Squad not good enough...or unable to play a different style?

[parklane1]

The squad is fine.
Mourinho needs completely different types of footballers to make extreme type of football from 15 years ago work.

Mourinho would not be able to make a functional 11 from the current fit Emirates Marketing Project squad. Try naming an 11 that would work.
Is their squad "good enough"? Yes.

No its not, its basically the same players who got Poch the sack. At the moment some of the same players who were getting slagged of by many of our fans under the last year of Poch are the same players who are stinking the place out now.

 

[Modric THFC]

No its not, its basically the same players who got Poch the sack. At the moment some of the same players who were getting slagged of by many of our fans under the last year of Poch are the same players who are stinking the place out now.

Basically the same players that got Poch to the Champions League final then or got Mourinho to the top of the League?
Or was that down the manager?

The cult of the manager, regardless of how he is.
"Back the manager". No I'm backing Harry Kane, a club legend for the next 50 years.

Lloris
Doherty Alderweireld Dier Reguilon
Lo Celso Hojberg Ndombele
Son Kane Alli

That's a good enough team to pass the ball around and hammer the likes of Palace and Fulham

The talk of gegen pressing in the opening post shows that the OP is not following the trends of the season.
Pressing teams like Liverpool can't do under this season's schedule. After years of doing it they are exhausted.

Guardiola's team are top of the league precisely because he has worked this out first.
City no long press. They block the passing lines in midfield. They now sit ten yards deeper on average.

There is no reason we couldn't play something like that, bar the manager.
He is wedded to his "however has possession is more like to make mistakes" ethos.
That is why we play with fear.

 

[Mikey10]

Anyone who thinks Winks, Sanchez, Sissoko, Moura, Dier, Davies, Lamela (all now joined by a rapidly declining Toby and Hugo) are ‘fine’ is obviously happy to bump along mid table.

Dele has done nothing of consequence for two years and Bale’s return has been a big disappointment.

These players are just not good enough. Which top 6 teams does anyone reckon they’d be regular starters for?

 

[SteveAWOL]

Wonder if Klopp will abandon the geggenpressing now it’s clear his 2nd string aren’t up to it...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1360741588465549315

 

[afsoc4life]

The squad is fine.
Mourinho needs completely different types of footballers to make extreme type of football from 15 years ago work.

Mourinho would not be able to make a functional 11 from the current fit Emirates Marketing Project squad. Try naming an 11 that would work.
Is their squad "good enough"? Yes.

Do you think Pep would be able to play his style with our current squad? For me the answer is no.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Would suggest that Aurier's having a good season because we have to sacrifice a midfield player to sit in at RB when he goes marauding. Which means one less player in the buildup. We had the same issue last season, and Mourinho's solution was to play the lopsided back four where the LB would hold and Aurier would go up.

I don't think it's worth sabotaging the entire team to babysit him - I'd suggest that his performances now that Ndombele is deep in the 'Sissoko' role might well decline, because Ndombel won't sit in and play the deadweight Sissoko role to let Aurier wander.

Well let’s see if and when it happens. Personally I think Aurier will be fine. He will of course make the odd mistake but every player makes mistakes. He can defend one on one against an attacker though and he can also contribute well in attack. In Aurier and Regulion we have a top 6 full back pair I think. Whereas we probably have a bottom 6 centre back pair. I think we do have a problem at fullback in terms of the drop off in quality in the back ups. Is Doherty really as bad as he has shown though?.... He seemed decent as a wing back at Wolves so maybe he is just suffering a form/confidence problem? We desperately need a better LB back-up than Davies however. Opponents now play the simple inside pass one-two around him numerous times in every game and a full back should only get beaten with that a few times in a whole season.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Fair enough, but personally I think the downgrade fron Walker to Aurier justifies him bring in there regardless.

We need 2 x CBS, a keeper (one who can properly challenge Lloris), another LB option (we’re a lot stronger overall on the right than the left), another CM option, another wide midfield attacker and a backup CF before we worry about replacing our right back IMO.

