02 May 2024 13:14:13
Have to remember too that without Martinez and Shaw there are few option to play out from the back, AWB, Maguire can't take the ball from him. With better option in front of him it will improve.

1.) 02 May 2024
02 May 2024 13:37:05
If your on about onana I've not really been worried about how he distributes the ball. I've been worried about his actual goal keeping, no point being great with your feet if you can't use your hands as a keeper.

2.) 02 May 2024
02 May 2024 13:46:21
Obviously with our full squad fit the team will play better. But playing out from the back doesn’t explain why there is such a gaping hole in the middle of the pitch.

There are major tactical failings that can’t be explained away by injuries. As much as I’d like ETH to stay another season to give the new directors time to identify the right replacement, the same excuses are wearing very thin.

3.) 02 May 2024
02 May 2024 14:00:59
Fair post Danny and Brooks.
Whilst I agree you can't make a silk purse from a pigs ear it doesn't have to be a cheap cotton purse full of holes.

4.) 02 May 2024
02 May 2024 14:14:59
Casemiro was immense last season, something has happened with him, perhaps the intensity of his first season in the premier league took a lot out of him but we weren't to know that or expect it so obviously didn't replace him this season. I certainly don't think we'd win the league but had we had Rice or Rodri for example in there this season I think we'd have got top 4 again because that hole most games wouldn't be there and that is where we get punished most of the time. It's then whether we would have pushed on elsewhere around the pitch.

5.) 02 May 2024
02 May 2024 22:42:27
Besides which, Ports, he had 3 years left on his contract and was unsaleable except at a loss, even if the coaches knew he had lost a big step. I also think that the fact that he was being pulled up repeatedly on the disciplinary front impacted the way he could play in England. He had already become less impactful in the second half of the season after the suspensions. Perhaps he was used to getting away with more at RM than he could playing for us, or perhaps he just has to foul more now to make up for his reduced speed. Casemiro is one of a long line of players we've acquired at the end of their careers, who have failed to have more than a one season impact, if that.

If there's one thing the new regime will have noted it's that there are no quick fixes, and that acquiring older players past their sell by date only succeeds in kicking the can down the road. We've been doing it since SAF's last few seasons, completely failing to acquire and develop longer term prospects. Wasn't there a time when Tom Cleverley was going to be the new Paul Scholes.