leffe186

Yeah sorry, just meant the manager and the squad rebuild. Hence Emery and Arteta. Was really an excuse to make a dig at Arsenal, which should always be part of a football fan’s toolkit.

Just meant Howe was two years ahead of Ange really. Like CD says, we have had the infrastructure in place for a while.

Yeah, if it’s any consolation it’s irritating for us too. As The Fighting Cock podcast boys said, it’s like “fuck off, he’s ours, you can’t have him”. It’s faintly absurd because at its root it’s just because he’s a clever bloke who’s lived a relatively normal life. That’s apparently revolutionary. All joking aside, you can see the issues. The nice thing is that Ange was clearly pissed with how we played in the second half. He’s been lucky to pick up the reins of a squad that had just enough players with the characteristics to make his system work, plenty of youth and adaptability, a couple of genuinely top class players already there and a couple of genuinely top class players coming in. And a really nice fixture list, which makes a huge difference at this stage. It’s exciting for all kinds of reasons, not least of which is the knowledge that it should get much better when he’s had a couple of transfer windows. We obviously need some luck - there’s half a dozen positions where there’s essentially no adequate replacements. It’s so early in his tenure. But we know that. That’s why it’s funny watching other fans chiding us for thinking we’re in a title race, for being lucky, for having easy games, even for having fun FFS. Villa are a year ahead, you guys are two years ahead, Arsenal are *counts on fingers* four years ahead of us in transitioning to a new manager and set-up. And yet, here we are. It’s particularly hilarious seeing the copium from Arsenal fans. They were so excited about their rebuild, about finally stepping out of Wenger’s shadow, about finally throwing enough money at the wall that it stuck, and finally getting a world-class kid through the youth programme to build around. And finally finishing ahead of us after six years. And overnight…this. It’s probably not gonna last - we’re still building the foundations. If the luck continues though and if we get January right, then we’re so well-placed for the CL. And when we’re good, we’re very very good, which is OK for now.

Someone mentioned this the other day - it actually makes far more sense to have managers doing the analysis.

Thank you for the warning not to get carried away. I will try to rein myself in and not pretend I am in a title race.

We’re usually in Europe too. You’re probably correct. We’re mopey bottlers who only win the easy games and if you take our best player away we’re not very good. Our defence is suspect, Richarlison is piss poor and we’re going to fall to pieces after the January transfer window. We just ride our luck game after game and the wheels are inevitably going to fall off. Quite enjoyable though. Looking forward to Ange getting a couple of transfer windows and a full pre-season. Everything else is gravy.

Yeah, that’s part of it I think. It’s even more than two teams if you factor in the Black Country which is a continuous conurbation with Birmingham and brings in Walsall, West Brom and arguably Wolves. Might be a combination of geography and culture. Birmingham and the Black Country are very much a collection of towns with separate identities. It has also been significantly more multicultural than most British cities for decades, with a large population from the Indian subcontinent that has historically been separated from football somewhat. I worked near Aston and briefly shacked up in Erdington. I will always remember one of my staff talking about Villa and marvelling at how highly he thought of them. It was at the Martin O’Neill time - think maybe towards the beginning? This kid clearly thought of them as one of the rightful top two or three teams in England. He was too young for Ron Saunders - maybe he grew up with the Ron Atkinson team? I really had to bite my tongue on more than one occasion - he wasn’t alone. I mean, I do remember the Ron Saunders years but I hadn’t thought of Villa in that absolute top echelon for years and years. @brummie will be the man to ask.

Enjoying watching Celtic. They’re playing lovely football, and as a bonus you can see the Hearts players losing their rags as Celtic just knock it about. Couple of tasty old-school tackles.

Brilliant Celtic goal.

Remember at the time thinking “what?”. Presumed I’d misheard.

This is headed goals in a single season: https://www.90min.com/posts/harry-kane-equals-25-year-old-premier-league-record-southampton-draw-duncan-ferguson# Maybe it was that? Edit: Nope: https://thefootballfaithful.com/most-headed-goals-premier-league-season/

Yeah, thought that was what he said. Only here: https://khelnow.com/football/premier-league-top-10-players-most-headed-goals# And…Calvert-Lewin has 49 PL goals. No idea what he was on about.

That last goal screamed “relegation” at high volume.

Brentford goals were cracking.

You’ve not met Arsenal before, have you.

Just got in. Not seen any of the game. Sounds like the restitution has begun then?

Scratch that. Spurs lost 2-1 at Burnley in the Second Division. Delete.

Watching one of the old Big Match repeats. 1978. Gillingham v Wrexham. 0-0. I love everything about this.

Ollie Watkins does rather stand out there.

Maybe the Commander of the Star Trek Fleet can help out.

The issue with that is what other pressure do you put on? If you stand to win £500K do you offer a ref or an opposing player £250K to throw the game? I agree in principle but see why they would just ban it full stop.

Some will remember that James has already revealed he’s imperfect in a specific confession many years ago.

That’s quite a pair of consecutive posts.

I’m not sure I follow. Don’t get me wrong btw, I think this is interesting. Firstly your line-up: “If we had to play Italy in Euro's tomorrow I'd play; Pickford/Walker-Stones-Tomori-Trippier/Rice-TAA/Bellingham-Foden-Rashford/Kane” It looked like you were playing Bellingham on the right and Foden in the middle. If you’re not, and just saying keep the same top four then fair enough, although I’d be tempted to switch Foden and Rashford. You lose the cutting inside, but gain the byline and (I think) a bit of defensive stability. And then, what is it you’re asking TAA to do? It seemed like last night Rice was patrolling the back four. Bellingham was to the left a bit, up and down the pitch and often playing as a 10. Phillips was to the right a bit but mainly just harried people. It sounded like you wanted TAA as more of a DM, but then you pointed out that it didn’t work against Australia. If he’s going to be more advanced then that leaves us even more exposed on the wings.

I agree with you over Tomori. Not sure Trippier is “by far” the best LB as Shaw is fine and more natural in that position. Trippier probably still the best option with Levi Colwill an intriguing backup. My concern is in midfield. We just saw a mediocre Italy cause us all sorts of problems in the first half down our left. Replacing Phillips with TAA and moving Bellingham out to the right just exacerbates this. Trippier will get taken apart. It also remains to be seen just how good TAA would be under the opposition’s press in CM and frankly whether he himself can press or dribble in that role. Not that we shouldn’t try it in the next two games - it’s certainly an option. You’re also taking the best player out of his best position, although I definitely do see some benefit in bringing Foden inside. Maybe Bellingham would still be dangerous on the right and dovetail with Foden…but how many times did we see Bellingham bail out Rashford and/or Phillips yesterday? He can’t do that from the right, and I don’t see Foden doing as good a job - although again, it’s worth a try.