Jump to content

Football 53: Come on feel the Moyes!


Xray the Enforcer

Recommended Posts

United lost another mid-table six pointer (the other being against Liverpool, in fairness).



Hard to know if Arsenal can keep this up. How long can you rely on Ramsey to keep scoring? Granted they'll get Cazorla and Walcott back soon, but even so they good go dry for a while in front of goal even if they keep playing well.



And remind me why everyone is so excited by the return of Mourinho and his defensive football? And will Torres get a 10 match ban like Suarez?



Liverpool need to win against Sunderland tomorrow to take advantage of results today. But that pressure is so unfamiliar they've no idea how to react; just see last week's shambles against the predictable high pressing.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

An appalling display again this afternoon.

Great way to bounce back from Man City running all over you last week guys.

Really, nothing positive to say at all. Moyes is having an absolutely terrible start.

I've never felt that this season necessarily had to be a lost season. I don't think there's a good reason it should be a lost season. The squad has been mildly improved compared to last year and is still bulked up with talent. There's only a new manager ( who indeed didn't need to throw out the complete staff in existence upon his arrival if you ask me, but that's not unheard of ).

It's funny how quickly goodwill disappears as well. I was never enthusiastic about the choice for Moyes, but I was willing to approach it neutrally and give him a chance. I'm sure he'll feel like shit now.

Thing is though, and I would bet a good amount of money on this, United are not going to sack him. Not by Christmas, and not before season's end. No matter how bad it goes, the management will feel they must give him a chance for a full season at least, even if we end up not even playing for CL football under Moyes' tenure.

Moyes looks like being United's Hodgson. It might be better to step in early before the rot sets in. But then you become an unstable club and the next manager has a precedence of a quick firing hanging over him all the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hard to know if Arsenal can keep this up. How long can you rely on Ramsey to keep scoring? Granted they'll get Cazorla and Walcott back soon, but even so they good go dry for a while in front of goal even if they keep playing well.

Arsenal in their last 21 games...18 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss. They're playing very well and are still short Cazorla, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Podolski. That's a lot of talent there. If they buy a striker in January, hard to imagine they'll just fall off a cliff, especially as I expect Ozil's form to improve as he gets more comfortable in the premier league. I get what you're saying as we don't have any consistent goal scorers (well prior to Rambo/Giroud's current form), but I think we have enough ability to create easy opportunities through great football like we did for Gnabry/Rambo today and those are opportunities I expect us to take advantage of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're playing very well and are still short Cazorla, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Podolski

I was looking at the Arsenal line-up and missed all of these guys, didn't know all of them were injured.

Podolski and Walcott are out for at least another month right? What about Cazorla?

Isk

And remind me why everyone is so excited by the return of Mourinho and his defensive football?

I don't actually know anyone who's excited by Mourinho's return, except Chelsea fans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thing is though, and I would bet a good amount of money on this, United are not going to sack him. Not by Christmas, and not before season's end. No matter how bad it goes, the management will feel they must give him a chance for a full season at least, even if we end up not even playing for CL football under Moyes' tenure.

And nor should they sack him. We've hired a manager with long-term team-building in mind, and one who's known for starting seasons weak and finishing them strong to boot. You don't make that decision and then fire him after six games, or even half a season. You see what he can do over the whole of it. Yes it's a terrible start and the great form of Spurs and Arsenal means there's a bit of a squeeze on for the 4th CL place, but (and I still think it unlikely) if the team and finances can't handle being out of the CL for one season after two decades of utter domination, we're in worse shape than I thought. If we do fail top four, then possibly Moyes would need to go, but not before then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was looking at the Arsenal line-up and missed all of these guys, didn't know all of them were injured.

Podolski and Walcott are out for at least another month right? What about Cazorla?

Cazorla is set to be back in a week or so and I think Walcott is expected after the international break at the end of October. Podolski won't be back until December or so with Oxlade-Chamberlain out until January. Rosicky should be back in a week or two and we just got Vermaelen and Arteta back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Missed the second half of that Arsenal game for The World's end ( not worth it ) but it sounds like we managed to hang on there. I could watch Ramsey's pass to Gnabry over and over again. The great thing about Arsenal.com this season is that you can catch the whole match for free after the game, looking forward to that.

I'm not sure if they are "relying" on him scoring, he's the most inform player in the team right now and hence his goals. I'm sure he will hit a point where it's not going in and hopefully one of Cazorla, Wilshere, Podolski, Walcott can step up. We've got a fairly thin squad, but they seem to be playing really well together at the moment. Didn't know Chamberlain was out till Jan, I thought he was supposed to be back November or something

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've got a fairly thin squad

People keep saying this, but apart from the Giroud/Bendtner thing (and even that is based on the notion that Bendtner can't step up at all), it's really proven to be not true at all. Arsenal have just had what would be an injury crisis by anyone's standard and are still recovering from it, and after six games they're top of the league. Now they're getting players back and can get the rotation on, so fatigue should not be an issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In that particular comment I meant it's thin at the moment ( as opposed to the squad as a whole) but I do think we're light up front and maybe at the back. I'm hoping you're right and I'll be happy if it stays like this. Certainly didn't expect Gnabry to make the step up, but based on what I've been reading since getting back home, he was really switched on when it came to tracking back too.

