Ange in or out?

[Yiddo]

Its embarrassing to watch, its not the players its the details. We have a better squad than Forest, Bournemouth, Brighton and Villa yet they are all fighting for European places, why is that? Their managers actually have a clue.

 

[superspurs]

Like many I was hoping Ange would get things going again but leaving the game yesterday it just feels inevitable doesn't it, probably has felt that way for some time now.

He'll be gone if we don't go through on Thursday.

 

[Silly McSilly Face]

Oh someone actually watches football and gets it.

I love Wharton at Palace but even him who I think is a diamond would suffer in our system. Hell even Rodri would, Rice to.

While it's a fairly obvious "hole" which i think contributes to our lack of shape, I'm unsure Ange believes in a holding midfielder. Seems to prefer playing Bentancur or Bissouma as the nominal deepest midfielder both of whom played most of their pre-Ange careers as an 8 (Bentancur) or even 10 (Biss). Then those players seem to have definitely license to "wander" and you get really weird situations where you end up with Maddison or Kulusevski in the defensive third trying to make a last ditch tackle while Bissouma is jogging back from the opponent's penalty area.

We have a potentially very good DM in Gray, but Ange seems very reluctant to play him in that position. Which may again be down to the fact Ange doesn't like to have one of his 3 midfielders focused on defensive cover...

 

[Muttley]

We have a potentially very good DM in Gray, but Ange seems very reluctant to play him in that position. Which may again be down to the fact Ange doesn't like to have one of his 3 midfielders focused on defensive cover...

Not sure about this. Gray had a 50 game season and this season ended up playing close to 20 consecutive games at centre half.

Right now, I think the manager is trying to get him refreshed and recharged. Because Bent's is suspended, we could easily see Gray getting minutes in midfield this week. After that, I have a feeling we'll see more of him in midfield. I can see Bissouma getting completely phased out.

 

[Daisuk]

I agree, especially this season. But I can only keep going back to my same points: Ange’s teams historically have struggled…until suddenly they don’t; injuries have robbed us of so much of that progression that we would have otherwise seen.



It’s a fair question. I said up front when I wanted him appointed that we needed at least 3 seasons to see the impact, so more time and more time with a full(ish) squad. I appreciate it’s hard when you’re watching us struggle every week, but that’s why I haven’t ridden the waves of results as much as others.

Fair enough. I do think it's a huge ask to give a coach two full seasons when both results and performances have been poor for a long time though. If we had seen some sort of progression I would perhaps be able to support that, but we have regressed, in my opinion. You can blame that on injuries, of course, but it seems more like a system flaw to me, when we keep conceding the same sort of goals and do the same mistakes in game after game.

 

[balesleftboot]

He's not wrong about the atmosphere BTW. Soon as a mistake is made the crowd are on the players backs. Very little positive noise from the crowd unless it's a derby. Can't help at all.

Look at Nuno. Crowd were on his back at ours and this translates to the pitch. Players scared to make a mistake because of the negativity in the stands so they play it safe. Now he's flying at Forest and we all wonder why.

 

[Daisuk]

He's not wrong about the atmosphere BTW. Soon as a mistake is made the crowd are on the players backs. Very little positive noise from the crowd unless it's a derby. Can't help at all.

Look at Nuno. Crowd were on his back at ours and this translates to the pitch. Players scared to make a mistake because of the negativity in the stands so they play it safe. Now he's flying at Forest and we all wonder why.

100%. I don't think our home support has been good since WHL. The club should have been smart and allocated season tickets in the south stand to people actually wanting to sing. Can't have been that hard.

 

[Mikey10]

100%. I don't think our home support has been good since WHL. The club should have been smart and allocated season tickets in the south stand to people actually wanting to sing. Can't have been that hard.

They're not interested in season ticket holders. They'll be quite happy if the ground is full of tourist fans, spending loads in the shop and at the in-stadium concession stands.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

They're not interested in season ticket holders. They'll be quite happy if the ground is full of tourist fans, spending loads in the shop and at the in-stadium concession stands.

Worryingly right
It’s how the league has gone

 

[billyiddo]

Oh someone actually watches football and gets it.

I love Wharton at Palace but even him who I think is a diamond would suffer in our system. Hell even Rodri would, Rice to.

It's something I said a few times early on when 'we need to buy a proper 6' came up - he doesn't play with one and what people who are saying that line are actually advocating is a change in setup/tactics...

 

[Glenda's Legs]

They're not interested in season ticket holders. They'll be quite happy if the ground is full of tourist fans, spending loads in the shop and at the in-stadium concession stands.

If they didn’t care about Season Tickets they wouldn’t have such a high proportion of the capacity allocated to STs.
It’s guaranteed money up front and probably paints a good picture to banks and sponsors.

 

[Mikey10]

If they didn’t care about Season Tickets they wouldn’t have such a high proportion of the capacity allocated to STs.
It’s guaranteed money up front and probably paints a good picture to banks and sponsors.

If they could be sure that they could flog the seats on a week by week basis to tourist fans then they wouldn't think twice about doing away with ST holders. I'd expect to see continuing moves in that direction - including the ongoing pricing out of ordinary fans.

 

[Baleforce]

If they could be sure that they could flog the seats on a week by week basis to tourist fans then they wouldn't think twice about doing away with ST holders. I'd expect to see continuing moves in that direction - including the ongoing pricing out of ordinary fans.

Define “ordinary fan”