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Jose Mourinho - SACKED

No your moaning about Mourinho most days though.

Been quite happy with him since the summer window closed actually and we started playing some good football, think my moaning has eased off a fair bit since then.

brick game last night tho and one that deserves criticism in my book.
 
Been quite happy with him since the summer window closed actually and we started playing some good football, think my moaning has eased off a fair bit since then.

brick game last night tho and one that deserves criticism in my book.

You been taking snide shots at him non stop, this coming from someone who did not want Mourinho either. But well gives people a chance.
 
Set pieces are isolated plays and seperate from the match tactics being discussed.

A valid form of attack? yes - a sign that our game plan in open play was working? No, and I'm surprised this needs explaining
If we don’t include set piece goals then we’re 3 points up this season and top of the league....
 
And, as an addendum to my previous point on attacking tactics, I'd suggest that it is actually the defending that still concerns me, despite the clean sheet.

We got away with a win because Harry cleared off the line, but Tarkowski winning that header with such ease concerns me. Wood and Barnes winning out on long balls against Dier and Toby as often as they did concerns me. And the fact that they had more than a few half-chances from knowk-downs concerns me.

Yes, we developed mitigating strategies for all of those- Hugo came off his line more after that near-goal, Woods and Barnes were surrounded by our players to pick up more of their second balls, and in general we dropped deeper to compensate for the space around both of those two when they won their headers. But I think the thing about that sort of mitigation is that it's temporary - a band-aid fix. Eventually, you just need better players you don't need to compensate for -defenders who can win the ball in the air, organize set pieces, and don't have to be covered for.

We still don't have that. If anything, that concerns me more than the attacking, which has been great so far (in the main). We'll get away with it more often than not, but unless this is one of those 'off' years, you really need to be perfect to win the league, and those weaknesses concern me. So, again, scoreline doesn't mean much.
We won’t come up against a pair like Wood and Barnes until we play Burnley again later this season. (I actually think both are underrated as they have some skill as well as being battering rams).
 
I agree some people seem to think that things are always either Mourinho or Levy's fault.

I always blamed Poch and his coaching staff for our corner inadequacy. I wonder if last night's goal from a corner was a training ground exercise? It certainly looked well worked. Would be good if we could score more from corners under Mourinho.
I think we were actually in the top 3 in the league for goals scored from corners under Poch.
 
Was it our best performance of the season? no of course not but we did enough to win. Sadly there are still some anti Jose fans around who will moan about winning 3 points. Sad really.

TBH I am not seeing many whingers. Anyone with a clue will recognize that winning these sorts of games has not been a strong suit of ours for sometime, and finding ways to win at Burnley on a wet Monday night are the cornerstones to the big one. Have to say, I like what he is doing and am happy to admit it. Long may it continue. We all know what could happen in either direction, but I'm staying positive and feeling it will be all good.
 
You been taking snide shots at him non stop, this coming from someone who did not want Mourinho either. But well gives people a chance.

Hey so far he has proved me wrong, i didn't think he was the right man for a team in transition and i didn't think he'd get us playing attacking football - wrong on both counts, the first dramatically so and have held my hands up plenty of times regarding that and am pretty certain we're looking at a good season (got some money on it in fact) snide remarks? Just to balance out some of the the absoloute drivel i read from some who seem to have forgotten we were a top class team prior to 2019.

I'm still able to call out a poor performance if i see one though - tough opposition or not if we want to make up the 7 points thrown away already this season we can't afford too many more games where we create as little as we did yesterday and with the embarrassment of attacking riches that we have it shouldn't be accepted either.
 
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Hey so far he has proved me wrong, i didn't think he was the right man for a team in transition and i didn't think he'd get us playing attacking football - wrong on both counts, the first dramatically so and have held my hands up plenty of times regarding that and am pretty certain we're looking at a good season (got some money on it in fact) snide remarks? Just to balance out some of the the absoloute drivel i read from some who seem to have forgotten anything prior to 2019.

I'm still able to call out a poor performance if i see one though - tough opposition or not if we want to make up the 7 points thrown away already this season we can't afford too many more games where we fail to create as little as we did yesterday.


