Lotus

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.

Thank god for the penalty. Felt like we could’ve played into the night and not score. Our performances seem streaky and we’ve not been playing particularly well for a while. Or at least not as well as we can. I'm not sure of the maxim, good teams put in sub standard performances and still pick up points…..I think good teams don’t put in streaks of sub standard performances tbh. We were less than the some of our parts. Not sure why. Brighton were not much good at all but we didn’t look like finding the cutting edge needed to open them up properly. Still, we’re still very much a project in progress. Hope we get CL for the budget and see if we can build some more next year.

Not sure Eddie could actually considerably improve the players touch and ball skills but I'm sure he could improve his effectiveness within games.

I don’t think he’s got a soft touch if you know what I mean. Powerful, energetic, as you said - great attitude, reads the game well and hits the ball hard. Looks like what I imagine a good German striker would look like Good fit for Villa I reckon. Apart from Isak we lack finesse in the final 3rd. Don’t think Delap would solve that on his own.

Delap looks to me like he hasn’t got that next level skill set and touch that you would expect from a striker (hopefully) playing regularly in Europe. Lots of effort and good physicality though.

Looking at that table it seems the big thing between the top 3 and the chasing pack is away wins. Away draws are similar with those above us. Home form is similar. But the away wins and losses are off. Our goal difference is way head of the chasing pack but some way behind the top 3. If was can start changing some of those away losses even into draws we’ll start opening the gap to the pack. I think catching the top is some way off but if we can firmly establish ourselves as better than Villa, Chelsea, maybe Spurs if they get a better coach then we’re in CL wonderland and the real building can begin.