Yorkie

I get where you're coming from but this is always a bit strawman imo. There's no way we can get to the 'elite level' because of the rules. Villa have got the best manager and far less of a standing start than we had, and there's no likelihood of them getting to that status either. Spurs, with all their finance and infrastructure (and benefiting from the rules) can't even achieve it either. So we should talk in terms of whether the manager is good enough to make us regular shouts for top 6/cup contention imo.

Calling for the sack would be mental. Questioning is fair enough when the team looks this ropey.

Yep. That's easily what's got me most concerned today. There were no discernible patterns and players were often miles away from each other. Then you've got our attackers going rogue with their heads down, trying to play the hero. I can't really go after anyone who might say today that we don't look like a well coached team. Incoherent is the word.

Think that's all very fair. He'd be very unfortunate to lose his job after one genuinely ropey spell (we were in the mix all last season despite some bad days). But, as you say, if we tumble down the table then it gets harder and harder to address the matter in this day and age without making a big change.

Definitely as concerned as I have been at any point in his tenure. I don't think he's been due masses of criticism up to now this season, particularly the two games prior to today where we dropped points almost exclusively because of finishing. But you'd have to be blinkered not to recognise that there are fundamental issues with our ability to collect points at the moment. We've been decent at best this season, and fleetingly so. Today was very fucking limp. Needs to shake things up because at the moment he's doing the same things and expecting different results.

I've been forgiving on account of us underperforming xG but when we're doing it every fucking game you start losing faith in our ability to score.

Pope - 4 Tino - 5 Schar - 4 Burn - 5 Hall - 6 Tonali - 5 Bruno - 7 Joelinton -6 Almiron - 6 Isak - 6 Barnes - 5

We played alright cos Chelsea and the crowd got anxious. So fucking sick of limp dick performances at Stamford Bridge. They begged us to come at us and still we couldn't force the issue. Identical to the two games there last season. Incredibly frustrating.

Incredibly ineffective and disjointed. There's mitigating circumstances for us not having a great season but there's none for having us play like strangers. I am losing faith a bit; didn't believe we'd score at any point in that second half. What a shit day.

penalty for that. Absolutely fucking laughable.

We look absolutely ragged this half, like, no denying it. Playing like strangers, every pass just hit and hope.

Good grief what a terrible goal to concede

Say it all the time but I fucking hate Chelsea. The Abramovich thing and the way they've pissed money away so recklessly since Boehly should've ruined them. Instead they're absolutely fine; will probably have at least one more trophy under their belt come June and every chance of CL qualification. Palmer is the ultimate example of throwing enough shit that some will inevitably stick. Lucky fucking cunts. A reminder of how self sabotage affects different clubs the further up the food chain they are.

Bit of a mixed bag; we haven't dealt with the combination of one of either Jackson or Palmer receiving the ball deep and building the play - they've forced a half chance out of that situation every time. Thankfully we've defended pretty well other than that. Lovely move for our goal and you sense we'll get another chance. Feels like we'll need to score again to get anything out of the game.

Was a fantastic move. One for the God awful cryarses.

Brilliant move, mind.

Well that's a massive blow. Hopeful for a PSG (a)-esque performance from Miggy.

I haven't actually seen them yet so don't have a truly informed opinion. The lad at Brighton's dad (Hinshelwood) is clearly doing a decent job though. He was manager at Worthing in the sixth tier for several years, and has brought a few players up from that division with him to York. Guy who scored the winner today, Ollie Pearce, scored 43 in 46 goals for them last season and appears to have more than stepped up to this league.

14:45

There's some shite among the range (Liverpool and Chelsea come to mind) but Nike have sorted themselves out having binned that dismal curved chest template. The Barca one is superb; colours are banging. Spurs is really sharp, Sporting's with the black is awesome and that England away kit is peng.

Fuck me that balls up from Brighton for the equaliser. Agony.

Lethal finish from Ferguson, very nice.

Unreal effort off the post too. Sold, we'll have one of him, please.

Tidy instinctive finish from Delap in that game. Looks a decent striker.