coachpotato

Watched it in a hotel in Munich. Just numbed by the predictability of it really. The report is spot on, no disagreements with anything said but can’t reconcile the capitulation in the last four games particularly.

Mentality Monsters?

Not. Sadly.

We put a mid-table team to bed, relatively easily, which is what we should be doing.

It was noticeable that we moved the ball forwards more quickly and pressed better.

We also had a referee who wasn’t overly influenced by Fulham’s simulation, and who at least appeared neutral in his calls.

The selection of the players was what many have been calling for, Salah and Nunez (our most profligate players recently) both benched and Mac Allister rested after appearing to be burned out.

Whatever, it worked and worked well.

Long may it continue

All absolutely spot on with one exception, early on you say had we got a second Atalanta would probably have folded.

I’m not so sure. Their coach seems quite a smart guy and I’ve no doubt he would have had a provision in place for us getting a second.

Moot point though because we didn’t get a second and didn’t look like getting it as the game wore on.

Maybe Nagelsmann has heard who we’ve already decided or agreed a deal with and he isn’t it.

Coincidentally, I was also wondering what prospective coaches would be thinking about our recent form, if we haven’t already tied someone down of course.

Prefers Dolly Parton’s version of Stairway to Heaven than the original?

Now I do like some of her stuff, and she appears to be a good sort but Bluto is showing his colours there.
Buffoon. 

Jones, like many local players before him, suffers from having to be exceptional to be thought of as adequate. In the past he has been exceptional, but the way the team is playing, he’s only been adequate.

Injuries have slowed his progress, just when he appears to be getting a bit of form, he’s out again, but he’s not currently near the level he needs to be at and we don’t have the luxury of a number of games for him to ease himself back in. 
It’s true I think that his style is often frustrating, and I agree recently play slows when it reaches him, as the majority of times he receives the ball he takes an extra touch then passes back to the centre backs, but the rest of the team aren’t playing with much confidence and as we’ve all seen, play “safe” passes and take up “ safe” positions.

The general malaise isn’t just down to Jones, and trying to regain form in the current setup must be a difficult thing for any returning player.

Like most, I’d love to see more generally attacking play that sees the first touch forwards, fewer passes across the back or into midfield then back to the centre halves, and quicker passes in front of players rather than behind, but that seems to be difficult for our team to do at the moment and we’ve only seen it in flashes.

We all know the team can play much better, they will know it too, we can only hope Jones and the rest of them can click out of their current form and give us something to cheer in the last 6 games.

2 minutes ago, Elite said:

Doesn't help our league chances but always nice to see those cheating cunts lose, especially in the champions league.

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.

1 hour ago, Kevin D said:

Relying on anyone else is never a good idea.

Fixed

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.

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.

3 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

It's already planned, even before the League Cup. 

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

18 minutes ago, Code said:

This article is a few years old, but still interesting.

 

https://www.mariusjacobsen.com/2020/05/how-atalanta-can-change-the-game/

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.