Ange in or out?

[Finney Is Back]

His job is to manage the squad and players not bow to fan pressure.

His job is to achieve the best results possible or, even more so, win a trophy, or better still multiple trophies.

 

[DubSpur]

Deki said he trained harder and wiser in the summer, to be even better this year.
Son regularly uses the pool and ice baths after training and was alone in the pool in the video the club did with him a few months ago.
So perhaps certain players are doing certain things better, which other players can learn from.
None of us know for sure.
I do notice in those short training videos released by the club, some players look to be doing exercises really properly i.e. full range of motion, and others are dangling a leg and cutting corners a bit.
I suspect that is one of the things Ange notices when he is standing back and observing who does what.

I don't watch any training videos so will take your word on that. If it is the case then it's poor from whoever is responsible for fitness and conditioning (and the players). Players should be made to do whatever is needed to get them properly prepared and the same for recovery.

 

[billyiddo]

His job is to achieve the best results possible or, even more so, win a trophy, or better still multiple trophies.

Yeah agreed - do you think he'd have a better chance of doing that with or without his first choice striker? Solanke appears to have played all but 20 minutes of the PL games he has been selected in (4th highest in our squad) and is one of the hardest working players, in the hardest working team in the league - i would like to see some attempt at protecting him somewhat. If that means putting in someone 'not ready' as a compromise for 10-20 minutes here and there i think that would make more sense than just hoping he can be flogged to death without eventially succumbing to injury or fatigue - In which case we'll likely have to throw in Lankshere anyway.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Yeah agreed - do you think he'd have a better chance of doing that with or without his first choice striker? Solanke appears to have played all but 20 minutes of the PL games he has been selected in (4th highest in our squad) and is one of the hardest working players, in the hardest working team in the league - i would like to see some attempt at protecting him somewhat. If that means putting in someone 'not ready' as a compromise for 10-20 minutes here and there i think that would make more sense than just hoping he can be flogged to death without injury

Yes, I think we would have a better chance with Solanke playing. Richarlison is close to being back apparently so I’m sure we’ll now see Solanke playing fewer minutes. Lankshear isn’t (yet) good enough, we cannot carry passengers in the team.

 

[billyiddo]

Yes, I think we would have a better chance with Solanke playing. Richarlison is close to being back apparently so I’m sure we’ll now see Solanke playing fewer minutes. Lankshear isn’t (yet) good enough, we cannot carry passengers in the team.

In your opinion and yes in the opinion of the manager seemingly but that doesn't make it so. Like I said it's a compromise anyway - trading quality for some protection of an important player.

 

[Raziel]

In your opinion and yes in the opinion of the manager seemingly but that doesn't make it so. Like I said it's a compromise anyway - trading quality for some protecting of an important player.

Finny either doesn't understand or ignores compromises

As I said, my biggest concern with Ange right now is his insistence on style leads to the breakdown of Solanke or Deki with a significant time out, because that will fudge next season as well as this.

 

[Diamond Lights]

going to reiterate my thoughts that a large portion of our injuries are down to Ange.

Stupidity to play both VDV and Romero for Chelsea, could have easily have just selected one of them to start.

Add the failure to adapt, meaning 3-0 against Man U instead of sitting deep and counter, long ball for LAST 30MINS of a game is all, we continually attack and try to play from the back, lose the two goals and require Kulu and Solanke to play a full 90mins.

If they get injured with a muscle issue, dont be surprised who is at fault.

 

[scaramanga]

Yes, I think we would have a better chance with Solanke playing. Richarlison is close to being back apparently so I’m sure we’ll now see Solanke playing fewer minutes. Lankshear isn’t (yet) good enough, we cannot carry passengers in the team.

 

[Finney Is Back]

In your opinion and yes in the opinion of the manager seemingly but that doesn't make it so. Like I said it's a compromise anyway - trading quality for some protection of an important player.

Having seen quite a number of the age group games I'd tend to back my opinion over yours.

Considering the manager sees him every day in training then I'd definitely take his opinion over both of ours.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Finny either doesn't understand or ignores compromises

As I said, my biggest concern with Ange right now is his insistence on style leads to the breakdown of Solanke or Deki with a significant time out, because that will fudge next season as well as this.

I absolutely understand them. I also understand how much pressure the manager is under with almost 30% of the fanbase wanting him out and a chairman who has a history of being very trigger happy when it comes to sackings.

 

[Finney Is Back]

going to reiterate my thoughts that a large portion of our injuries are down to Ange.

Stupidity to play both VDV and Romero for Chelsea, could have easily have just selected one of them to start.

Add the failure to adapt, meaning 3-0 against Man U instead of sitting deep and counter, long ball for LAST 30MINS of a game is all, we continually attack and try to play from the back, lose the two goals and require Kulu and Solanke to play a full 90mins.

If they get injured with a muscle issue, dont be surprised who is at fault.

Sorry but we had adapted against Man Utd. We were playing deeper and with far less energy in terms of pressing than we typically play with. I'm not sure that anyone can really guard too much against the 2 woeful mistakes that Forster made. Of course the best way to guard against such things is to ensure that you actually have at least 2 goalkeepers in the squad that you trust and can play the way that you want your team to play. Yet again for me it comes down to not enough care going into the building of the squad.

 

[billyiddo]

Having seen quite a number of the age group games I'd tend to back my opinion over yours.

Considering the manager sees him every day in training then I'd definitely take his opinion over both of ours.

