Welcome Ange: To Dare is to Didgeridoo

[harr1984]

I think for some it’s just frustrating seeing us dominate the ball but do so little with it. I’ve been banging on for months about the forwards needing to do more or we need to upgrade on them and I’m tired of saying it but you will keep seeing people say it until we see some improvement. Coupled with our complete inability to keep clean sheets and grind out results. People are basing their views on the form of the team for the best part of 9 months so I do think some of the criticism is valid. Hopefully we will start to put teams away when we’re on top and most/some of the criticism will subside. I’ve said before, how many players are actually playing well at the moment for us? Since say January, you could probably count on one hand the number of players in the squad who have played consistently well for us which is a cause for concern.

I would agree for a lot of last season. And we can improve both our finishing and some of our defensive aspects for sure. But don't agree we do so little with it, when talking about performances this season. Currently there are only two teams with a better xG than us, we are making chances not just faffing around with the ball.

But, the decision making in both final thirds is the thing that can be improved upon. I'm not saying it's all rosy, but it has been nowhere near as bad as what has been portrayed by some on here when talking about this seasons performances....

 

[harr1984]

It’s not been bad at all but weirdly mid week was as bad as anything from what I’ve read (I didn’t see it)
But… but… you sometimes need that one result and a decent run of fixtures to get that momentum
We have seen it before and I suspect we will see it again

Coventry was awful, but the performance usually is for any team who makes that number of changes, not just us - the best you can hope for is a result....

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Coventry was awful, but the performance usually is for any team who makes that number of changes, not just us - the best you can hope for is a result....

And the result is what can change things

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

It’s not been bad at all but weirdly mid week was as bad as anything from what I’ve read (I didn’t see it)
But… but… you sometimes need that one result and a decent run of fixtures to get that momentum
We have seen it before and I suspect we will see it again

Wednesday could easily be down to the amount of changes. That said, you'd still hope the performance wouldn't be so stale, as everyone starting you'd want to be counting on this season.

We live to fight another day in that competition unlike the comparable game vs Fulham last season (probably because it didn't end up with Forster and penalties)

 

[Jurgen the German]

I would agree for a lot of last season. And we can improve both our finishing and some of our defensive aspects for sure. But don't agree we do so little with it, when talking about performances this season. Currently there are only two teams with a better xG than us, we are making chances not just faffing around with the ball.

But, the decision making in both final thirds is the thing that can be improved upon. I'm not saying it's all rosy, but it has been nowhere near as bad as what has been portrayed by some on here when talking about this seasons performances....

I think the decision making in the final third is the difference between being a top team and challenging for top 4-6. Im willing to give Ange this season at the very least as long as we’re not near the relegation zone. The forwards I’m a little less patient with and would like to see us go into the market in January, I’m not including Solanke as I appreciate he’s been here 5 minutes. I actually think Ange is getting a bit of a raw deal from the media, they’ve really latched onto his “I always win things in year 2” comments. I’d also like to see us not concede so many sloppy goals, particularly from set pieces. Ange kind of made a rod for his own back with his comments earlier in the year about set prices not being that important but now he says “everyone acts like I don’t care about set pieces”. Well perhaps don’t say that then

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Wednesday could easily be down to the amount of changes. That said, you'd still hope the performance wouldn't be so stale, as everyone starting you'd want to be counting on this season.

We live to fight another day in that competition unlike the comparable game vs Fulham last season (probably because it didn't end up with Forster and penalties)

Fulham last year was a round earlier so we are two rounds better

 

[harr1984]

I think the decision making in the final third is the difference between being a top team and challenging for top 4-6. Im willing to give Ange this season at the very least as long as we’re not near the relegation zone. The forwards I’m a little less patient with and would like to see us go into the market in January, I’m not including Solanke as I appreciate he’s been here 5 minutes. I actually think Ange is getting a bit of a raw deal from the media, they’ve really latched onto his “I always win things in year 2” comments. I’d also like to see us not concede so many sloppy goals, particularly from set pieces. Ange kind of made a rod for his own back with his comments earlier in the year about set prices not being that important but now he says “everyone acts like I don’t care about set pieces”. Well perhaps don’t say that then

Not going to argue with any of that, my only point was that I think the performances have been at worst ok, with room for improvement in my opinion. Not quite the doomsday scenarios some have been posting on here, and are nowhere near the stage of looking at whether we should be changing managers AGAIN. I'm sure when he was appointed most comments was about would like to see him develop a team long term and acknowledged it could well be a bumpy ride - but when it comes to the crunch, can't seem to handle it.....

 

[Muttley]

I'm still the same with Ange. We have to give him enough time to succeed or fail, and if he does the latter it will be down to his own choices.

What I think we're seeing now is that little more consistency versus last season. That is to be expected in the second season. If we lose games, it needs to be by the odd goal and hopefully where we've given a good account of ourselves. Like the Saudi Sportswashing Machine game, it might be where we were actually the better team. Like Arsenal, where we're playing one of the true quality teams in the division. Every time we have an Everton or Brentford result, confidence builds.

I think what we're also seeing is a little compromise and adjustment from Ange. It seems to take a while with him, even too long. We're perhaps now seeing, for the first time, the full-backs playing more like full-backs. Like a few teams we have a wider one, Udogie, and we have the more classier narrower one in Porro. We also saw against Brentford a player like Bentancur finally playing like a number 6. He can be a Rolls Royce in that position.

Some of the bad stuff is explainable, like the Coventry performance with mass changes to the starting eleven. The less explainable periods are like we saw at Leicester. It will be interesting to see whether they become less and less, or whether the fixture pile-up means that they still there. I guess we find out very quickly.

