80

It's a phrase meaning not having the sharpness and muscle memory that regular competition brings - as opposed to physical fitness, which is separate.

Could be. It's why I've held off getting too much into the will we-won't we of top 4 etc. Always believed we could get top 4, but always knew a huge amount of circumstance and luck would come into it also. There's just such a big gap between our first and second elevens, and our first eleven is having to work at maximum capacity. Like you, either way, this season has been magnificent so far, for me. Partly now I think one of our challenges will be expectation management, because it's very easy to get carried away with how well things have been going overall.

So, I won't get into the hearsay about why he didn't play tonight, but it is a pity as it was a game he would've been ripe for.

Didn't see the second half. Fuck it, let's move on. We might be grateful for this in a few months.

Optimistic we'll crush them after tonight. Early goal and I could see it being 5-0.

Exquisite. To see it finish that way...

Was very impressed with the power he generated on that header.

Definitely. To be clear, what I mean is that even if we didn't cover ourselves in glory in our debut season, I'm sure it'll be very educational for him and everyone else at the club.

I get the argument, but it's definitely wrong. No doubt it'll pose big challenges to us, though. I don't mean it ominously, but it's one thing Howe genuinely hasn't dealt with before, either.

Only 3 games played. Off the top of my head, would've gone for Pope - 3 clean sheets and won us the penalty shoot out.

He's from Coventry... As is Madison. But the way they were going on together at the world cup, I thought them both ending up at the same club seemed more likely...

Lol

I don't know about Howe, but the key to this is Dan Ashworth - he's the one ultimately responsible for how we'll be bringing on youth, and there's plenty of reason to have confidence in him.

How many own an NUFC one though and bring it to every match? Plenty but I doubt it'll be enough to make this one impressive... Hence the bloke above ordering one off Amazon this week.

Needed more notice to attempt something like this to be honest.

If we don't book it in now, we'll regret it later.

Our players desperately need a rest. I don't want to surrender this game, but the more that get a game off the better, for me.

He's worked hard to get that bad of a photo, there.

Agreed. Also, in spite of expectations, I don't think I've seen a single bit of footwork go wrong for him. I've been nervy a few times, but he's always handled things, to be fair to him.

What's nice is I feel absolutely no fear from any articles like that. Just puts a small smile on my face.

Bingo. It will actively incentivise putting the ball out of play for offensive purposes. The game would become more like American Football, with teams looking to advance the ball up the pitch X amount of yards as time-efficiently as possible, while utilising set routines to execute play resumptions and create the next stoppages. Meanwhile, defense would be about intricate, risk-minimising passing routines designed to eat up seconds and minutes - speculative breaks up the pitch would be foolish. As proven by VAR, be careful what you wish for. Football is in the business of entertainment, not fairness. That said, I'm all for referees policing unsportsmanlike conduct. I don't like the dark arts of throwing the ball away etc. But the idea we've just invented it is too ludicrous for words, we're just catching up with 25 years of Arsenal and others' cheating. It's funny their supporters have forgotten how dirty, violent and underhanded their only really dominant team in 80 years was in the 2000s.

I think first and foremost we should be thinking about the manager and setup of whichever team he goes to. Would imagine that's what Ashworth would be wanting to assess. Maybe have certain clubs that informally align to our way of doing things e.g. a Hearts or a Bristol Rovers. Will be interesting to see where we eventually place him.

I'm not saying it was the deliberate act of a perfect defender, but if Nketiah's one decent shot had been raised off the ground and away from Pope's boot, it would have gone straight into Botman's leg. I don't think it was as big a chance as initially thought.

Yeah but his set pieces were shite*. *I kid, I kid...

Steve Bruce lives locally and could steady the ship.