timeEd32

I have a feeling we'll get some honesty from him (and maybe others) sometime between July-September that they never really recovered from the middle of the season. I think he's one of a few that are physically and mentally exhausted, but hopefully they can give one last push with less games and a bit of rotation.

Curious to see what we do up front here. Don’t love the idea of Isak starting a third game in a week after returning from injury. But Gordon also clearly needs a rest. I hope one of them sits at least. Nice to have to midfield options for a change, though I’m also hoping we don’t push Willock too far too soon.

I'm curious what this rapid decline is based on? From Feb. 1 through Dec. 6 we played 32 games (some others played 33) and these are the xGA leaders: 1) Man City 30.92 2) Newcastle. 35.78 3) Arsenal. 42.54 4) Palace 43.44 5) Liverpool. 43.50 In that stretch we conceded 36 goals, so right in line with the underlying stats. We kept 6 clean sheets (plus a 7th where we only conceded from a FK) in a stretch of 10 league games from mid-September through November. We actually greatly outperformed our xGA in the pre-WC part of last season, so we rode our luck at times. Our defense improved by many metrics after the WC break, so what it actually looks like to me is from Boxing Day 2022 through November of this season (37 games) only the treble winners were better defensively than us. After that things have obviously fallen off a cliff for which there are many factors and much debate. But what got us to this point looks more like the chart of a famous stock market crash rather than a decline over a 12 month period.

I know it wasn't the prettiest thing, but it's only the second time we've gotten to the QF in nearly 20 years and only the 9th time in almost 50 years. Can there be a tiny bit of happiness amongst the angst?

Which of these things disappointed you in the first 15 min of extra time... the 68% possession? the 7-1 shot advantage? the 4-0 corner advantage? the 11-2 touches in the box? the fact we made more passes in their half than they made in total? the 1.08 to 0.03 xG advantage? Of all the things to pick out from tonight.

Red Hot Chili Peppers before the game Sandstorm to start the second half Blackburn entirely stuck in the 90s.

December Trippier has shown up.

Gordon's gotta score there. He looks very leggy though.

You'd probably be the first in line to criticize if they played 90 min and got hurt again.

The commentators seem more sympathetic to our plight this season than some of the people on here.

Multiple likes

I'm ready for Barnes more than anyone.

For some reason I find it hilarious that Blackburn walk out to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I'd vote for that.

He only goes with Joelinton's nanny for support.

No Shearer, Sutton, Gamst Pedersen, or Roque Santa Cruz so I think we're good.

Can't complain about that, though I worry for Isak and Willock. I hope they aren't also starting on Saturday.

For comparison, this is before Everton and with Pope. If you extend it through the Forest game, the midpoint of the season, we were 6th in xGA and 1st in xG.

Thanks for everything Paul, but excellent news.

Wow, pray for Joe.

It's impossible me for to gauge what's realistic or acceptable because until it happens I'm having trouble assuming we'll have Isak, Willock, and whomever else for the rest of the season. If that happens and we get Pope back for the last couple months I'd be very confident in finishing 7th.

This is the part that keeps getting left out of some of the freak outs when we're linked with some of these players though (and I'm not saying this is you, I don't know). But there's no reason to think we're interested in expensive versions of these players. Our reaction to Onana for £60m, McTominay for £30-40m, and Phillips for a £7m loan fee + £40m buy clause may have been the same as on here - dismay and laughter. We may have wanted Onana for £40m, McTominay for £20m or less, and Phillips for a modest, no strings attached loan fee to deal with an emergency. Maybe it's still underwhelming, but those numbers also wouldn't really be worthy of panic.

Why are you potentially judging him or anyone on things that didn't happen? If we assume there's some truth to every link we've heard then many fit the same pattern of PL-based players we've signed. Pope - relegated Gordon - financial problems; falling out with club Tino - relegated; injury Barnes - relegated Hall - financial problems; surplus McTominay - frozen out (at the time) Onana - major financial problems Phillips - not playing and very available The difference with the latter three is we clearly weren't happy with the asking prices. There's probably dozens of others we've inquired about and I'd bet that many of them fall into the category of distressed or vulnerable assets.