Ange Postecoglou

[dudu]

It is very refreshing to see Ange as reactive as he is with his substitutes. He's not afraid to change things relatively early if things aren't working. And the stats speak for themselves.

Premier League - Table by minutes

This is how the Premier League table in season 23/24 would look if only goals of the 90 minutes of regular time counted.

www.transfermarkt.co.uk

Our halftime changes have the best effect in the league. So maybe there is a method to the magic with the so and so first halves.

Just a shame that they tend to be chores to sit through.

I don't buy that we started the game poorly yesterday - we were dominant leading up to their equalizer, and then we dropped off.

 

[Matt1882]

There is no reason to believe Conte staying would have resulted in winning more games than sacking him. He was also refusing to sign a new contract so we were headed for instability eventually.

New we have better results, more stability, better football, and a younger squad with more upside.

There’s no (sensible) debate on this mate.

Both scenario's are completely random. We don't know if we would have finished stronger or weaker last season. We really don't.
And with the fact we're playing 5 horrid games out of 7, things might not end so rosey for us this season yet.
The point is, there's no point comparing this season to last season. All we could really do is compare it up to the point our actual coach was sacked. Because after that, we may as well have had a random fan every game.

 

[Matt1882]

I don't buy that we started the game poorly yesterday - we were dominant leading up to their equalizer, and then we dropped off.

We were doing fine until we scored. And then we seemed to fall off a cliff in terms of game control.
It started to happen before they scored, albeit that was probably their first decent chance.

 

[Richard Arlison]

Both scenario's are completely random. We don't know if we would have finished stronger or weaker last season. We really don't.
And with the fact we're playing 5 horrid games out of 7, things might not end so rosey for us this season yet.
The point is, there's no point comparing this season to last season. All we could really do is compare it up to the point our actual coach was sacked. Because after that, we may as well have had a random fan every game.

The wheels were firmly falling off. We 100% knew.

And even then, we are ahead on points

 

[1882]

Both scenario's are completely
The point is, there's no point comparing this season to last season. All we could really do is compare it up to the point our actual coach was sacked. Because after that, we may as well have had a random fan every game.

I thought that was Ryan Mason's role??

 

[dudu]

We were doing fine until we scored. And then we seemed to fall off a cliff in terms of game control.
It started to happen before they scored, albeit that was probably their first decent chance.

Yeah, fair - we definitely took our foot off the gas after the goal.

 

[Starks]

I don't buy that we started the game poorly yesterday - we were dominant leading up to their equalizer, and then we dropped off.

It was probably our best start to a home game since Newcastle. We just couldn't find the second which would have killed them before the equaliser.

Johnson missed a sitter

 

[Shadydan]

I think this season has been a bit shit really, no European football whatsoever and still went out early in both cup competitions.

A place in the CL is good but under Pochettino this became routine, so a lot of the 'magic' has gone.

My main concern is we play the same way now as we did at the beginning of the season. We rarely dominate teams and concede chances against everybody. We do play some nice football at times but I can't say I've enjoyed watching us that much as we just seem to be a tad naive.

Ange has done well for sure but he hasn't convinced me he can take us to the next level i.e. winning majority trophies.

You predicted that the up and coming season would be difficult and you weren't looking forward to it but we are navigating it pretty well despite having 3 months or ridiculous injuries and Intl call ups to key players it seems like we are well exceeding your own expectations...

 

[Matt1882]

Yeah, fair - we definitely took our foot off the gas after the goal.

It's hard to tell if we we took our foot off the gas, or if Forest upped their game. Both even.
It felt to me like as much as we dominated the first 15-20 minutes, they barely touched the ball in midfield or the final 3rd. When they finally did, they seemed to pass through/round us quite easily. Quite worrying really.

 

[AberdeenYid]

Wouldn't count on 1&3, Pep is apparently about to be offered a new contract and I think it's time to accept that Woolwich are here to stay, they're still a relatively young team and maybe 2/3 years off their peak.

I think though with our current trajectory we will join them, I've always said that get the Summer right in terms of recruitment and we are 100% challenging for the league under Ange next season.

I’d suggest next season will be more of a struggle than this one.

City, Liverpool and that other lot aren’t going anywhere. The demise of United and Chelsea has been greatly exaggerated and both sides are full of quality, will add more in summer and be a huge threat next season. Newcastle were always going to have a bad season with Europe but will be back next. Villa will still be decent.

