Tsunami

I just think Tuchel would prefer O’Reilly (not that I’d agree with him) at LB and will give him every chance to make the position his. I’d have Eze over Gordon though his lack of game time goes against him. I just don’t feel that Gordon has enough quality at the highest level.

My money is on Tuchel finding a way not to start Hall. Gordon is a nailed on starter at this time which really shouldn’t be the case.

Equaliser

The Mackem keeper has just had to remove the biggest crisp packet ever from her post.

There’s so little quality on either side. If we do somehow manage to go up it’ll be embarrassing without wholesale changes.

I’m not really sure what he’s done wrong other than show a bit poor form; his passing has always been a bit hit and miss. He was clearly out on his feet in the second half at Barca and clearly limping when he came off. It looked a minor knock and you could imagine he’d not be right on the Sunday but would be ok by the Thursday. If he wants to go back to Italy I could understand that and if PSR means Man U can blow us out of the water on wages you can understand him going there. We know what the underlying problem is there. Bottom line for me is really does he want to stay and is he committed? If not, learn from Isak and let’s just get it done. We have to operate better, buying and selling correctly has to be front and centre, especially with the constraints we face.

Takes one to know one eh? Stop getting personal about someone else’s reaction to another spineless, embarrassing performance to our nearest and dearest.

We don’t wave white hankies or send the Ultras round for a word when we’re not happy. Booing is our way and it’s better than singing you’re not fit to wear the shirt. It’s also better than leaving before the end, meekly conceding defeat leaving oppo fans to sing the empty seats song. I stayed and loudly booed, I’d just witnessed a largely pathetic performance on the pitch and from the sidelines. They didn’t get it, I think Eddie did but crucially he couldn’t get the players to see or feel it. Given that we also lost a few months ago at their place and felt that pain and having previously gloated by taking a group photo on their pitch when we beat them in the FA Cup (against a far inferior team) the majority of players should be completely ashamed. Not for losing but for just not competing enough. I bet they all had a nice tea and slept well.

HTF did we spend around 115M on 2 forwards in the summer only to end up with Gordon as our regular centre forward as we hurtle towards April? Well, we know how and it’s been done to death but that transfer window was a shambles. Add Elanga to that where we must have scouted him to death and failed to see his obvious limitations or chose to ignore them and we get to where we are now. Someone needs to pull a couple of rabbits out of the hat this summer and at the same time clear out some of the decks. There’s no doubt we’re reaping what we sowed. If I’d been told at the end of last season that Gordon would be the regular centre forward with Osula as first choice back up I simply wouldn’t have believed it. You could hardly make it up.

The fans had every right to boo at the end, both at the players on the pitch and the management staff. We’ve seen that same performance too many times this season, we’ve seen that opening 10 minutes of a second half repeatedly. We’ve just deservedly lost to Sunderland, again, who were without their 1st choice keeper and best defender. The replacement keeper looked dodgy but we never tested him and they had fucking O9 in for Ballard and we didn’t get at him, shocking really. I’m not having fatigue as an excuse for that today, too many players simply not up for it. We went a goal up, were well on top and we stopped playing.

The ref asked for Club Officials to come to pitch side and reported the incident to them.

Didn’t see many early leavers, people late in for the start of the 2nd half irritates me no end. Mixture of lack of bogs and people queuing up for drink and scran. The bog situation is on the club, those coming in 5 minutes late with a nuclear hot pie squeezing passed everyone really need a word with themselves.

We need a bit of a clear out of players either not good enough or who no longer see a future here. I’m still ok with Howe, he’s got a huge summer ahead. One thing that is doing my absolute napper in is the amount of goals we’re conceding just after HT; it’s like we put Prozac in the tea.

Definitely after Super Mac left “As I was walking down Worswick St who did I happen to meet? I met Super Mac, rolled him over and broke his back, go left go left, go left, right, left, go left go left go pick up a stick go left ….”

I get that and we could have gone in 3/ 4 behind, I do however think we could have tried a bit of containment first half and we’d have still been able to hit them on the counter, their back line would have been even higher. It was a great watch for the neutral in the first half, we paid a huge price second half. I can’t recall such a drop off in performance. The man for man system was exposed and we didn’t have any legs left. Absolutely agree that you can’t legislate for the poor goals we gave away.

Wonder if we could have changed it up a bit. Stay in the game 1st half, maybe go in a goal down at HT then come out 2nd half and press. Not sure how feasible that would have been but once the 4th hit the net tonight we were cooked. We were great 1st half but paid a huge price for it (accepting the absolute shocking goals we gave away).

The Premier League need to help clubs in Europe with moving fixtures. PSG and Barca had fixtures moved to help them prepare. Every little helps at this level .

Looked innocuous at the time but he proper limped off. Be surprised if he makes Sunday.

Sooooo many soft goals we’ve given away tonight. Eddie’s man to man plan blown out of the water this 2nd half, far too much for Barca to work with and once our heads dropped a bit they’ve just taken greater advantage. Hard to stomach this 2nd half performance. Final thought for the night, Yamal is a proper obnoxious cunt.

Haha, when we lost 3-1 in the rain delayed Barca match we spent the day on the lash jumped in a taxi to the ground. We were completely unaware that it had been postponed, did the taxi driver tell us, did he fuck. He took his fare and drove off, presumably laughing his head off.

Definitely a cross, he’s looking to see where the forwards are.

The clock on the screen got stuck on 94m 59s and didn’t move. Presumably to stop time until Chelsea scored.

Who buys food or drink in the ground unless it’s on an offer or you’ve got the bairn to keep quiet?

The first touches for the 1st and 3rd goals were simply beautiful.

Very soft