Fred really make a difference. Bruno tries too hard. And Ighalo doesn't really have much chance due to no supply.

Quite poor performance up until Fred was brought in.

Top 4? LOL. We have been playing catch up trying to keep the top 4 position possible. Not even chasing for top 4. Just chasing to keep the chance open.

With the current play styles and result that we have. Focusing on one instead of the other is the logical choice.

We are not consistent in PL. That has been proven. So why not focus on Europa?

We don't have enough good/fit players, we don't have good enough tactic, so focusing and trying to win one competition should be the aim.

This post has been edited by even_steven: Feb 21 2020, 12:02 PM

Mathematically possible for top 4 and fighting to stay in top 4 is 2 different thing. We are not in the top 4. We are struggling to keep the possibility of top 4 open.

One difference. With EL we are the master of our own result. With PL we are hoping the other team to do the job for us.

If we won all remaining EL match, we confirm champion EL.

If we won all remaining PL match, still not confirm in top 4 / top 5.

Hence why the focus should be on EL first.

This post has been edited by even_steven: Feb 21 2020, 06:12 PM

When you are planning, all possible IFs and necessary need to be taken into account. This is not a Hobby League team to take game by game, and go with the flow.

This is supposed to be a top tier team in the top flight competition. Everything is supposed to be taken into account.

Want to tamak and sapu all competition, can. But need to make sure you have a proper team and resources.

Current team like shit, faces low tier relegation battle opponent also struggle, lagi mau kejar everything possible.

Like it or not, we are not what we were and we need to at least prioritize to achieve something.

If you wanna talk about the feeling of the season ticket holder, then what about the feeling of the travelling supporter? Paid a lot of money for ticket, transportation and accommodation, only to be met with so-so performance by the team.

This is not about feeling. This is about highest probability for achievement. Top 4/5 and Europa League champion, both can provide us with ticket to Champions League next season. But among those 2 options, 1 doesn't have as much "out of control" variable compared to the other. Hence higher probability of success there. Why not try to give as much effort to that to make sure that we have higher probability in achieving something.

There is nothing wrong with squad rotation, the point was to give more emphasize on certain tournament in which we have a bigger probability of achieving success without the need of waiting for "other teams" result.

During SAF tenure, I agree that we should fight to win all games. Heck, I even expect that under LVG and Mou. But under the current situation, we need to be realistic. We have an inept manager, very thin squad, lack of quality and injury problems yet we still want to act like everything is ok and continue to fight at all front? Come on. I love this club, but I am not blind. Stop acting cocky and act like we are still among the big dogs. We are playing and performing like a mid bottom tier team. Only our current position doesn't really reflect what's happening because our rivals have issues as well.

Remember last time, when we are at the top, and almost all the mid tier team will die2 fight and try to beat us. We have to fight them hard to win, but they are easily beaten by other teams. Now we are the mid table team, and we die2 will try to beat the top 4 team but we are not performing against lower rival.

Prioritizing doesn't means you play to not win. We will try to win but we allocate more valuable resources to those match which have more importance and impact to the team achievement. Even SAF did that for matches in smaller competition. So what is wrong with prioritizing?

Don't twist my word. I said SAF also prioritize during his tenure. Not all match is an all in fight for him. And currently with Ole and the state of the team, it makes more sense to prioritize to maximize chances to CL next season. And EL is the one that I think we should have put more emphasize on since it does not need outside influence to determine if we got through or not. It is all on us, win, lose or draw.

Even Klopp does this for Liverpool. And currently he is a way better manager, have a better team than what we have and even in a far better position compared to us. Yet he still prioritize his battlefield.

I say SAF prioritize over smaller competition, you say which of EL and PL is the smaller competition. My point about SAF is he also prioritize. You said as if I am saying EL and PL is small competition. Completely ignoring the fact that SAF does prioritize. You wanna talk about Klopp like that? Was he in charge for the full 30 years tenure? And you do realize that we are currently heading the same way? 6th season without winning the PL. Heck, Klopp is going to do it in 5 season. He was only in charge for 1/6 of the 30 years, and he is going to win. And we have failed to secure the PL after the last one for 1/5 of that 30 years period. Basically, we haven't win PL longer than Liverpool after SAF retires.

Back to the original point, prioritizing =/= playing not to win. And it is true that it is Ole's job to juggle the team, but with the current situation and his track record, is it really realistic? Is it feasible to chase both competition equally, when one have much more outside influence to get to the CL than the other one? My logic dictate that is not. So if yours dictate otherwise, then lets just agree to disagree since we are not in the same logical wavelength.

This post has been edited by even_steven: Feb 23 2020, 01:55 PM

Tahi Chong die2 don't wanna pass to Ighalo.

Fake. It is an old video about someone else.

It is nice to see that most of the players in our team is playing with passion against Bruuge. You can see it in their faces that they really enjoy playing.

Bruno is really tenacious and he played part in the first 3 goals.

Ighalo really shows what our previous selection of forwards are lacking. The instinct, positioning and timing to attack the in the box, instead of just hovering outside the box, cutting inside and try to beat the defense with the ball most of the time. He open up space for Bruno and the rest each time he is inside the box.

I feel that James is just too fast for the rest of the team mates. A lot of times, he manage to get the ball for crosses but the rest of the team didn't manage to get into opportune position to receive it.

And I do really feels that Bruno really unlock Mata's potential and raises his game. These two feels like they have been playing together for a long time. Forget unlocking Pogba's potential, this is what we were supposed to have done for the past seasons. Unlocking Mata and unleashing him.

McTominay and Fred really dominates the midfield. 3 goals among them. It is good to not just rely on strikers for goals.

The defense still shaky sometimes but they manage well. Shaw keep on improving going forward but AWB is a bit quiet this game, doesn't go forward much but still does a good job defending.

And finally, we will face LASK for the next stage. This should be a good draw right?

That was just my observation from last match. I called it as i saw it. In fact, if you asked me about today's match. I will say it ours to lose with our track record.

Hopefully, Bruno's impact is permanent and sustained until the end of the season. Its kinda nice to watch the team playing well. And more importantly, playing like they really want to play instead of they are getting paid to play.

Go Bruno. Go Bruno.

DDG is just out of form. I think he need a better coach to work with him to get the consistency that we used to see from him.

Agreed. Rashford and Greenwood for our main striker. They need to learn from Ighalo the mentality of a striker though.

And Martial, stick him to the left we he really best at.