clintdempsey

First of all. I love Eddie Howe and what he has done for us. But I’m getting really fed up of hearing all this “2nd fastest to 100 pts after KK”, “Fifth most points in the league since he took over” and such. It’s not doing us or him a favour. We’ve been mostly terrible away for over a year, we’ve let in a farcical amount of self inflicted goals last season and this and we couldn’t keep possession if our lives depended on it. Add to that our flat midfield which gets overrun all too easily and the fact that we’ve spent a vast sum of money since that first window without looking better for it (last season and this) and I’d say that most of the good stuff in his record is from the first 1.5 season (rough spell from the very start excluded which was to be expected).

Getting slightly tired of shipping goals for fun tbh.

Isak ffs. Pope ffs. Embarrassing to let one in from there.

Every chance to get something from this. I honestly thought we were ran ragged first 25 mins but it’s been a bit more controlled after that. They are shaky at the back (as are we) so there’s probably a few more goals in this.

Superb attacking play there. Thank fuck for that.

Unfortunately that’s not the only thing we’re bad at. This is rather rancid so far.

They’ve been smart sellers - we haven’t. They’ve utilized free transfers for actually gamechanging players (Tielemans and Kamara) - we haven’t. They adapt to different competitions and opposition - we don’t (or maybe should be can’t). Most were saying they would have a lot harder season due to Champions League and that might yet come true but so far Emery’s been having a blinder since taking over.

Performances against Everton and Brighton have been OK or better in spots. But there’s no alternate universe where 0 goals and 1 pt from those two games are anything but an utter disappointment.

Also we can’t be as injury ravaged this season as last. So it’ll be fine. And we’ve got full weeks on the training ground.

We’ve played well up until actually creating anything of note outside of the Isak fluffed chance. Gone completely quite after their goal though which is a pity. I would hardly describe it as running riot though. Brighton sitting deep and letting us ask them questions which we haven’t really been able to do so far. Their goal was a flashback to years gone by with a quick long free kick from the opposition towards a defence not fully concentrated and Pope sleeping on his line until too late. Poor defending

Piss poor from the defenders and Pope all too hesitant. Compare to Verbruggen flying out at Isak.

Fucking hell. That defending. 😫

The thing is. When the window turned out the way it did - this was the expected result in a way. We put all our eggs in the unrealistic CB basket. And most were saying “We’re not getting injuries at the same rate this year”, “Without Europe and full weeks on the training ground we’re a lot better”. Well, we’re missing both Isak and Wilson again. We’ve got a young striker who won’t get minutes for some reason. We were OK today, but it’s still 2 points lost for me. We don’t create enough clear cut chances. When we do we fluff them something rotten. Piss poor penalty from Gordon and a couple of other bad misses. Hopefully one of our strikers will be back after the break. We sure as hell need them.

Really should have 3 points here. No two ways about it.

Should be a pen.

Weird sub.

Nah. We’ll score. Hopefully they won’t though.

As little as he had to do, the things he did do were good. He release the ball quick, looked more than comfortable with his touch and passing. Even claiming a cross under a bit of pressure. I'd say there's every chance he's better than Dubs who again looked slightly nervous.

They started out as the Philadelphia Athletics back in 1901. Then moved to Kansas for a few years before moving to Oakland. There are a shitload of teams that’s been moved around in North America.

I was a Tonali shot (not even a SOT) away from a ≈800/1 win today. One day I’m going to nail one of those bad boys.

Swedish studio adamant Walker on Joelinton should have been a pen. They’re not wrong.

Great performance for the most part. Well earned by Eddie and the lads. Onwards and upwards!

Save Pope.

Longstaff.

Murphy’s been pretty good today. But his final ball has been shocking.