OrangeRab

If Benfica had won the league we would have got automatic entry into group stages.

Was all going well apart from benfica. 

Could've automatically qualified in 2nd if certain teams finished in certain positions in their league due to our 5 year coefficient.

I think it’s they can’t rather than won’t. Pressing is just fitness, organisation and dominating possession to recover. And Clement did implement that when he first arrived.
But round about the second Benfica game, you could see it catching up with the squad. Both in injuries and fatigue.
Cameron is 21 and has played half the minutes this season that Tavernier has at 32!
Lundstram was a machine for a bit around the Hearts game where he peaked. Now he can barely move let alone press.
Clement inherited an ageing squad filled with poor athletes like Lawrence and Dowell. This is why I don’t think he’ll sign Shankland either.
I think his signings will all be young and athletic guys that can maintain it over a season. That was the Postecoglou template. 

Throwing away the title this year could set us back years.
I wonder what the difference in our  transfer budget would be between qualifying for the Champions League and not.
10 million? More??

Brilliant post. It’s amazing how much the bit in bold is looked over on here. Or conflated with mentality. 

Thats me summarising very very briefly tbh, there's articles out there with pages and pages of diagrams about how he played at Monaco, proper in depth shit 
The team he had at Monaco had some right good players in it aswell so wasn't a lack of quality 

If you actually read about Clements time at Monaco, his setup here is very similar, they started well & eventually got figured out, they sacked him after 1 win in 7 when he refused to change his ways.
He relies on fullbacks to be the ones to take the ball from the back, he plays with 2 in midfield and a #10 & his teams go long out to the wings and look for 2nd balls then rely on lots of crosses.
All of that is what we've seen when he's been here so he isn't changing anything, even with his own players.

Allowing Lawrence to start the game at all was mind boggling. Fuck, this team needs a right enema! Roll on next season. 

If he had better players he might not need to go long. Our midfielders are honking 

It’s the players not the system. 
 
Lundstram jogging about wae no legs yet again. Lawrence the same. 
 
No athletes in the team anymore as Tav continues his decline. We need powerful footballers in the middle and runners at LB and RB. Football is a simple game. 
 
Not even in the CL groups but the absolute stand out player against us in the past 3-4 years was Sangare at PSV. Strong, quick, a complete athlete. That’s the profile we’re missing. Replace Lundstram, Barisic, Tav, Dessers, Goldson with those types of profile and we’d be absolutely fine. 

Won’t hear a peep. Same about the soft penalty.
But we all know if the tables reversed you’d be hearing about it for weeks.

The only thing I can think of in his defence is that he's trying to put in a right meaty challenge too gee the players up and hush the Knew Camp after we've just clawed back a goal. That's the only thing I can think of.
It would probably have helped him feel better after having fucked up with the OG.
Success and failure turns on a five pence in football. Unfortunately for us his act ended in failure.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that's what he was thinking. I'm just saying it's the only thing I can think of for doing something so reckless.

His legs have been gone for weeks. I understood why Clement played him when Diomande was injured. And I understand for most of the season why he couldn’t rotate him as we have nobody else.
But he should have been dropped yesterday. Raskin who is fresh and could run was a miles better option. We needed legs in the middle.
That stunk of a bit of thinking with loyalty rather than his head by Clement.

It's the players. Not the system.
You have 2 holding midfielders and an attacking midfielder who presses.
Yesterday was another prime example of 2 players not capable of doing that in Lundstram and Lawrence. Lundstram was sitting on the centre backs toes again and Lawrence couldn't run. Players need to be dynamic and make up the yards quickly. 
Could change the system to suit the players but right now I have no confidence in any of the players bar 2 or 3. 

Need better players but I would probably be using the last two league games to test different systems out for the final
They’re both dead rubbers so may aswell just use them as practice type games 

We need better players

The difference in the team energy when you have Ridvan,Matondo and Sima playing is night and day.Danilo up top with pace also would add to that

I don't think any if at all people are saying sack the manager. He needs a preseason and a transfer window. 
He also needs to get players that can fucking press
 

You have to press as a unit, otherwise it's fucking pointless. Dessers takes a lot of criticism but he tries at least. He can't press himself. 
That's down to the manager though. He started that way then it faded. 

under gerrard we had pace, strength and agility that balance in the team, when we lost that balance in the team when we sold or let them walk, we never replaced them and the team started to lose those characteristics we once had, what we have now is neither, we don't have a alfie type forward who bullies and harasses defenders, we don't have a kent who had pace and agility, we don't have an aribo type player who was skillful, agility and strength and we sure as shit don't have a player like bassey who was quick and strong.
we need serious investment in the team however from when i've seen so far during the January transfers, doesn't actually fill me with confidence.

Agreed it’s been non existent lately. But I think its the way he wants to play. Managed it briefly for a spell before the players started dropping like flies with injuries and fatigue. And we don’t exactly have a squad blessed with youth and athleticism.
 

Agreed it’s been non existent lately. But I think its the way he wants to play. Managed it briefly for a spell before the players started dropping like flies with injuries and fatigue. And we don’t exactly have a squad blessed with youth and athleticism.
 

Shankland wouldn't last 3 months here.before he's public enemy number one, he's about a stone and a half over weight, he can't run and his work rate is non existent, Naismith has built that whole Hearts team round about him, but if he was here he'd be expected to put the kind of shift Dessers puts in and that's just not gonna happen, he's a poor man's Kris Boyd.
He'll be 29 at the start of next season and he's only had two 20+ goal seasons as a top flight player, I don't think he gives us anything we could genuinely use, and if we blow another £4/5m on a 29 year old then it's just more dead money.

shankland is half decent but i think a lot of people are blinded because he's a bluenose