I know it is fun talking about getting a decision about a player or a formation right or wrong. Fact is the opponent usually has their own plan. If the plans contradict in a bad way for your team you basically have wasted the first half and realistically can make the change only at half time, depending on the magnitude of the change naturally. Re Real Betis game.

Maresca always says he watches a lot of games by the opponent and tries to adapt to that with selections but still it is a coin toss basically.

Against PSG the choice was probably easy as they have a clear style of play and they probably don't tinker that much. His victory was the way the team was prepared to come out running their socks off and implementing the plan in a perfect fashion. Tactics to me were secondary in this case although also that had to be spot on.

Premier League is a different beast to a tournament like this. Longevity, the brain power of most clubs managers and the quality of players is on a different level.

To make the players give all in a boring game before Champions League Wednesday is much more of a coaching problem than talking about double pivot or inverting fullbacks.

I like this guy's videos.

1 hour ago, dkw said:

the only chance we have is to use the first 2 months as a pre-season, and accept the results may be all over the place.

Mou tried to do this, complete disaster.

As long as the players keep themselves relatively fit and not turn up like Lukaku or Hazard, we are good

I'm hoping this is where we benefit from a younger team and get over the shorter break for this season. We still have a huge squad so fingers crossed we're able to manage workloads accordingly. Players like Caiceido aren't going to be able to play every game this season AND the champions league.

It's going to be difficult to get it right.

9 hours ago, bluedave said:

I like this guy's videos.

The guy does a great tactical analysis, thanks! I liked how he picked up on Neto's quiet performance being key to the defense & attack.

44 minutes ago, BluesPower said:

The guy does a great tactical analysis, thanks! I liked how he picked up on Neto's quiet performance being key to the defense & attack.

Yeah, Palmer, Gusto, Sanchez get the plaudits, but he picks up on those subtleties that a lot of fans (including me) would tend to miss, especially watching on TV.

Matt Law confirmed in London is Blue -podcast that the club doesn't expect Premier League title. Idea is to maintain in the top 4 status. Internally players and Enzo could talk differently about it.

Regardless of this man's football style, and it is atrocious viewing, he has earned a second season. The CWC will give us a serious injury pile-up at Cobham this year. Hope he can find a team from the 100 odd players weve compiled like a panini sticker album.

3 hours ago, evissy said:

Matt Law confirmed in London is Blue -podcast that the club doesn't expect Premier League title. Idea is to maintain in the top 4 status. Internally players and Enzo could talk differently about it.

I don’t expect it either, but bare minimum is closing the gap to Liverpool and be thereabouts with City + Arsenal. We should be well clear of Villa and Newcastle.

Need deep cup runs.

4 hours ago, evissy said:

Matt Law confirmed in London is Blue -podcast that the club doesn't expect Premier League title. Idea is to maintain in the top 4 status. Internally players and Enzo could talk differently about it.

An actual PL title challenge really ought to be the minimum requirement for 25/26, plus we aren't going to qualify for the 2029 Club World Cup by making the quarter-finals of the Champions League ... we'll need to win it. If not this coming season, then one of the next three for sure.

Listening to James, Colwill, Palmer etc in interviews, I don't for one minute think they will be taking the field in any game expecting anything less than WIN. And with two trophies in the cabinet from 24/25 they've got the taste for it too now ...

I'm not looking at the League or Champions League titles as a realistic target yet. We've had the best two months on the pitch that we have seen for years, but that is all it is for now. I also don't want any of that rubbish we saw between December and April though, the football was atrocious and it was really looking like we would eventually slip out of the Champions League spots after being so comfortable before.

On 16/07/2025 at 19:47, Sexyfootball said:

An actual PL title challenge really ought to be the minimum requirement for 25/26, plus we aren't going to qualify for the 2029 Club World Cup by making the quarter-finals of the Champions League ... we'll need to win it. If not this coming season, then one of the next three for sure.

Listening to James, Colwill, Palmer etc in interviews, I don't for one minute think they will be taking the field in any game expecting anything less than WIN. And with two trophies in the cabinet from 24/25 they've got the taste for it too now ...

They naturally go into the season trying to win every game, trying to win every cup game and every trophy. Absolutely. They have always done that because of the stature of the club. The difference is what the club thinks is enough that affects coaches and potentially players. Especially Maresca.

I think top 4, Champions League group stage success and last 4 in one of the cups ensures he continues if the season otherwise goes without massive incidents. The game also has to progress to a positive direction and key individual players need to develop to a positive direction. I think hitting these marks should be enough for him to keep his place. What the style of the football is makes no difference on that as it shouldn't.

