Lotus

Freiburg are in 4th and play Frankfurt at home. They're a point above Dortmund. Freiburg have 4 wins and a draw in their last 5 matches. Dortmund to the CL is not a guarantee.

Only caught the last 20 mins of normal time and then the extra time. Coventry were absolutely in the ascendancy until the last 15 mins when they ran out of legs. Sunderland were woeful up to that point. I'm not from the NE so the rivalry means very little to me so I feel I can watch it a bit more objectively. And objectively they were rubbish until the Cov players died on their feet.

If the Dortmund fanbase got past it I'm sure ours would.

Think Felix Nmecha would be a very good fit. Good combination of physicality and technical ability. If Dortmund fail to get CL they could end up losing a few players.

Would like to see us play the ball more into the central zone between the centre circle and the opposition penalty area. Think it's zone 11 and 14 when they divvy up the pitch. Ideally it would not be Isak receiving the ball here but one of our wide forwards or one of the CMs. Bruno has the passing skills to make that work but not the pace to escape a recovering defender. JL has the power and pace to drive forward but lacks the ability to play a killer ball (his stats bear this out). I don't honestly think Gordon or Murphy can do it either. Barnes, maybe.... It's very much a position Bournemouth use to great effect. It really opens a team up. We've seen it done to us. We love going down the wings. We're very cross heavy. We're 3rd so it's clearly got lots of merit. When we occasionally go through the middle though I think Isak really comes alive.

It's our job to misinterpret and misrepresent everything you say, Froggy! You know the deal

Think Villa would be Delap’s best landing spot for his career tbh.

Does sound like you’re giving up on him too early. Tbf a couple of months ago you said he was as good as Isak and worth more because he’s younger. Being on a bad run can’t mean he’s suddenly not up to it. Patience..

The big drawback of signing for Chelsea is that they’re very likely to sign another (or possibly 2) players in your position over the next couple of years. For no other reason other than they can. They sign multiple players in a position. Far beyond rotational need. If a deal can be made, they make it regardless.

Maybe he does a lot of body weight stuff or resistance bands. Would find it hard to believe he does NO strength and conditioning, like. Fwiw, I think I remember Mike Tyson only did body weight stuff when he was in his prime. Very different genetics, obvs!!

If Burn was 5 years younger I reckon Botman could have a problem. But given Burn is getting on and the money spent on Botman I think he’d probably pencilled in as the main LCB for next season. Glad he’s got a player of Burn’s calibre to compete against.

Btw, if the plan is to give Miley 20-25 starts next year I’d definitely think he should stay. If he’s going to make 20-25 appearances from the bench for a few minutes here and there I’d think he’d be better off going on loan. Anyway, we’ll see when we see. Hope for the starts obvs.

Think he’d do a little better if we played through the middle more but we’re not set up for that. Looks a little low on confidence atm. Hopefully he terrifies Arsenal.

Burn was great but you could see the difference in actual talent when Botman looked to play progressive passes. Tough choice between the 2.

He was great.

He was totally uninvolved for ages after coming on. He just doesn’t get minutes here let alone starts. Looked like bags of potential when he first came through but now just looks off the pace all the time. Lots of people keep saying loan moves are a rubbish idea and he’ll just get better and better by training with us and barely playing. Don’t think there’s much that can compare to actual game time tbh. We’re not a team that likes rotation (non injury related) so I’m not sure how much he’ll play next season if get another CM in. Guess the club will make up their mind about that but I think getting around 30 starts at some club (could be us….) will quickly improve him and give everyone a better idea what his trajectory might be.

Iirc @The College Dropout said it was an odd signing given how little he’d played at his age.

Fair enough. Actually forgot about Longstaff - poor chap. Ideally I'd like to see Miley start and have a very positive influence on the game. I think his passing range looks great. Worried about his defensive awareness but perhaps that's come on a lot, it's been quite a while since we've seen him so you never know. If Bruno & Sandro have a cracker game I guess whoever's the 3rd player in there won't matter as much. Just need 3 points!

You think Miley will be a better bet defensively? I'm not sure I've seen that yet. I think Williock's athleticism could be a better factor in mitigating Palmer's influence. Neither of them are ideal, obvs. Didn't Eddie say before the Brighton game that Miley was more of a right-sided midfielder? Given Chelsea is such an important game I would think that would rule Miley out of the running for the LCM slot. Could move Bruno there and Miley and RCM.....Dunno, it's a tough fit.

Think he was very annoyed with Pope for (I’m guessing he didn’t) not getting a ‘man on’ call.

He’s been one of the best passers of the ball I’ve seen in the Prem. Incredible technique and vision. Defensively he’s been undone too often. Really not sure why, you’d think he’s been coached to a very high level and would understand what went wrong. Anyway, wish him all the best. Always happy to see English players going abroad and hopefully doing well.

oh do fuck off

insh’allah

Agree, I thought he was ok. One of the least of our problems (dive aside). It's a shame: a) he can't play in a 10 style role b) we're unwilling to try (possibly because of a) Him just drifting left all the time can be predictable but I guess he's trying to get himself comfortable in the side again. Hoping Chelsea give him more space to run into.

Palace we battered, they were shite. No way around it. Man U was a closer game than the score line makes out. Think they might have edged possession, shots and shot on target were about the same iirc. Don't think there was much disparity in XG either. But we were way more clinical but we certainly didn't dominate them for 90 mins like we did Palace. Surely you must remember that? I'll not include the Villa game because we were absolutely abject and I wouldn't put much stock in the Palace game because they were. We're not using the ball as well as team with Trips, Schar, Bruno, Sandro, Gordon/Barnes and Isak should be doing. There's nothing polemic about that opinion. It's not heresy the way some happy clappers (not you btw) on here treat anything less than fawning praise. Just feel we don't control the ball sometimes when we need to and we can definitely struggle if a team defends deeper because we're not particularly set up for incisive passing. We very 'down the flanks' and we seem best in transition. We're leaving Isak a bit isolated as a result and he doesn't look that useful in the box on his own surrounded by defenders. He hasn't the power or the leap to make the best out of that. It's not his optimal situation. Which is fine, he's still great in situations that suit him better. But we're not engineering them enough imho. Others may view it differently and your view I will always read as it tends to be balanced and thoughtful. Others, not so much.