Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [5th - 9th February 2016]

[FrankJH]

So today's delusional thoughts from LvG:



1. We didn't have the better chances
2. We didn't play 'a superb game'. Maybe for 20 mins at the start yes.
3. Blaming luck, standard 'I don't know what I'm doing' response.
4. Chelsea playing long balls? Um we were the one who were playing long balls for most of the game.

I think 1 is correct - and 2 is debatable (I think Utd played well for 25-30 minutes in each half)

A few stupidly given away free kicks aside United played well and managed the game - but should have scored at least once in that opening 20+ minute domination

Even considering their league position, Chelsea have a much better team than Utd currently so while it still feels like a loss, a point at SB is a reasonable result

 

[BaZ87]

When Perez announced he left "by mutual consent" he was effectively sacked

I genuinely believe I was mutual consent - Mourinho was happy to leave. He'd have been sacked if he wasn't though I suspect which is why I said he wasn't officially sacked.

He wasn't sacked by Inter though as I said.

 

[Robert]

United were lucky to get a point in the end after the 3 terrific saves De Gea pulled off, how they got him to extend his contract I'll never know there must be some sort of clause allowing him to leave for Real Madrid.

Because Courtois made no good saves?

 

[Shamikebab]

You're playing away against Chelsea not at home vs Norwich. You cannot honestly expect to dominate 90 minutes of the game and not have a spell where Chelsea take the game to you chasing an equaliser.

You were the better side overall today and even towards the end of the game you looked more likely to score on the break than Chelsea did. The reason why you didn't score your 2nd and Chelsea equalised were down to 2 individual mistakes not tactical problems.

Did I say dominate? There is quite a big difference between dominating and letting them have 92% possession Baz. We made no attempt to play any kind of football for the last 25 mins and just let them do what they want. It was 100% down to tactical problems. If you sit back and let a team dominate you then eventually they will score.

Last 5 mins, how can you not call that a tactical **** up

 

[FrankJH]

I genuinely believe I was mutual consent - Mourinho was happy to leave. He'd have been sacked if he wasn't though I suspect which is why I said he wasn't officially sacked.

He wasn't sacked by Inter though as I said.

Chelsea Football Club and Jose Mourinho have today parted company by mutual consent”

Chelsea Football Club

Its a standard comment

I guess he wasn't sacked by Chelsea either then............

Of course JM was happy to leave RM, it was a bad atmosphere/ results etc etc

He certainly didn't get on with the board at Inter, there were numerous rumours of a great deal of friction while he was there. Indeed his contract was bought out by RM , my bad.

 

[mmj_uk]

Because Courtois made no good saves?

He did but De Gea made 2-3 world class saves, you wouldn't expect most keepers to even get to them and he does it week in week out. I rate him higher than Manuel Neuer at this point.

 

[BaZ87]

Did I say dominate? There is quite a big difference between dominating and letting them have 92% possession Baz. We made no attempt to play any kind of football for the last 25 mins and just let them do what they want. It was 100% down to tactical problems. If you sit back and let a team dominate you then eventually they will score.

Last 5 mins, how can you not call that a tactical **** up

There's a difference between letting them have 92% of possession and not being able to stop them. As I said, you're playing Chelsea not Norwich and they were always going to come back into the game for a spell. But again, despite all their possession it was still Utd, not Chelsea that looked more likely to score.

How many times do you see matches between 2 big sides where the side losing doesn't dominate the end of the game chasing the equaliser? Almost never. Normally you'll see the side chasing the game creating far more than what Chelsea were able to today though.

Had Chelsea been creating chance after chance then fair enough, blame the manager but they weren't. For all Chelsea's possession Utd looked comfortable in the game and looked the bigger threat on the break.

No matter how great the manager is, you're still reliant on individuals and if Utd hadn't made 2 individual mistakes in the space of a minute at the end of the game then everybody is saying that's a great Utd performance - taken the game to Chelsea, took the lead and then kept things tight and killed the game on the break.

Chelsea Football Club and Jose Mourinho have today parted company by mutual consent”

Chelsea Football Club

Its a standard comment

I guess he wasn't sacked by Chelsea either then............

Of course JM was happy to leave RM, it was a bad atmosphere/ results etc etc

He certainly didn't get on with the board at Inter, there were numerous rumours of a great deal of friction while he was there. Indeed his contract was bought out by RM , my bad.

You just need to use a bit of common sense Frank. Everybody knows he was sacked by Chelsea - he made it clear he wouldn't walk. Real was different though, he was just as happy to leave as Real were to see the back of him.

 

[sigma]

Ultimately a very small part of Mourinho's career though. An anomaly.

He's toxic, I don't want him anywhere near the club. I do want LvG out though.

We pretty much let Chelsea equalise, it was obvious that they would.

There's a difference between letting them have 92% of possession and not being able to stop them. As I said, you're playing Chelsea not Norwich and they were always going to come back into the game for a spell. But again, despite all their possession it was still Utd, not Chelsea that looked more likely to score.

