Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [30th September - 2nd October 2016]

Spurs have played really well but you've got to be disappointed in City - they showed absolutely nothing until the last 15 minutes.
 
I know it's early in the season, but the top 3 so far look streets ahead of the rest of the league:

Man City 18pts
Spurs 17pts
Liverpool 16pts

I hope those 3 battle it our right till the end, would make for a great season.
 
I'm not sure if we'll challenge for the title (top 4 is immediate priority), it's still very early, but there are reasons to be positive.

Rooney is hopefully now a peripheral player.

We thrashed Leicester, and we were very good for the most part against Stoke, creating loads of chances, just failing to put them away.

Don't forget, we still have Mkhitaryan to come in and hopefully find some form, he's an excellent player and could easily be our best attacker.

There are plenty of concerns, as ever. I think Mourinho's treatment of Schweinsteiger is stupid - whatever he may have done wrong (being in Germany too much etc) - and Schneiderlin is clearly a very good player who doesn't seem to have a place either.
 
Egon said:
I know it's early in the season, but the top 3 so far look streets ahead of the rest of the league:

Man City 18pts
Spurs 17pts
Liverpool 16pts

I hope those 3 battle it our right till the end, would make for a great season.
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Yup, personally think that is by a mile the three best managers in the league as well.

Wenger has actually shown some change. People keep saying Arsenal have played the same way forever under Wenger but when we actually won things we were absolutely all out attack. We had a great defence because the players were great but we played at break neck speed going forwards. The way we've played the last few games has been very much like old Wenger pre 2005. Will be interesting to see if that is largely because of the opposition we've faced and how they've played and some form from Walcott or if Wenger has planned to switch to that kind of style of attack for the rest of the season. If they go back to old Arsenal style as standard.... who knows what we can do.

I've bemoaned Wenger precisely because for a decade we played possession football and he never had success doing that, his success came with an all out attack, maybe he can do something again if he's finally changed back. I still think it will be hard for Arsenal to match those three from what I've seen so far. Also worth mentioning I maintained that I'd be happy if Wenger made big changes and improved Arsenal but that over a decade Wenger showed zero signs of changing from the possession based non winning football he was playing so I had little hope for him to make a big change, that is why I wanted him gone because there was zero indication he'd find his winning style of football again... maybe, just maybe, he has.

City and Liverpool are still building, new managers, very new methods and could take a long time to really gel and become consistent. If you think back to Poch's first months, year in charge it was the same thing. There were signs but inconsistency and they didn't really have the team playing in the complete Poch way. But after what 18 months they suddenly clicked as a Poch team where everyone buys into that system. I suspect City will take 12-18 months to also click in the same way. Liverpool are closer to the end of their change than the beginning. The difference this year compared to last season is massive.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Because while City aren't completely ready yet, Utd are absolutely no where near. Mourinho won't fix Utd's attack, he's a fraction of the manager that Poch/Pep/Klopp are and none of those teams were playing Rooney.
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A fraction of? That's more than a little harsh. Funnily enough, since dropping Rooney, we look pretty decent in attack.
 
Robbo said:
Because we were poor? And they had De Bruyne.
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And Mourinho won't set a team up to play like Spurs today.

The Utd game was as big a test for City as the Spurs but completely different tests. Utd were always going to sit deep, look to stifle City and play on the break or for set-plays. Spurs were always going to go toe to toe with them, look to press them high up the pitch and take the game to them.
 
spurs ( up until today ) haven't really impressed but today we woke up. hope we can kick on.

no dembele or dier starting who were two of our best players last season and kane injured and we still put in a decent shift. wanyama was immense and sissoko played a key role in keeping city busy. back 4 were solid only lamlela didn't really reach the same level as all other spurs players in terms of giving it all you've got.
 
Robbo said:
A fraction of? That's more than a little harsh. Funnily, since dropping Rooney, we look pretty decent in attack.
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There is a vast difference between being better in attack because you finally play 11 footballers and don't have one drunk uncle type running around the pitch getting in everyone's way and building a consistent, fluid offence that can win the league and the CL eventually.

I've never seen Mourinho build a 'total' side. It's always improving the defence, killing the offence over time, making a team of individuals. Ignoring players, poor rotation, running players into the ground and upsetting the half of the squad he rarely plays. I don't think he'll build a total side at Utd, I don't think they'll improve much at all. Taking out Rooney and giving Martial, Ibra, Pogba games to gel and their offence will improve but that is aside from any system Mourinho implements.

He won't build a pressing team that can play as Spurs now, or Pool or Bayern/Barca, or how City will in a year or two.
 
I guess we'll find out. It appears to me at the moment that he doesn't have much of a plan, but I'm hoping that will become clear quite soon. We are vastly improved since the Watford loss.
 
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