Lotus

People follow sport for emotional venting. It’s not meant to be an activity to encourage rational and critical thinking

If we have 25% possession, did we setup fine? We had a very very good start to the game and then fell away.

Not sure Ramsdale is a better GK than Pope.

I’m not sure it’s the formation, it’s the mentality with the ball. Other teams are much braver with the ball and rely on passing through midfield. Bournemouth in no way has better players than us but can progress the ball up the pitch in very dangerous positions better than we can. We’re good when we outrun teams. Not if we’re forced into a ‘football battle’.

Not worthy of a mention tbh. Not blaming him. He’s a passing CM put at RB. Shame Trips wasn’t available.

Did better than JL would’ve. That’s enough for now.

I know he can’t pass, shoot or dribble. Given that, he did a bit better than I expected. I wouldn’t single him out especially for today.

Have to say, our attempts to hold onto the ball for more than 5 passes is comical I have to have fun with it. We’re sooooo bad at trying to keep the ball or play out from the back.

I think I’m the opposite this season. We’re not that good and that’s that. We will lose games. Id be happier if our football was looking tidy, despite the results, but it’s kind of getting worse.

We deservedly lost. Whether it’s individuals or systemic I’ve no idea. If we can’t outrun a team we just can’t beat them. We’re not good enough at football somehow, despite some top players to outplay teams.

We must be the least press resistant team in the top 5 leagues

Never mind……

Schar not looking totally on it. Murphy’s great at crossing. Simple passes, not so much.

We’re much better when we have an underdog mentality. When we’re supposed to be the superior footballing side we’re not living up to the billing (of late).

He’s a very good player and did very well. He was our 3rd best defender. In terms of defensive actions, Thiaw and Tino had the edge. Key defensive actions are not Hall’s primary strength or point of difference he brings to our team.

There were times when both Barnes and Murphy were close to Wolt and Hall and Tino were providing the width. I’m sure we’ll see that pattern repeated going forwards. Even with different wing forwards. Hall and Tino made more of a difference to our pattern of play than I was expecting (more fool me).

Him and Thiaw are undoubtedly the future and are close enough to be the now as well. It’s fantastic to have to top Pros to come and we should use them but not overuse them. Thiaw & Botman. Let them develop into a great partnership.

Seemed to be playing centrally more against City.

He looked a threat all game. Tight technique, good decisions mostly. Required physicality.

Ran well, tackled and fouled appropriately. Still loose with the ball at times. Good to see him looking fit.

Everything we see, he can see. No doubt he’s also aware of issues/solutions we haven’t even noticed yet. We can all critique his decisions (I do, also) but he’s consistently shown he’s more than capable of adjusting the system. Bet we look a lot better (injuries permitting) in the new year.

Iirc, he has played a fair bit as an 8 in Italy but it was at LCM whereas here I think he was more on the right side. I think he’s the perfect JL replacement personally. It does mean someone else doing what he does so well at 6 though. So, bit of a problem.

Certain Eddie is working on us transitioning to a different system. We have to now as our focal point in attack has different strengths entirely. Unfortunately, we’ve also got the issue of a few key players being off form or carrying a knock/injury. So I think we’re stuck in between. We need points now but they’re hard to come by playing the same way as we did last year as Isak’s gone. Can’t evolve into a new way when key players are performing below their standards, i.e. Gordon, Bruno, Elanga, Botman, JL and Livra, Hall and Wissa have been injured. Personally I haven’t been surprised we haven’t seen much of Miley, EH just doesn’t think he’s ready (so far). If he did he’d have played instead of JL in those games JL didn’t do much in. QED tbh.

I expect us to start playing better at some point (we’re unlikely to get any worse tbh) and if Ramsey has a run of games and starts to feel confident in his contribution to the team I think we’ll see the differences he brings.

Don’t often think ‘Eddie’s gotta take the blame for this one’ blah blah. But in this case, could tell Burn was going to struggle and could immediately see JL was going to have a tough game too. Leaving Burn out there was a very very poor decision. Eddie’s is not fond of rotation. I think we can all admit this now. I honestly think this has been bad enough that the Saudi arses might start twitching a bit.