Quote from: Rudy65 on April 21, 2021, 10:25:32 PMThey are professional athletes who have all recovered from COVID. None of them have been missing from the squad since the two week break. They would be monitored relentlessly for their health and bloods etc. They wouldn’t be playing if they were still ‘ill’. Poor excuse in my viewAnd yet:Pre-covid: played 15, 8 wins, 29 goals, 26 pointsPost-covid: played 16, 5 wins, 15 goals, 18 pointsI'm not making an excuse, I'm pointing out the very clear split in the season. Even without stats every genuinely good performance from us was in those first 15, since then we've looked a shadow of that team. Grealish being out has been part of it but even before his injury we looked a lot less fluid and were struggling to make the vast amount of chances that we'd been seeing every game earlier in the season.I don't know why the break affected us so badly but arguing that it didn't or that it's an excuse is ignoring what is right in front of you.
They are professional athletes who have all recovered from COVID. None of them have been missing from the squad since the two week break. They would be monitored relentlessly for their health and bloods etc. They wouldn’t be playing if they were still ‘ill’. Poor excuse in my view
At what point does his position become untenable? Lose to the stripeys and I would say that will be that
Quote from: paul_e on April 21, 2021, 10:30:34 PMQuote from: Rudy65 on April 21, 2021, 10:25:32 PMThey are professional athletes who have all recovered from COVID. None of them have been missing from the squad since the two week break. They would be monitored relentlessly for their health and bloods etc. They wouldn’t be playing if they were still ‘ill’. Poor excuse in my viewAnd yet:Pre-covid: played 15, 8 wins, 29 goals, 26 pointsPost-covid: played 16, 5 wins, 15 goals, 18 pointsI'm not making an excuse, I'm pointing out the very clear split in the season. Even without stats every genuinely good performance from us was in those first 15, since then we've looked a shadow of that team. Grealish being out has been part of it but even before his injury we looked a lot less fluid and were struggling to make the vast amount of chances that we'd been seeing every game earlier in the season.I don't know why the break affected us so badly but arguing that it didn't or that it's an excuse is ignoring what is right in front of you.You're making the age old mistake of confusing correlation with causation. Our midfield is rubbish, and so are our wide players without Jack. Covid isn't the reason that Traore is shite, 9 times out of 10, or that Barkley keeps getting picked despite offering precisiely nothing. It's pften been said that Smith is a streaky manager, and this is another poor run of form from him. Half a season of relegation form.
Quote from: paul_e on April 21, 2021, 10:30:34 PMQuote from: Rudy65 on April 21, 2021, 10:25:32 PMThey are professional athletes who have all recovered from COVID. None of them have been missing from the squad since the two week break. They would be monitored relentlessly for their health and bloods etc. They wouldn’t be playing if they were still ‘ill’. Poor excuse in my viewAnd yet:Pre-covid: played 15, 8 wins, 29 goals, 26 pointsPost-covid: played 16, 5 wins, 15 goals, 18 pointsI'm not making an excuse, I'm pointing out the very clear split in the season. Even without stats every genuinely good performance from us was in those first 15, since then we've looked a shadow of that team. Grealish being out has been part of it but even before his injury we looked a lot less fluid and were struggling to make the vast amount of chances that we'd been seeing every game earlier in the season.I don't know why the break affected us so badly but arguing that it didn't or that it's an excuse is ignoring what is right in front of you.You are solely blaming COVID. I disagree. It’s because we are playing boring, insipid football bereft of any game plan or tactics. We have been awful as backed up by your stats but COVID isn’t the reason. Players and the management are too blamePlay like this next season and we are bottom 3 at Xmas
I'm really not, your making your common mistake of having decided everything is shit and refusing to even consider there may be reasons for it.
Quote from: paul_e on April 21, 2021, 10:36:40 PMI'm really not, your making your common mistake of having decided everything is shit and refusing to even consider there may be reasons for it.Everything is shit at the moment, and the reasons are:Poor wingers - Traore, El Ghazi and Trezeguet nowhere near the required standardLimited manager - lower league manager doing his very best, but tactically rigid and unable to change matchesPoor passing from midfield, and very little goal threatInsistence on perservering with very obviously poor players like BarkleyJack Grealish injury- we're utterly reliant on him for any attacking abilityCovid - not sure why two weeks off three months go would still be having an effect now. The main reason for anybody with a pair of eyes is Jack being out, and nobody else who can remotely replace him or support Watkins.