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coachpotato

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Posts posted by coachpotato

  1. 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?

     

  2. 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.

     

  3. 3 minutes ago, Tj hooker said:

    I'd say good anything that keeps Villa competitive is better In my opinion 

    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.

    • Upvote 3
  4. 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.

     

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

    • Upvote 3
  7. 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.

     

  8. 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.

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