joe_fishfish

If it’s gonna be Amorim next, the wide players in his front three play a lot narrower than ours do. The whole playstyle is about getting overloads in the centre, with Mo’s close control and strength on the ball he could be ideal in there as he gets older. Amorim does demand a lot of pressing from his front three though, Mo doesn’t do that so much.

If he doesn’t win his first trophy by beating Real Madrid in the Supercup next season then he’s a dead man walking

Watch Diaz after he plays it across for Darwin, runs away from goal despite no one taking up the central position. If he runs towards the centre of the goal he gets a tap in.

Germany is a much stronger league than Portugal. Klopp got Dortmund to the Champions League final as well. Amorim's record in European competition is okay, but not outstanding.

Always thought "his legs have gone" meant a player was finished at the top level, like didn't have the agility or stamina for 90 minutes, someone like Fabinho or Jordan Henderson. That's not Mo. Mo has still got 90 minutes in him but if you think he's as quick now as he ever was you're watching different matches to me.

Excited is the wrong word for it but I'm quite interested to see what he can bring to the job. I'm not expecting much from him first season but he definitely seems like the best choice out there. Initially I was thinking we should go for De Zerbi if we couldn't get Xabi tbf. But the bits of Sporting I've seen, along with the tactical breakdowns and the bits about how he is with the media and his players, makes me think this guy is the better fit. Huge step up for him like. Never managed or played outside of Portugal.

Edwards was amazing at getting good fees for players we didn’t want, let’s hope Hughes has the same magic touch.

Arsenal have only conceded four goals in 2024 but their xG conceded is a lot higher than that. Nerds with spreadsheets know fuck all about football, etc, but what I’m saying is, they are benefiting hugely from their opponents being shit at finishing recently. If they get a couple of injuries and start conceding goals again, things will get interesting.

He does. He’d be a very underwhelming signing.

I’m not seeing an obvious link to a forward if we appoint Amorim.

I think it’s Arsenal’s to lose now. Can’t continually gift teams goals AND be as wasteful with chances as we are and still hope to win it. A lot of that is down to missing key players for so long and it’s kind of amazing we are even challenging really. Full credit to the manager on that.

Did the ref miss that five on one at home to Arsenal? Did the ref cause the mixup between Alisson and Van Dijk away at Arsenal? Did the ref score Luton’s goal for them at Kenilworth Road? Sure we’ve had more than our fair share of shit decisions this season but we could have been miles clear regardless of the PGMOL dickheads. It’s on us.

Yeah I know what you mean. We’re absolutely shite at game management. We conceded a goal at home to a Sheffield United side who were barely even trying to get out of their own half!

He was fucking outstanding apart from that pass, Quansah. Devastating for him. Tell you what lads, I’m up for this Amorim fella if he makes us more clinical and stops us conceding stupid fucking goals. Feel like you could ask our squad the question “what does game management mean” and you’d get nothing but blank stares in reply.

Well. Certainly lots of things to improve on.

No Gomez seems weird. Need huge improvements from Bradley and Quansah compared to their last outing at Old Trafford.

He’s five ten, medium height if anything

Problem I have with Gakpo is that he’s six foot four and strong with it, but has games where he only ever wants it to his feet standing still. When he turns and runs forward with the ball, or runs onto it, he’s very difficult to stop, but he seems reluctant to do that half the time.

Sets him up well for coming here then.

Found this on Reddit, helps to get an idea of the fixture congestion in the run-in. For us tomorrow is massive obviously, then it’s two relatively easier games at home where we might be able to get away with our usual low-intensity shenanigans that we see all too frequently. But then after that we have a run of four consecutive aways, all tricky in their own way, with two days between each one. (Also this format makes it clearer why that West Ham game being moved to 12:30 on the Saturday is a pain in the arse.) Then if we beat Atalanta, which we should, we have yet another European away game on the Thursday after West Ham. If we get three points tomorrow, and get through that run of five consecutive aways, we are massive favourites, for me. That is a horrendous run. Do the other two have runs like that? Well, not really. From next Sunday, Arsenal have a run of four consecutive games with two days between them, but two of them are at home. If they get past Bayern, they have another run of four, but again, two are at home, and the game away at Spurs comes after a four day break. If they get through that first run of four with no injuries they will win all their league games imo. Abu Dhabi have a slightly tricky run of four starting on Tuesday against Real Madrid, but there’s an extra day’s rest for them either side of their league game, which is of course at home to Luton, a team who as well as being shite also have an injury crisis of their own to deal with. Then it’s the FA Cup semi final against Chelsea. After that they get four days rest before the fun really starts, presuming they get past Real Madrid. Starting on the 26th they have five consecutive games with two days between them, same as our hell run, but of course two of theirs are at home. Then they have three days until Fulham away, but that Spurs game in brown probably gets rescheduled after that, so no free week for them going into the final day. Final day is a guaranteed three points and +7 GD for Arsenal at home to Everton, a significantly trickier but still very winnable home tie for us against Wolves, and an easy victory for Abu Dhabi at home to a West Ham side who either have their flip flops on or are looking forward to a Europa League final (unlikely though). Don’t expect those games to be a factor at all. City’s run looks the hardest in terms of time between games but they have the easiest fixtures. I’m expecting Arsenal to get past Bayern relatively straightforwardly, and unless they pick up injuries should comfortably win all their league games as well. The biggest hurdle we have after tomorrow is that run of five aways, but that happens sooner than City or Arsenal’s really tough runs, which could work in our favour. Get through the European games with no extra time, scrape three points in all the league games, and it’s all downhill for us from there. The thing I’ve not mentioned is that City and Arsenal will (imo likely) play each other in the Champions League semi. I actually don’t think it will have much of an effect. Happens too late in the season and the remaining league games are either against teams with nothing to play for or Everton.

Fully agreed and I think we will beat them. But you can’t deny Everton will make it a lot tougher for us to leave Goodison with three points than they did for City or Arsenal.

Just don’t see where Arsenal or City drop points, they are comfortably better than everyone they will play in the run in. Villa are the fourth or fifth best side this year and absolutely shat themselves against City, if you’d watched that game with no knowledge of the table you’d have thought Villa were a lower half side, maybe even in the relegation fight. Arsenal and City don’t have a run of five consecutive aways coming up either and whenever they go away in Europe their next league game is piss easy. Meanwhile we have still to go away to Goodison and Old Trafford and whenever we get an easy fixture like Sheff Utd we decide to play like an over-60s walking football team. I still think we can win it like. But we will need to finish on 94.

As if we’d get a draw

I can see Arsenal winning every game from here on in, I think we’ll need to do the same, or we’ll end up losing it to them on goal difference.

I absolutely fucking hate Man Utd. Just get these beat Reds. I’d look at Gomez at right back with Robbo starting this one. As well as Bradley has done he’s looked knackered for a while now, and he was shite at Old Trafford in the cup. Endo, Macca and Szoboszlai start in midfield with Curtis coming on after an hour.