It's only a couple of outlandish results that will have made the season look respectable.
Quote from: Risso on May 17, 2021, 07:38:46 AMIt's only a couple of outlandish results that will have made the season look respectable.Well, that and getting as many points as we have in 10 years.
Quote from: Ads on May 17, 2021, 07:50:53 AMQuote from: Risso on May 17, 2021, 07:38:46 AMIt's only a couple of outlandish results that will have made the season look respectable.Well, that and getting as many points as we have in 10 years.Some of our football has been a joy to watch, albeit it may have been only one half per game in some cases. As Ads said above, it’s more than we have enjoyed for a long time, I see it as work in progress.
What Smith has done since coming in has been remarkable, but in terms of where we are now you can look at it: We are moving fwd, improving each season he has been in charge, he deserves to go on. Or, the 2nd part of the season has been poor, Smith has peaked, our form is heading down and he cannot take us to the next level, time to move on.
Quote from: DB on May 17, 2021, 09:02:46 AMWhat Smith has done since coming in has been remarkable, but in terms of where we are now you can look at it: We are moving fwd, improving each season he has been in charge, he deserves to go on. Or, the 2nd part of the season has been poor, Smith has peaked, our form is heading down and he cannot take us to the next level, time to move on.I think you are right.There ‘could’ be a stick or twist decision for the owners, but only IF they want to make one.
I agree about the guile and the up and down nature of the football. To my mind these are very clear reasons to question the tactics.I don’t think we got our good results based on tactics, particularly. We played the way we always do, but great player performances (including what turned out to be a true one-off from Barkley) made us unplayable.On the either hand, our losses often look like tactical failures, like smith being outmanoeuvred.I’m not saying he doesn’t have a role in our successes, he obviously does. But I definitely don’t buy it that he is doing the best he can with an inadequate squad.
While we are not too bad in possession across the back four, we are not great. Palace pushing up on us in the second half meant Martinez or the defenders kicking it long and losing possession, a pattern we’ve seen before. Coupled with the midfield wilting, we end up losing shape and teams like Palace have 22 attempts on goalAll the high pressing teams have success against us. It’s no coincidence our best performance of recent weeks was when Everton gave us the freedom of Goodison.We are not good enough to counter this at the moment or composed enough to keep possession better, but absolutely agree Smith is not doing enough to address the problems, within games in particular.
So the players play well in a system the manager implemented but it's nothing to do with him. The players play badly in the same system and it's his fault.