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Nuno Espírito Santo - Sacked

He's a mid-table coach ,as I've said. I don't blame him for losing to Chelsea or Arsenal, since they are above his level.

But limply losing to Moyes' West Ham after resting literally everybody and losing to Vitesse in the process...Christ.

Even for a mid-table manager, that is scraping the barrel.

He can't complain about injuries, can't complain about not having a fit team - so what can he use to justify this one?

Honestly, if there is a snowball in hell's chance we can get Marcelo Gallardo come January, we should be on that (know @Bedfordspurs has spoken highly of him as well). I honestly am drifting in and out of caring this season - more useful things to do with my time than lose my weekends to anger or sadness. But with Gallardo, there might be a hint of a promising future - there just isn't under Nuno, unfortunately.
That’s a bit unfair on West Ham, Moyes has done a very good job of making West Ham a top 6 team. They are very hard to beat, defend well giving them a solid base for their attacking players to work from. They are also the best set piece team in the PL. Whereas Nuno has inherited a team in transition and not had time to stamp his authority on it. I think we are right to be angry about the losses to Palace and the goons as both teams are not great. But today I think West Ham just ground out a result, something they are very good at. Had Harry Kane scored with his header or Skipp scored from the cross then today might have been different. What I like about Nuno is that he is working to make us solid at the back. Our passing in the final third has to improve and we need to use width better. Ndombele does need to step up in the big games imo, he has the ability. Perhaps that will come. It would also be helpful to have a different striking option to Kane too.
 
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That’s a bit unfair on West Ham, Moyes has done a very good job of making West aHam a top 6 team. They are very hard to beat, defend well giving them a solid base for their attacking players to work from. They are also the best set piece team in the PL. Whereas Nuno has inherited a team in transition and not had time to stamp his authority on it. I think we are right to be angry about the losses to Palace and the goons as both teams are not great. But today I think West Ham just ground out a result, something they are very good at. Had Harry Kane scored with his header or Skipp scored from the cross then today might have been different. What I like about Nuno is that he is working to make us solid at the back. Our passing in the final third has to be improve and we need to use width better. Ndombele does need to step up in the big games imo, he has the ability. Perhaps that will come. It would also be helpful to have a different striking option to Kane too.
Still say Tanguy ain’t a 10
Play him CM and Lo Celso up top with skipp behind
Then being in Hojbjerg to go through them around 60 mins
 
Still say Tanguy ain’t a 10
Play him CM and Lo Celso up top with skipp behind
Then being in Hojbjerg to go through them around 60 mins
Thought Skipp was brilliant again. I hate losing a London derby especially against that mob but I saw a lot today to be positive about. It was not like the other games we lost this season.
 
I think so
Said if my mate who wasn’t watching
I actually think that apart form Gollini we have made some very good signings
We will see that IMO next season as players settle
I think you’re making me realise I was expecting too much from Nuno and the current squad
 
Rest 11 players midweek to play really slow and patient seemingly happy with the 0-0. Uninspiring, but I can see the reasoning. West Ham are a good side, always going to be difficult away from home.

Taking off Ndombele, leaving Skipp and Hojbjerg on the pitch at 1-0 down? And Gil on as a left back? That one I really struggle with...
 
Rest 11 players midweek to play really slow and patient seemingly happy with the 0-0. Uninspiring, but I can see the reasoning. West Ham are a good side, always going to be difficult away from home.

Taking off Ndombele, leaving Skipp and Hojbjerg on the pitch at 1-0 down? And Gil on as a left back? That one I really struggle with...
Need to do that earlier
 
Thought Skipp was brilliant again. I hate losing a London derby especially against that mob but I saw a lot today to be positive about. It was not like the other games we lost this season.

It wasn't, because they were happy to let us have the ball.
We didn't have it because we wanted it, we had because they wanted to have it.
We did not dominate possession, we settled for it.
 
XG doesn’t show control just chances though
We have gone through this before
They had more shots than us and hit the target so that’s natural their xG is higher
Means nothing without the mistakes though
They made none we made one
Whether a shot is on target or not has no effect on XG. XG is derived from the quality of the chances taken from historic statistics of similar chances, not whether or not shots in that particular game are on target.

We weren’t ‘in control’ at all today. We had a lot of the ball as we made a lot of passes that didn’t have any attacking purpose and West Ham were happy to let us have the ball seeing as we played so slowly and they could get back, in shape behind the ball. West Ham had a lot less of the ball than us but looked more dangerous with it. I was praying for a nil nil as that was the best result we were ever going to get in that game.

