Shak

Just to clarify Your contention here is that if a player in possession of the ball is made contact with by an opponent, they should receive a free kick in the event that they then fall down?

I mean it depends on the scenario. Sometimes a slight bit of contact is a clear foul, yes. I'm more talking about things like when Bruno buys free kicks by just going down under slight contact from a push in the back when shielding the ball.

I'm not sure how I feel, honestly. Mitchell has made about as bad a first impression as possible. Achieved nothing in his first transfer window and hasn't seemingly done a good job at all at developing a good relationship with his manager. That said, I do think that the best way for us to grow and consistently challenge at the top is to have someone whose strengths are what Mitchell is expected bring to the table in terms of recruitment. I'm a little disappointed that Howe seems to be unwilling to adapt to the new situation, too. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes but I've been told by a few people that he's a control freak and wants to essentially be in charge of everything from a footballing perspective. He seems like a bright and driven guy, he should surely be smart enough to see that if he wants to manage at a really top club he's gonna have to make some compromises? It's unfortunate, because on paper I think they should make a cracking pair. Mitchell recruiting behind the scenes, Eddie taking the players he has and getting the best out of them on the pitch. There's still hope, but we know Eddie is very stubborn and there's been nothing at all I've seen from Mitchell that gives me any confidence at all that he's gonna bring it all together and build trust between them. There's only one way it ends, though. There's just no way PIF choose Howe over Mitchell if they can't co-exist.

That's fair. I suppose my counter would be that they should be trying to play football, not trying to buy free kicks, but that's admittedly an unrealistic hope.

Thought the ref was really good btw, didn't fall for either team's attempts to buy cheap free kicks by looking for contact and then falling over. Wish more refs would call it like that. Allows games to flow a lot more. It's a contact sport, being strong in the challenge should be part of the game, if you can't maintain your control under the slightest contact then you deserve to lose the ball to be honest. It's become too accepted a part of the game to get your body between the ball and your opponent and just fall over if there's any contact IMO.

Not looking good this. We've looked like absolute shite in every game this season (except the Spurs game maybe) until we've abandoned the game plan that we worked on all week.

Yes.

If the front six is Willock, Bruno, Joelinton, Barnes, Gordon and Isak then that's probably on paper the best front six we've put on the field in the best part of 20 years

If the midfield three is Willock, Bruno and Joelinton I really hope it's Joelinton on the right and Willock the left. Get so much more of Willock on that side. No Tonali is annoying but there's obviously something there that they're not comfortable with yet so I'll get over it. What's more encouraging is that we're gonna try a midfield three without Tonali but Longstaff not automatically getting that spot. It'll be tremendous for us moving forward if we're able to rotate among Joelinton, Willock, Tonali and Bruno as the starting three, with Longstaff essentially demoted to fifth choice.

Find that quote extremely funny for some reason

If you're gonna pretend to be Spanish, maybe don't use phrasing like this

I already have

I'm in for the football too @Yorkie

Cheers. Right I'd like three tickets together for me, @Shays Given Tim Flowers and @Beren. Gallowgate, front row and fairly central. Feels reasonable Anybody want to apply for us?

Cheers. Chances of getting tickets together on the ballot?

So yeah, seems the ballot opened already? Thought it was tomorrow Was hoping to confirm my attendance today, if so is it gonna be hard to to get tickets now?

He has both looked pretty poor this season and been given fuck all to work with in terms of service. Not everything has to be about someone being right in an argument. It's OK for you all to be wrong, sometimes.

Cracking result. Feel like as soon as we play well we'll lose

Haha get in.

Murphy surviving the triple sub

"Stay tuned for 60 minutes...."

Would like to see us go 4-2-3-1. Tonali, Almiron and Barnes on for Longstaff, Murphy and Joelinton. Gordon in the hole, Barnes left, Almiron right. Our current shape is horrendous at creating anything when teams just allow us to have the ball.

Teams have worked out that letting us have the ball is a pretty decent idea, we've got Joelinton, Murphy and Longstaff as part of our group of players trying to play football and break teams down.

Barnes not starting is arguably harder to defend. At least with Tonali he's played two games for Italy after a lengthy competitive football absence. Barnes has had two weeks off and looked quality last time. Jacob is a great lad around the club though, that's the main thing.