Lush Vlad

I am anyway

Longstaff is offensively bad on the ball.

Almiron is so past it. Offers fuck all. Barnes has lost his shots that automatically hit the target.

Their defender got a touch with the last ditch tackle. I think. Well, I hope

Well done Miley lad. Made up for the mistake.

Shit all round. First header we lost again, then the second ball. Weak as piss from Miley, nobody closes their player down. Then wank keeping from Dubravka.

Not sure we have won one header from the long balls forward. Just aiming it near Kelly every time.

Bond villain.

Got a whack against Arsenal and it’s why he came off. Based on what Howe was saying. Not sure there will be much interest in him. But getting to the point now where we must be looking to move him on. He can never stay fit and put a run of games together to regain his form. Such a shame. As he’s a really unique player.

Vlach must be utter garbage.

Poor old Joelinton. Always runs himself into the ground. Never gets a rest.

It has been a long while since I’ve seen a player as immobile as Tonks. You probably have to go back to when Alan Smith and Geremi played for us.

I still blame Pardew for saying he wanted him to be ‘our Essien’ or something like that. He was great at what he did. He was not an all round midfielder and his role certainly changed for the worse.

Fair assessment. I only know who that is from the angry phone and ‘he’s done it again’ memes Actually spoke a lot of sense there. Although I’m sure 2-3 more than just Gordon and Isak would get in their XI. I take his point.

Remember sunlun ‘till half time in the 5-1. Today was sunlun ‘til full time. Then they got annoyed at having to play extra time

Have I fuck I used to watch all sorts of football across Europe and play FM, watch loads of compilation videos etc. Barely even watch La Liga now. Germany is hard to get a handle on as attackers coming from that league always seem like a mixed bag. Dutch League the same. I’m like a modern day Merson now. All I could give you is someone like Mbuemo. EDIT - that said. I really like having a right footer on that side and it’s clear that Isak does too.

For that right wing role. I’d love for it to be a player that is comfortable playing striker and all. Would mean you could get a big name player, who would still get minutes a lot of the time and could cover for Isak when required. It’s like when everyone said Spurs needed a decent back up for Kane. But who wants to go there and sit on the bench every week behind a world class striker? Worked well with Son as a back up who started as a wide forward. So yeah. A prime Son type for the right hand side please

Based on fuck all. But I get the impression Maresca doesn’t suffer fools and is quite strict with everything. From the Pep coaching tree, so it would make sense. He didn’t take any prisoners when he came in and was quite brutal and ruthless with decisions and what he was saying in the press.

Brentford really don’t like cups, do they? Looks like they rotated most their team again? Not like they have Europe or they’re in any danger of getting relegated.

Peak season for Juke production mate. We’ve got a huge Nissan site needing every employee making Jukes mate. I think?

Aye. I’m distraught that they’ve signed Pepé Le Pew on loan.

Again. Luck is probably the wrong word. But I do think despite agreeing with basically everything you have said. Variance plays a massive part in such a low scoring sport and I do think the timing to play some of these games have worked massively in our favour. Of course you still have to go out and perform. We have of course built a bit of a juggernaut game to game and confidence must be through the roof because of it.

All of which I’ve referenced? I said luck was perhaps the wrong word. More timing and game state. We played a lot of those teams at ideal times. My main point was more that I keep seeing a very basic analysis like: ‘Dubravka has made us play loads better.’ ‘No. Tonali has made us better defensively.’ When there have actually been shit loads of factors to consider and it can’t be attributed to something so basic as that.

Not sure how anyone can pinpoint any one thing for this run we’ve been on. So many factors to consider. Dubs, Tonali, Bruno moving further forward, Isak getting more involved and bagging every 5 minutes, Murphy getting a goal or assist every game, Hall’s ascension and getting better every week. The way we manage the intensity and go hard early. Which has actually yielded results with early goals. We’re a different beast when in front. We weren’t managing the early goals earlier in the season. There is a while load variance involved here and hard to put it down to one player or adjustment. Game state has meant we’ve had a lead to defend and the setup suits us well. Botman coming back in has really helped the last two games when having to sit in. Also, not to diminish it. As it has been a great run and we’ve played brilliantly for the most part. Howe deserves great credit for the turnaround, along with the players. But we have to address some of the luck we have had in this run. Maybe not the right word. But we were due some after last season, anyway. It was a good time to play a lot of the teams and the fact we managed to get early’ish goals and/or the lead most the while has helped us to get back to our best: Leicester - looked like they’d never seen us play before with how they setup. Missing their starting midfield. We finally got a goal within 30 minutes. Created shit loads. Brentford - rotated the team for some reason. Early goal, second before half time. A properly professional performance. Ipswich - missing their best player in Delap and their back up striker. Played without a striker and we scored after 30 seconds. Again, their setup was suicidal against us. Villa - scored early doors again. They were coming back into it a bit before Duran’s meltdown. Played against 10 for an hour. Man U - two lads playing midfield who look like they’ve got arthritis and they were/are on a terrible run. Hit them early (there’s a theme here) and got the early goals again. Managed it well enough second half and sat off. Perhaps a bit too much and too early. Spurs - they had plenty missing and a makeshift back 4. Going through a shitty run like Man U are. Conceded first for a change. But again, we were so strong early and then just sat in. Lost control a bit. But still a solid defensive performance. Arsenal - rode our luck to a point. Again, we went hard early, got a lead and then at 2-0. Just went into full defensive mode. Let off the hook more than other games, I think. But also a bit of a defensive masterclass from crosses and set pieces.

Lock this shite now.