I think Champions League is the curveball for this season. It will take so much out of the Premier League. It has always done. Last season we could rest the starting 11 in the UECL.

I don't know why anyone would think title challengers isn't a realistic expectation. This will be their 4th year in what they said would be a 2 year rebuild. The squad have shown how good they are. Slot himself said last year we were the only team that was better than them when we played them, why would we ever be happy closing some imaginary gap to City and Arsenal?

Just now, Ukraine Bolt said:

I don't know why anyone would think title challengers isn't a realistic expectation. This will be their 4th year in what they said would be a 2 year rebuild. The squad have shown how good they are. Slot himself said last year we were the only team that was better than them when we played them, why would we ever be happy closing some imaginary gap to City and Arsenal?

Echoes my thoughts.

Plus we just absolutely stuffed the team that walked the Champions league, so why wouldn't we think we could win that next year as well ?

1 minute ago, Sexyfootball said:

Echoes my thoughts.

Plus we just absolutely stuffed the team that walked the Champions league, so why wouldn't we think we could win that next year as well ?

The fanbase has been poisoned by a loser mentality in recent years. They'll be extra cautious so if we fail they can say "we were never ready i told you so", or if we achieve what we're capable of they'll say we've overachieved. No different from when we were in a title challenge last year and Maresca kept telling his players they weren't good enough.

I think the Prem is a different beast. Consistency is key. Young players in general lack of consistency. It would be ill-adviced to for example demand Enzo to deliver Prem for that reason alone. That is why 2-4th should be enough to keep his place as the coach. No one is saying it is impossible. We just gave bath to the best unit in the world.

I personally think Liverpool, Arsenal and City have better chance of winning the Prem.

19 minutes ago, evissy said:

I think the Prem is a different beast. Consistency is key. Young players in general lack of consistency. It would be ill-adviced to for example demand Enzo to deliver Prem for that reason alone. That is why 2-4th should be enough to keep his place as the coach. No one is saying it is impossible. We just gave bath to the best unit in the world.

I personally think Liverpool, Arsenal and City have better chance of winning the Prem.

We have the biggest squad in the league, please stop with the excuses.

42 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

We have the biggest squad in the league, please stop with the excuses.

And the youngest.

17 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I'm not looking at the League or Champions League titles as a realistic target yet. We've had the best two months on the pitch that we have seen for years, but that is all it is for now. I also don't want any of that rubbish we saw between December and April though, the football was atrocious and it was really looking like we would eventually slip out of the Champions League spots after being so comfortable before.

Agreed. It's difficult to gauge what this team can realistically do with Champions League thrown into the mix. Depth is crucial here, but Maresca has yet to show any ability to adapt and rotate. He's learning on the go and its something the directors seem perfectly fine with.

There is also the matter of having no pre-season. Lord knows when this will sneak up on us in the season.

2 minutes ago, evissy said:

And the youngest.

Sanchez - 211 senior appearances

Cucurella - 341 senior appearances

Colwill - 139 senior appearances

Tosin - 252 senior appearances

Reece - 260 senior appearances

Caicedo - 251 senior appearances

E. Fernandez - 265 senior appearances

Palmer - 153 senior appearances

J.Pedro - 222 senior appearances

Neto - 211 senior appearances

Delap - 126 senior appearances

At what point do we stop considering them all to be inexperienced children? Colwill, Palmer and Delap are the only ones we can still argue inexperience and i'd still say Colwill and Palmer are about there with the levels they are at.

If they're good enough, they're old enough. Just more excuses.

25 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Agreed. It's difficult to gauge what this team can realistically do with Champions League thrown into the mix. Depth is crucial here, but Maresca has yet to show any ability to adapt and rotate. He's learning on the go and its something the directors seem perfectly fine with.

There is also the matter of having no pre-season. Lord knows when this will sneak up on us in the season.

I'd think the competitive CWC followed by a couple of pre-season games against proper teams (Leverkusen & Milan) is going to be more beneficial than the usual pre-season friendlies around America against sub-standard opposition.

I enjoy these 😅

They'll never recover 😂

Sorry but I do not see us being title challengers.

City and Pool are constantly strengthening, Arsenal seem to be addressing their squad depth and striker issue, for me a comfortable 4th place finish is what I am expecting. At the very most would be 3rd place ahead of Arsenal.

We will need another season at least before I can think of us as title contenders, there's still quite a few question marks on players for me to be confident of a title challenge just yet.