boratsbrother

Are you forgetting the club has the players are on long contracts? As for Palmer. He should be given a bumper payrise this summer. Simple as!

6th is a fair position for us this season. Could have been a bit better and could have been a bit worse. But it's not really that important in the scheme of things whether we finished a few places higher or lower because deepdown everyone knows this is not a team for the season that has just ended or even next season. Two seasons from now we'll have a squad full of players with many of their peak years to come but already with years of experience behind them. We'll get better and better and won't need to be splashing out in the transfer windows, just a player or two here and there as we go along. We can easily draw clear of the likes of Villa, Spurs, Newcastle and Utd by the end of the 25/26 season.

We have the fourth most points since Boxing day 2023, so its a statistical fact that we've been the fourth best team of 2024.

Villa and Spurs had poor ends to their seasons. We had a poor start to the season, so what's your point? Having a poor start, poor middle or poor makes no difference. Have a poor run at any time of a season and it'll cost at team at the end of that season. I agree it wasn't a good performance yesterday, but it's another game where we ground out a result in a game we didn't play well in. That is something every team needs to do to be successful and it's something we were not doing in the last couple of years. As for me only being interested in seeing a good game and the result is always second. I've never actually said that. What I have said is that playing entertaining, attacking football is very important to me as a viewer of the game. But I am realistic enough to admit that if I want my team to be a very successful one, there will be times when the result is the more important. There will be times when the team needs to grind out a result when they are up against it. What I do not and never will like is a manager who sets his team out to be pragmatic most of the time. Managers who don't let their most skillful players express themselves and put workrate over creativity. What I have seen numerous times this season from our fans at the games is the kind of reactions we've not seen in a long, long time. The reaction to the third goal at Forest was as wild as a crucial win in a top of the table clash, yet it was between a midtable team against one who nearly got relegated. That to me shows those fans who are more "invested" are enjoying what they are seeing.

We all accepth that everything was done in a mad rush when the new owners tookover. The big question is, does their plan look like it's starting to work? I say there's every sign that it is. Going from an absolute shambles to what has been the fourth best team in the league in 2024 is proof of that.

There's only Mudryk, Cucu, Caicedo and Enzo who they paid a lot of money for. Out of those, after a bad start, i'd say Caicedo is definitely a higher level than Chalobah. Cucu is at least Chalobah's level. Mudryk has a higher ceiling. Enzo looks a bad buy for that money.

In an end of season game, one player played out of position in place of a player coming back from injury is no big deal. Selections were a shambles at times earlier in the season but I think he was just trying to find a team from who was available. The team is clearly more settled now and will be even more so next season, the exception being the defence which still needs a lot of work during the pre season. As things stand, there is no combination of players or a keeper which is top four level defence.

The players wouldn't be so fond of playing for Poch if they thought he doesn't trust them. Furthermore, he gives them a lot of freedom to express themselves, which is evidence that he does indeed trust his players. I would also say that such an attack minded manager is the exact opposite of one being a cowardly manager. Perfectly fair to think he's not good enough to get us back to where we want to be though. My own opinion is he didn't want to take any risk with Gusto after coming back from injury in a game where European football was already guarenteed.

Imo, Chalobah had been decent but nothing more than that. Yesterday I thought he had a terrible game. Our defence is obviously the big week point in the team and Chalobah isn't the level we need to improve the defence to where it needs to be. He'll be fine as a squad player but not a starter on a regular basis.

I read some comments from Sours fans comparing Poch's first seasons at Chelsea and Spurs. They said the trajectory of the performances is identical. At Spurs, they said for most of the season there was bits of quality shown in amongst a lot of rubbish. Here's the significant bit though. It wasn't until near the end of that season when they started to see signs of better things to come.

Some of the comments are just plain silly bias against Poch.😟 Any of the great football we play well ( imho, when we play well now its by far the best football since Ancolotti's first season) it's down to the brilliance of individuals but when the team plays poorly or there are individual mistakes, it's all down to Poch's shambolic coaching. He's not being judged after his two year contract has ended. Not being judged on one season. Not being judged on half a season. Not evevn judged on a run of games or even one game. No, to still have a go his haters are now reduced to singling out moments of games where we have a bad spell of play as an example of how shit a coach he is .👎👎👎

In all competitions we've played the top four teams 11 times this season. The three times we've played the likey champions, we've drawn 2 and lost 1. All three games we held our own. One good performance against Atsenal and one very bad one. One decent game at home to Liverpool in the league and one bad one away. A game which had their fans saying it was the best they played this season. A cup final in which we were the better side but lost. 2 draws in the league against Villa and an easy win in the Cup at their ground. We were also the better team in the recent 2-2 draw at their ground. So, from where we were and still are, 2 bad games out of 11 against the best 4 teams is imho a very encouraging sign for the future.