I am with you on the importance of acknowledging what Our Special One did for us as a club. It was very cool to see Mourinho acknowledge him in last night's post-presser with regards to Kane and Son.
Mourinho has certainly proved me wrong and like you, I am delighted to admit it.
An intriguing question would be whether we, as a club, have forced him to adapt his thoughts and ways somewhat? I believe the answer is yes. A Chelski he had license to mould because they had no personality. At Man U he had the drift between legacy and change which was too hard to control. Here he has a club which firmly believes in its footballing ethos, tradition and ways more than perhaps any other club in the league; I think he has been moved to both accommodate, and accept, that.
 
I am with you on the importance of acknowledging what Our Special One did for us as a club. It was very cool to see Mourinho acknowledge him in last night's post-presser with regards to Kane and Son.
Mourinho has certainly proved me wrong and like you, I am delighted to admit it.
An intriguing question would be whether we, as a club, have forced him to adapt his thoughts and ways somewhat? I believe the answer is yes. A Chelski he had license to mould because they had no personality. At Man U he had the drift between legacy and change which was too hard to control. Here he has a club which firmly believes in its footballing ethos, tradition and ways more than perhaps any other club in the league; I think he has been moved to both accommodate, and accept, that.
But he has also inherited the nucleus of an attacking side that he has added too
He would be a mad man not to use what he had to it’s maximum potential and add to it
We weren’t suddenly full of poor players, we were mainly imbalanced as a squad and arguably drained and unmotivated in some cases. That takes time to fix and adding even more quality to it can only be a good thing
He says in his netflix doc that he doesn’t coach players to improve them. He even says I can’t make lampard or Drogba better players. What I can do is make the team better.
poch did that too but on a more player level hence why so many individuals progressed. But as a team we lost it in the end and were finally getting that mojo back, with the addition of Experience and some pain too
 
But he has also inherited the nucleus of an attacking side that he has added too
He would be a mad man not to use what he had to it’s maximum potential and add to it
We weren’t suddenly full of poor players, we were mainly imbalanced as a squad and arguably drained and unmotivated in some cases. That takes time to fix and adding even more quality to it can only be a good thing
He says in his netflix doc that he doesn’t coach players to improve them. He even says I can’t make lampard or Drogba better players. What I can do is make the team better.
poch did that too but on a more player level hence why so many individuals progressed. But as a team we lost it in the end and were finally getting that mojo back, with the addition of Experience and some pain too

Indeed, I think we're generally in agreement!
 
These pundits are hindsight tacos, they look at stats that have been compiled for them and then go back and tell us their feelings about them and what they thought before the numbers were put forward. When did you ever hear Gary Neville say we played too many long balls in the first season, or that the GK was booting it up the field all the time etc? NEVER.
 
Absolutely chuffed with the result on Monday. Not quite sure what people were expecting, did Jose give a little too much respect to Dyche and Burnley? Maybe, but the result in the end warrants the format.

Let's look at a few things, did Burnley have many chances? No, was a cagey affair, a few pop shots from outside the box and then the set pieces we knew they would play for off the line, they may have had more shots or xG or whatever, but did Lloris pull any worldies? any one one ones? not really no.

Did we have many chances? Also no, and nor were we likely to, Burnley sat back massively, and rightly so, playing to their strengths. How can Kane feed Son and Moura for running in behind when their CBs and RB/LB are not even venturing past the half way line. Was a different game to Saints or United away.

The once chance we had an opportunity, Ndombele fed Son wonderfully who was tracked back (as they sit so deep) and his shot blocked. Usually that move isn't taking place so close to the box.

Overall i have absolutely no qualms with the way we played, or the result. You're not gonna dingdong every team banging in 3 goals for fun. Burnley aren't playing well, and desperate for points, a Monday night trip to a team like that, known for being compact, defensive, playing for set pieces etc, really don't know what people thought we could do there.

A weekend of Arsenal losing, City drawing, Chelsea and United drawing, Everton losing, and we get 3 points on the board?
 
Huh - fair enough, mate. Didn't feel that way, but the stats speak for themselves!
We seen games differently sometimes to how there played
Its the winks conundrum... passed forwards more than any midfielder we had yet people refused to accept the pass maps because they watched the game and it wasn’t how they remembered it

Someone raised a question around my comment that they created nothing yet again those stats are there too. 3 shots outside the area and one header of note cleared by Kane

I think we have got used to seeing the team be ultra effective in front of goal (our shot to goal ratio after Saudi Sportswashing Machine is great) and quite nervous at the back. so seeing the team actually control much of the game was different and hard work aesthetically
 
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