Shak

I think the whole “he got his money, that’s all he’ll care about” argument is nonsense, personally. He could have got fairly close to what Liverpool are paying him with a new deal here I suspect, and probably double what he gets at Liverpool if he had gone to Saudi. Pretty sure he will have thought that moving to the defending champions with better players around him that he was going to saunter in there and score 30+ for a few seasons while winning a load of trophies and then Madrid or Barca would come calling in summer 2028. It could still turn around for him, he’s clearly a talented player who’s capable of a lot better than he’s showing at the moment but the line between success and failure at the top is pretty thin sometimes. He had some patches of pretty shitty form for us too but turning it around at a club where you're adored in a team built to play to your strengths is one thing, doing it where people are openly mocking your signing and the team looks far better with your supposed understudy is another. Hope it turns increasingly sour and his struggles in his professional life seep into his personal life, needless to say.

It’s the Pickford air kick trying to will the defender to get there that makes it for me.

Even if he isn’t the long term solution, it’s better for the evolution of our team to have him in there rather than Pope as presumably if we sign someone else next summer he’ll be competent with his feet. Let our lads get used to playing with a reliable ball player back there.

As much as anything, it’s poor long term squad building to not give Ramsdale an extended look in the first team. If he does well then 25m or so for a first choice keeper is excellent business when we are very clearly going to need a permanent GK addition in the summer. If he does poorly then we know next summer that we have to go big on the position. I do have concerns that a keeper that can’t command his box well on set pieces will be exploited quite a bit in this shit new era of long throws and crowded six yard box on corners, that is my main concern over the coming weeks as he beds into the team. Even if he isn’t the answer long term, I think this season he’s unlikely to be a downgrade on Pope all things considered. The upgrade with his feet will at least make us much more enjoyable to watch in terms of how we retain possession so hopefully we stick with him as it’s just a shite watch seeing Pope just bray it aimlessly forward every time.

“You can do it Anthony, because you’re a winner. You haven’t peaked, you haven’t even begun to peak, but you’re gonna peak today. Oh you’re gonna peak all over everybody. Make it work, Anthony.”

Their first AFCON game is December 23rd, he is absolutely gonna make an appearance or two for us off the bench and then fuck off to play all three group games from the start for Congo and inevitably come back injured. It’s completely shit for us to the point that I have to admire it

Feels like a kickstarter that, cracking performance and a huge result. Two fullbacks returning is massive to the way we play. Also, Bruno played centrally as the deepest of the midfield trio and I will be very interested to see if that sticks. Makes sense, on paper. With Isak we needed a creative player in an advanced role to play passes in behind for him. With Woltemade, perhaps it’s more important to have a RCM in Sandro who has the legs to get up and support him quickly with his back to goal, with Bruno pinging passes into Nick from his deeper role. Be quite a quirk if the key to our season is yet again switching Tonali and Bruno’s positions.

If this is from next season then won’t everyone who hasn’t already done so sell their women’s team to themselves over the next few months?

That’s up there with the all time last minute winners for me. Fucking hell

God I just went fucking crazy!

16 scored from a header, seems to be very obviously offside?

Deserves pelters for this, frankly. We seem to have no ability to, and perhaps even no interest in, playing better football than teams. Joelinton staying on the pitch for 90 minutes in a game we were chasing and were just gifted the ball for the entire second half is fucking laughable.

Sels lucky there because he flapped like a donkey at that. Good technique on the hit again by Diallo.

Class volley that.

Camera just cutting to Dyche on the sideline screaming his head off

Dalot seemed not particularly switched on or even arsed there

Is Hugo Ekitike this generation’s Dean Douglas?

Just lying there asleep with his brow furrowed and fists clenched, sleeping furiously

By the rules and systems in place at the moment it’s a pretty clear penalty IMO. Issue is that the rules and systems in place at the moment are the fucking pits.

Unsticky the thread you maniacs.

You’d like to think if he was so desperate to join us he might be willing to prioritise contributing to our season during the busy Christmas period over the AFCON, when push comes to shove I suspect he’ll be off to play in it though and I can’t really blame him for that.

@Big River you appear to have broken poor Beren’s spirit.

Lovely stuff

Malo Decisiono there.

If all things were fair and balanced, Forest would have hired a better manager.