leffe186

Some podcast mentioned something like this was the first time we’d lost the friendly before a major championship since 1968. I’m going to take that as a good omen.

Not having that. I fucking love the Liquidator and it pisses me off no end that Chelsea have nabbed it.

Was gonna say, think he’s generally well thought of.

Only me that thinks losing that is a good omen? That was very meh. I find it hard to get too worked up about these friendlies. A decent lesson about how to (and not to) break down the low block I guess. Ramsdale hasn’t played enough football and does not inspire confidence. Stones and Guehi seemed fine but I wish one of them was a bit more commanding. Walker was Walker - good defender, great pace but he’s just not a natural attacking FB when he actually has the ball. That comes more naturally to Trippier but obviously he’s out of position on the left and was being actively targeted by fucking Iceland, which is telling. I posted somewhere else about how dangerous Kane will be when he drops in and has both Gordon and Saka to hit. I think those two on the wing give us far better balance and the sort of width on both sides you need against the low block. We never really had that tonight, although there were flashes with Saka and TAA on the right late on. Palmer made a handful of terrific runs into the space Kane left which was encouraging, but he completely vanished for their goal and defending in general, and again took far too long with the opportunities he had. Gordon wasted a couple of opportunities too but is clearly the sort of player we need on that wing. I know the low block is a pain in the arse, but it’s a given that the ways to break it down are (a) use width and (b) pass forward quickly, particularly when you have managed to draw them out. There was too little of both. Some lovely passes from Kane to Gordon (looked dangerous) and Walker ultimately came to naught. I think if it’s Saka getting those passes on the right it’s just a matter of time before we score. Last quarter we suddenly have two skilful attackers on the right and we should probably have come up with an equaliser at least. I can’t make my mind up about Mainoo. He did OK - not great, not bad. Should probably have pushed on a bit more at times, but then you’ve got the same old problem of Mainoo, Foden, Palmer and Lane all sort of operating in the same space…and the space that all those Icelandic players are operating in too. Toney covered a lot of ground but our central midfield fell apart for a while in the second half. We couldn’t get hold of and keep the ball, which was a bit pathetic against Iceland. Ho hum. Play Saka instead of Palmer, Bellingham instead of Mainoo and just pray that we’re gonna score one more than them, I guess.

I think it was a significant issue at the beginning of the move for their goal.

By having a bad defence.

Urgh.

Which was the tournament with the balloony footballs everyone hated?

Just so many injuries. They absolutely messed with his mind too, poor kid. Hope he can salvage something.

Yeah, it’s the same old problem - the balance between keeping the same kit because it’s cool and tradition etc but also needing to change it enough to justify the extortionate pricing. Our home white kit and away navy kit last year were simple and gorgeous, then there was that terrible pyjama-like third kit. I kinda like it that way though. Keep the first and second kits the same and fuck about with the third.

It’s great, isn’t it?

Yeah I broadly agree with your second guesses. I’m OK with taking Gallagher. Not sure you can take both Mainoo and Wharton. I’d definitely take Gomez over Maguire. Honestly tempted to just take two strikers and pop either Wharton or Grealish in.

I wish it was only that performance. Watkins has consistently struggled at this level and we’re running out of time.

Had to record it and just finished watching. Fuck me, what a dirty whiny bunch of cheaty cunts the Bosnians are First half was pretty dire. Can’t really judge the team defensively against that lot. Konsa is the very model of a CB playing out of position at full-back, just no forward momentum at all when it was needed. Not sure where TAA was for most of the first half. Eze looked sharp, as did Palmer at times. The quintessential Bowen England performance - as useful as a chocolate teapot until they got the right players around him in the second half. He then looked dangerous but not quite top level. I thought Gallagher was OK. Not the most challenging opposition but he covered a ton of ground and I presumed he was supposed to be doing the donkey work for TAA. Was quite impressed by his engine tbh - he was still making lung-busting runs towards the end. Quintessential TAA CM performance too - completely invisible until they pushed him further forward. We need to talk about Watkins. The drop-off from Kane is absolutely terrifying. I want to feel like it’s because we’re not playing to his strengths like Villa presumably do, but he just isn’t getting it at all. I felt sorry for him when he got blatantly fouled by that CB but (a) Kane wins a penalty there and (b) Kane also scores if he decides not to go down. What do we do? I presume Toney will start the next match, and I’m not convinced by him either but he’s shown flashes. Second half was fun in the end. On the one hand the pen was sort of soft, but on the other - fuck me, he just grabs him by the shirt and pulls him back, what the fuck else is the ref supposed to do? Kane looked sharp as fuck. Please stay fit. I rather liked Grealish, and again there was just that little hint that he and Maddison might come up with something special together. Just that Grealish and Eze might end up fighting over one spot. Maddison is clearly absolutely fucking desperate to get on the plane and tried a little too hard at times but there was some nice movement. Wharton looks fucking amazing . Gomez did great with Grealish. TAA looked far better on the right. This squad is going to be mental. Roughly 20 good to brilliant attacking midfielders, the best CF in the world, Kyle Walker and Declan Rice. And then roughly a dozen randos because you have to have a defence and somebody if Kane gets injured.

That’s more East tbh.

And shrewd, oh no wait hang on

Bit harsh, but he has had a lot of injury issues. Edit: nemtizz beat me to it.

Yeah we were supposedly very interested in Jan but backed off. Haven’t heard a dickybird since. Been suggested maybe we’re concerned about the injury issues.

When we were after him last year the message was that he wanted more guarantees of playing time and because we had Romero and no Europe that might be an issue. Then we got Dragusin in Jan and moved on. Wonder if it was more like him waiting for the contract to end and/or Chelsea to come in. What the Fulham fans say sounds right. What confuses me is what on Earth Chelsea are doing, although somebody said there’s a Maresca connection of some kind.

Yeah. I sometimes feel like I like minimalist ones as when Arsenal have the cannon on its own, then I see a coat of arms one that I like or a perfectly balanced one like Blackburn. Ultimately I think I just like them when they’re really distinctive and clearly associated with a certain club, and the shape is important. Arsenal putting the cannon in a shield lessens it for me. Same if Blackburn lost the circle round the rose. If Norwich just had the canary without the classic shield shape it wouldn’t feel right to me. Man U having the two hotdogs at top and bottom, Chelsea having a circle round the dragon etc.

Didn’t realize how much I had missed the way Waddle moves.

Weirdly, I have the words “will” and “still” engraved on the inside of my wedding ring. Didn’t realize he existed until this post.

I stand to be corrected, but we might be getting a percentage of any transfer fee IIRC.

Although the reasons are obvious, it’s still surprising that (apparently) Olympiacos are the first club outside England, Spain, Italy and Germany to win a European trophy since Porto in 2011. Guess it highlights Ajax’s decline and PSG’s failure.

I hope so. He had a blinder against us.