Ok let’s break this down shall we.
Yep results haven’t been great, everyone including me agrees to that. However after the run of 9 defeats in 12 it’s progress in the right direction.
We dropped as low as 12 and are now 4th. We are struggling to get 2nd or 3rd, not 4th and 5th will good enough for CL next season.
It was only the other week many on here claimed England is the best and most competitive league in the world. 5/8 in the CL are English and mostly like will have 6 English teams in the knockout stage.
Yes the football could be more entertaining but during a transition it’s acceptable. And this is one half a season not fucking a year as you claim. Not to mention we’ve had some great displayed sprinkled in.
He doesn’t openly admit he has no clue, that’s just silly talk and countering defensive teams has been a challenge forever and a day.
We are not unique there.
Hmm all players? Wirtz is improving every week, Kerkez the same, Dom has been exceptional, Gravy is 10 times the player. Hugo looks better every week. The reality is he inherited an aging squad that needed reinvestment after years of underinvestment.
We lost Diaz, Jota, Trent, Nunez while VVD, Robbo and Salah are a year older.
We’ve lost players to big injuries in Isak and Bradley.
We had the predictable slump after a title win that every team suffers (bar the cheats).
Im not the only fan on here never mind the only fan in general that thinks the over the top negative viewpoint is too far that way.
And to be crystal clear yet again, I never once said everything is fantastic. Far from it. Do we have enough quality to beat anyone on our day in the CL with a bit of luck? I think so.
Do I think Slot is the long term answer? Fuck knows. Maybe not. Do I think he’s earned the right to show us? Absolutely.
It would be hard not to see SOME progress since those 12 games. We played Leeds twice, Sunderland at home, Fulham, Bournemouth, Burnley, West Ham, Wolves, Spurs with 9 men etc etc. It was an extremely favourable run and he's done fuck all with it, scraping draws against some utter bilge. We should not be hovering around Brentford and the likes. Any semi-competent manager would have picked up a lot more points during this favourable run, and we'd still be in somewhat of a title race despite the 9 losses in 12. As I keep saying, 5 wins in 18 games. No wins in the last 5. Hardly progress. The only reason we're not 12th again is because everyone else around us is also shit. 21 points from 18 games is genuinely relegation form.
The league is more competitive. It doesn't necessarily make it better quality. Arsenal are walking it without a striker and are only able to score goals from corners. The middle teams have improved, but the relegation threatened sides are shocking, and the top 5 or 6 sides are significantly worse than anything I've seen in my time watching football. Did you see Walcott asking Rooney about this current Arsenal side against his United side from 2008? Rooney scoffed and said United would batter them. He's not wrong. The Liverpool 2008 side would beat them too. The Chelsea side would wipe the floor with them. It's just coincided with poor sides all across the continent, which is why the English sides are doing well in Europe. As bad as it is in the Prem, it's worse out there. Hence why McTominay, Hojlund and Billy Gilmour are tearing it up in Italy.
You're going to disagree with the year shout no matter what. Our performances tailed off significantly around this time last year. Results lagged behind. We got over the line, but we didn't play well. If you want to ignore that, that's on you. You and the board, it seems.
With regards to these "great performances" sprinkled in, do they wash away months and months of shite? A couple of games where we've not been the norm of slow, ponderous retards counteracts the crap? Not for me.
He does admit he can't handle a low block. That's just a straight up lie on your part. He says it every week.
Wirtz wasn't his player last year - and was better than he has been this season. Same for Kerkez. I said Szoboszlai is the exception. Gravenberch has been poor this season. He was good last season... Aka regressing.
It's not a slump. It's a collapse. And it doesn't happen to every team. The Arsenal, Chelsea and United sides of the past didn't just drop into midtable after winning the league once. Chelsea did it one year, but it's pretty rare. It's usually us. Maybe because we fly off to Ibiza when there's still games left to play.
I think you're one of maybe two people on the site who think he should see out the season. That says a lot.
He had his chance after the 9 losses in 12. He went on the world's most uninspired unbeaten run which included 2 draws against Leeds, Burnley, Fulham, Sunderland... He had his chance to turn it around. We've gone from plummeting down the league to gradually sinking. Woohoo.
For what it's worth, I wouldn't boo him either. I went to the game against Burnley and applauded the team off. I don't believe in booing them. But the fact that many are in this fanbase when we don't traditionally do that speaks volumes.
