Pilko

I can just imagine his view on Schar, a central defender who could actually pass the ball and play. "Bloody fancy dan faffing about too much, needs to clear it, get it into touch, defend properly not lark about with the ball"

He was playing back threes with Schar on the bench, Clark and Krafth were in there ahead of him FFS

Apparently they have Rico Lewis as man of the match

I can't wait to get the Southgate era over with. Win, lose or draw its turgid, cautious shite.

That's the softest, shittest penalty ever awarded

this is a fucking terrible take mind. The Given v Pope thing has supporters on both sides of the fence but to suggest peak Shay wouldn't be able to find a place in this absolutely honking quality modern PL is lunacy.

Was looking at a record of normal time / in-game pens only tbf. His shootout record for us is definitely far superior to Shay.

Pope plays in front of a far superior defence, though. When you consider the absolute divvies Given had to share the backline with I think it brings it a lot closer. Both can't kick. Can't choose one Shot stopping pretty even, I'd go Shay but only just Pope susceptible to rush of blood running out of his goal Given susceptible to conceding long range shots Pope far better at commanding penalty area / coming for crosses Both got pretty poor pen saving records too - Pope saved only 3/29 (10.3%) in his career (one was against us - fucking Joselu ) and Shay saved 10/64 (15.6%). Appreciate this bit isn't just whilst at NUFC but Pope has an 0/3 record as we've barely conceded a pen when he's played, the knackers Shay played with gave them away virtually weekly at times. I think it's really hard to pick one for sure, I'd be really interested to see how peak Shay would do playing in Eddie's side.

I wonder if the "personal matter" might be Eddie doing that thing you can do on FM re: "set International instructions" and asking Southgate not to play him unless he needed him or maybe only for a half etc and then he goes and makes him do a 90 min stint against a pub team Wouldn't be surprised if we pulled him out on that basis.

I can think of one in the same city as them for starters who I'd say are way more deserving of it.

Every injury is fucking months as well, no such thing as a 1 or 2 game knock this season.

Those takes aren't mutually exclusive, though. His goal record is absolutely superb but he's incredibly unreliable in terms of availability, and when the other main striking option is also made of wet tissue paper you have to seriously question the situation as it doesn't feel long term tenable. I really hope Wilson can get to second behind Shearer this season and ideally put up 50 league goals for us, but we do need to look at the striking roster and consider his position come the summer.

Should never have pensioned off Big Derek Wright

I've been a fan for a while but I do think it depends on the guests they get on & they have a tendency to get people to repeat stories we've heard before. Also it gets quite noticeable that Parky basically has two questions only, 1) "I bet you had some good nights out though?" and 2) "What were he like?"

Hopefully Sky will replay that game over and over for years to come rather than Collymore closing in.

Surely goes down as an all time classic this game. Been absolutely mint.

Rodri is the new Gundo with his big game goals.

Jackson 3-3. What a game this is

What a game this is. 3-2 Haaland

Class ball there and great header from Akanji

Surprisingly entertaining game this so far.

Finally shirt pulling is actually punished

He's given a pen there I think