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Jose Mourinho - SACKED

braineclipse said:
We weren't sent out to press high, but we weren't sitting very deep either. Quite a few of their good chances came when they played in behind with our team in something resembling a medium block.

We weren't aggressive though, we lacked intensity. The number of tackles, attempted tackles, fouls and interceptions from Ndombele, Kane, Bale and Son were just shockingly low.

Arsenal had

I really struggle to see that being what Mourinho wanted from the team. I have no problem with us playing a medium block, or even a low block at times. Doing that without intensity and aggression though. That just doesn't work. It can't be what Mourinho wants, it just can't be.

On him to get that intensity and aggression from the players, but also on the players to deliver that.
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If I had to guess? he probably anticipated Scum doing the rush out the gate and picked an attacking team, but warned them to not get caught in first 15-20 minutes.

Unfortunately, we conceded initiative (something he talks about not doing) and never really got it back until last 20 odd minutes.

Just looked a tired performance and maybe that's what it is

Test is if we pick ourselves up and do another 5-6 game winning run or not.
 
Raziel said:
If I had to guess? he probably anticipated Scum doing the rush out the gate and picked an attacking team, but warned them to not get caught in first 15-20 minutes.

Unfortunately, we conceded initiative (something he talks about not doing) and never really got it back until last 20 odd minutes.

Just looked a tired performance and maybe that's what it is

Test is if we pick ourselves up and do another 5-6 game winning run or not.
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Agreed on all points.

If the cause was tiredness we have some massive decisions coming up with the EL second leg, and if we go through to the next round how to manage rotation in the coming weeks.
 
Had it not been for Michael Oliver we would have scraped a draw yesterday. Yes it wasn't a great performance and a draw might not have been deserved but tell that to Saudi Sportswashing Machine earlier this season. It is just the way it goes sometimes when a team is tired. There is a worrying pattern that we don't get results against the better teams. But not sure I would read too much into yesterday. The ref altered the direction of the game with 2 key decisions, both wrong imo and handed the points to Arsenal. And I rarely criticise refs.
 
braineclipse said:
Agreed on all points.

If the cause was tiredness we have some massive decisions coming up with the EL second leg, and if we go through to the next round how to manage rotation in the coming weeks.
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Well, considering the flat players included Kane, Sone, Ndombele & PEH (pretty much the list of who's played the most), it's a strong possibility

I agree with @Robspur12 the cups have to a be a priority, Thursday we really just need one away goal and that tie is probably dead. We will need full strength later and in final
 
braineclipse said:
Agreed on all points.

If the cause was tiredness we have some massive decisions coming up with the EL second leg, and if we go through to the next round how to manage rotation in the coming weeks.
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Looking at the fixtures and form of the remaining teams in with a shot of top 4 this season i think we're way out of the reckoning and so should focus on the EL games when they come around.
 
Robspur12 said:
Had it not been for Michael Oliver we would have scraped a draw yesterday. Yes it wasn't a great performance and a draw might not have been deserved but tell that to Saudi Sportswashing Machine earlier this season. It is just the way it goes sometimes when a team is tired. There is a worrying pattern that we don't get results against the better teams. But not sure I would read too much into yesterday. The ref altered the direction of the game with 2 key decisions, both wrong imo and handed the points to Arsenal. And I rarely criticise refs.
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I think he got both calls right as he saw them. But var would never iver turn the penalty even though it was wrong (it wasn’t clear and obvious) and the yellow cards I don’t believe are var checked

but I do 100% agree with your sentiment
I had us down for 12 points form 15 although I thought we would get a score draw yesterday with a Desmond if we turned up (which we didn’t)
I still think we will meet those points targets before the international break
 
Finney Is Back said:
I don’t think you play Son, Kane, Bale, Moura and Ndombele alongside Hojbjerg if you are intending to play a defensive low block. I’m not excusing Jose here, I’m not sure our coaching has taught us play anything else, but him having made all his subs so early tells me that the team wasn’t carrying out his instructions, which is different to earlier games when we were very defensive and he made no subs to change it.
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I'm not 100% sure that the line-up and tactics are inconsistent - with Moura in there alongside Bale, Son and Kane you have even more pace to counter-attack. You may be right, but I'm not sure that you definitely are - none of us know what tactics Jose intended....I'm just surprised that if he wasn't happy with the defensive approach that he wasnt up barking at the team.

On the subs, I think the Bale issue is separate to the low-block tactics. The Bale change (whether substitution or moving him inside) was long overdue - the way Bale was letting Tierney join Smith-Rowe to attack Doherty was shocking. Jose should have been shouting at Bale form the 10-20th min, or move him inside and put Moura outside. Jose took til the 55th min to change that - thats nothing to do with the tactics, just Bale's either laziness or inability to run enough to track back. The Son substitution obviously didnt relate to tactics and the Ndombele one was very, very late if its meant to indiciate that the team weren't carrying out the tactics
 
Robspur12 said:
It is easy for me to say, I would like all our eggs to go into winning the EL.
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I think thats the way its heading now. 6 games to win the EL; 10 games to get 4th. Obviously you don't need to win all 6 or all 10 though.

