Lush Vlad

Not a bad lineup. More changes than I was expecting, mind. I won’t lie. I hope Hall is just being rested. Similar for Bruno. Starting to get a bit concerning that Botman’s minor injury is going to keep him out for about a month at least.

Can you stop calling him JoeLINGton, please @et tu brute This is like TCD with OsulU We don’t want another Chris Houghton, Dan Burns type scenario.

Joelinton didn’t have his washbag with him. It’s all smoke and mirrors

I feel like I am hating on the guy. When I’m really not, as I think he is top drawer. But based on what he has done here. I think an A grade for him is a bit mental. He’s had what, 2-3 good games when he was played as an 8? Then we switched him to the more central role, he looked quality, along with the whole team improving off the back of this, along with some other tweaks. He’s recently had some fairly iffy, well below par games (Liverpool, City, Fulham). Bournemouth to a lesser degree. So it feels like we’re saying he is one of the best in the world at his position. Based on roughly a 10-12 game stretch of him looking very good?

I still think that is as much a system thing as it is our personnel in midfield. Well, that and in a lot of other areas. We have players who are bad on the ball. We never look set up to ‘control’ a game or dominate possession. We don’t look much good at it when we do. Viva la chaos ball

B.

Why would our odds have halved in price for the League Cup all of a sudden?! Did we just beat Liverpool at Anfield or…… Sounds like utter bullshit TBH and people were quoting the wrong odds to start with. Possibly the ‘to win’ market. Which ignores extra time and penalties. Which we are around 4 or 5/1 for. Lift the trophy/win the competition is 5/2. Also. We are still around 6/1 in some places for the FA Cup. Quoting best price for both for fairness.

Erm. We are a best priced 5/2 (3.5) to win the League Cup. Best price of 8s (9.0) for the FA Cup. Not sure what you’re on about here.

Is it the other team that call it? Do you think he is losing that many or is it that teams will always turn us around now compared to before? Seems like almost every league home game bar maybe 2-3. We’re shooting towards the Gallowgate first half.

What the fuck are you waffling on about?!

I mean they’re heavy favourites for a reason. But I’d still think I’d rather a one off game at Wembley against them for a cup. As opposed to 3 games. Possibly against someone like City, Villa or Bournemouth away. Then another decent prem team in the semis and possibly the final. Edit - that’s IF we manage to get past Brighton

So did I. I thought it looked off. But then got all caught up in the emotion and went bananas Meant I then didn’t go as mad for the next two. Felt like they both could have been tight.

Personally I find this whole ‘we’ve got a better chance at winning the FA Cup’ thing really odd. I’ll be the first to disagree then. Sounds proper defeatist and we’re going on like Liverpool are Pep era Barca or something. We were unlucky at home to them in lots of ways. We’ve just been to Anfield minus our best player, best CB and a starting midfielder. Yet despite it being a crap game, played at an odd pace. We were far from disgraced. Tomorrow we have an in form (ish) Brighton side. Then if we get through, 3 more games against the likes of Bournemouth, Fulham and City. Not beat any of them this season. Villa would hardly be an easy game either. Then what about timing with all these games? Injuries, suspensions, form etc. At least the league cup final is in 2 weeks and we’ll ‘hopefully’ be something close to full strength. But yeah. Just get through tomorrow and then Preston at home would be lovely. Bournemouth v City and Villa v Forest or something like that in the quarters.

As close to full strength as possible for this I think and hope. That doesn’t mean there can’t be changes. I know we don’t have loads of quality options. But that is one of the criticisms of Howe. We don’t really rotate to keep players fresh or to match up differently week to week. Without looking and I don’t know what you’d even search. We must make close to the least changes to the team a season, unless forced due to injury or suspension. Like Frank says above. We don’t play until a week Monday. So no reason we can’t attack this with a strong XI.

Doherty you useless fuck. His pen was about a yard wide For all Johnstone’s heroics. He should have saved Tavernier’s pen and all.

TBF, he has a very punchable face and seems generally like a bit of a rat. Deserved yellow

Cunha really didn’t fancy a penalty then You wonder if the fact he is absolutely mental will put the top clubs off. That’s his third meltdown of the season, isn’t it?!

Cunha makes Joelinton look calm at times These Brazilians are crackers

I don’t think he has a position in our current system, personally. Which is why I’d love a player like him the more I think about it. Need an attacking midfielder with attributes more like his and perhaps a slight tweak to the formation at times. But like we’ve both been saying. Will have better options if he were to leave and we need RW, RCB and a GK more.

Kepa should do better, no? Still a great hit. Every time I watch Cunha. I wish he played for us.

I read semi-automated wasn’t working. So they had to go back to drawing the lines Farcical.

Sort of agree. But you’d still potentially have to face Bournemouth and/or City at some point. Both have hammered us recently. We gave Liverpool more of a game than either of those and without even playing well. Were hardly blown apart on Wednesday. Just get through any way possible like you say and then hope for Preston at home!

I might be misremembering how the game actually went. But after getting loads of stick for how negative he was v City and other big teams. Rafa when we beat them 2-1. Rondon and Ritchie stands out. For games I was at. Swansea away under Pardew I remember as a reasonably comfortable 2-0. Where they had all the ball. But we had Cisse in his ‘everything I hit goes in’ phase and we were well drilled and they didn’t create much. Despite about 75% possession. I was absolutely wankered, mind. So might be totally wrong there Recency bias. As I’ve forgotten so many, I’m sure. But the second leg v Arsenal and Spurs at home last season. I remember Keegan catching a good few out with his sort of 4-3-1-2 towards the end of his first season under Ashley. 4-1 away at Spurs standing out in my mind.

“Bring Man City on. We are mint. We are fucking class. We are massive.” Lose. “Questions need to be asked of Eddie Howe.”

Agree with the last three posters. I’d say a B. As he plays a role in our team that covers 3 positions at once. He’s very unique with his skillset and is a monster in probably at least 4-5 games a season for us. If he is just being graded as a wide player or a CM in general. Then he’d be a C.