Steidten wasn't the Sporting Director at Leverkusen. X You got that one wrong, unfortunately. He also wasn't responsible for the decision to pick the manager at Leverkusen, nor had he the authority. The decision went via Head of Sport Simon Rolfes and the club boss, who's a Spaniard as well, Fernan...

Estuary wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 3:15 pm No I don't, and they are both in breach of FFP so lets see what the coming seasons bring. I also think your wrong re our squad, 7th would be if all our stars aligned.

Fair enough.

Did he do this job at Leverkusen? I believe he was responsible for transfers, Head of Scouting I think they called it before Sporting Director. Same job titles he had at for Bremen before them. But he may have got a "promotion" when he joined West Ham. Worth noting that it was Steidten wh...

I get the idea but thats some job he's got. All the power and none of the responsibility. The in/out threads on here could set new records of tedious finger pointing lol. True! But that's where football has been going for some time. Emery has Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo (Monchi) Eddie Howe has Dan Ashw...

mattyD wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 2:40 pm Don't want to split hairs but that's choosing a manager to fit the style rather than telling a coach how to play.

You won't need to tell the coach how to play when you hire the coach who chooses to play the way the club (or Steidten) wants. But I get your point.

By improvements what exactly do you mean? Personally I don't believe there is any realistic prospect of us improving on where we are currently without an implosion of two or more of the current top four You don't think we could do what Newcastle or Villa have done, or are doing, and qualify for the...

Not disputing the knowledge but how can a coach not be in charge of playing philosophy? Who's gonna dictate that? Bizarre. Steidten, he would bring in the players, and find a coach who can bring the best out of them. If that coach left, he'd find another that utilised the players in the same way. I...

sendô wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 12:25 pm Note also further down that article how they compare Fonseca to the England cricket team playing "Bazball", which has received a fair amount of criticism for being suicidally attacking at times.

Embrace the chaos

Not the first time, that you've got caught doctoring or shortening quotes from other users, that either fit better to your narrative or you delete their arguments, that would follow. And it's not the first time that you got reminded to stop that. Doctoring quotes? Seriously dude, who do you think y...

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/west-ham-paulo-fonseca-bazball-3001402 Fonseca said: “The essence of this team is to control the game, to keep the pressure, and to win the ball back high up the pitch, but above all, it’s about controlling the game by dominating possession. We strive to be a team ...

SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 11:22 am Is this the one hammerman2004?

Nah, it was specifically about adjusting away from taking risks.

That would imply it had gone a bit wrong at least before then. It did. We were 1-3 up. Took off our only striker for a holding midfielder, 5 minutes later it was 2-3. 5 minutes later it was 3-3. 60 seconds later we took off another midfielder for a defender. 5 minutes later it was 4-3. Then in the ...

SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 10:38 am Well one of those was in the 84th minute but ok.

Well it was still 3-3 at that point, so it didn't help.

SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 10:38 am It's a doddle quarterbacking on a Monday morning.

It's almost like we're on here to talk about football.

We were 3-1 up and stopped doing what we had been told. You've somehow got that to we are designed to play how we played once we stopped doing what we had been told to. Phillips for Antonio, and Johnson for JWP, really screams "keep playing how you are and don't drop deeper and let them build ...

SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 9:44 am The bit you must have not noticed

Also worth pointing out that the 5-0 win also came with 36% possession, and scoring 5 goals from 7 shots on target

Freiburg were bloody awful.

SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 9:44 am The bit you must have not noticed

And the sentence before it:

"From from my point of view, we overwhelmed Burnley in the second half absolutely because we played all-in.

That first half where we set up with JWP in the #10 and had an xG of 0.08.

Despite all of our problems right now, I absolutely cannot wait for Thursday. Leaving the office at 12, weather should be reasonably ok, and we're in a European quarter final. We may go out, but these are the games you look forward to. Fulham at home and Palace away, with respect to them both, can ...

For every Thilo, there's a Coufi (who's a pretty limited full back, but who's showing maximum effort week-after-week and takes nothing for granted). Coufal is a great example, I've been trying to find one of his earlier interviews with the club. He 100% talked about how he wants to get the ball dow...

“I am very happy to have moved in the winter and discovered a style of football that corresponds with my qualities,” he says. “At West Ham, there were lots of phases of play where you had to defend in a low block and it was about tempting teams in and attacking on the counter, or with set pieces, or...