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Lucas Moura

To Moura's absolute credit I read an article not long ago where he spoke about when he found out he was dropped for final and he said:

'He didn’t speak with me, he didn’t explain anything, but it’s normal. He chose and I need to respect. I needed to be ready to come on and play. To be honest, in the hotel when he gave the starting XI, I was a little bit sad. Of course, I would like to play but the most important thing was to win the game.The coach needs to choose 11 players, he can only choose 11 players and we need to respect. I don’t have a problem with this.'

If thats really how he took it then what a guy. Poch has made some bad selection choices in his time, but this for me was the worst - and to not even have a courteous heads up with him about being dropped, I am surprised about tbh. I dont buy into the 'Poch couldnt win either way' argument with choosing Kane/Moura, everyone knew how cumbersome and slow Kane is after returning from an injury, practically everyone I knew pre match was saying Moura should start it wasnt like a hindsight thing. A costly mistake IMO but he will never admit that Im sure.....


I still think picking Kane was the right choice but I’m disappointed that Poch didn’t give Moura a heads-up on the decision before announcing it to the whole squad. Fair play to Moura for his reaction.
 
To Moura's absolute credit I read an article not long ago where he spoke about when he found out he was dropped for final and he said:

'He didn’t speak with me, he didn’t explain anything, but it’s normal. He chose and I need to respect. I needed to be ready to come on and play. To be honest, in the hotel when he gave the starting XI, I was a little bit sad. Of course, I would like to play but the most important thing was to win the game.The coach needs to choose 11 players, he can only choose 11 players and we need to respect. I don’t have a problem with this.'

If thats really how he took it then what a guy. Poch has made some bad selection choices in his time, but this for me was the worst - and to not even have a courteous heads up with him about being dropped, I am surprised about tbh. I dont buy into the 'Poch couldnt win either way' argument with choosing Kane/Moura, everyone knew how cumbersome and slow Kane is after returning from an injury, practically everyone I knew pre match was saying Moura should start it wasnt like a hindsight thing. A costly mistake IMO but he will never admit that Im sure.....
Agreed. The least that he could have done was to take Moura aside and have a word. Honestly, what more could the guy do to win a starting spot in the biggest match of his career?

Moura seems to me to be much more of an impact player than Kane -- someone who you can stick on from the bench to change things up when you're chasing a game. So I can see why Kane started. But these guys are people, not robots, and it's easy to forget how young they all are.
 
Problem is Moura doesn’t get regular games when everyone is fit so doesn’t get the chance to play in a full strength team.

This is a guy who single handedly got us to the Champions league final and deserved to start more than any player in that dressing room and Poch screwed him over to play golden boy who was not fit and didn’t even turn up. I’m not surprised if the guy wants to leave he deserves better than that.

He has played in 26 games in 2019 and scored in 4 of them. In the other 22 games he has 2 assists. 20 games of looking dangerous for 5 minutes and going missing the rest of the game.
 
He has played in 26 games in 2019 and scored in 4 of them. In the other 22 games he has 2 assists. 20 games of looking dangerous for 5 minutes and going missing the rest of the game.

He scored 15 goals including 10 league goals. He scored at Anfield, Old Trafford, Nou Camp and a hat trick in the CL semi final so he’s actually one of the few players for us who turns up in big games.
 
Problem is Moura doesn’t get regular games when everyone is fit so doesn’t get the chance to play in a full strength team.

This is a guy who single handedly got us to the Champions league final and deserved to start more than any player in that dressing room and Poch screwed him over to play golden boy who was not fit and didn’t even turn up. I’m not surprised if the guy wants to leave he deserves better than that.


Football isn't about rewarding individual players it's about trying to win as a team and you have a better chance of winning with your best players on the pitch.

And as someone pointed out not so long ago Harry Kane, even when returning from injury, has a far better record in front of goal than Moura does.
 
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One of the problems for managers when they reach the heights we have been doing the last few seasons is that the players we need to make a top squad ( think City, Chelski at there best, Liverpool now)is that all players have to be good enough to play in the team.

We are now reaching that position and we have players sat on the bench who would get into most teams below us, it has to be that way if we are to achieve anything but it also means that there will be good ( really good) players who are left out and fans will always have their favourites who are dropped, not chosen to play, its one of those things that happen when we rise up the levels.
 
One of the problems for managers when they reach the heights we have been doing the last few seasons is that the players we need to make a top squad ( think City, Chelski at there best, Liverpool now)is that all players have to be good enough to play in the team.

We are now reaching that position and we have players sat on the bench who would get into most teams below us, it has to be that way if we are to achieve anything but it also means that there will be good ( really good) players who are left out and fans will always have their favourites who are dropped, not chosen to play, its one of those things that happen when we rise up the levels.
You're just an endless source of spot on posts.
 
It is a little surprising how he dealt with it considering the points he raised in his book about keeping the mental state and auras of the players in a positive state.

He also likes to treat everyone the same but if (for example) it was Alli in Mouras position, I bet he would have had a one to one chat with him.

Players like Moura and Son have non disruptive characters...it's easy to pull moves like this on those type of players...BUT it costs nothing to be respectful and open with a player especially if you preach the importance of that yourself.
 
To Moura's absolute credit I read an article not long ago where he spoke about when he found out he was dropped for final and he said:

'He didn’t speak with me, he didn’t explain anything, but it’s normal. He chose and I need to respect. I needed to be ready to come on and play. To be honest, in the hotel when he gave the starting XI, I was a little bit sad. Of course, I would like to play but the most important thing was to win the game.The coach needs to choose 11 players, he can only choose 11 players and we need to respect. I don’t have a problem with this.'

If thats really how he took it then what a guy. Poch has made some bad selection choices in his time, but this for me was the worst - and to not even have a courteous heads up with him about being dropped, I am surprised about tbh. I dont buy into the 'Poch couldnt win either way' argument with choosing Kane/Moura, everyone knew how cumbersome and slow Kane is after returning from an injury, practically everyone I knew pre match was saying Moura should start it wasnt like a hindsight thing. A costly mistake IMO but he will never admit that Im sure.....

It wasn't even a Moura v Kane thing. Son was bang out of form, Alli too. He just had to play Moura, it doesn't matter who for.
 
It wasn't even a Moura v Kane thing. Son was bang out of form, Alli too. He just had to play Moura, it doesn't matter who for.

Agreed. It didn’t have to be Kane or Moura. I completely understand why he started Kane, he’s a world class striker who is capable of scoring even if only presented with one chance and even when not 100%. Son is always a threat to score so I would have started Alli on the bench.
 
It wasn't even a Moura v Kane thing. Son was bang out of form, Alli too. He just had to play Moura, it doesn't matter who for.

Agreed. It didn’t have to be Kane or Moura. I completely understand why he started Kane, he’s a world class striker who is capable of scoring even if only presented with one chance and even when not 100%. Son is always a threat to score so I would have started Alli on the bench. Yes he (Alli) was out of position in some games but he also wasn’t scoring or creating much either.
 
Quality player and seems very professional.

Gone from PSG and being best friends with Neymar to largely being on our bench, with not a single complaint.

Think it was a mistake to not play him and Llorente in the final. We also should have worn the green kit.
Not a single complaint that we know about. He's probably seething inside and sticking pins into a Dele Alli voodoo doll. Now there's a thought...
 
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