Yorkie

Jacob Murphy - who struggled for years has been (for absolutely ages now) a really dependable player for us. Someone help me up, I wasn't ready for this groundbreaking news! Fwiw Gordon and Barnes both have better numbers than him this year.

He missed a couple of simple passes and did badly with a couple of efforts, ultimately earning his performance a thumbs down, but it's a shame because I thought a lot of what he did was pretty positive. He and Hall linked well and he was trouble down their right-hand-side throughout the second half. End product was infuriatingly shite but don't agree about a lack of application or phoning it in, thought he tried hard to make things happen for us. I'm generally quite forgiving of Gordon but definitely starting to think it could be in everyone's best interests if we could find a buyer. It'll be annoying seeing him tear it up for someone else, mind.

I think we're just a bit fucked as far as the goalie department is concerned. Pope does make key saves but has a howler in him, and does have the odd one where you're like "he should do better" (his attempt at saving Paqueta's effort was worse than Ramsdale's from Dorgu, for instance). But Ramsdale is clearly no upgrade and his passing ability doesn't outweigh his so-so shot-stopping ability. It's probably the position most desperate for an upgrade imo. We could improve on Gordon for instance but if we don't sort the keeper situation out, we won't break through our ceiling.

I don't know how xG is calculated (that's not to say I don't value it as a statistic), but I assume the moment where Barnes cut it back for Gordon isn't reflected by the high figure it would've been, had it been played to Wissa instead. Miley and Gordon's are the other ones, like you say. I don't really want to go overboard and have my comments mistaken for saying we played well or that the manager deserves a reprieve for another dismal loss. I just think we're a composed finish away from us all feeling significantly better. That's worlds apart from West Ham, Brentford and Sunderland, which were all truly abominable.

I don't agree with Rod saying we were 'very good' because clearly we weren't, but this isn't true either. It was easily the best we've played against a low block (against an extremely low bar) because we worked it into the box several times and got in behind down the left wing. It's maddening because I think if we get the equaliser, I think most on here say we deserve it and it's a green shoot in terms of our away form. The Barnes cut-back for Gordon is the one. Such a dreadful decision from the lad not to just either shoot or roll it into Wissa.

Find tonight difficult to assess personally. It's another dreadful result and the performance ultimately wasn't good enough, but I think he was let down by poor finishing more than anything. Lack of goals has been our biggest problem all season (I attribute the late equalisers to that issue, for instance) but tonight we did enough to put at least one away, but couldn't. Don't think there's any fresh conclusions to draw really. We're hopeless on the road and saying we were better than we were against Sunderland is just damning with faint praise. Just another game where the evidence suggests he hasn't fixed the problem and therefore he's accountable to the continuation.

We should be performing better but losing Isak has had a monumental impact. The way it impacted the transfer window was one thing but we also didn't play with a competent striker until the fourth game of the season because of it, denying us any early momentum. We might come through this situation but there's a very good chance that the history books will show the Isak saga as the moment the curve suddenly turned downwards. How far the line falls is where you criticise/praise the club.

Ah that was our only chance then.

Because it's unreasonable on the club's part that we should be affected by losing our absolutely crucial centre-forward? Of course it was going to have a massive impact. No matter who we signed, we'd be worse off.

What about the several chances we created?

"Didn't have a clue how to attack." but, what? This is going to be conflated with me going all in defensive on the manager. I'm not. We should get a result here. But a lot of this stuff just isn't true.

We created at least three absolutely massive chances, off the top of my head (Gordon shot across the face; Barnes cut-back for Gordon when he should have shot or rolled in Wissa; Miley skying one), not to mention Murphy flashing at least two very inviting balls across in the first half. Hall hitting the bar and Joelinton's effort from the Gordon pass. We weren't good enough but I can't agree at all that we were devoid of ideas or didn't look like scoring. It's worlds away from the Sunderland game. Absolute torture, just insanely frustrating.

Calling us pathetic and devoid of ideas is totally wrong like. Unbelievably frustrating but we've done enough to force a goal, just haven't converted.

We've played well and managed to create chances against a low block. Been entirely about the final touch.

Another amazing chance goes begging. Been fuck all wrong with our build up play tbh.

Joelinton scores if it reaches him.

Can't believe that didn't end up in a goal

Gordon's effort

Woltemade was fucking terrible tonight

Getting closer

give over

Ah fuck off with that header. Please get Wissa on

Please be better, lads

Ah well we better stick to moving the chairs around on the titanic as we continue to lose then. Not saying there isn't a solution somewhere.

Probably because Woltemade isn't a midfielder and no one plays 4-4-2 any more.