The thing that really pisses me off is that Kovacic goal. Never rated Kova, still maintain he is a very limited footballer, but if he is limited, what does that make Caicedo and Enzo who both costs over £100m each FFS? He waltzed past both of them before putting the ball past Sanchez (who should have saved it). Rubbish goal to concede.

 

On 18/08/2024 at 19:31, Conte said:

Atleast poch gave us hope against these bigger teams

Biggest ever defeat vs Arsenal

Cup final lost against kids

Nunez poor finishing saving us from potentially breaking the PL loss record

6 hours ago, jaffaboy said:

Long time lurker, now registered.

A huge problem is Winstanley and Stewart.

Everyone knew Potters bloated squad was a problem - yet they have failed to move players on over successive windows - in fact have compounded the problem by buying more

They went for Maresca - but in doing so, his tactics were well known, and it ought to have been obvious it meant one of Caicedo Lavia and Enzo being sacrificed from the team each week, but they still chose him (this also ignores that the system threatens to also not get the best out of Nkunku and possibly Palmer)

We have the wrong players for the tactics yet the same people have recruited the players and the manager - they should be out of the door rapid

 

 

 

Welcome back !

25 minutes ago, Argo said:

Biggest ever defeat vs Arsenal

Cup final lost against kids

Nunez poor finishing saving us from potentially breaking the PL loss record

We're going to look back at that season as a golden season in years to come.

Palmer is being wasted on the wing. Play him down the middle and watch him do his magic

Captain Enzo 😂 he as so good last season when he was injured  perhaps we will get lucky

2 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

Palmer is being wasted on the wing. Play him down the middle and watch him do his magic

Nkunku and Palmer in the 8s for weaker teams we should be okay with enzo/lavia/caicedo in the CDM role

3 hours ago, Argo said:

Biggest ever defeat vs Arsenal

Cup final lost against kids

Nunez poor finishing saving us from potentially breaking the PL loss record

Arsenals gone way better than the past so makes sense

Losing cup final yes but then again poch had to play the "kids" every game and they dont have winner mentality

Nunez is nunez lol we can say that about anything

Poch wasnt a world class manager but we was playing decent and scored a lot of goals

I feel like we went backwards with the maresca signing short term but long term we may look better oh well let's hope a manager with about 3 years experience will be good enough to get top 4 👌

17 minutes ago, Conte said:

Arsenals gone way better than the past so makes sense

Losing cup final yes but then again poch had to play the "kids" every game and they dont have winner mentality

Nunez is nunez lol we can say that about anything

Poch wasnt a world class manager but we was playing decent and scored a lot of goals

I feel like we went backwards with the maresca signing short term but long term we may look better oh well let's hope a manager with about 3 years experience will be good enough to get top 4 👌

Well, a manager with one year experience and Willian as our best attacker did....

And I disagree we were playing decent, Spurs and West Ham gave some false hope but the last three games despite winning them was back to the same old crap.

1 minute ago, Argo said:

Well, a manager with one year experience and Willian as our best attacker did....

And I disagree we were playing decent, Spurs and West Ham gave some false hope but the last three games despite winning them was back to the same old crap.

The league is way more competitive now then before these mid table teams have strengthened. I don't see us getting top 4 this season but we'll see at the end of the season I guess. 

 

17 minutes ago, Argo said:

Well, a manager with one year experience and Willian as our best attacker did....

And I disagree we were playing decent, Spurs and West Ham gave some false hope but the last three games despite winning them was back to the same old crap.

Weren't we 4th in the league in terms of points gained in 2024?

 

I agree on the first point though, Frank got top 4 with a transfer ban and no Hazard.

 

The squad is of top 4 quality. Our form in the 2nd half of last season was top 4 quality despite our injuries. Anything less under Maresca is a failure. I don't care if he needs time. We've been patient for 3 years now. They spoke about a 4 window plan and now we're at the end of it. It's time to show up.