 

[afsoc4life]

I think the decision making in the final third is the difference between being a top team and challenging for top 4-6. Im willing to give Ange this season at the very least as long as we’re not near the relegation zone. The forwards I’m a little less patient with and would like to see us go into the market in January, I’m not including Solanke as I appreciate he’s been here 5 minutes. I actually think Ange is getting a bit of a raw deal from the media, they’ve really latched onto his “I always win things in year 2” comments. I’d also like to see us not concede so many sloppy goals, particularly from set pieces. Ange kind of made a rod for his own back with his comments earlier in the year about set prices not being that important but now he says “everyone acts like I don’t care about set pieces”. Well perhaps don’t say that then

I agree with you strongly on the decision making.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I think the decision making in the final third is the difference between being a top team and challenging for top 4-6. Im willing to give Ange this season at the very least as long as we’re not near the relegation zone. The forwards I’m a little less patient with and would like to see us go into the market in January, I’m not including Solanke as I appreciate he’s been here 5 minutes. I actually think Ange is getting a bit of a raw deal from the media, they’ve really latched onto his “I always win things in year 2” comments. I’d also like to see us not concede so many sloppy goals, particularly from set pieces. Ange kind of made a rod for his own back with his comments earlier in the year about set prices not being that important but now he says “everyone acts like I don’t care about set pieces”. Well perhaps don’t say that then

He didn’t say set pieces weren’t important

 

[Grays_1890]

I think the decision making in the final third is the difference between being a top team and challenging for top 4-6. Im willing to give Ange this season at the very least as long as we’re not near the relegation zone. The forwards I’m a little less patient with and would like to see us go into the market in January, I’m not including Solanke as I appreciate he’s been here 5 minutes. I actually think Ange is getting a bit of a raw deal from the media, they’ve really latched onto his “I always win things in year 2” comments. I’d also like to see us not concede so many sloppy goals, particularly from set pieces. Ange kind of made a rod for his own back with his comments earlier in the year about set prices not being that important but now he says “everyone acts like I don’t care about set pieces”. Well perhaps don’t say that then

Wasnt that a media hatchet job though?

I saw the interview when he said they were important but not as important as other issues he was trying to fix.

If thats the case there is a stark difference and TBF we have improved massively on Set Plays, maybe because Solanke presence but still

 

[Lilbaz]

Wasnt that a media hatchet job though?

I saw the interview when he said they were important but not as important as other issues he was trying to fix.

If thats the case there is a stark difference and TBF we have improved massively on Set Plays, maybe because Solanke presence but still

Isn't the new coach that came in the summer meant to be working on them?

 

[Jurgen the German]

He didn’t said set pieces weren’t important

In the context of us conceding more than nearly every team in the league, the comments were quite dismissive along the lines of “we don’t need to practice them any more than we would any other aspect of the game”. Considering a lot of the goals we conceded were from set pieces it was rather alarming to hear him say that. He also said “I’m not that interested in it, I never have been”.

 

[billyiddo]

Wasnt that a media hatchet job though?

I saw the interview when he said they were important but not as important as other issues he was trying to fix.

If thats the case there is a stark difference and TBF we have improved massively on Set Plays, maybe because Solanke presence but still

Yep.

As usual if you ignore the narrative being pushed by whichever article it is that you're reading and focus purely on the quotes it tells a different story.

 

[parklane1]

Where are all the moaning clams now?

They will be back after the next defeat, you can bet on it.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Wasnt that a media hatchet job though?

I saw the interview when he said they were important but not as important as other issues he was trying to fix.

If thats the case there is a stark difference and TBF we have improved massively on Set Plays, maybe because Solanke presence but still

Yep
IIRC it was a manipulation of what he said for headlines

 

[Bullet]

Ange is a victim of being blunt. I know from personal experience at home and work. I want to express some deeper thought, but due to some combination of brevity and trying to be humorous and brain freeze I just truncate it poorly and my mouth has said it before I realise...

He should say the super bland "We are working on all aspects of defence and all aspects of attack, they are all important" but because he's a bit miffed in that millisecond he says "I'm not interested in blah blah blah" or "we don't need to practice them more than blah blah blah" and the headline writers eyes light up as they only hear/head/need the first few words.

 

[Bullet]

Isn't the new coach that came in the summer meant to be working on them?

Yeah, Ange said he doesn't need a SPECIALIST set piece coach because he has 4 or 5 coaches and various of them work on various aspects INCLUDING set pieces so perhaps last year e.g. Jedinak (and a bit of Matt Wells) did defensive set pieces and Mason did attacking (or whatever, I don't recall perfectly) and this year the new coaches e.g. Montgomery are taking on some of that too/instead but it is just a part of all roles, it isn't 1 coach who does that 1 thing.

 

[Bishop]

I don’t agree
Poch never had us top.. ever I think
That’s a bug high even if uexpected and not maintained
Then pool and united plus a flying villa is comparable
Means fudge all though unless things improve now

I dunno if it's really comparable. United are dogbrick and Liverpool were the better team with better chances even with 10 men. Not exactly signature wins imo.

 

[Bishop]

Yeah, Ange said he doesn't need a SPECIALIST set piece coach because he has 4 or 5 coaches and various of them work on various aspects INCLUDING set pieces so perhaps last year e.g. Jedinak (and a bit of Matt Wells) did defensive set pieces and Mason did attacking (or whatever, I don't recall perfectly) and this year the new coaches e.g. Montgomery are taking on some of that too/instead but it is just a part of all roles, it isn't 1 coach who does that 1 thing.

One thing I wonder with the coaching setup is that as Ange doesn't bring his own coaches with him he's having to teach the new hires his methods and hope that they themselves grasp them properly and are able to implement correctly. He's putting a lot of trust on people he doesn't have any prior experience of.

It's obviously worked for him in the past but I do wonder if it's the best way to get his messaging and methods across?