Stottie

They're unbeaten in five at home, 2-3-0. Last five away, we're 1-3-1 with the defeat at the Etihad. Form suggests a draw, so we'll have to be on it to get more. If we do manage it, the payoff is big. It will improve our post-World Cup form to a much more respectable 17 points from 11 games. 1.5 points a game from then on, that is, another 18 points from final 12 matches, would take us to 65 points, which should be a strong shout for fourth given the points everyone else are dropping. Looking at our season so far, it looks like the most important thing for us is momentum. Rather than being strong home or away, against teams at the bottom, or teams that play a certain way, we're where we are due to playing well for 10 games or so on a roll. We need to get that going again.

For someone coming on as a sub, his legs did not look very fresh. Hope he gets over whatever it is, because there's still a lot of football to be played and we'll need him.

Another dodgy one today, which was painful to see, but still an anamoly from Pope and probably the right call from the officials. Just on the Liverpool one, but earlier in the season, Liverpool scored a winner against Man City from a hoof to Salah. I think might have been the moment Pep went off Cancelo, previously one of their key players. It was him back defending as last man and Salah rolled him really easily. Pep was seen beating the ground before the ball was even in the net. Fast forward four months and Cancelo is out of the door. The Pope one was a clearance hit with a lot of spin and it was the bounce that flumoxxed him. When there are mitigating circumstances like this, its probably just take it on the chin and not dwell on it, because that will just eat into our players' self confidence.

Played well today. Well done big man.

The equation is now 21ish points from 13 games. W6 D3 L4 or even W5 D6 L2 if the wins come in the right games. Lots of issues still visible today, but ferk it, we won and that'll do for now.

Ugly win, but a great win all the same. I'll take that every week! Lots of issues, them dominating the ball second half the main one, but one quality finish and one lucky one, maybe to make up for all the chances we've recently missed, won us the game. At the back, we had one massive ferk up, but managed the rest and conceding one means scoring two wins the game.

Oh dear. What a gift. Come on lads! Have some belief!

Attacking three all doing well. Great finish from Isak, who's causing them big problems. Willock playing well too. The rest are so-so, Bruno mostly peripheral. Longstaff started well but has struggled a bit since. Pope very lucky for that incident, which was well within "seen em given" territory.

Hope the song is a prophecy. I personally would be up for Murphy on the left. I want to see ASM on the Trippier/Bruno side.

5 changes? Willock for JL7 Schar for Lascelles Isak for Wilson Murphy if true for Miggy? No ASM? Fifth change is Targett for Burn? ASM for Gordon?? Murphy playing suggests no ASM. Murphy RB and Tripper LB??? Weird but would let ASM play. Id play Pope Trippier Schar Botman Targett (if fit) Willock Bruno Longstaff ASM Isak Gordon (both wingers to swap sides at some point) If Wolves concede many from set pieces, possibly leave Lascelles in. The other CBs and Burn have been poor.

Deffo out of control.

Beat Tottenham and Brighton at SJP and it's probably still on. 65 points, or 24 points from the remaining 14 will likely be enough. Tottenham have pretty much run out of easy home games, their main source of points. Brighton's is games against the bottom six, and has similarly run out. Liverpool have lost 7 out of 13 away games. A win today would go a long way toward raising the mood and getting us back into it.

Not the only one to be struggling for form post WC. Look what's happened to England's two keepers.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/08/kyle-walker-could-face-police-action-after-exposing-himself-in-a-bar I demand a replay! Of the match that is, not Kyle Walker's ....

Brentford run on hardcore stats analysis. They're third top and just behind in Man City in top in goals per shot. Their team is designed to create high-probability goalscoring opportunities, not simply chances to shoot. Their shots per game is actually low. They've outscored us by five goals despite taking 80 fewer shots.