I think we need to actually sign the players in order of need for fear of running out of funds/time (we all know our chairman by now). I do really worry though that we have the wrong people in charge of identifying and making those signings. We are desperate for a proper DoF IMO and without one of those I think we’ll stumble along, stagnating for a few years.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I don't think it's particularly unique at all, mate. I watch other teams pass it around us with ease every single game after all - the DM drops deep, two CBs go wide.

However, crucial difference is that 3 at the back means 7 in the buildup. 4 at the back means just six up in attack, and with Aurier and Reggie (when fit) hugginh the touchline, it means a real lack of players to pass to in the middle.

These things make a difference - it's like having 10 men in a way having 4 at the back as opposed to 3, or even 2.

It doesn’t actually work like that though. When we have had possession in the opponents half in recent games look where our players actually are.... We’re not actually leaving four back in the way that you describe.

There are really just two ways a team chooses to cover both of their full backs attacking at the same time and that is the Poch way (central midfielder drop in and the two CBS fan out. This worked brilliantly under Poch as both Jan and Toby had also played as fullbacks and were very good faced up 1 v 1 with a winger). Or there is the Mourinho way (one CM drops in to play as the LCB or RCB and the two CBs shuffle right or left). Both ways tend to make a 3.

Last season Mourinho always kept the left back very deep and only really allowed the RB to attack. This season that hasn’t really happened though.

 

[Bishop]

Aurier is high risk/reward. He may be our best defender but he isn’t reliable. Sadly none of them are. 4 (or more) wrongs don’t make a right.
What a mess.

He along with Regulion have been our most reliable defenders this season. Your critique is based on previous opinions and not this season.

 

[Finney Is Back]

P
Yes. One player dropping deep, two CBs going wide, no argument there.

That makes three players at the back.

With Sissoko and Aurier, it's different. Sissoko non-figuratively sits at RB while Aurier wanders, and with Hojbjerg also back there it makes four at the back.

No wonder our buildup struggles with that setup at times.

It is not that simple though unfortunately. Mourinho cannot do what you describe in your first sentence because it results in players like Dier, Sanchez or a now very slow Toby being exposed one on one to pacy, tricky wide forwards. Pochettino had peak Toby and Jan who I think were even playing at RB and LB for Belgium at the time.

If we want to go back to Poch’s way of covering marauding full backs then we need to find centre halves who have also played as full backs IMO, these players are quite hard to find. Somebody like Ben Godfrey now at Everton would’ve been good for this option (we were actually linked to him last season). Of our players today I guess Tanganga is most suited.

A potential signing I have suggested who I think would be suited is Milenkovic from Fiorentina, I think he has the tools to become as good as Vertonghen was and could end up playing as a right sided CB in a two that could fan out and cover our right back.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

It is not that simple though unfortunately. Mourinho cannot do what you describe in your first sentence because it results in players like Dier, Sanchez or a now very slow Toby being exposed one on one to pacy, tricky wide forwards. Pochettino had peak Toby and Jan who I think were even playing at RB and LB for Belgium at the time.

If we want to go back to Poch’s way of covering marauding full backs then we need to find centre halves who have also played as full backs IMO, these players are quite hard to find. Somebody like Ben Godfrey now at Everton would’ve been good for this option (we were actually linked to him last season). Of our players today I guess Tanganga is most suited.

A potential signing I have suggested who I think would be suited is Milenkovic from Fiorentina, I think he has the tools to become as good as Vertonghen was and could end up playing as a right sided CB in a two that could fan out and cover our right back.

Godfrey this season has been outstanding
His recovery pace against son midweek was brilliant and he will ply with either foot
I balked at the £50m price tag when linked to us and even thought at £22m it was too much
I was wrong. He has been class. What I’ll add is Tanganga reminds me of him now in the way he plays, but the guy needs to stay fit

 

[glasgowspur]

One of the reservations I had about Jose coming in was that this squad was built to play in a way I could not see Jose adapting to. More concerning is that he seemed to suggest that he had studied us and thought he could get a tune out us. That appears to be wrong.
I love levy, he is in my opinion the best chairman in the world for us, but I don't understand why when we change managers we seem to go for the exact opposite of what we got rid of.