Shame really as I enjoyed myself up at Saudi Sportswashing Machine but came down with a bump today at West Ham’s brickhole. Now wondering whether it was simply that Saudi Sportswashing Machine are so bad last weekend?
 
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Next weekend v Man U becomes a big game for him again I feel. Personally I give Nuno a bit of a pass this week in terms of creating chances given West Ham play with a back 4 and 2 DMs and sit back. They're hard to break down. Utd cant defend, as they're showing today, so if we cant create chances and score a couple next week then there's not much hope

My biggest concern is whether we will still be able to attract decent players next summer when we need to bring in 3-4 in key positions (CM, CF, playmaker)
 
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@DubaiSpur I’ll look at how their xG is high later but these stats to me show a team that had the ball (something our fans wanted) which people said is controlling the game (when it goes against us they do).
The only stat that matters though in this case is goals scored
We had the ball as we passed it from side to side in our defence, then slowly into midfield then side to side again and then back again. It’s easy to have the ball against a counter attacking team if you play slowly and safely for practically the entire game.
 
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The other thing about Nuno is how passive he is, how utterly disconnected he looks from what's going on in front of him.

Klopp has won more at just Liverpool than Nuno has won as a player or coach in 50-odd years. He still goes apesh*t at his players when they're 5-0 up against their biggest rivals at their ground.

He was the same when they were crap last December - and honestly, that makes a big difference, imo. Modern players need communication, they need energy, they need constant connection, they need more management than the older generations did.

There's a reason Poch and Klopp are the way they are (well, were in Poch's case, before he lost motivation as he saw the things going on around him at the club). Or Conte, or Tuchel, or Guardiola. Energy on the sideline translates to energy on the field, and micromanagement and constant communication are the name of the modern game.

Nuno standing there silently, looking lost for 90m, does not transmit the control he possibly thinks it does. It just comes across as passive, made worse by his inability to react to shifts in the game by making changes.
 
You see signs earlier though - a plan, identity, unity. We haven't got them. Plus everyone know he's just a caretaker till whenever Messi decides to pulls rank on Poch
We saw signs under Pochs first 10 games of disarray
Reinvent it how you want but they were the games that made him want to bin off his vice captains
 
Whether a shot is on target or not has no effect on XG. XG is derived from the quality of the chances taken by historic statistics of similar chances not whether or not shots in that particular game are on target.

We weren’t ‘in control’ at all today. We had a lot of the ball as we made a lot of passes that didn’t have any attacking purpose and West Ham were happy to let us have the ball seeing as we played so slowly and they could get back, in shape behind the ball. West Ham had a lot less of the ball than us but looked more dangerous with it. I was praying for a nil nil as that was the best result we were ever going to get in that game.

Shame really as I enjoyed myself up at Saudi Sportswashing Machine but came down with a bump today at West Ham’s brickhole. Now wondering whether it was simply that Saudi Sportswashing Machine are so bad last weekend?
Because they are bad
Very bad
I said it last weekend
West Ham aren’t and weren’t really creating anything IMO
It’s why these games are won by mistakes
 
We had the ball as we passed it from side to side in our defence, then slowly into midfield then side to side again and then back again. It’s easy to have the ball against a counter attacking team if you play slowly and safely for practically the entire game.
I agree
But when we played counter attacking the teams that played side to side against us were “in control” according to a lot of our fans
You said it vs Wolves didn’t you?
 
The other thing about Nuno is how passive he is, how utterly disconnected he looks from what's going on in front of him.

Klopp has won more at just Liverpool than Nuno has won as a player or coach in 50-odd years. He still goes apesh*t at his players when they're 5-0 up against their biggest rivals at their ground.

He was the same when they were crap last December - and honestly, that makes a big difference, imo. Modern players need communication, they need energy, they need constant connection, they need more management than the older generations did.

There's a reason Poch and Klopp are the way they are (well, were in Poch's case, before he lost motivation as he saw the things going on around him at the club). Or Conte, or Tuchel, or Guardiola. Energy on the sideline translates to energy on the field, and micromanagement and constant communication are the name of the modern game.

Nuno standing there silently, looking lost for 90m, does not transmit the control he possibly thinks it does. It just comes across as passive, made worse by his inability to react to shifts in the game by making changes.
Poch never did anything on the sidelines
He was very passive
He was also poor with subs
He was also likeable
 
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