Pata

I don’t know what they are complaining, that’s worse than a red. Stupid cunt thought he can go through Mitoma after getting the ball and missed it.

No one is turning on Miley ffs. He's doing well but he's 17 and not a starter for most PL clubs right now.

He absolutely did jockey him, can't take risks there and jump in when he has zero help from others.

I can't see what he did wrong in today's goal. With such a clear 1 vs 1 with no one to help him I'm happy when he gets the attacker to take that shot, at least when Pope is in goal.

Nah Sven, you were bullied by Solanke (Championship-level striker according to some on here ) all match and looked slower than ever before.

We'll never control games when Longstaff and Miley (for now) are both starting. Botman was way worse than Burn, Burn can't just dive in on Semenyo when he's been left alone like that. Dubravka unlucky on the first and shocking on the second. We need some players back.

That’s on Dubravka, not even in the corner.

Shocking decision to shoot from there.

He was offside? I don’t understand this tbh.

Botman needs to wake up.

Imagine if Burn was beaten for pace there like Botman was.

There's almost no situation for the attacker where getting a small contact on your leg and going down isn't the best chance to score. Needless to say how much that encourages diving. Make the box a lot smaller, take penalties from 20-25 yards away (and reintroduce blasties) or give indirect freekicks. I don't know what the best solution is but gifting 0.80xG chance for the ball being kicked to someones's hand or getting your foot ahead of the defender's leg to buy a 'foul' is ruining the game for me. Yanks have the money and parity/equality side solved, shame it's very unlikely to ever come to European football.

Maybe 5-10% (at most) of the fouls that lead to a penalty are stopping an almost certain goal. Sport that has games regularly end 0-0 or 1-1 should not have a penalty kick in the rules in its current form, makes it more about hunting hands and contacts in the box than anything else.

Probably Baggio as WC94 is the first football I remember watching and he was my favourite.

Our best player against PSG at away scores.

What a run by Immobile. Good spot by the ref too, was really confused what was going on before replays.

I didn't think it was a penalty either but 4/4 mates in a Whatsapp group said it should have been a pen with current rules. They are Man United/Liverpool fans though. VAR would've never taken it away if it was originally given.

I'm certain I read these same comments about Wilson a year ago before he scored in pretty much every game. Please give him some time, he was probably forced to a bigger role than his fitness warrants right now due to Isak's injury.

Agree, he's a really good physically strong old school CF.

Miley playing as the deepest midfielder was the main change. Trippier was playing deeper than usual and more central at times when we were in possession, side effect was that it made Almiron a total passenger and he wasn't involved at all.

Crossposting this from the top four thread as I feel it's also relevant here: Looking at this seasons expected points on Understat and we (-3.68 points) are pretty much even with Villa at fifth place, fighting for 4th place with them and Chelsea. Spurs (+11.52 points), Man United unsurprisingly (+10.00 points), West Ham (+7.81 points), Liverpool (+7.63 points) and Villa (+6.28 points) have been really lucky so far. Everton are seventh without the deduction well ahead of Brighton, Tottenham, West Ham and Man United. Looking at that data and we've been really unlucky this season on the basis that our main rivals have all been running really good and being quite lucky while we are having a tougher season even without taking into account all the injury problems. Just confirms to me that judging Howe based on this season is not fair on him and he has a clean slate to start the 24/25 season.

Yeah, Pep has basically completely got rid of fullbacks, no wonder he had a fallout with Cancelo and didn't mind seeing him leave. Walker is now one of the 3 CBs when he plays and Lewis/Stones (and if they are both missing then Akanji) are basically CMs.

Just looked and our expected goals against last season was 27 after 24 games so we had ran really good and Pope had been sensational. This season expected goals against is at 41, it's still a clear increase but doesn't look quite as bad. Looking at this seasons expected points on Understat and we (-3.68 points) are pretty much even with Villa at fifth place, fighting for 4th place with them and Chelsea. Spurs (+11.52 points), Man United unsurprisingly (+10.00 points), West Ham (+7.81 points), Liverpool (+7.63 points) and Villa (+6.28 points) have been really lucky so far. Everton are seventh without the deduction well ahead of Brighton, Tottenham, West Ham and Man United. Looking at that data and we've been really unlucky this season on the basis that our main rivals have all been running really good and being quite lucky while we are having a tougher season even without taking into account all the injury problems. Just confirms to me that judging Howe based on this season is not fair on him and he has a clean slate to start the 24/25 season.

The goal is just as much on Botman and Miley as it was on Burn and MGW's pass was inch perfect tbh. First Elanga chance would've been tough for anyone as a contested ball on midfield quickly turned into a through ball and Elanga got a head start due to his good positioning and movement. Thought he was fine yesterday overall and don't have many complaints but he seems to have a massive spotlight on him right now as some fans look for a scapegoat.

That's a staggering difference but the timing of the other injuries must play a role too. Pope sweeping long balls and through balls looks very standard and ordinary but is so important, you don't really realise it until you see a GK that allowed that chance to Awoniyi happen (or even the Elanga goal which Pope might have dealt with). He made a mess of it few times and it's often scary to watch but we badly miss that right now.