I doubt he'll be a first choice start most games, so will he accept being a rotation/bench player? Our injuries are finally clearing up, so next season we'll have Colwill, Chilly, James, Nkunku, Sterling, and possibly Chuck and Lavia as well, all wanting to start games most weeks.

Alonso is one who looks like he could become a great manager. I thought he was staying in Germany though? If he ever comes to England it will probably be to Liverpool. Arteta is obviously another young manager doing a fine job.

And who are the managers who are top level who will come here and take us to glory? Imho, there's just three in the entire workd who are still elite - Pep, Ancelotti and Klopp. The rest are either levels below, once great but well past their best or play football which is too negative to win the league in this era. We won't ever get Pep or Klopp and Ancelotti is a manager of great teams but not a builder of great teams. I honestly don't see anyone out there who I'd be confident of doing a better job than Poch is doing. Alsi, nobody is taking this into account. Poch might just be reaching his peak as a manager. Might just have learned enough from his past shortcomings which stopped him from going up a level to being a top manager rather than a nearly man.

The improvement has not been just the last four games! I've posted this stat at least twice over the last week, but here it is again - since Boxing day, we have won more points than every team except City and Arsenal. Being the 3rd best team over the last five months proves beyond any doubt there has been consistent improvement from Poch and his players.

Unfortunately, we don't have a big West London team to have a fierce rivaly with, so we have to look elsewhere for a team to hate.

Leaving aside the 115 charges, I just feel complete indifference towards them as a club. I never watch their playstation football unless they're playing us. I prefer the Spurs stat from this season. No team with their points total after the first ten games has ever finished outside the top three. Spurs being so Spursy again.

Exactly what I've been thinking lately. For me, he seems to either be seeing the ball a fraction of a second late or moving his feet a fraction of a second too slowly. Just doesn't get across to enough of the shots that aren't straight at him. Personally I think Sanchez is the better shot stopper, but neither are really good enough to be a number one keeper. Petrovich has age on his side though and with more experience at this level he might be develop into a number one in a couple more seasons.

A win tomorrow will see us overtake Liverpool and be the team with third most points since Boxing day. Contrary to what most are saying about the improvement being down to Enzo not playing, that stat shows the improvement has been over a sustained period of five months. Furthermore. Over the period for Jan 23 to Boxing day 23, we've gone from a team with a points tally of a relegation fighting team, to that position of being the 4th or 3rd best in the league. Is that not a remarkable rise for a young, unproven squad with a huge injury list? From where we were, I think we've been the most improved team in the league this season.

I've paid for.a lot of cars and holidays for a lot of bookmakers over the years🤡 which is an indication of how good I am at predicting sports results.

If the coaching is so bad, how are we already 10 points better off this season? Almost doubled our number of goals? The fourth best team in 2024? Are you another one who expected a new manager to come in and take a midfield team straight back to the top four and fix every aerea of the team in one season? Did you expect a very inexperienced team at this level to gel in one season and be top four? Have you forgot that a much better City team were relatively average in Pep's first season? Forgot that Liverpool were defensively dodgy for Klopps first two years? Poch isn't their level, but you somehow expect him to do better and with a worse team. The goalposts for what would be acceptable for a first season have been moved so much they're not even on the pitch now. If we lose he's slagged off for losing because all that matters is the result. If we win but the performance isn't good, then he's slagged off for the performance. I think you and the anti Poch section are the ones that's losing out on the enjoyment to be had from watching a young team being built and progressing. I saw the unbridled joy behind that goal on Saturday. Same with the Utd game. Spurs game. West Ham game. Their reaction is good enough for me. Anyway, Poch's critics on here are now being significantly outnumbered by former players, pundits, journos and even fans of other teams, who are all saying we are on the right track and Poch is doing a good job. Equally, all of them are saying the team is far from the finished article but will improve as they gain experience. But as always. Although I wildly disagree with your opinion, i respect it all the same. Each to their own and all that.

I have a sneaky feeling Spurs will get at least a draw against City giving Arse the title and Utd will win the final.

But both of them can go out and be relaxed and playing without tension can help a team perform better. This is the first game this season i wont be able to watch on TV or follow on the radio. Tbh, I'm not that fussed about us playing in the Europa League. Too many Thursday/Sunday games for my liking. But we'll have a lot of players wanting and needing game time next season, so there is that to take into consideration.

And an equally fine pass from Caicedo to James. From the halfway line the ball is in tha back of the net three touches later. In recent years we'd have seen Jorginho pass the ball five yards to Kova, who'd have gone on one of his famous ten yard runs, stop when he gets halfway into their half, run sideways pass it to Jorginho who'd pass it to someone else...zzzzzzz. That goal was the type of play we've been crying out for for a long time! We are now scoring all types of different goals from all over the pitch, which is why so many teams find it difficult to contain us now.