I'm mostly worried about Giroud/Bendtner, Giroud is great at what he does ( bringing everyone else into play, something you mentioned in the last thread) but Bendtner is not close to that yet, and to be fair to him, he's really not played that much football at Arsenal for quite a while. I'm either hoping that 1) Giroud plays well till Jan where we can get another striker in or 2) Bendtner steps up and gets back to the form he had for us two seasons ago.

Centre back is the only other position, but it seems that Sagna is more than good enough there. Certainly better than Ashley Williams or whoever we were supposedly going to buy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really, nothing positive to say at all. Moyes is having an absolutely terrible start.

I've never felt that this season necessarily had to be a lost season. I don't think there's a good reason it should be a lost season. The squad has been mildly improved compared to last year and is still bulked up with talent. There's only a new manager ( who indeed didn't need to throw out the complete staff in existence upon his arrival if you ask me, but that's not unheard of ).

It's always felt like Ferguson was able to improve players by 10% or so, I mean, even last year I think United's squad was weaker than Cities but it was Ferguson was able to get the very very best out of everyone. I think it was natural to expect a drop off, however I'd not have expected them to have such a drop off. They'll obviously improve, but it's fun to talk tongue in cheek about them as a mid table side at the moment. They'll very likely make top 4, although as I might have said earlier now it'd not be the "biggest shock ever" if they didn't.

Still, Moyes has his work cut out. They'll definitely buy in January, now.

Arsenal are playing well. I'm not sure they'll win the League, in fact I still think City probably will. But they may be very competitive this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My biggest problem with Moyes that far is that he hasn't been changing things tactically when things aren't going well - this is meant to be his strength, ffs. Every time, he's just brought on someone else in the same role. Today, for example, Van Persie should have been on for Anderson, not for Hernandez. Although RP is obviously a different and better player than Chicharito, it didn't change the nature of the questions we were asking one jot, and West Brom were clearly set up to deal with that.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

People keep saying this, but apart from the Giroud/Bendtner thing (and even that is based on the notion that Bendtner can't step up at all), it's really proven to be not true at all. Arsenal have just had what would be an injury crisis by anyone's standard and are still recovering from it, and after six games they're top of the league. Now they're getting players back and can get the rotation on, so fatigue should not be an issue.

Agreed. I don't think we're thin anymore, not with Gnabry stepping up and the injured players coming back. It was bad a few weeks ago but we weathered the storm and it will only get better in Oct. As you said, we are only really thin up front.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My biggest problem with Moyes that far is that he hasn't been changing things tactically when things aren't going well - this is meant to be his strength, ffs. Every time, he's just brought on someone else in the same role. Today, for example, Van Persie should have been on for Anderson, not for Hernandez. Although RP is obviously a different and better player than Chicharito, it didn't change the nature of the questions we were asking one jot, and West Brom were clearly set up to deal with that.

Why do you think that is? Is he just not very astute when it comes to trying to change things from the bench? I know some Everton fans who aren't too surprised by some of the stuff you've mentioned, they think it was there at Everton but was much more acceptable given he was under less scrutiny, and probably had less options in general so it was never as big a deal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And nor should they sack him. We've hired a manager with long-term team-building in mind, and one who's known for starting seasons weak and finishing them strong to boot. You don't make that decision and then fire him after six games, or even half a season. You see what he can do over the whole of it. Yes it's a terrible start and the great form of Spurs and Arsenal means there's a bit of a squeeze on for the 4th CL place, but (and I still think it unlikely) if the team and finances can't handle being out of the CL for one season after two decades of utter domination, we're in worse shape than I thought. If we do fail top four, then possibly Moyes would need to go, but not before then.

I'm not so sure. Losing to City in the derby heavily, losing at home to West Brom, losing half your league games to date... Moyes has three games coming up and I think he has to win at least two to make any case for staying. If he can't get a performance out of the team he has, I don't think the board will wait.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be surprised if Moyes isn't sacked if United miss out on CL. If he makes top 4 I think he'll end up staying no matter what for next year. (And yes, I definitely think he'll get until then barring United continue to languish mid table and lose further ground)


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spose the decision to rest Ageuro and co wasn't so clever ey Alex?

Well we only rested Aguero and Silva and Villa barely had a touch for the first hour. I'd say it went pretty well. We dominated the game, played with confidence and style, but ultimately it was just one of those freak occasions.

Let's not forget that their first goal was well offside which changed the flow of the game significantly.

You live and you learn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well we only rested Aguero and Silva and Villa barely had a touch for the first hour. I'd say it went pretty well. We dominated the game, played with confidence and style, but ultimately it was just one of those freak occasions.

Let's not forget that their first goal was well offside which changed the flow of the game significantly.

You live and you learn.

Yeah but also your keeper is increasingly crap. Okay, nothing too glaring today but he was out of position for the freekick and while you understand the concern of getting a red and a penalty on the third goal, he was way too static. He's gone all timid, it's weird. Like the polar opposite of Lloris.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah but also your keeper is increasingly crap. Okay, nothing too glaring today but he was out of position for the freekick and while you understand the concern of getting a red and a penalty on the third goal, he was way too static. He's gone all timid, it's weird. Like the polar opposite of Lloris.

Isn't that the opposite of the problem everyone keeps slamming him for?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...