After an extremely poor result and performance I'm gonna put an opinion out that I know will prove unpopular but here goes.

In England, we delude ourselves senseless that we have the best league in the world. We go on about how much harder it is in england in comparison to Spain and Germany but our top teams never compete in Europe. We constantly talk down a possession based style of play, despite the fact that the best teams in the world play with this style and produce some of the most entertaining and successful teams and players in the world.

A new manager comes to the premier league, say a Pep or Van Gaal and instantly everyone calls them out to fail because "it doesn't work in the premier league". And the minute there is a bad result, the media and the fans are on progressive type managers like a pack of wolves with the "I told you so's" "you ain't in Spain/Holland/Germany/Italy anymore pal" etc etc.

No one ever stops to see the bigger picture, everyone wants instant results and success, regardless of longevity. Regardless of building anything in the long term. Regardless of whether or not overall they could build a more successful team that actually wins consistently or continentally. It's all now now now. The consequence of this is teams like Chelsea, playing a s***ty brand of football, winning the league and then the next season not even coming close to doing anything, getting knocked out by a European giant in the champions league and sacking Conte.

This is the epitome of what I saw at Selhurst today. There has been negativity around trying a new approach from the minute it was brought up. Every time we tried to play out from the back, the crowd groaned. Every time Hennessey or Dann or Riedewald didn't hoof the ball out, the crowd groaned. Ironically, when they did then hoof it out, the crowd also groaned. I think as fans we massively underestimate the amount it undermines the team and quite frankly one game in to the season, I think it was utterly pathetic.

The reason we won't progress is because of this attitude, we cannot improve without giving it a chance. Its funny how we bang on about "OH NOT A FAN OF THIS TIPPY TAPPY NONSENSE" yet completely ignore the fact that the newly promoted side who tanked us today are a team who've worked on a progressive type system for the past year. They're no hoof ball merchants, they're patient in possession, tactically sound and they play as a team.

There were many negatives in today's performance, that goes without saying. I have my own reservations about De Boer. We looked defensively all over the place and god forbid we sustain any injuries because barring Cabaye that would've been pretty much a fully fit team we put out today. But unless we try and get better, unless we adapt to the modern game, we will stagnate and it will inevitably lead to relegation because there are only so many Big Sams and Pulises knocking about and we've used up those 2 life lines already.

I predict the media will inevitably already have De Boer as a target and it would seem the fans have already passed judgement and deemed this a failed experiment. This will probably lead to a half hearted approach to our new style at the fear of being ruined by the press and booed every time we evade Hennessey hitting and hoping for the best. I've got my tin hat firmly on for this one and I will make a speedy exit before I undoubtedly get destroyed by many on here but this is my opinion about the Premier league in general. And it's one I've had for years, I don't buy the media nonsense pushed down our throat in this country about how amazingly excellent our league is.
Watch how one of the European giants play on a big champions league night, that's the best football in the world in my opinion, not this counter attacking "let's be avin ya" 80s type s*** that is common in the premier league.

We're the Arthur over ere!

Well i for one pretty much agree with you. I can remember last season everyone complaining that we did not look comfortable on the ball, or our only option was aimless long 'hoof' balls vaguely towards Benteke.

'As ye sow, so shall you reap'.....

Edited by glazedallover (12 Aug 2017 5.22pm)

So why not play the system the team know, and feel comfortable with, until we are practically safe and then start changing the system?

'Lies to the masses as are like fly's to mollasses...they want more and more and more'

And there are plenty who wouldn't disagree with that. My point is, unless we properly give this a chance, we may as well get rid of Frank now. There is no point bringing a manager in to implement a certain style of play and then bitch and moan the minute we start playing it, which I pretty much saw early doors today at Selhurst. If we are never gonna give it a chance, what is the point in even turning up. If you can't support the team and get behind what they're trying, you're just a further hinderance to what already may be a flawed system.

We're the Arthur over ere!

It's very simple . You play the system that suites your players until you are established enough to attract and afford players that can play a different system, and then maybe become Barca or suchlike.

Unfortunately the managers that understood this only stayed with us for half a season.

You cannot just announce a new system and expect the players to be able to play it.

because it only gets you so far.. we need to progress further and to do so we need to be flexible

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World