Additionally, we’ll have Europe to cope with. It’s going to be a tough one, no doubt.

 

[nicoclaesen]

It's hard to tell if we we took our foot off the gas, or if Forest upped their game. Both even.
It felt to me like as much as we dominated the first 15-20 minutes, they barely touched the ball in midfield or the final 3rd. When they finally did, they seemed to pass through/round us quite easily. Quite worrying really.

They got through us easy for their goal and that was down to Udogie being a lazy defender. The chance they had that hit the post was the only other time they looked dangerous in 96 minutes.
Are teams just very clinical against us because teams don’t have loads of chances against us?

 

[nicoclaesen]

I’d suggest next season will be more of a struggle than this one.

City, Liverpool and that other lot aren’t going anywhere. The demise of United and Chelsea has been greatly exaggerated and both sides are full of quality, will add more in summer and be a huge threat next season. Newcastle were always going to have a bad season with Europe but will be back next. Villa will still be decent.

Additionally, we’ll have Europe to cope with. It’s going to be a tough one, no doubt.

I agree about those teams but we will improve so for Utd,Chelsea and Newcastle to get near us they’d have to improve ridiculously. Can’t see them being any nearer us next season.

 

[Ionman34]

It was probably our best start to a home game since Newcastle. We just couldn't find the second which would have killed them before the equaliser.

Johnson missed a sitter

Please stop with the 'Johnson missed a sitter' schtick, it was an outstanding reflex save to a 'shot' that was effectively a reflex reaction to a close, fizzed in cross. The boy couldn't have done more with it, he was just undone by a superb piece of goalkeeping.

 

[Shadydan]

I’d suggest next season will be more of a struggle than this one.

City, Liverpool and that other lot aren’t going anywhere. The demise of United and Chelsea has been greatly exaggerated and both sides are full of quality, will add more in summer and be a huge threat next season. Newcastle were always going to have a bad season with Europe but will be back next. Villa will still be decent.

Additionally, we’ll have Europe to cope with. It’s going to be a tough one, no doubt.

Definitely it will be harder but we will have a year under our belt and will be stronger.

Not sure Liverpool will be up there next season as well, losing Klopp and possibly Salah a big factor, I'm putting Utd and Chelsea in the unknown factor for now, no-one really knows how they'll fare as neither club have any momentum right now.

 

[AberdeenYid]

I agree about those teams but we will improve so for Utd,Chelsea and Newcastle to get near us they’d have to improve ridiculously. Can’t see them being any nearer us next season.

Maybe. I just don’t think United and Chelsea are as far off clicking as a lot of others do. Hope I’m wrong.

 

[nicoclaesen]

Ma

Maybe. I just don’t think United and Chelsea are as far off clicking as a lot of others do. Hope I’m wrong.

Man Utd are miles away with him in charge mate. They are far too easy to play against. They are lazy as fuck and kill their back 4. From midfield to front they are a joke. They are fine when they have the ball but they down tools when they lose it. If the manager is letting that happen then it won’t improve.

Chelsea back 4 and keeper are torrid no matter who plays in it.

 

[Shadydan]

Maybe. I just don’t think United and Chelsea are as far off clicking as a lot of others do. Hope I’m wrong.

The problem for both of them is that they are likely to change managers which means starting again, they could have a season like us this season and just surprise everyone but it comes down to how well both teams recruit and sell.

 

[dudu]

It's hard to tell if we we took our foot off the gas, or if Forest upped their game. Both even.
It felt to me like as much as we dominated the first 15-20 minutes, they barely touched the ball in midfield or the final 3rd. When they finally did, they seemed to pass through/round us quite easily. Quite worrying really.

A tiny bit worrying, but you then look at the start of the first half and we rectified that somewhat

 

[Starks]

Please stop with the 'Johnson missed a sitter' schtick, it was an outstanding reflex save to a 'shot' that was effectively a reflex reaction to a close, fizzed in cross. The boy couldn't have done more with it, he was just undone by a superb piece of goalkeeping.

I'll have to watch it again, but it looked like a pretty easy goal tbh and he hit it right at the goalkeeper like he did against Luton.

 

[Shadydan]

We don't run at defenders enough when we get in the box.