Forum | Is history repeating itself? by BytholWyn

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Is history repeating itself? 14:46 - Sep 11 with 3392 views

After Clement made an excellent start to his tenure at the club, up to the Burnley match, we then only managed 1 point from the next 6 games against: Hull, Bournemouth, Middlesbrough, Spurs, West Ham and Watford - a dismal return against almost entirely weak opposition. As we all know we got back on the right track against Stoke with the re-introduction of Britton, and we never looked back with the pass master back in the side.

Even though I rate Clement highly as a coach, and I'm pretty confident we'll be fine this season, it does concern me that Mesa isn't getting on the pitch and Britton wasn't even on the bench yesterday. Clement has shown that he can learn from his mistakes, so it's far too early to judge definitively, but I feel uneasy about the way he can sideline the highly rated Mesa (let's not forget how much of a coup his signature was seen as at the time) in spite of having him for two weeks solid in the international break, and yet can introduce a 20 year old rookie from the start with only two days training with the squad.

Looking at that midfield on Saturday we have a number of decent passers of the ball - but not a single one that you could describe as an excellent passer. This goes a long way to explaining why we were ponderous and our tempo was so slow. This is exactly the rut we got into in the aforementioned run of matches last season under Clement. Cork started so well - but inevitably his inferior distribution eventually started to show. What this did, as it did on Saturday, is it brought us down to the level of our opponents. Newcastle were without Mbemba and Mitrovic, and Benitez wasn't on the bench, and their line-up looked (and still looks) very mediocre. And yet they matched us at the very least.

Against teams like Newcastle we need to put out a side that excels at passing and looks to completely dominate possession, and also looks to work the ball up the pitch through swift, one-touch football. Leaving out Mesa and Britton isn't going to help us achieve that. I hope Clement re-learns that lesson sooner rather than later.

Is history repeating itself? on 14:56 - Sep 11 with 3353 views

A_Fans_Dad

Yes History is repeating itself, but it goes back further than PC's start.
It goes back to Guidolin, like PC he came in late in the season and saved the club.
Like PC he started the season losing his top players and players away at Internationals.
Like PC his replacements came in late, weren't Match Fit and/or not up to Prem Speed.
But he has compounded the error by not playing Mesa for those reasons and playing an even less experienced Sanches.
He admitted it was a gamble to try and create a "spark" and it failed miserably.
The team once again missed Leon.