1 minute ago, cfr95 said:

Weren't we 4th in the league in terms of points gained in 2024?

 

I agree on the first point though, Frank got top 4 with a transfer ban and no Hazard.

 

The squad is of top 4 quality. Our form in the 2nd half of last season was top 4 quality despite our injuries. Anything less under Maresca is a failure. I don't care if he needs time. We've been patient for 3 years now. They spoke about a 4 window plan and now we're at the end of it. It's time to show up.

Think we were and I for one, would have been happy to stick with the Academy kids but the media kept on saying we had go outside and buy because they weren't good enough... stupid imho.

Probably wasn't great technically but you could see how much they all wanted to win when they got on the pitch.

Extended highlights:

 

@mojo

11 hours ago, Argo said:

Biggest ever defeat vs Arsenal

Cup final lost against kids

Nunez poor finishing saving us from potentially breaking the PL loss record

It's early days for Enzo. Given time, he might make those look like good results!

 

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

It's early days for Enzo. Given time, he might make those look like good results!

 

And even if he turns out to be sh*t it won't make Poch less sh*t, just like Poch being sh*t didn't make Lampard 2.0 less of a disaster.

9 minutes ago, Argo said:

And even if he turns out to be sh*t it won't make Poch less sh*t, just like Poch being sh*t didn't make Lampard 2.0 less of a disaster.

Ah, but there are varying degrees of sh*tness and although you clearly have Poch high up the list, some of us have him a bit further down. Only time will tell on our new shiny one.

13 hours ago, Argo said:

Biggest ever defeat vs Arsenal

Cup final lost against kids

Nunez poor finishing saving us from potentially breaking the PL loss record

Some of that is very out of context, The Arsenal loss came of the back of a really tough semifinal defeat, no palmer available and its clear the maturity of the squad was not ready to bounce back so easily, Its actually to his credit that he managed to right the ship after that and go on the run we did.

The cup final against kids is a redtop media fallacy. We started that game with a lower average age then by some way, Liverpool had Bradley, that was it. Elliott has 3 seasons of premier league football under his belt, everyone else was an experienced international. 

He wasn't perfect but we were going in the right direction. But we move on. I'll say this, someone at this club is either a complete geniuses and when it all comes together it will click in the most amazing way or almost criminal levels of incompetence ... right now it looks like the latter 

Edited August 20, 20241 yr by theGreenBaron

Enzo as a 10 doesn't work. His shooting is on a par with Gallagher.

34 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Enzo as a 10 doesn't work. His shooting is on a par with Gallagher.

Peculiar that every manager has played him there regardless.

3 hours ago, dermott said:

Peculiar that every manager has played him there regardless.

Scaloni is the only one who plays him deep in the biggest matches. Actually tried Enzo a few times in advanced positions but then vetoed that. 

4 hours ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Enzo as a 10 doesn't work. His shooting is on a par with Gallagher.

It's about Palmer, he is one of the best players in the league in that position, putting Enzo there is a wasted opportunity every single match, sure Palmer can still deliver from playing the inside-forward position as well but if Maresca watched what was the best from us last season, it has to be Palmer there as the number 10 centrally and I dare to say Madueke on the wing as well.

12 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

It's about Palmer, he is one of the best players in the league in that position, putting Enzo there is a wasted opportunity every single match, sure Palmer can still deliver from playing the inside-forward position as well but if Maresca watched what was the best from us last season, it has to be Palmer there as the number 10 centrally and I dare to say Madueke on the wing as well.

Yes absolutely, or Nkunku, Chukwuemeka, even Jackson are much better at 10. 

Palmer was great at 10 although I thought his best was in a free role where he naturally took up an inside right position with Noni right wing.

I didn't like this match. 

 

On 20/08/2024 at 01:45, axman2526 said:

Extended highlights:

 

@mojo

 

12 minutes ago, CaitlinCFC said:

I didn't like this match. 

 

 

1 minute ago, mojo said:

 

 

I was there but wish we had left before the second goal.