Lush Vlad

I know it was your aim. But I read that in Scott Hanson’s voice The most American looking and sounding man in history

I don’t watch Brentford much. But Jensen always seems like a really tidy player.

Agree with both of these. Might just be Brummie on here being sound But since Emery, especially. I don’t really have any issues with them.

Spurs lucky not to be 2-3 down here. I’m sure they’ll win. But Brentford have been taking the piss out of their high line so far.

I wonder if these injuries might force Howe’s hand into playing with wide men on their ‘natural’ side and not insisting on inside forwards? We played wide from the off yesterday. But with that front three that finished the game. We managed to stretch the back 4 even more a few times. Would really help open up space against a team more likely to sit in and might see some crosses/cutbacks into the box. As opposed to the constant chopping back onto the stronger foot, then losing the momentum and space we had.

He was all over the pitch. Covered every blade of grass. I think we have to accept that he is very limited on the ball under any sort of pressure. Also that he is going to waste some promising positons with his hit and miss finishing. But he is important in games like that. He was still pressing and running his bollocks off in the 94th minute.

Against teams that play a high line and/or we are looking to play on the counter, then yeah. He is tidy with his link up play. But not sure how he would do against a team sitting deeper and getting bodies around the box. Might find out on Saturday.

Turner for Forest poor again last night. Awful for the first and seemed like he could have got a better hand to the second. Let’s hope he’s so generous when we play them.

McCoist loves football, he really does…. Not sure he ever provides much insight. But it is nice having someone so enthusiastic and joyful on co-comms. Bar the derby, he has been really pro-Newcastle and all. Poor old Burn “he needs a complimentary to get back in” Ando cooked him and all “A pie and a Bovril, please”

Brilliant again. Much more confident at coming for crosses. But still seems really hesitant coming off his line and it always makes me nervous when he has to sweep up or close a one on one. But then Pope did for different reasons. As he just came for everything and often seemed to be in no man’s land

Schar has an incredible knack of always positioning himself in the right place from a low cross. I’m sure he clears 2-3 a game when it seems really dangerous. Didn’t manage it for the goal. But that was more due to Bailey having Burn on toast. What a man. Disgrace that his song never gets an airing.

He is a good player. If a bit of a rat and a moany prick. Lucky for him that he’s good at football. As he looks like he’d have a career as a junkie if not. Henleys track suit, diamond white cider, maybe a bit of skag. Knocking about outside the local Costcutter. I can see it.

I’m claiming an assist here. At Villa Park. I have seen us lose 4-1. 1-0. 1-0 and relegated. 0-0 and all but relegated. 1-1 years ago in an awful game. Shearer and Crouch on the score sheet. Shithole of a place and always misery when I visit. Good job I wasn’t there tonight to jinx it I also had a rare football bet on Villa, -1 and -2. My football betting is that bad. That in racing terms, I would have got Shergar beat in a one horse race.

Just had that Michael Jordan clip in my head all night "...and I took that personally." It certainly feels like Howe did. After they battered us all over Villa park last season. We have since given them a hiding at SJP and then they didn't have many answers last night. Although granted, we did ride our luck a bit in that 10 minute spell around the Watkins goal. It was still a masterclass. To my very untrained eye. I don't do tactics, a bit like Bacon Bruce. There were quite a few noticeable differences to our game: Width - We seemed to play very wide and stretch their backline. Leaving plenty of gaps for runners, which we exploited all night. Left hand side - we really attacked Cash and Miley just strolled in behind time and again, with nobody bothering to track him from midfield. Usually a massive bias with attacking down the right with Longstaff doing the Miley role. Burn - he did get put in a spin cycle for 2 hours on 60 degrees when Bailey came on. But before that, he was incredible. Super aggressive and followed McGinn into that space every time. Winning it back a lot of the while, making it hard for him to turn and play out, or fouling him. Not sure he got pinged for fouling him, but he did a few times and it was clever play. Press - we were happy to go direct and get in behind with measured long balls. Turned them around a lot and then the cavalry would arrive and it was like a trigger for us to then push out. We'd often only have one player in their half, a long diagonal gets played into an area. Then we suddenly had 5 players in their half. They struggled playing out a lot of the while after this. The outball over the top of the first line to McGinn rarely worked because of the job Burn was doing. Watkins - seemed happy to follow him into the midfield and also in behind. Seemed like a concerted effort, mainly from Schar, to not try and play offside or high against him and always drop and follow his run. Got lucky with the offside, of course. But that was more to do with Miley turning it over in a shit area, from memory. Midfield - others have said it. We looked to have Miley and Longstaff much further forward and they covered shit loads of ground. Bruno seemed much more reserved and less involved in an attacking sense. But we kept more control because of it and there were only a handful of times when that dreaded 'ball into the space between defence and midfield' happened. Subs - Howe often gets criticised for not making them or being unable to change things. Tino coming on and going to a back 5 basically stopped their attacking threat. Bar a couple of times where Bailey was dribbling like a man possessed and would have beaten a prime Maldini I think their team selection helped. Konsa at right back and Bailey out wide, instead of Cash and Diaby, who were both atrocious. Would have made it a lot harder, I think. But how often when we get it right, does it get said that the other team are terrible and it's the worst they've played all season? This is another one of those games. Totally smothered them and Howe got his tactics right for basically the entire game. I just hope this is a season defining result. A lot of variables, Bruno's ban, how long Isak is out for and if Wilson, Barnes and Willock are actually close to returning. But you'd like to hope we can build on this now.

He’s so good and we spent so much on him. I feel like you’d want him starting as many games as possible. Sort of player you build a team round. But not as it stands when he’s always crocked.

He started brightly and then seemed passive as fuck and seemed to be shifted out left for a good chunk of the half. Might have been tactical, mind. Fingers crossed. But he’ll only come back and be playing without being able to fully sprint again if it is short term.

Need 2 strikers in the summer. This bloke seems to always be playing through niggles and not able to sprint 100%. Him and Wilson seem unable to play more than 5-6 games in a row without breaking down.

They’ve been passive and lazy. But fuck me. Complete away performance so far. Should have scored another and I think we’ll need 3. No way can they come out and continue to not track runners and pass the buck for another 45 minutes.

Isn't it usually some time around mid-late April? 30 something games? At least 10 more games without a yellow I love your optimism. But I just can't see it.

This is what I was just thinking. Murphy on the right and Almiron on after 60-70, perhaps. So we have some pace to get in behind with those pair, Isak and Gordon. Did feel like we didn’t commit as many bodies forward against Fulham as usual. What with the midfield struggling to protect the defence for so many games and with how slow they all are. But we were trying to go in behind with the front 3 quite often. So might be looking to do similar here against their high line.

My fenland source (not Colman’s mustard) has always said he’ll be back playing in April. So it would be great if he’s back even sooner.

I went when we lost 3-1 under Allardyce. Martins scored for us. Tugay for them and someone else scored two worldies, from memory. Shit performance, top away end.

Well obviously not for £40m. Hence why I mentioned the numbers. But people who understand it and seemed interested by it. Have regularly said about selling academy players for FFP purposes. So even if it was for say half that….. Guessing, of course. Then it would still be preferable IMO.

I have no idea how the numbers would work. But I’d much rather we sold Longstaff from the midfield and got Big Joe to sign a new contract. Especially if we are going to carry on with the same system.

That’s another Blackburn cup game I’ve forgotten then Can’t remember much of the Bruce era, mind. Other than it being thoroughly depressing