2020/21 Carlo Ancelotti

[BlueToff]

In Carlo we trust. Even after today we are still lucky to have him at the helm.

We're paying him £9m a year, like

'Luck' shouldn't come into it

He's brilliant, just sometimes this season there's been some in-game inflexibility and his use of Tosun is baffling

I praise him when he gets it right and more often than not he does. Today he got it wrong.

 

[atypicalusername]

We're paying him £9m a year, like

'Luck' shouldn't come into it

He's brilliant, just sometimes this season there's been some in-game inflexibility and his use of Tosun is baffling

I praise him when he gets it right and more often than not he does. Today he got it wrong.

Fair perspective. Still I trust in Carlo.

 

[hktoffee]

Toshun
Davies
Siggurdsson
Coleman
Bernard

Just how are this lot still getting in the starting 11?

The dross just never seem to be moved on.

Carlo needs time to get his own players in. Surely we are moving forward.

 

[BlueStevie35]

Toshun
Davies
Siggurdsson
Coleman
Bernard

Just how are this lot still getting in the starting 11?

The dross just never seem to be moved on.

Hope the talk is true of WBA and Roma interest in the bolded

 

[hktoffee]

We're paying him £9m a year, like

'Luck' shouldn't come into it

He's brilliant, just sometimes this season there's been some in-game inflexibility and his use of Tosun is baffling

I praise him when he gets it right and more often than not he does. Today he got it wrong.

Yes. Still, in Carlo we trust. He will surely see who’s the weakest link in the team.

 

[Baines' left foot]

He should be kicking Moshiri’s door down demanding at least two players this window. We desperately lack depth.

 

[GwladysBlue]

Ancelotti will learn a lot from tonight. That squad is so average. He must look to the bench and despair when he sees the likes of Tosun as his only real attacking option to try and change the game.

 

[Amokachi1995]

Miles improved in the year since he joined. Sat in 4th with plenty of opportunity. Pretty sure he knows what he needs to do as well.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Maybe but the problem is we are playing coin flips every week. Against SHU we were the team that got the slice of fortune to win 1-0. Today it was West Ham. That isn't fixed by defending better. We're defending fine already. That is fixed by being a better attacking side and he's, to my eye at least, doing nothing to fix the issues there.

Yes we're down players but he's doing nothing to try and work it out with what he has.

Because we don’t have the squad to do both. That’s obvious. We showed we could play brilliant attacking football early in the season with flying full backs and James looking great with DCL bagging loads. Eventually though it showed up that Keane Mina and Pickford can’t keep clean sheets that way because they’ve got no pace and Pickford can’t defend his area well.

When the results dried up he had to change it so we went to a flat defence to cover the issues of the keeper and centrebacks and as a result our attacking output has decreased.

Carlo can’t magic up a top sweeper keeper, centrebacks with pace and power, a world class right back, and pacey powerful midfield players to cover, to allow us to play our attacking football effectively. He equally can’t magic up two pacey wide players and a load of creative midfielders to give us the ability to create loads with a flat defence.

He’s searching for balance with a squad where most players are slow, weak, and kee getting injured. It’s a difficult task but he’s getting it more right than wrong.

 

[Zatara]

No team has won four games in a row this season. We’ve done it twice. The best team in Europe just drew two in a row to West Brom and Newcastle managed by Allardyce and Bruce. There’s an expectation though that we should be able to just cream some teams week after week with players like Sigurdsson Davies Coleman in the team. Not going to happen.

Carlo will innovate again and we will win again but this group of players is nowhere near the top teams. Carlo even said it before the match. I don’t know why there’s such annoyance every single time we drop points this season.

Good news is that almost all of our deadwood are out of contract over the next 18months...

I expect dynamic improvements...

Honestly mate, I think we'd have been far better playing the flat four today.

Keane should have played imo, but more because that flat four of the CBs works. With Coleman on one side, we lack balance - we're lopsided - and West Ham simply shifted from side to side and doubled up.

I think that's Carlo's first mistake.

And then fully agree with you that the next mistakes are the changes. It's just like for like. Sure, James is better than Bernard and Gomes did okay when he came on, but they're still in the same places on the pitch.

West Ham simply matched us up out of possession, and Carlo did nothing to rectify it.

Instead of that Tosun change, he could have gone to Gordon or, as you say, Niels. Niels gives us balance - two actual full-backs on the pitch - and could push Richarlison inside while still retaining the basics of a 4-3-3.

Gordon would have given us the ability to go 4-4-2. Doucoure and Gomes would have been fine in there for 10 minutes, and we'd have had a proper front two.

Baffling decisions by the manager and his staff.

He's brilliant, they're brilliant, but they have to be called out when they get it wrong.

I hope that the Bernard and Tosun rumoured sales are true...just takes them off the board for selection.

Gordon and Nkounkou should have been options today.

Would have made more sense to stick with the 4 as you say...OR bring in Nkounkou so weve at least got two on the pitch that want to naturally attack.

Nkounkou isnt getting a look in, hopefully he and Gordon show some magic in the cup to gain some trust from the manager.

 

[Ring master]

 

[sageyefc]

Can we go back to 433 and trying to attack sides again like earlier in the season

 

[BlueToff]

Ancelotti will learn a lot from tonight. That squad is so average. He must look to the bench and despair when he sees the likes of Tosun as his only real attacking option to try and change the game.

Thing is, that's actually not the case.

I mean, I agree with the state of the squad. But he had other options to change the game than Tosun.

Tosun doesn't actually change the game, because all he did was replace DCL in the same shape, and offer zero pace, zero power or zero, well, anything.

He could have turned to Gordon for Davies, and pushed Richarlison inside, and gone with Gomes and Doucoure in the middle. Or Nkounkou for Godfrey, and had that balance of two attacking FBs and actual width on the left flank - a target to switch the play to and to cross the ball.

We have poor options, fully agree, and need more, but Carlo didn't try and use alternatives tonight, and that's on him.

 

[BlueToff]

Can we go back to 433 and trying to attack sides again like earlier in the season

Unfortunately we did play 4-3-3 today

We had Sigurdsson and Doucoure running into blind alleys away from the ball, pushing our wingers even wider, and Davies or Holgate or Mina stood there with nobody to hit.

 

[GwladysBlue]

Thing is, that's actually not the case.

I mean, I agree with the state of the squad. But he had other options to change the game than Tosun.

Tosun doesn't actually change the game, because all he did was replace DCL in the same shape, and offer zero pace, zero power or zero, well, anything.

He could have turned to Gordon for Davies, and pushed Richarlison inside, and gone with Gomes and Doucoure in the middle. Or Nkounkou for Godfrey, and had that balance of two attacking FBs and actual width on the left flank - a target to switch the play to and to cross the ball.

We have poor options, fully agree, and need more, but Carlo didn't try and use alternatives tonight, and that's on him.

Relying on U-20 players still isn’t ideal, though, is it?

We need to spend big.

I’ve resigned myself to yet another transition year but the recruitment needs to be so much better for us to finally push on next season.