coachpotato

Win, win.

Made up that shithead Bernardo Silva tried to be too smart and passed it to the goalie. Knobhead.

We don’t know what the players are told to do in defensive situations. Do they try and block off crosses? Do they have specific players to pick up? Do they grab the nearest shirt? Maybe all three? What is certain is that a Palace player was stood in the box, on our 6 yard line, unmarked with no-one within tackling distance of him. Penalty boxes are not ordered, they are chaotic, so it will be difficult to plan for exact situations. We have been far too easy to score against though for most, if not all, of the season. That’s got to be a collective responsibility surely?

If they just beat us, they’ll all forget about the other games because they will have won the “We put the final nail in the Redshite season” Cup. There’ll be a DVD.

I’ve already said I’m not too bothered who we get, as long as we continue to be successful. Add to that, anyone who can also tighten up our defence so we stop conceding first.

Tarkowski is just a yard dog who likes hurting players.

Criticising the Manager? Kopite behaviour that.

Criticising their players? Kopite behaviour that.

Technically and mathematically it’s still on. Practically and realistically, it’s not. It’s a brain and heart scenario, and I think our hearts have been broken since the United draw.

Atalanta deserve credit for the manner in which they played the game. Likely they hoped, rather than expected, their tactics to stifle us, and the manner in the way we performed meant they did exactly that, and then some. I bet they couldn’t believe their luck. I think everyone has been afraid of us putting in a performance like that in given how we’ve been performing (and as I’m writing this just after the Palace game, we now know it hasn’t been a one off), and we’ve been too lax at the back and too profligate up front for much of the season. Not the form of Champions really. The fact we’re still hanging on in the league is something of a testament to the players and management team, especially the youngsters who have come in and acquitted themselves so well, even though they’ve frustrated the hell out of us by getting so close, and technically we’re still not out of the running for a treble. Practically though, we’re the third best team in the league and we should be the best team by a distance in the Europa League. I hope we put in a performance in Bergamo and at least win, even if it’s unlikely we do by four goals, and we can all hope against hope that City and Arsenal pay too much attention to the CL and allow us in through the back door in the League. Dreamer aren’t I.

The benefit of City winning the league (if we have now shit the bed) is that nobody will give an actual fuck. It’ll be forgotten about two days after they do it. I can do without all the shite if Arsenal win it.

Fixed

Aye, we want both Spurs and Villa to be needing points to qualify for European places so they’ll, hopefully, have a go against City and Arsenal. We know anyone will have a go against us.

Let’s hope he says we won’t turn the Atalanta tie around or win the league then.

They were obviously no slouches, yet I can’t understand that we wouldn’t have checked them out first and set a team that would be able to cope with their style. Obviously, had we capitalised on the first ten minutes or so and scored, either through Nunez or the unlucky Elliot, then we could have been looking at a completely different scenario, but there still may have been the defensive sloppiness that has pervaded our play all season, and also the profligacy shown by our attacking play, so the result is one that, as several have said, has been coming. Saw a stat on the BBC earlier saying we were No1 for shots taken (670’ish) in the league this season, yet 10th for actually converting them? Says a lot.

I hope we’ve already got someone sorted and are just keeping it under wraps. After Klopp, I actually don’t much care who it is, as long as they continue to keep us successful, plus, I’m not really well up with who’s who in the managerial stakes, so I’m relying on Edwards and his team to do their jobs. Naive? Probably.

My source tells me either the 20th or 23rd May. To be confirmed.

More than interesting, it was how they played last night. Begs the question, if their style is known, why couldn’t we counter it?

I thought Atalanta might have tired towards the end of the game as they put so much effort into closing us down, but they were gifted goals at just the right time to allow them to keep up the pressure. Although we know we played well below the acceptable and expected level we can play at, I think they deserve a lot of credit for their plan and how they carried it out. Their supporters were good too, plenty of noise right the way through.

But will any further deduction happen this season, or apply to this season?

I think they’ll play the same tactics as last night, expecting to outpress us and stop us building a head of steam up. Or they’ll sit back, which could play into our hands. One in the first half. One just after half time. See where it is after that. Above all, we’ll need to be right at it, unlike last night.

The Premier League still puts it’s fingers in it’s ears, closes it’s eyes and says, “,La,La,La….” But the blue orcs insist they’re being fucked over.

Italian teams, historically, defend very well, tonight Atalanta did that by going man for man when we were trying to pass out of our box, causing Kelleher to kick long even from early on in the game. Generally they were very decent at snuffing us out. Because Italian teams tend to defend very well, forwards in the Scuddetto have to take their chances as they arise, and probably do that at a 1 goal in every 2 or 3 chances rate or better. That’s exactly what Atalanta did tonight. By playing one of our worst games in ages in passing and lax defending, we made them look like world beaters and not the sixth place team in their league. I hope this hurt our players and I expect to see a positive reaction from them going forwards. Klopp doesn’t deserve to go out with a whimper, and it’s up to them to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Wish we had referees like that fella. We might be in with more than a shout if so.

The amount of diving and simulation that goes on, they must fucking practise it surely? It can’t be something that just “happens” without any intent? I expect the ex-pro pundits would call it “professionalism”. “Cheats never prosper” the saying goes, not fucking much they don’t.