vs. Leicester

[JoelfuckingGlazer]

It's obviously still a long way from being top quality, but structurally that was better. Much more balanced and controlled. Less open.

Ugarte MOTM, Amad a 2nd to that.

Tbf, it's easy days for all but our recruitment this summer looks to have been much better.

[FuB]

The only really annoying thing is that it really hasn't taken that much of a tweak to get this side actually playing much, much better than they were only a couple of weeks ago.

[Felwin]

Had it on in the background with relatives round but what I caught was fairly decent. Mazza is our player of the season so far. De Ligt looked solid. Ugarte is Fred 2.0, just a bit more physically imposing. Amad easily the most dangerous winger we have. Garna is all wonder goals, perfect super sub when you're in a bind IMO, remains to be seen whether he'll fit from next week on.

Honestly a few green shoots for Amorim, as much as we all half think it's gonna go tit's up for him aswell. Ipswich should be the perfect game to switch things up tbf, we'd have to be dogshit to lose that game, not that we're not capable of that.

[dozer]

Ugarte has to be MOTM

Was just gonna post that. Agreed. He's been key in us keeping control and never letting Leicester get on top.

I think Casemiro also helped there

They were all good but it's Bruno for me.
He's getting the goals. One was an own goal sure but it was mainly Bruno's work.

Surely that was made by Mazraoui's cross?

Yes, but we've had more of those. We've struggled to be in good positions to receive such balls and then actually score.
Bruno at least got into the position for the cross. Mctominay and Casemiro are also good at this - which is why I think Casemiro could be first choice under Amorim. I thought a lot of casemiro's issues were because he was isolated in defence because of the doughnut. Hopefully the third central defender will help us resolve this.

Unfortunately Bruno, Casemiro and McTominay are the ones who're good at sniffing out chances and receiving the dangerous passes in the box - and we've sold one of them for peanuts. Our strikers aren't good at this at all. Mctominay shouldn't start but he would have been very useful off the bench to get us some goals.

[Felwin]

The only really annoying thing is that it really hasn't taken that much of a tweak to get this side actually playing much, much better than they were only a couple of weeks ago.

Aye. Makes you realise how stubborn Ten Hag has been. Think I wrote this here the other week but I only just heard from a few Ajax fans at work recently that Hag was hated there for being stubborn and refusing to change a system that wasn't working. It was only once he did that things turned round.

[FuB]

The only really annoying thing is that it really hasn't taken that much of a tweak to get this side actually playing much, much better than they were only a couple of weeks ago.

Aye. Makes you realise how stubborn Ten Hag has been. Think I wrote this here the other week but I only just heard from a few Ajax fans at work recently that Hag was hated there for being stubborn and refusing to change a system that wasn't working. It was only once he did that things turned round.

The difference in this case as that the system hasn't really changed. It's taken a few games but suddenly the infamous doughnut wasn't there today but it's essentially the same formation and system, just more compact with players actually working with each other.

[Felwin]

The only really annoying thing is that it really hasn't taken that much of a tweak to get this side actually playing much, much better than they were only a couple of weeks ago.

Aye. Makes you realise how stubborn Ten Hag has been. Think I wrote this here the other week but I only just heard from a few Ajax fans at work recently that Hag was hated there for being stubborn and refusing to change a system that wasn't working. It was only once he did that things turned round.

The difference in this case as that the system hasn't really changed. It's taken a few games but suddenly the infamous doughnut wasn't there today but it's essentially the same formation and system, just more compact with players actually working with each other.

Ugarte + Casemiro makes a big difference. Allows Bruno to do his thing as well as protecting the defence. Dozer might actually be right that it could be the first choice pairing for Amorim. Gives Mainoo a chance to develop too rather than hanging the hopes of the club around his neck.

[dozer]

The only really annoying thing is that it really hasn't taken that much of a tweak to get this side actually playing much, much better than they were only a couple of weeks ago.

Aye. Makes you realise how stubborn Ten Hag has been. Think I wrote this here the other week but I only just heard from a few Ajax fans at work recently that Hag was hated there for being stubborn and refusing to change a system that wasn't working. It was only once he did that things turned round.

The difference in this case as that the system hasn't really changed. It's taken a few games but suddenly the infamous doughnut wasn't there today but it's essentially the same formation and system, just more compact with players actually working with each other.

Ugarte + Casemiro makes a big difference. Allows Bruno to do his thing as well as protecting the defence. Dozer might actually be right that it could be the first choice pairing for Amorim. Gives Mainoo a chance to develop too rather than hanging the hopes of the club around his neck.

If you think about it, Kobbie being picked so easily ahead of Casemiro is unacceptable from a recruitment perspective. Casemiro is a world class player so being ahead of him means he's struggling, rather than Kobbie being world class.
Ugarte too is older than Kobbie and he should be start every game for us to consider him a good signing.

If Casemiro does well in Amorim's system then Kobbie could struggle to be first choice. The bar is high for Casemiro. Him doing well means him being world class, which he can easily achieve because he's got the quality. It's a matter of whether he fits the system.

[JoelfuckingGlazer]

The tweaks under Ruud haven't been huge, which is why we haven't transformed the style of play. Rather, it's been a case of stopping the self sabotage. Mazraoui on the left and Dalot, and Ugarte next to Casemiro.

Much more balanced, more compact, harder to play through, better at winning the ball big. Not rocket science.

I want Amorim to rip it up and start again.

[Felwin]

If you think about it, Kobbie being picked so easily ahead of Casemiro is unacceptable from a recruitment perspective. Casemiro is a world class player so being ahead of him means he's struggling, rather than Kobbie being world class.
Ugarte too is older than Kobbie and he should be start every game for us to consider him a good signing.

If Casemiro does well in Amorim's system then Kobbie could struggle to be first choice. The bar is high for Casemiro. Him doing well means him being world class, which he can easily achieve because he's got the quality. It's a matter of whether he fits the system.

I think we can already call Ugarte a good signing, simply because of how busy he is. We don't have another midfielder who can do that. The stupid thing is how Hag sold Fred, then Ineos had to correct him by signing a similar player so we actually had a busy cunt in the middle of the park.

You're right about Casemiro, he can be first choice with another system around him and honestly, Kobbie should be struggling to become first choice. Too often we've handed the reins and a bumper contract to a kid. Let him duke it out and show how good he can be, if that means he has to work harder than Ugarte and/or be more effective than Casemiro, then so be it, win-win.