Yorkie

Match thread

Not that his appearance has anything to do with the negative feeling towards him or anything.

Ah bloody hell.

The knives have been out for Gordon all season for some reason and although he has put in a few disappointing performances, the extent of his poor form has been exaggerated. He's generally been doing a decent job for us, if only occasionally hitting the heights we know he can. Having watched the presser there's no misconception regarding Howe's comments; they're as written in the tweets. Maybe not the sort of thing we're used to hearing and you perhaps wonder if Gordon is a bit of a diva, but if the manager is okay with it then so am I. Are we really questioning his integrity or leadership? It's not Bobby and Dyer et al, I think he still has the dressing room, lads.

I think the decision is to withhold saying anything publicly about their obvious preference to build a new ground until certain things out of their control (i.e. land availability) is resolved. Or can't be resolved, in which case they improve SJP.

Howe has been on Humphreys' thing aye. Tbh I think he does indulge in a bit of the type of stuff we're talking about here.

We need to rotate anyway TBF. Tino coming back in moves Miley to CM and Tonali can go boil his heed for a bit.

If there's an opportunity to get someone who's happy to be a rotation option at LB then we should take it. With Targett's career seemingly finished here, that's the obvious hole that needs plugging. The big opportunity for me is in centre-midfield, with a Willock departure opening the door to recruiting someone of a different profile in that position. You wonder if there might be a bit of a shake-up in that area of the squad in the summer, so it would be good to assimilate one of the next generation now. Wingers and CFs we're all set imo; we can't reasonably expect to make a significant investment there at this time. Hopefully Osula stays and finds the fitness to return to his role of being a chaotic option off the bench. Peddle him in the summer for a good price; it's always seemed like his destiny with us.

took me by surprise, that.

If Osula goes then I don't think there'd be any harm tbh. We're not going to be making any significant investments in the CF area any time soon given the summer outlay, so unless there's another Osula-type target we can secure, we need an option at third choice.

West Ham's striker churn is absolutely barmy. Wilson seems to have settled there and provides useful experience you'd think. To jettison him in favour of two randoms seems crazy but who knows.

Reintroducing him when the team is in much better form - with both first-choice full-backs and Wissa back in the side - will be interesting.

Eddie wouldn't go near them. I doubt he would either but an approach could still be destabilising. We know how the reds operate.

I'm referring to worrying about them coming for Howe.

Hopefully they snap-up Glasner quick-sharp and I don't have to spend any time worrying.

If Barnes plays in Wissa their recent record is W1 D5 L1. They're still as naff as ever.

Yeah I said we deserved a wider scoreline. I'm not being particularly critical of Howe at all really; I think we're getting there and clearly moving in the right direction. I just think that yesterday there was a reliance, to some extent, on the brilliance of individuals and a soft opponent. Things haven't clicked yet tactically but you could say evidence points to it happening eventually. It's not all about tactics though; the team is growing in confidence and he's clearly got them incredibly motivated to get things going this season. I love that his faith in the players from the Burnley game has been rewarded with two great results. Despite some ropey league form it's clear he still has control over the situation.

Could be a huge churn in the summer with Pep going. Maybe even Arteta if they bottle it. Isn't Iraola out of contact too?

Thought he showed glimpses again today. Without seeing it back, my instinct when he lost the ball that time was that he was sold out by teammates not offering for it, and just got pincered by like three players. Other than that, he offered himself as an outball effectively and moved it forward. Recall one very slick pass through the lines to Barnes. Confident he'll get there; pity for him that Joelinton is suddenly rolling back the years.

I don't think we learned a huge amount today; I think both the good bits and the bad bits of our typical game revealed themselves in parts. Said it in the match thread but I felt the win was accountable moreso to several outstanding individual performances rather than a slick team effort. Miley the obvious shout, but Joelinton and especially Bruno dragged us to the win. The captain yet again delivering in crucial moments; I never pictured him so routinely becoming an actual match-winner for us. We were solid enough but felt we succumbed to our usual issues of failing to grasp real control, primarily by missing chances, being sloppy in possession, and displaying an absence of well-defined relationships between players in certain areas of the pitch. We're some way off having the seamless combinations between full-backs/wingers/CMs we had been 2022-24. Hopefully we'll get there though, and Wissa and Bruno certainly appear to understand each other. You hope the manager can find ways to improve relationships on the pitch without that time on the training ground. Nevertheless, I thought we always looked quite dangerous and battled really well, finally taking total control once Palace pretty much conceded the game at 2-0, when Thiaw bodied Mateta off the ball on a possible breakaway. A symbolic moment that our opponents were truly cooked. We were good value for the win and deserved a wider scoreline - but I thought we faced a very toothless opponent. Their one shot on target falling to that soft bastard Brennan Johnson was a gift; Thiaw won the physical battle with Mateta hands down; and Schär did just enough to put Hughes off for their only other real chance. Feel like Palace come here for a 0-0 every season and never get it; that's six games up here without them scoring. Pointless fucks. Leeds will be harder. Hopefully people won't revert to mind-losing if we drop a couple of points. They've already taken some off Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd, ourselves and took Man City into injury time before narrowly losing. Got to be confident, but it'll be a tough game.

Customary moment where he stood and watched an inviting ball whizz across the box, but the two moments where he held up and drew fouls/made a progressive pass were exceptional hold up play. On the basis of the last two games he's a great asset to have off the bench when leading.

Loved his performance today. Got in the way of so much and useful on the ball.

Pope - 7 Miley - 8 Thiaw - 8 Schär - 7 Hall - 5 Bruno - 8 Tonali - 5 Joelinton - 7 Murphy - 5 Wissa - 6 Gordon - 6 Barnes - 7 Ramsey - 7 Woltemade - 7 Tino - 6 Willock - lol It was a game won by several very very good individual performances rather than a great team one. We'll take it all day long.

Buzzing with that! Not a perfect performance by any means but by far the better team and easily deserved the win. Should've win by at least one more in the end; more if you count the stupid disallowed one. @Mattoon hope you loved that, mate!