Like I said it's more about protecting Solanke

 

[Muttley]

Sorry but we had adapted against Man Utd. We were playing deeper and with far less energy in terms of pressing than we typically play with. I'm not sure that anyone can really guard too much against the 2 woeful mistakes that Forster made. Of course the best way to guard against such things is to ensure that you actually have at least 2 goalkeepers in the squad that you trust and can play the way that you want your team to play. Yet again for me it comes down to not enough care going into the building of the squad.

But then you get into the quality vs quantity argument. I'm never a fan of spreading the budget too thin. Just focus on getting one or two major players in every window plus youngsters, and eventually magic happens.

We consciously offered Forster the extra year to buy ourselves time to focus on other areas. With a lack of number 9's around in world football we quite rightly got Solanke and paid the money. Can you imagine having a £25m keeper and a £35m striker instead of Forster and Solanke? Also the reason we are running with 4 centre halves including Davies.

I'm pretty calm about the squad development. You can see a fantastic strategy being executed, and I think it will look quite complete by August. The only nagging doubt in my mind is having the squad ready and not having UEFA footie. That won't help progress at all.

 

[SpiderSpurs]

His job is to manage the squad and players not bow to fan pressure.

And how well do you think he's doing?

 

[RunTMC]

Interestingly, I haven't really seen Gray making such runs and lunges when playing centre back for us. He instead looks calm and assured and seems to have time. More than half of being a great centre back is positional sense. I'm going to say this quietly and expect to get somewhat flamed but I think Gray might be a better centre back than Van Der Ven who seems to relish getting into a foot race instead of avoiding that unless completely necessary.

I have to say, I’ve been so impressed with Gray at CB. Somehow he’s managed to avoid getting into ‘fights’ like being out paced, last ditch tackles, strength duels, headers. He leaves that to Dragusin who loves the fight.

What this suggests is that he’s got some footballing intelligence which makes me want to see him more in his preferred midfield role

 

[Muttley]

I have to say, I’ve been so impressed with Gray at CB. Somehow he’s managed to avoid getting into ‘fights’ like being out paced, last ditch tackles, strength duels, headers. He leaves that to Dragusin who loves the fight.

What this suggests is that he’s got some footballing intelligence which makes me want to see him more in his preferred midfield role

Same here. When you're at centre half, you have everything in front of you. When you're in centre mid, it's a totally different ball game. I'd love to see whether he has the equivalent attributes to play in the middle of the park.

 

[Daveeeeeeeed]

But then you get into the quality vs quantity argument. I'm never a fan of spreading the budget too thin. Just focus on getting one or two major players in every window plus youngsters, and eventually magic happens.

We consciously offered Forster the extra year to buy ourselves time to focus on other areas. With a lack of number 9's around in world football we quite rightly got Solanke and paid the money. Can you imagine having a £25m keeper and a £35m striker instead of Forster and Solanke? Also the reason we are running with 4 centre halves including Davies.

I'm pretty calm about the squad development. You can see a fantastic strategy being executed, and I think it will look quite complete by August. The only nagging doubt in my mind is having the squad ready and not having UEFA footie. That won't help progress at all.

Our system we play though seemed to have caused us multiple injuries, whether it is down to that or pure unluckiness, requires 4 top CBs IMO. When we signed Dragusin one of my spurs pals was like "why do we need him, he wont get in the team at all", and my response was that Romero is injured a lot, so we need him as cover, he still didnt agree. VDV is also prone to the same hamstring injury so we need 4 top CBS, which would have been a touch right now. Whilst Davies has done well in the absence of VDV and Romero I don't think he is the answer.

 

[Finney Is Back]

But then you get into the quality vs quantity argument. I'm never a fan of spreading the budget too thin. Just focus on getting one or two major players in every window plus youngsters, and eventually magic happens.

We consciously offered Forster the extra year to buy ourselves time to focus on other areas. With a lack of number 9's around in world football we quite rightly got Solanke and paid the money. Can you imagine having a £25m keeper and a £35m striker instead of Forster and Solanke? Also the reason we are running with 4 centre halves including Davies.

I'm pretty calm about the squad development. You can see a fantastic strategy being executed, and I think it will look quite complete by August. The only nagging doubt in my mind is having the squad ready and not having UEFA footie. That won't help progress at all.

There are a lot of keepers out there who are better on the ball than Forster and wouldn’t cost much in terms of a fee. £25m pretty much buys you a first choice keeper.

 

[Muttley]

Our system we play though seemed to have caused us multiple injuries, whether it is down to that or pure unluckiness, requires 4 top CBs IMO. When we signed Dragusin one of my spurs pals was like "why do we need him, he wont get in the team at all", and my response was that Romero is injured a lot, so we need him as cover, he still didnt agree. VDV is also prone to the same hamstring injury so we need 4 top CBS, which would have been a touch right now. Whilst Davies has done well in the absence of VDV and Romero I don't think he is the answer.

With you there. People also forget that Davies has had a hamstring injury and missed a chunk of games for 4 consecutive seasons. He is not even physically reliable enough to be our 4th choice centre half. He gets absolute minimal game time and then he gets thrown in at the deep end and has to play a run of games. He always breaks down in that sequence, just like has has done again. We have to move on.

 

[Gutter Boy]

With you there. People also forget that Davies has had a hamstring injury and missed a chunk of games for 4 consecutive seasons. He is not even physically reliable enough to be our 4th choice centre half. He gets absolute minimal game time and then he gets thrown in at the deep end and has to play a run of games. He always breaks down in that sequence, just like has has done again. We have to move on.

Why would that be different for any other 4th choice player under Ange? Unless like Dorrington, they are also playing academy games