Tsunami

Thought Burn did really well there. Looked absolutely fine to me, which surprised me.

Absolutely, as a centre forward always told, get yourself between the man and ball. From the rules: Shielding the ball, a position between an opponent and the ball if the ball is within playing distance and the opponent is not held off with the arms or body. If the ball is within playing distance, the player may be fairly charged by an opponent. Gordon wasn’t fairly challenged, he was kicked. Stonewall, both pens.

There was too much time for the ref to allow WH to take a “quick” free kick, I didn’t see the WH player ask the ref if he could take either. The ref was checking that Schar was ok when they took it. Shocking referring, once he’s stopped play like that it’s the ref who decides when play starts again, not the player.

No, was tactical and he went straight down the tunnel.

Seen loads of posts saying neither was a pen. Both were pens, both clever play by Gordon and lack of awareness from defenders. Bottom line is that Gordon was kicked both times with neither oppo challenge getting to the ball first. I can understand people arguing that Gordon just places his leg there to get kicked but, that doesn’t mean that the defender’s lack of awareness allows them to kick Gordon. Both 100% pens for me. Soft, perhaps, but Gordon doesn’t foul either time and the defender kicks the player, not the ball.

That’s a long read. Some good noises. Bobby Clark left ‘cos Bruce told Lee there was no money to give Bobby what would have been no more than a going rate contract and Liverpool jumped in. Lee told Bruce where to go and will have nowt to do him. Right falling out. I’m told Bobby would quite like to come back and is a bit homesick. Things might change given the game time he’s had and his price would be a problem given where our priorities lie.

Some questionable names in there. Clough and Kendall would my pick ahead of others and Ray Kennedy could arguably get a start. It’s almost impossible to pick a best 11/ formation. Kevin Carr in those tight black shorts is the stuff of nightmares. That’s an outrageous pick tbf, makes Wharton’s selection almost acceptable. Squad needs a cull ?. Good shout with Mortensen. There’s been some real talent that the NE let go.

Clough had an incredible scoring record, mostly in the 2nd Division. Jack Charlton freely admitted he made the most of what he had, having learned how to defend growing up with, in his own words “the best player in the world”. You don’t become a WC winner and hold the appearance record for Leeds (in their golden era) without being amongst the very best at what that position needs.

Quick observation would be playing Carrick centre half ahead of Bobby’s brother. Bit rough on his uncle Jackie as well.

Reliably informed our Adidas kit is all agreed but NDAs strictly in place. Random bit of useless information ?. Black and White is my guess, possibly in stripes.

Think it’s safe to safe it’s a bit of a transitional season and the summer will see some difficult but necessary changes. The lasses who got us to this point should be sincerely thanked for their service. Every successful team goes through this process. I think there’s some understandable comments that a fully professional outfit shouldn’t perform as poorly as they did against a semi professional # Utd. I also think that we might have brought some of this on ourselves by the award of professional contracts to all. Once you do that, no matter the salary, that’s the standard you will be judged against. Onward and upwards. The lasses must be gutted.

Didn’t see the 2nd half, can’t see I’m surprised we lost. For a professional outfit the 1st half was extremely poor. Countless 10 yard passes way off line, air kicks, no control, 1 footed players, lack of awareness and what I can only describe as “flick” shots. Other than some pace we offered nothing. I’m a little pleased we lost, what I saw was awful. These players are getting paid, full time, we should be battering every other side at that level. Quite clearly doing their best, no problem there, but it was so poor.

We’ll need half a new team next year on this showing. Very little quality, quite a bit of pace. They seem to have better patterns of play.

The Welsh commentary is great. A swath of garbled rubbish, interspersed with “English” surnames and a nutmeg. Why don’t the Welsh have proper “Welsh” surnames? Proper Julio Geordie stuff going on.

Haha, fuck you Klopp.

Sterling feeling the love.

My grasp on some of this is sketchy at best, probably simplistic and always seems to lead me to believe we’re being screwed as we are a threat to the status quo. Does liquidity not come into this at all? The American owned big clubs can spend more or less at will due to the ffp/ fmv rules, saddle clubs with debt and if they ever leave make their profit upon any sale of the club while new owners may well be pouring more debt on that club through financing the purchase? In theory our owners could pay a bond to cover “loses”, liquidity doesn’t come into at all and when the time comes they could commit to write off any or majority of debt. Clearly against ffp rules as they are but the outcome would be completely in line with protecting the club itself. We’re actively being stifled; it’s very uncomfortable for other clubs and I agree with TCD that all clubs should be allowed to spend in line with the highest spenders in the league if they can show they can afford it.

It’s so frustrating seeing how easy it was for Man C and knowing that the current elite are going around plugging all the potential avenues the likes of us and Villa may have to break through. In some ways you could argue that finishing 4th and getting to the LC Final last year might have put too much fear into the top sides and they’ve accelerated the rule changes. Not necessarily Man C but the rest of them are using every shitty stick available to fend our progress off.

Just as well ffp and fmv is there to give us a chance. Selling Bruno to City in the summer will bridge the gap a little. It’s almost pointless now.

My only solace is that I’d have missed the final - albeit that we’d have got Liverpool in the semi whereas Man C will get them in the final.

Murphy needs to fuck off mind. Danny that is.

We’ve played ok and while it was poor defending both goals were hugely lucky.

Can’t wait to see how this formation works. At least they’ve updated it to put Isak up top having had Willock there at the first attempt.

The ref has also let a good few clear fouls go unpunished.

He was clearly feeling something very specific when the physio tried flexing. I’m expecting at least a month.