LFEE

Trying to defend him… I think he has it in his head that if he thinks he was fouled and it’s been missed VAR will go back to it. He certainly does that when fouled in the box. See for example the two West Ham penalties. It’s clear the longer a player stays down it attracts the attention of VAR. Not saying I’m a fan of it mind. Especially outside the box.

Classed as not deliberate apparently. Like @Superior Acuña says the lad is even going away from goal to collect the ball from the tackle. Just seems very harsh and not what offside to me is about.

That disallowed goal for West Ham seems very harsh.

That and the club never even think to email tickets to say there is (new) availability. Its easy to forget that everyone on here is a tiny minority of fans and mindsets. I managed to sell on behalf of the club 1 Palace ticket 4 Man City tickets. 4 Bournemouth tickets and a Leeds ticket simply by ringing friends saying it looks like some tickets have been returned etc after they had already given up and wouldn’t think to keep checking etc because they have busy lives and aren’t F5ing or in the loop regarding such things. Id still stick my neck out and say we have one of the biggest FA Cup attendances this Saturday. There’s just a lot of fans given up hope there are tickets after a ballot fail. The club could definitely do better and send out an email if not all sold after day one of general sale.

Ekitike (type forward) who cost around the same as Nick. However our bluff was called hence why I said we should’ve kept Isak. You can see the thinking with Delap and Pedro too. Whereas with big Nick I couldn’t see the logic particularly at the fee. Especially when we saw how Chris Wood ultimately faired in our system but flourished prior and after in Burnley’s and Forests. Ive not written him off either and happy to give him 18 months also. I just don’t see the simple adjustments we can make to turn him into a regular match winner. Time will tell as it always does. Hope he’s a big success.

The flaws were the ones you pointed out. Poor hold up play , not very strong on his left foot and when he had too much time to think he’d start thinking about the smart option and usually fluff the 1v1 and also thought he fatigued 70mins quite a lot. He was however great for us still. Knew very little about him when he arrived but you couldn’t be anything other than impressed by his debut. Was more the following game when you started to notice his flaws that for me never improved (Home to Bournemouth?). Again go back to the summer and I was firmly in the camp of not selling Isak for at least 12 more months. Not chasing perfection as I agree it doesn’t exist however I feel we could’ve signed a better fit and avoided all the question marks and adjustments etc IMO. As a fan I’m just sitting back and looking forward to seeing how it all pans out as I’m not sure “simple” adjustments solve the conundrum of getting him in goal scoring positions when the defenders this far have proven to be faster and more aggressive than anything he’s come up against. Probably bags a hat trick tomorrow night

Just let it all play out quietly in the background and concentrate on the team. All I will add is it wont be any bigger than 70k whatever they finally decide/have available to them.

I did say I was probably being a bit harsh but my point still stands that none of the goals he’s made out of very little and fashioned a chance or goal for himself apart from the two I mentioned. Not saying he hasn’t finished the chances well the team has presented for him. Your next point is the reality of this league and one he needs to adapt to not the team. IMO. He’s got to hold the ball up better and not be out jumped by 5ft nothing Martinez for example. This point is the one I hope I’m wrong with genuinely and it will take a few small tweaks. I also said the change of style might make us less predictable after 3yrs playing a similar way. Not that way inclined. Prefer to sense the fear defenders have when your CF has the ball and the mood change in the ground. Like I said I’m probably being a bit harsh on him and I’ve made it clear it’s an early call. That’s me though. I’ve always tried to make an assessment fairly early as a base point and will assess it as his time here progresses. Anyone can just have no opinion then jump on a sure thing after performing well regularly. See my thoughts on Isak during his time here. He left with the same flaws that he came with.

That first point just highlights my point of a player playing/suites one team and not another You are falling into the same trap as others are though. Read my posts. The team is doing well for Woltemade but not necessarily the other way round. So goals per game is irrelevant in this discussion. It’s performances and racking up bigger wins that I’m dissecting. You’ve kind of proven my point by saying Isak individually didn’t do as well yet overall the team worked better/was flying.

Two pairs of socks 🧦 and one extra T-shirt 👕 Makes all the difference. Trust me

Every goal he’s scored has been pretty much been put on a plate for him via his teammates Brighton goal aside and at a further push USG. I’ve yet to see him score a goal of his own making that we saw in his YT clips or any great assists or progressive dribbling. The closest touch being to assist was for Bruno against Spurs and even then the layoff was a little fortuitous. You say we don’t get him involved and although I do appreciate what you mean he’s also got to take some responsibility and get into the box. Late on against Palace with fresh legs he was nowhere near converting the couple of great late crosses that went across the six yard box and surely it should’ve been him not Willock with that last gasp chance. I’m possibly being too harsh on him and I’m not really blaming him for anything. He is what he is. Just like I said in the summer I didn’t think a lumbering CF would be a good idea or fit to a style we’ve been honing for 3yrs and if it wasn’t for Isak downing tools post cup final we were a team that had finally started to click properly against all levels of opposition. I really hope he proves me massively wrong and when I am I’ll always hold my hands up. I just go back to my original comment which possibly set off the debate (in the Elanga thread) that if we could get close to getting our money back and reinvest it in a forward in similar vein of Isak I’d be tempted rather than re-mould 10 other players out of a 3yr successful playing style to fit one quite unique player. Maybe I’m wrong and this direction will make us less predictable in the long run. Who knows 🤷🏼‍♂️

They’ve a lot of quick if small players all over the pitch. Type of team we usually struggle against. Expecting similar to the 0-0 from a few years ago but hoping we can Nick it.

The team has been good for him is different to him being good for the team which I think has been the case and my concern. It’s going to be fascinating watching how it plays out this next 18 months. Really want him to succeed here.

How do people come up with this kind of logic? Would love to know how they live and what decisions they make day to day in their lives. Absolutely fascinating

What was he shouting?

Wild exaggerations on the atmosphere today mind Wasn’t great but by no means much worse than other games this season. Society is changing. Some will say for the better. Those that go to gigs and footy probably say for the worse.

Night and day. Think the defence would agree also.

Where are the goals and creativity coming from for you to be so confident?

Just a processes man. Offshore Jim saw straight through him within months. Had nothing substantial to do with finding our targets. He’s grifted well TBF to him.

PSR and the pool of players to go from a top 6 team to higher when financially hamstrung and wanting to choose us over our top of the table rivals very small.

Having a knee operation so fits the bill for our defence currently

Ah well…

None of that had anything to with Ashworth though so there is that one fly in the ointment with your argument

Yet here we are halfway through the season having only lost unluckily against last season’s champions Liverpool. What’s looking like this season’s champions Arsenal who required us to lose two defenders to turn it around extremely late and Barcelona again slightly fortunately as on another night if we’d took those early two chances…

They outplayed us for decent spells in the home fixture. Could’ve been 3 up within first 5mins. Was always expecting a tough game against them as I do all teams in this league. Name an easy fixture 🤷🏼‍♂️