 

[Hashegotthesackyet?]

He along with Regulion have been our most reliable defenders this season. Your critique is based on previous opinions and not this season.

This season hasn’t ended yet and he’s played 13 pl games out of 23.
The stupidity of his Leicester balls up shows he still has it in him, his Liverpool performance was hardly top draw..

 

[Bedfordspurs]

One of the reservations I had about Jose coming in was that this squad was built to play in a way I could not see Jose adapting to. More concerning is that he seemed to suggest that he had studied us and thought he could get a tune out us. That appears to be wrong.
I love levy, he is in my opinion the best chairman in the world for us, but I don't understand why when we change managers we seem to go for the exact opposite of what we got rid of.

I’m not convinced the squad was built to play anyway TBH
I mean the last Poch window was 2CMs a winger and a wing back. Most of us thought that was us going 4-3-3 but quite a few of the squad don’t suit that (Lamela, dele, Moura, Eriksen arguably) so what was the plan...

 

[glasgowspur]

I’m not convinced the squad was built to play anyway TBH
I mean the last Poch window was 2CMs a winger and a wing back. Most of us thought that was us going 4-3-3 but quite a few of the squad don’t suit that (Lamela, dele, Moura, Eriksen arguably) so what was the plan...

We were rebuilding and transitioning away from that squads strengths.
I don't know what it was going to be, not sure even poch knew tbh. There was too many unknowns.
What I do know is it wasn't going to be done in one window.

 

[Finney Is Back]

One of the reservations I had about Jose coming in was that this squad was built to play in a way I could not see Jose adapting to. More concerning is that he seemed to suggest that he had studied us and thought he could get a tune out us. That appears to be wrong.
I love levy, he is in my opinion the best chairman in the world for us, but I don't understand why when we change managers we seem to go for the exact opposite of what we got rid of.

I don't really get why people love Levy so much. He is an OK chairman I think. Has made some good decisions and some poor decisions.

 

[Finney Is Back]

This season hasn’t ended yet and he’s played 13 pl games out of 23.
The stupidity of his Leicester balls up shows he still has it in him, his Liverpool performance was hardly top draw..

Every defender in the whole PL will have one or two balls ups per season, that just goes with the territory.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I’m not convinced the squad was built to play anyway TBH
I mean the last Poch window was 2CMs a winger and a wing back. Most of us thought that was us going 4-3-3 but quite a few of the squad don’t suit that (Lamela, dele, Moura, Eriksen arguably) so what was the plan...

Poch was trying to turn us into a team that played the midfield diamond I believe. That formation is a good counter to the 4-3-3 that is quite in vogue for the top teams. I think Ndombele and Lo Celso were brought into play on the right and left of that. I think he wanted Bruno Fernandes to play at the tip of it. I think Sessegnon was to be phased in as Rose's replacement as an attacking left back. My guess is that Pochettino thought that Dier could play at the base of the diamond, I think he would've realised that he needed a better player here and upgraded in the next window (Levy permitting).

 

[Bishop]

I’m not convinced the squad was built to play anyway TBH
I mean the last Poch window was 2CMs a winger and a wing back. Most of us thought that was us going 4-3-3 but quite a few of the squad don’t suit that (Lamela, dele, Moura, Eriksen arguably) so what was the plan...

I thought 433 at the time but on reflection I've started to think maybe the intention was for the dreaded diamond with Ndombele and Lo Celso set to be either side of the diamond and Fernandes/Dybala as the intended point of said diamond. [emoji848]


Edit:

Haha just saw your post saying pretty much the same thing. [emoji28] @Finney Is Back

 

[Hashegotthesackyet?]

Every defender in the whole PL will have one or two balls ups per season, that just goes with the territory.

Yes agreed, I just don’t think Aurier is the answer and I don’t trust him. Along with most of the other “established” defenders, which was my original point, with the exception of Regs...who isn’t even ours.