5 hours ago, Jangz said:

I remember the days when because of no internet streaming we never even came to know about friendlies and for us the season started when it did. So I am not going to think too much about it.

And I remember the days when our preseason games were at the likes of Kingstonian and Barnet. I used to go to most of them. Pitches were a lot better than they are on these annual American jollies.

Really hope I’m wrong, but everything I’m seeing scares me.

a stubborn manager implementing a rigid system is fine in a vacuum but when said system will negate or severely limit the best abilities of our top creative/goal generating players (gusto, Reece, Palmer, chilly, etc) Deciding to limit the production of your best players to 75-80% of their potential seems like a “smartest guy in the room” type thinking and doesn’t show me a manager who can look in the mirror and see that his tactics got found out last year, he just had a level better talent compared to competition so got away with it. 

If he thinks his tactics are so good that he can implement them within a little over a month of training and preseason, with half his players on vacation as well as effectively a u23 squad, then I have no confidence. Seems his tactics work when you have the talent advantage in a matchup like city does in prem or like Leicester did in champ last year. 

I just can’t see us being anything but chasing top 4 from tenth or eleventh position around November, again. 
 

this is all without even mentioning how dreadfully boring the football is gonna be. Thank god I can record and then watch at 2 or 4x speed.

2 hours ago, H2SO4aq said:

Really hope I’m wrong, but everything I’m seeing scares me.

a stubborn manager implementing a rigid system is fine in a vacuum but when said system will negate or severely limit the best abilities of our top creative/goal generating players (gusto, Reece, Palmer, chilly, etc) Deciding to limit the production of your best players to 75-80% of their potential seems like a “smartest guy in the room” type thinking and doesn’t show me a manager who can look in the mirror and see that his tactics got found out last year, he just had a level better talent compared to competition so got away with it. 

If he thinks his tactics are so good that he can implement them within a little over a month of training and preseason, with half his players on vacation as well as effectively a u23 squad, then I have no confidence. Seems his tactics work when you have the talent advantage in a matchup like city does in prem or like Leicester did in champ last year. 

I just can’t see us being anything but chasing top 4 from tenth or eleventh position around November, again. 
 

this is all without even mentioning how dreadfully boring the football is gonna be. Thank god I can record and then watch at 2 or 4x speed.

Really good post. 

On 25/07/2024 at 05:13, Simplymo said:

9pm, Hopefully I won't fall asleep through this one...although I missed most of the second half of the first match. I hope this one is better.

Thank f**k I slept like a baby last night so missed it.

Pre-season games are often meaningless so not gonna make any knee-jerk reactions having seen the "highlights" and having Palmer in the side will improve it a LOT, but too many more performances like this will not do much for any new season optimism.

Come on.

We have to be patient, let's judge the manager, the system, the players , after a few seasons. Or maybe about November this season ?

Surely,?

Get them while they are hot!

For my man @mojo

EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS!

 

 

Having now watched the extended highlights I think some well quoted phrases of some of our former managers are in order.

"We can only put it right with hard work"

"We've only been working together for a short time"

"This is a longterm project, it takes time"

"To make a good omelet you need the right eggs"

"The lads gave it there all"

"The better team lost"

 

;)