Our ten men were better than Man U's eleven. If anyone has a right to stop trying, its a team 2-0 down within twenty minutes with their keeper sent off. Man U were only one down at half time. Re: Man U, Barca didn't create much against them either, so I wouldn't deeply question what we managed in the final. Fair play to Liverpool for completely ripping through them. I only saw extended highlights, but does sound like Man U gave up at 3-0. Re: Liverpool, the attacking talent has always been there, and their questions lie in midfield and defence. When they play like yesterday, the suspicion is they'll outscore most teams anyway. After yesterday, perhaps its time to review the quality of their goals against us, which rivaled anything they did yesterday. Liverpool had their own collapse last week vs. Madrid, so it was a great reaction to that. So to repeat, our of our rivals loses 0-7 and the other 2-5 at home in just the past week. We're apparently in big bother despite missing three big chances at the Etihad with the score still at 0-1. Remember that when folk talk about foregone conclusions. There is still a lot of football to be played.

At Everton, there was clear pressure on him to be the main man and make things happen, like ASM under Bruce. Now he's a cog in the Howe system. This may sound bad, but is the way it should be if a manager is doing his job and not just dialing it in like Captain Steakbakes. In the Merseyside derby last year, Gordon beat his man a couple of times early doors and spent the rest of the game being fouled. Liverpool were terrified of him getting in behind. Gordon is apparently the second fastest sprinter in the league. Give him opportunities and I'm sure we'll get to see what that means.

After Botman, Gordon has our highest passing completion ratio. My impression is that Gordon is neat but kind of playing within himself and not taking risks. It's speculation, but this is what you might expect with a young player who has joined a bigger team and doesn't want to make mistakes and mess up. There's definitely more to come.

Given the manufactured controversy about our owners, a country to which the UK happily sells lots of arms, it is understandable for the club to not push the envelope on any FFP matters. There will be far more scrutiny of us than others. As for Top 4, we're doing pretty much everything but scoring. Some of this is variance but unfortunately some of it will be a lack of quality in the team that will take time to remedy. With the overhauled off-field, scouting and youth teams we now have, the rewards should come if we can be patient. I've not given up on Top 4. There is still a lot of football to be played and a lot of teams in the mix who will take points off each other. As with Leeds away last season or Fulham away this, it does feel like we need another "turning point" game to get us back on track and get some momentum going.

After the foul on Rashford for the opener last week, he dived in again this week and gave up a direct free kick in a very dangerous shooting position. That's after diving in and getting himself a straight red and ban in the previous game, the far more nervy than it should have been semi final. Bruno's a fantastic footballer we are lucky to have, our best player, but the above is not the behaviour of an elite "6". Since he's also about the only player we have exceeding his expected goals and are missing chances galore from midfield, the case for playing him at 8 just grows stronger. This is definitely something that our recruitment in the summer will have to consider.

Conceded from a deflection, were in it for most of the game, and created two or three chances that should have got us a goal. It would have been interesting had we got it back to 1-1, especially the Joelinton one. As it was, we didn't get to see if Man City did have another gear to go up into. Terrible miss by Wilson, and such a poor effort from him that does suggest something is up. Niggle, illness, mental health or something.

That's a great comment and I'll just add that the press is not just to "defend from the front". Winning the ball high created a lot of goals for us in the first half of the season. The caveat here being that most of those goals were against weaker sides, not Top 6 teams like Man City. The second goal at Spurs being the exception.

First game in weeks to not be on in the middle of the night in the Far East, so good for me!

More than anything, I think we need the ball to hit someone's arse and go in. A match like that Southampton league one where we got four (five?) off the same number of chances. Sunday was disappointing, but Man U are good. For context, in both legs, Barcelona had 1.2 xG vs. Man U, the same as us on Sunday. No-one is calling for Barcelona to reinvent their attacking play. In Isak and Gordon, we (finally) have quality attacking players who can come in. The most concerning of our recent games was Bournemouth, but it's been like that every time we play them under Howe. Maybe its a voodoo/them finding an extra 10% for Eddie thing. Time to refocus, stick Isak in for Wilson, and go again. Our first team is great but the squad is threadbare, so shocks like the Bruno red card end up having much bigger repercussions.

We can't press as hard with Maxi in and Willock out.