The way forward

From here we only need to win three games out of six to win the EL. To be top four we probably need to win eight out of ten in the PL. Winning the EL also definitely gets us CL next year whereas fourth place doesn't if Liverpool win the CL and Arsenal win the EL. So going all out for the EL makes a lot of sense especially since it probably consigns Arsenal to no European football at all. I never wanted Mourinho but it makes no sense to sack him at this point.

 

I cannot believe I am standing up for him, but Bale and Ndombele put in two of the most disgraceful shifts I have ever seen from a Spurs player. Down there with Wanyama laughing during the Colchester match or Adebayor under AVB.

Jose takes full blame for starting Doherty and Son and setting us up so negatively, but when 2 of the most gifted players on the pitch look like they couldn't give a ****e, is the manager to blame?

 

He ain’t going anywhere until at least the end of the season. He’s been massively underwhelming though as a manager. I’ve found comedic value in his humour but ultimately this is football, not an entertainment show and I’ve said many times before you can’t let sentiment cloud your judgement regardless of whether you like a player/ manager on a personal scale or not.

He’s served up some serious dross football for the most part that’s been saved by Kane, Son and recently Bale. The fact we have three players like that and have generally opted for a cautious and often negative approach is pretty criminal. I’ve really wanted the guy to do well but frankly he’s been nowhere near worth the money we’re paying him. The club have made so many poor decisions over the last few years though with regards to recruitment - both players and seemingly manager - that it’s somewhat a case of us paying the price for being so negligent and ill thought out.

The good thing for us fans at the moment is the fact we’re not able to go matches.

 

I'd have sacked him a long time ago...but as I don't run the club, it's an irrelevance.

Our performances against better teams have been woeful since we beat a City team without Aguero, De Bruyne and Fernandinho. We can beat up Palace and Burnley but as soon as we meet someone decent, we're done.

I see no possibility that we will defeat three strong European teams in the remaining rounds. Even if we draw Arsenal, Mourinho will resort to the cowardly football that he specialises in and our players don't ...and that will be the end of that.

If he wins it...I'll be shocked and eat my humble pie...but for the life of me, I just cannot see it. It's more conceivable that we'll have one blinder and beat City but I wouldn't back that with a penny of my own money.

 

They are to blame for their own actions. No matter what their issues are with the manager, or system or tactics they owe it to the fans to try their best. I said as much on the match thread.

My issue with JM is he never accepts responsibility for his **** shows.

If it were based on today or just one or two other performances then I would be having a huge over reaction but I have listed 29 games above ... to be honest I should have included West Brom and Burnley away plus a significant chunk of Brighton at home from earlier this season.

JM is solely responsible for these performances as a whole

 

Agree with the logic re EL v prem but that was not caused yesterday. Poor management and poor the motivation of players (each take their responsibility)...and if they collectively don't give a toss about a NLD that takes us within serious striking distance of the top 4 then tbh why would they give a toss about a a quarter final? (if we'd won yesterday we'd be 3 points off 4th place Chelsea with a game in hand and a better gd)

Something needs to change...doing the same thing and expecting different results strikes me as pointless.

Since we beat Arsenal on 6th December
We have beat:
Antwerp ... poor team
Stoke ... championship
Leeds ... very hit and miss team
Brentford ... championship
Marine ... tier 8 of English football
Sheffield United... appallingly bad team
Wycombe ... bottom of championship
West Brom... appallingly bad
Wolfesberg x 2...very poor team
Burnley ... lower half of league
Fulham ... lucky win
Palace ... poor team
Dynamo Zagreb...weakest team in competition

That's 6 Premier league wins in over 3 months.
We have not beat a single good side.
Yes...Burnley played well in the last 3 games and Fulham am play good football but they are struggling in the Premier league.

As soon as we face a decent side in the EL we'll be out imho

 

I agree with most of that....except Zagreb are not untypical of the teams left in the EL. There are going to be a couple of similar teams in the quarter finals. If Man Utd lose to Milan, Arsenal and ourselves are the best two sides left.

 

That's a pretty bold claim my friend...

Or a damning indictment on the EL as a competition

 

It's approx the European second division! Because it's selected a season ago there might be a few of this seasons other top 16 clubs in it as well as the English ones. No other country has six clubs in the top 20.

 

I wonder when he’s going to bankrupt us...probably just before he leaves like he does to all his other clubs and leaves them a shambles in administration etc

I wonder how many players are going to become top class again when he leaves

Interesting times ahead

 

EL's for the real Gs. CL is for the pompous fools.

1882 nights were class at WHL.

 

So...
Is there any way Levy will actually accept that his moronic decision is wrong?

Surely this can not be allowed to continue...can it?

 

This is the issue: effectively the ubermensch was hired as a buffer, because Levy knew that sacking Poch would lead to a backlash (and rightly so) which meant he needed an appointment that would dampen it immediately - and given the Lunatic Fringe were loudly demanding we hire the ubermensch when things were unraveling in Poch's last months, it has to be said this also falls on them as they communicated who the best choice to serve as a dampener was

This is also the issue with those who are as obsessed with us winning trophies as the same half dozen Nomads who lurk on our Twitter are would also have gone "Well he's won trophies before..." which ignores the fact that so did Juande Ramos, and we all remember how well that worked out for the club as well as the rogue DoF who went all out to sign him while also ****ting on Maritn Jol to get what he wanted

 

That went well.

 

He did say "going all out for the EL" and we definitely didn't do that, to be fair.
People were not impressed by the starting lineup, for a variety of reasons. Rightly, as it turns out.

 

He also assumed you were already in the QF’s mate.

#maths

 

I expect Levy knows he made the wrong call. Not sure who can come in and win nine of our remaining games though which is what we need to rescue the season.
Good to have someone else helping with the summer recruitment though. Mourinho has had a nightmare there. We could have signed two good players instead of a lot of average ones.

 

No I didn't. I said win three games out of six and i had in mind drawing the other three.

 

Fair enough, but you did sort of assume the job was done in the round of 16 though, come on....

Am I right in thinking that’s the 5th successive game that Dire has started that you’ve lost btw?

#southgateout

 

No. The last game he started was the first leg and the one before that was the 2nd leg of the previous round, which we won.
We've lost the last four consecutive league games that he's started, though. West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool and City.