He’s not even copying Pep he’s taking one idea of his and arrogantly sticking with it at worlds end. 

Going to be a fun season.

I wish managers will create systems that fit the players strengths instead of making players adapt to the managers style of play. 

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

He’s not even copying Pep he’s taking one idea of his and arrogantly sticking with it at worlds end. 

When I was watching us play with an inverted full back towards the end of last season, I thought we were on to something. Watching it in pre-season is making me feel the opposite. It looks so clumsy, and suddenly the whole defence look completely clueless, like they have never played at this level before.

I don't know what the hell that was today, but it was one of the weirdest shapes to a defence that I have ever seen.

1 minute ago, KonaKai Blue said:

I wish managers will create systems that fit the players strengths instead of making players adapt to the managers style of play. 

The modern coach certainly feels very one note. They don't seem to have much outside of plan A. Even the best are like that these days. So if they are going to be like that, then you better get a squad that fits that style. This squad certainly isn't built for it. 

To think this is all before he has to deal with the live grenade of Fernandezs return to the group too...lol

14 hours ago, dkw said:

Stats nerds have ruined the game, it's all data driven now, all far too "percentage". If we keep the ball for 65% then we have 35% more chance of not conceding, but we need the ball in the 48% position, whole having 75% of socks rolled up. 1-0 guaranteed......

Utter f**king dross, games now dictated by nerds who were last last pick their entire lives.

Bringing back bad childhood  memories @Mod?