Realistically to win the EL we just need to win 3 games, and perhaps draw 3 (and maybe even drawing 6 games would be enough!).
 
AdamB said:
I think thats the way its heading now. 6 games to win the EL; 10 games to get 4th. Obviously you don't need to win all 6 or all 10 though.

Realistically to win the EL we just need to win 3 games, and perhaps draw 3 (and maybe even drawing 6 games would be enough!).
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Of our 10 remaining league games 5 are against top half teams - we haven't beaten a single team that were top half when we played them this season so you'd have to be fairly inclined to think the best we'll get from those 5 is 5 points, if we win the other 5 that gives us 20 points in total, will 65 points be enough?
 
Robspur12 said:
Had it not been for Michael Oliver we would have scraped a draw yesterday. Yes it wasn't a great performance and a draw might not have been deserved but tell that to Saudi Sportswashing Machine earlier this season. It is just the way it goes sometimes when a team is tired. There is a worrying pattern that we don't get results against the better teams. But not sure I would read too much into yesterday. The ref altered the direction of the game with 2 key decisions, both wrong imo and handed the points to Arsenal. And I rarely criticise refs.
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What decision was wrong other than the pen?
 
billyiddo said:
I agree we weren't playing a low block, it was confusing all round really but what left the biggest impression was just how much we sat off Arsenal and let them play - i struggle to square that as the team having a collective off day when it was noticeable from the 1st minute up until we fell behind, all too familiar of our mindset in games throughout the last 3/4 months
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That’s the worrying thing
It’s not new
 
billyiddo said:
Of our 10 remaining league games 5 are against top half teams - we haven't beaten a single team that were top half when we played them this season so you'd have to be fairly inclined to think the best we'll get from those 5 is 5 points, if we win the other 5 that gives us 20 points in total, will 65 points be enough?
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This season
Who knows
 
billyiddo said:
Of our 10 remaining league games 5 are against top half teams - we haven't beaten a single team that were top half when we played them this season so you'd have to be fairly inclined to think the best we'll get from those 5 is 5 points, if we win the other 5 that gives us 20 points in total, will 65 points be enough?
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Overall I agree - 20 points from the last 10 is about as good as you might expect, but realistically probably a bit less than that.

Winning the EL seems far easier. Assuming we do enough to get through this week, if we were to draw say Grenada in the quarters then the EL suddenly looks very do-able. Would be nice if Milan take care of Man U too....
 
AdamB said:
I'm not 400% sure that the line-up and tactics are inconsistent - with Moura in there alongside Bale, Son and Kane you have even more pace to counter-attack. You may be right, but I'm not sure that you definitely are - none of us know what tactics Jose intended....I'm just surprised that if he wasn't happy with the defensive approach that he wasnt up barking at the team.

On the subs, I think the Bale issue is separate to the low-block tactics. The Bale change (whether substitution or moving him inside) was long overdue - the way Bale was letting Tierney join Smith-Rowe to attack Doherty was shocking. Jose should have been shouting at Bale form the 10-20th min, or move him inside and put Moura outside. Jose took til the 55th min to change that - thats nothing to do with the tactics, just Bale's either laziness or inability to run enough to track back. The Son substitution obviously didnt relate to tactics and the Ndombele one was very, very late if its meant to indiciate that the team weren't carrying out the tactics
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Honestly I think it might have been a tactical decision for Bale not to track Tierney, recognising that he doesn't have the legs for it and could instead be a threat on the break. I watched the first half again, and it was noticeable how much Bale was focused on Xhaka rather than Tierney, and Hojbjerg or Ndombele were always quick to go and help out Doherty instead. And as you allude to, surely Jose would have been screaming at Bale if Tierney was supposed to be his man?
 
Robspur12 said:
It is easy for me to say, I would like all our eggs to go into winning the EL.
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If we take that approach, league form continues to fluctuate and we finish between 8-10th and the lose the final, what does that mean in terms of confidence in Mourinho in charge for next season?
 
elltrev said:
Honestly I think it might have been a tactical decision for Bale not to track Tierney, recognising that he doesn't have the legs for it and could instead be a threat on the break. I watched the first half again, and it was noticeable how much Bale was focused on Xhaka rather than Tierney, and Hojbjerg or Ndombele were always quick to go and help out Doherty instead. And as you allude to, surely Jose would have been screaming at Bale if Tierney was supposed to be his man?
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Perhaps, and I saw Bale drifting to Xhaka at time too, however it still doesnt change the fact that they were killing us down our right, so it needed something changing to give Doherty more cover rather than being 2:1
 
MKSpur said:
If we take that approach, league form continues to fluctuate and we finish between 8-10th and the lose the final, what does that mean in terms of confidence in Mourinho in charge for next season?
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If we don't prioritise one over the other, I don't think we have the strength of depth in CM and at CF in order to compete in both, and I don't think we have a chance to get 4th unless we're 100% on it for all the remaining games. I'd also suggest that there isnt much difference between finishing 5th and 8th

Mourinho is a results man - he needs to show it
 
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