Lush Vlad

Palace are woeful. As we found out last week. Richarlison goes off and they suddenly have a threat down that side he was utter shite. His highlight reel was about 2 nice passes. Son is some player.

Crap game. Fully expect Spurs to win 1 or 2 nil. Despite looking poor thus far. Palace have been solid enough. But don’t look like they have goals in them.

Van De Ven is rapid and looks like he is going to develop into an elite CB. But my word. What an absolute fanny. Gone down twice like he needs stretchering off. Then he’s fine 30 seconds later. Proper embarrassing. Makes Schar look like Vinnie Jones in comparison.

She is useless as a pundit and seems like a twat and all.

Yep. If we won last night. That would have almost eliminated Dortmund. Now we have two hard aways before we are back at home. I’d fancy us to do Milan. But can’t see much from the other two games. 3rd wouldn’t be a disaster. Getting through from here is really tough. Odds against us, I’d say. Would have Dortmund slightly ahead of us in the book. Surprised to see our odds are a shade better. Albeit basically the same everywhere.

There would be some fluidity there, at least. Could see some Big Joe/Little Joe type link ups and switch ups between the two. Suddenly quite interested in seeing those two in a front three.

Wor 10’s were great today. That’s for sure.

Agree 100% about the final ball. Regularly ran it straight into defenders and just made no choice about what pass to make. Then over or under hit a good number of passes that weren’t exactly difficult. Hoping it was just the conditions and the frantic nature of the game at times. As it was frustrating as fuck to watch.

Nah. I thought they were good. Very good, even. We had a lot of players below par and missed a couple of sitters (they had good chances early on too). Isak getting injured early as well when he looked lively as fuck. Which ruined our attacking play for about an hour until Wilson got into the game. Of course some of our players not performing will be down to their tactics and also the conditions. But the amount of brain dead play from so many of our lot and complete individual, unforced errors. I’m not having that this was some genius plan for the ages from them. We just can’t carry players at this level. I’d say we’re still a bit naive and inexperienced at this level. Where the margins are even finer. Start of the season and when this group was drawn. I don’t think many would have expected much in the CL. Yet they’ve hung on for a 1-0 win and they’re getting mad praise for it. Just not seeing it, myself.

Yeah. Seen a lot of ‘they fully deserved their win’ type comments. I thought it was a really tight game, that could of gone either way. Ultimately, one bit of pure quality has settled it. On a night when it was severely lacking. I thought it was a quality away European performance from them. But some in the media, on Twitter, podcasts etc. Are going on like it was a tactical masterclass and we got beat 3 or 4.

Massive loss. It was always a risk coming into the season with two injury prone strikers. Wilson, seemingly can’t play two games a week. I think it’s common knowledge we already have to manage his minutes and training workload. Thought he looked miles off the pace last night. Isak missed loads of last season and even broke down when trying to come back from injury, I think I’m right in saying? Looked like he had a knee issue for most of this season. Then the groin injury which has flared up again after 2-3 weeks and he’s now back to being crocked. Joelinton as an emergency striker? Murphy has covered there. But I’m assuming he’ll be missing for a while. Gordon the other option. But doesn’t have the physicality to play there against most teams.

Yeah. Hard game to get brought into as a sub. But I thought Wilson looked miles off it for the most part. He is going to get burnt out fairly sharpish. As it was kind of accepted last season he can’t do two games a week. I know it’s being smart after the event and there has been some hard luck with Tonali and Barnes. But the more you look at the transfer window. The worse it gets. It might have been fine if we were in the Europa or not in Europe at all. But we have invested in two fullbacks who don’t play. As we obviously thought the deals were too good to pass on. Yet ended up basically the same (or worse due to injuries) in the final third.

I guess it was because of how up for it everyone was against PSG from the first tackle. I know the goals helped in the end. But I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect something at least similar to that. FWIW, it sounded ok on the TV at times first half. But after they scored. You only heard them and their fucking annoying drum. Save for the odd COOOOMMMMEEEE OOOONNNNN when we won a corner or something. Followed by silence 5 seconds later.

Game of few chances and one moment of brilliance won it. They scored with one of their 2-3. We didn’t. It did feel like on the night. That our lads who have been over-achieving at the level and playing beyond all expectations (Lascelles, Longstaff, Burn) were all found wanting at times in different areas of their game. On top of that, our elite level players like Bruno and Trippier were nullified and didn’t play well, either. Tough ask against a team like that to have so many below par. Whether that is due to their or our tactics, conditions, or a number of reasons. It made it hard, either way. Never really felt like we were going to score. Injuries on top are an absolute shitter. Hindsight and all that. But not getting someone in who could at least cover for Isak and Wilson, whilst usually playing wide or something. Is starting to look like a ridiculous decision. We have the same 14-15 players starting games as last season. To end on the positives. Gordon was immense. Pope was brilliant and his distribution was even improved. Schar was his usual self. Oh and after not featuring much or at all. I thought Targett and Willock were both excellent off the bench.

What was the Ray Parlour one? Said something 10-15 times in a short interview Think it was ‘obviously’. Gerrard and Rooney with erm or yanno. You’d die of alcohol poisoning.

Terzic looks like a British Family Guy character. Hell of a barnet on him.

Well aware of that. But he is still playing for an English club, under the English FA. Sounding like he will be allowed to train, anyway. Which is great news, all things considered.

Yeah, no way he won’t get any money at all. I always thought these stories about players earning X amount per week. Were usually the higher end or their possible earnings. Like there are bonuses to go on top, appearance fees, goal bonuses etc. Also, I’m sure if the English FA allowed it. He would be able to train with us. But because of precedent set with Toney. I’m guessing that isn’t an option.

Goonbags should be 1 up.

Decent turnaround from Bayern. They were outplayed first half and then I missed the second.

Yep. The famous Willock sprint, where he looks like he is jogging, yet still breezes past people for fun.

Yeah. Rumours about Maddison's wages for example would prove that (if true, of course). Would have completely blown apart our wage structure and would have put him well ahead of Bruno and Trippier. They are light years ahead in terms of spending power, salary, global brand awareness, scouting, youth setup etc etc. Still, I'm not jealous of that. We are where we are and it's the start of a journey. They've been ahead of us for years, so hardly anything new. Seemed like we weren't a million miles apart when I was growing up. Then Ashley happened

I took more offence at the Villa comparison They got money before us and have a deeper squad, I would say. So not sure how we are a year ahead of them. Might just be getting the wrong end of the stick and Leffe is just basing it on being in Europe or something.

Really? I mean they're playing nice stuff, albeit whilst also looking shaky at times. Their manager seems like a top bloke and also a very good tactician. They have a shiny new stadium and plenty of promising young players. But how you can sit here, watching what we are, with Howe at the helm, after years of shit and feel jealous of Spurs is beyond me. What an incredibly weird emotion to have when we have over-achieved massively the last two years and it doesn't appear to be slowing down.

Short memory then. They have actually looked ok on the counter and are at least trying to play it out from the back at times. Even if they are failing miserably at it