leffe186

Martinez, Dalot and De Ligt? Dalot will be fine, no?

Three back-to-back-to-back season-ending injuries in the same - critical - position. This season is bonkers. Man U are blessed.

Won’t lie, it’s utterly baffling to see this opinion on a Newcastle United forum in Spring 2025. It’s a fucking trophy. I don’t want or need “vindication”, I didn’t choose to be a Spurs fan. I want to win a fucking trophy. What on Earth are you on about? Presuming this isn’t just trolly bullshit of course.

Saka should leave Arsenal to win trophies tbh.

Ref tries to even it up by not giving the mighty O’s a stonewall pen.

If anything, the presence of Premier League clubs in the Conference League feels more problematic. Aside from West Ham winning the thing, Chelsea this year has been a bit of a joke.

It makes it fairer inasmuch as teams aren’t getting a second chance at a cup, which feels right, but it obviously reduces the quality in the Europa’s latter stages which makes the power differential between the Premier League clubs and the rest all the more stark.

Feels like Cov have only got themselves to blame if they don’t win this - they’ve wasted so much good build-up work. I think Sunderland have taken the right approach for them, as dull as it is.

Finally a game breaks out.

Want to see that offside again tbh.

So blatant dives immediately in front of the ref are fine then?

Bit disorienting switching between the two games. Cov’s camera angle from somewhere in the stratosphere, then Ayr from a guy standing on the touchline.

Still cannot get my head round how Luton managed to get themselves relegated from the Championship this year.

Urgh. Got my birthday bottle of Kriek to open too. Wonder if Partick v Ayr is any good.

Was looking forward to watching this when I get in cos the wife is away tonight. Sounds like I shouldn’t get my hopes up?

Don’t get me wrong, I think the vast majority of fans expect him to go even if he wins the Europa. Your question was how he’s still in a job though, and I think the reasons I gave are why. There’s still a chance we win the Europa - just look at how well we played in both legs against Frankfurt - and I don’t think ditching Ange at this point would help that.

I think first because the ludicrous injury list allowed some benefit of doubt, and second because we’re still in Europe. Don’t forget we were also in the semis of the League Cup.

The squad is what you’d expect for a team in transition - couple of experienced but aging players (probably not enough tbf), some younger players trying to cohere, some very young players looking to develop. The problem is that the way they’re being asked to play is just not sustainable in the Premier League. It might - might - be justifiable as part of a process of instilling a different mentality in players but as an effective strategy long-term it‘s clearly not going to work. It‘s criminally easy to exploit and the margins for success are so tight that the slightest spanner in the works makes it all come crashing down. The injuries may or may not be a direct consequence, but they have rendered the whole exercise nearly meaningless. I can barely watch us right now, as someone who played for decades in defence. There’s so much quality in the side, but they’re being asked to do stupid things.

He’s done alright. He’s a kid developing. After the Frankfurt games there were a lot of us really excited about picking up the option.

Sort of, but they did have a couple of incredible goal-line clearances and the keeper played a blinder.

What are you blibbering on about? We gave up a couple of typical goals then we’ve absolutely pissed it, just they’ve defended and kept goal brilliantly. I don’t really care what happens tonight all that much, but you’re talking nonsense.

Don’t be silly. We just haven’t scored. I’ve seen several worse performances from us alone.

One for the football pet hates though - timekeeping in extra time. Burnley wasted at least 2 minutes of it just standing around - Trafford took over a minute to take a free kick at one point. Then the ref added on 30 extra seconds.

Championship relegation is turning into an almighty scrap.

Oof. I dunno mate, they’re a really good side but those figures you quote suggest to me they actually do have a huge relative advantage at home compared to other teams. Which, y’know, seems not to need a discussion to death. They’ve won 8 away European matches from 20/21 according to those figures. The teams they beat were Valur, Celtic, Bohemians 1905, Pyunik, Besitkas, RFS, Jagiellonia Bialystok and Braga, Couple of good teams, three teams I have never heard of. In that span at home they’ve scored 5 goals three times, 6 goals twice (including against Roma) and 8 goals once. The three knockout rounds they just played involved beating Twente 5-2, Olympiakos 3-0 and Lazio 2-0 at home, while losing every one of the away legs. They’re really good and brilliantly run and managed, but home matches on Astro in the Arctic Circle are clearly a massive help.