How many times do you see matches between 2 big sides where the side losing doesn't dominate the end of the game chasing the equaliser? Almost never. Normally you'll see the side chasing the game creating far more than what Chelsea were able to today though.

Had Chelsea been creating chance after chance then fair enough, blame the manager but they weren't. For all Chelsea's possession Utd looked comfortable in the game and looked the bigger threat on the break.

No matter how great the manager is, you're still reliant on individuals and if Utd hadn't made 2 individual mistakes in the space of a minute at the end of the game then everybody is saying that's a great Utd performance - taken the game to Chelsea, took the lead and then kept things tight and killed the game on the break.

You must have seen a different match to me because Chelsea looked for sure as though they were going to equalise.

 

[Robbo]

He's toxic, I don't want him anywhere near the club. I do want LvG out though.

Who would you want then? Sounds like Mourinho is being lined up, so you'll have to get used to him.

 

[BaZ87]

You must have seen a different match to me because Chelsea looked for sure as though they were going to equalise.

That's because you're scarred by what's gone on before. The fact I dislike both clubs enables me to see things rationally

 

[sigma]

Who would you want then? Sounds like Mourinho is being lined up, so you'll have to get used to him.

If this happens then I may consider boycotting thankfully he'll probably only be there for the typical 3 year period before things turn really sour... I think we should steal Koeman or maybe even Bilić (only because I think he's a nice, honest person. I don't know too much about his tactical nous, but he seems to be able to read matches well).

I can't believe people moan about boring football from LvG yet still think Jose is the answer - sure he might win more, but what's happened to the "United way"?

That's because you're scarred by what's gone on before. The fact I dislike both clubs enables me to see things rationally

But I stated they were going to score before they did. Utd hardly closed the game out, it was a case of hold on by the skin of their teeth.

 

[BaZ87]

But I stated they were going to score before they did. Utd hardly closed the game out, it was a case of hold on by the skin of their teeth.

It really wasn't. You were pessimistic because you've been stung before. The reality was Chelsea weren't creating many if any clear chances to score.

 

[Robbo]

If this happens then I may consider boycotting thankfully he'll probably only be there for the typical 3 year period before things turn really sour... I think we should steal Koeman or maybe even Bilić (only because I think he's a nice, honest person. I don't know too much about his tactical nous, but he seems to be able to read matches well).

I can't believe people moan about boring football from LvG yet still think Jose is the answer - sure he might win more, but what's happened to the "United way"?

So you'd rather a "nice guy" who's comparatively achieved nothing?! My god.

Mourinho is known for boring football in big games, but he generally tries to attack. SAF was no angel either, the very best managers don't tend to be nice guys, you have to be ruthless and have an edge (I agree in some instances Jose has taken it too far).

I think Mourinho would genuinely try and think long term with us, but if not he'll restore us to some sort of respectable position. At the moment we're a joke.

 

[sigma]

So you'd rather a "nice guy" who's comparatively achieved nothing?! My god.

Well people are entertaining Giggs as a manager, so why not consider a "lesser" manager?

After what he's been through at Chelsea, what's to say Jose has not lost it a bit? It could be more than just a 'blip' as you factually stated earlier.

 

[Robbo]

Well people are entertaining Giggs as a manager, so why not consider a "lesser" manager?

They shouldn't be doing that either, Giggs would be a ridiculous appointment.

 

[BaZ87]

So you'd rather a "nice guy" who's comparatively achieved nothing?! My god.

Mourinho is known for boring football in big games, but he generally tries to attack. SAF was no angel either, the very best managers don't tend to be nice guys, you have to be ruthless and have an edge (I agree in some instances Jose has taken it too far).

I think Mourinho would genuinely try and think long term with us, but if not he'll restore us to some sort of respectable position. At the moment we're a joke.

I'd question that he generally tries to attack but there's other things that need addressing more than that.

Why do you think he'd take a long term approach at Utd? All the talk when he came back to Chelsea was that he's a changed man, he'd agreed to play a better style of football and was going to give younger players more of a chance etc etc. That lasted a few months before he slowly started positioning things so he could justify reverting to his old ways. To be fair to him, he was justified because the following season they won the league but it was the old Mourinho, not the new improved Mourinho that we were told was returning to Chelsea and in keeping with the old Mourinho things blew up a season later.

Mourinho can make all the assurances he wants, he only knows one way of managing and as soon as things don't go well he'll revert to that and history tells us that it's unsustainable.

I'm not sure what will be more satisfying to see - Mourinho being rejected by Utd and his pet dog Duncan Castles squirming on twitter or him getting the job and the spectacular meltdown we'll see in ~3 years.

edit: The only reason I've not moved posts into the sack thread is because the discussion has included multi quoted comments re the match. Any more manager talk from now is in the sack thread please.

 

[Robbo]

I wondered what happened there!

 

[BaZ87]

 

[Cosimo]

Job done...

 

[The Running Man]

You could see wwhy chelsea haven't lost to us in 10 games. Just better quality all over the pitch.

how many fouls did we give away in oir third in tge last 20 mind
It was utter desperation as our players could not handle a bit of pace and directness.