Discussions about past players and managers versus current ones are always good entertainment. Bit like in politics with people nailing their colours to one or the “other” party. Futile of course because it takes a very honest, humble and confident person to see another’s point of view let alone admit they are wrong. 99% of people are not even willing to be wrong
. All part of our fragile egos and attempts at elevating ourselves as having the best football knowledge and judgement
But moving on, Moyes will be remembered as successful in his 4 year spell as he qualified for Europe and won something even if it was the 3rd tier of European competition. For that I will respect him but at the same time have to say he was found out (tactically) in the league towards the end of his 2nd season and he simply could not do anything about it. There was a little run of fortunate results after Rice left pre xmas 23/24 ( Arsenal and Spuds away prime examples of extreme good fortune ) but we’d stopped progressing and the next half of the season we regressed further. The football was awful even when we won in many games. His time was up and no shame in that but he left a depleted, aging squad thru his insistence on using only 14 players. That was the unintended ( you would hope) impact of his squad management methods.
Lopetegui does not inspire a lot of hope tbh. Think he tried to “run before he could walk” trying to implement tactics and a system he did not have all the players he needed to execute it.
I will admit the football is better to watch definitely and what he is trying to improve seems to be the right thing but our play is still literered with too many misplaced passes and unforced errors something that was also a feature of the Moyes era.
So I just watched the full replay of last night again. A player I didn’t want starting in centre mid, Alvarez was actually decent on the night surprisingly. Him and Soler and Soucek no complaints on their effort, attitude and passing etc although the lack of legs and pace in that area remains a priority to be addressed. Paqueta was dreadful though. And the only game I think he did ok in this season was in a deeper role at Newcastle. He’s a liability in advanced positions and was last night. But he will have to start next game with Soler out. Just hope its the deeper role but gawd help us.
But continuing the attempt to be positive, overall we looked more organised than we have recently, the players looked like they were playing as a team even if the execution was lacking at times. Coufal did well which was another surprise, AWB continuing to be at HOTY level and Kilman very solid. Stavros is unfortunately another weak point though. He was ok for the most part last night but just one of those players who lack the nous and decision making so always likely to concede a foul, pen, attempt the wrong pass leading to a goal in every game. Hence the free kick for their goal.
We still struggle to beat the opposition press and to many times punt forward aimlessly / wastefully or play passes that are a tad short or behind the man. In other words the crispness and accuracy of passing by a lot of our players still needs to be better even if we eventually address the weaknesses in centre mid, centre forward and to a lesser extent CB. But, we were better than in most other games this season. Is it progress? It depends if we can start doing it for more than 1 game. If so yes so Brighton on Sat ( without Soler ) will prove that. We’ve not strung 2 decent back to back games together all season so to do so would be progress without doubt. Im not confident but lets see.
In summary ( an alien concept for me ), we are “half baked”. Trying to do the right things, play with tempo, one and 2 touch to transition from defence to attack and visa versa to handle counters but lacking all the pieces of the puzzle to do it. Lopetegui? He will carry on and hopefully not oversee us sliding down closer to the relegation zone. I do not think he will effect a big enough turnaround this season to convince us he is the man to take us forward but would be delighted to be proved wrong. As I see it, the season is over and mid table mediocrity at best. Then its back to recruitment and rectifying the errors we made last summer with centre mid and forward areas as the priority.
. All part of our fragile egos and attempts at elevating ourselves as having the best football knowledge and judgement 
