02-05-2025, 11:11 AM
(02-05-2025, 10:52 AM)JollyLollyAussie Wrote: Until we address the elephant in the room being that we seem incapable of getting back into a game when we fall behind with only FOUR points gained all season when in that position, until this starts to change we shall never move forward. CL dreams are just that dreams, unfortunately the players and manager have reached their peak and are unable to recover, I noted Nuno's press conference before the match when he sounded flat which was not a good omen going into the game. Where are our BIG players, stand up and be countered or miss the boat this opportunity may not come around very often again for most of our squad or the manager, regroup and for f**k sake get on the front foot from the start in the remaining games, stop being passive, Nuno change the tactics and stop bring on a defensive midfielder at HT to replace a injured forward. Finally like most I suspect, not going into the market in January to bolster the squad has come back to hurt us, I said this on the forum at the time, Nuno wanted a small squad to work with but now look knackered, rant over!!!!!
I think there are some elements of truth in what you're saying but nowhere near as drastic. I'm in the would be pretty disappointed to 'only' get Europa League group of people, but I do fully understand the argument about looking at it as a whole season.
I have been thinking about having 'winners' in the squad who would grab a game by the scruff of the neck. I hoped that MGW is that player but he seems to have hit a bit of a less good patch. Similarly, I think Elanga has the ability to really go after a game, but to be honest, the only player I consistently see really stepping up in those situations is Neco. I guess those types of players are only available to buy rather than develop if you are bidding to win things regularly....perhaps this is what we would be trying to address if we do reach the CL.
It's also unfortunate that Woody has gone a bit off the boil since he got injured playing for his country. He's also just become a dad too I suppose...surely would make a big difference to anyone! I think this is where hindsight will be employed about January. I think everyone with any interest in the club acknowledged the risk in not having adequate goal scoring backup - it was definitely a risk and it could be what is spoken about in the summer if we fail to qualify for CL.
It is very obvious that our tactics work best when we go ahead in a game. I do think we need to work on how we start games, recently we seem to have been under the cosh for the first 10, 15, 20 minutes. Perhaps this is as much other teams understanding how to play against us or maybe we need to get the smelling salts our or something!?
Something I would definitely want to look at in the summer (or get MGW and Anderson to practise over and over and over again) is someone able to shoot from outside the box. Think that would help cause an additional problem for opposition teams as we are a bit one-dimensional.