I am stating a fact - everyone I asked have predicted we will be midtable at best except you, yet you feel the need to keep everyone else's feet on the ground? If we win games without Mahrez then yes drop him - we were more defensively sound without him so unless he plays in place of Okazaki, I can't see him back in the team as we still play really well without him. As you said wrote that while writing about CR, why wouldn't anyone take that as you calling CR a bad manager? Because everything positive has been with an if or a but. I only know you from this board over the years - I like your opinions so that you are being so negative bothers me. You don't seem have any pleasure from where we are now - tomorrow is could all go to **** so enjoy it while you can rather then waiting for the boot to drop.
Gangsta mate, I'm just witnessing The Gooners tearing Man U to peices 2-0 after 7mins.... Just saying.
... puts into perspective our first half performance (indeed our whole showing) against Arsenal where we could easily have gone in leading ... we are where we are in the league on merit because we can compete with the very best ... Arsenal on their day when on song can score at will ... if they keep it up in the second half the margin could be four or five (although United have some dangerous forwards) ... I'll still back United to be up there come the end of the season mind ...
I didn't say you did call for his head - last season. You learnt your lesson from him proving you wrong at least twice before, when you DID call for his head. Damning with faint praise was your approach last season - an average manager I think you called him several times. An average manager that set up 90-95% of the framework that's bringing us success now. You also showed no negative response to his firing and were clearly going to fall over yourself to back his replacement, which, fortunately, is now being helped by positive results. The irony is, though, that most of those results are due to him sticking to the game plan and team set up by the previous regime, which you refuse to acknowledge! I'l ask you the same question I asked Big Fox - what positive changes has CR made to the team that was scoring goals for fun and keeping clean sheets during the last nine games last season? Again, I will repeat that I am not part of an anti-Ranieri campaign. He comes across as a lovely bloke, and, as I've said in the post about which you probably haven't read, so I'll spell it out again when it comes to results so far: HE'S DONE AS WELL AS HE COULD HAVE. Not sure how that saying someone is doing as well as they possibly could can be construed as an anti campaign and I certainly don't remember you saying anything positive like that about Pearson - even when we ripped up the Championship, you questioned his ability to keep us up. However, I report what I see, and I have seen elements that concern me. I did with Pearson too. No-one took me to task on that though, because I said many times that the positives outweighed the negatives and I was regarded as his supporter. Ranieri hasn't been at the club nearly long enough to win me over, plus, like many, I was nonplussed at his appointment, so now some are taking every negative comment I say as a personal insult. It's these people, which include yourself, which need to get a grip.
... my last words on it ... the actual time I did criticise Pearson's managerial capabilities was during a winless run of 17 games in the Championship and with the most expensively assembled squad in the league ... I firmly believe that was justifiable grounds for criticism? You have absolutely no basis for your negativity against Claudio Ranieri... other than some schoolboy crush on Nigel Pearson that you just can't seem to get over ...we are coasting along at the top end of the league, playing fabulous football, seeing the very best being brought out of our most talented players and under a manager who has already demonstrated, with his team set-ups and substitutions, that he has a very good tactical knowledge of the game AND knows how to get results ... now for fooks sake move .on .. there are plenty more fish in the sea
I think this is a very fair, well considered post. I agree that's it's possibly easier to watch now because there is less pressure. That said, I miss Cambiasso's class. The long balls into the channels we're seeing now aren't quite as breathtaking, but watching Vardy/Schlupp/Albrighton beating everyone for pace is thrilling. Obviously I agree I don't care if we concede and win, but you look to things like that to see how we'll cope in the future. If we lose one or two of our key attacking figures to injury or lack of form, we could be in trouble. But, like West Ham last season, if we carry on as we are we could have most of our points on the board before anything like that happens.