Lush Vlad

I posted something along these lines in the football pet hates thread. It's like this most weeks. Sometimes, a ref takes about 2 minutes to lecture a player and card them. Plus subs, goals, injuries, time wasting. Added time. 3 minutes.

Was it him trying to get the crowd going? I thought it was Mitro?

I hope you're right. But I thought Taylor was an injury doubt, heading into the game? As for the game. It is nice to actually not lose to the fuckers, for a change. Even at 1-0, I thought to myself "It's an improvement, on the usual 3-0 score line" But in all seriousness. I think we're going down. The worst part is, I actually care again. If McClaren were still here, I really wouldn't give a shit. So appointing Rafa, is a bit of a catch 22, for me.

That La Bamba chant, that we have managed to completely fuck up. Has been stuck in my head since the game

He was doing the Charlton v Boro game, the other weekend. Couldn't believe he was reffing such a high level, live on Sky.

I didn't see it, TBF. I'm not saying he is faultless. He just usually seems the best and gets a lot of the bigger games of late.

I was saying yesterday. I would be fuming with him, if I were a sunderland fan (which thankfully, I am not). They should have won that game. Yet, they kept getting deeper and deeper and basically gave up on attacking towards the end of the game. If Mitro had scored ten minutes earlier and then didn't get knocked out. I think we would have scored again and won.

For some reason, our reserves had Darren Deadman as ref a few weeks back. He's never reffed in the Prem. But he refs up to the Championship and gets fairly high level FA Cup games. I don't think anyone realised that he was a high level ref or anything. They couldn't believe he was a Football League ref, after it was pointed out after the game. Supposedly, he was terrible, really arrogant and wasn't any better or worse than your usual amateur ref. If this is the sort of level that pro refs perform to. Then it's no wonder to see so many incompetent prem officials. I think Michael Oliver is the best. But most of them seem to be really bad. Or they are half decent, but are just so insufferably arrogant, like Mike Dean and Clattenburg.

This. It works when there is space in behind for him to try the Hollywood diagonal pass. But yesterday, he was basically playing centre back and the game was never set up to suit. Since getting the armband, he has really started to graft IMO. I like him.

Who is that in response to? The last 5 posts before this, are all pretty positive?

He was good for the most part. His kicking is gradually getting worse and worse, though. It may just be because I haven't seen him play for such a long time. But it doesn't seem much better than Krul's, at the minute. I thought when he first played for us, his kicking was a lot flatter and more accurate. But we're back to lofted, sliced, aimless punts up the field. Some going straight out of play. I thought he should have done better for the goal. Borini's shit was pretty fierce. But he palmed it straight back in front of him. The defensive shit show that followed that, was not his fault, of course. But I felt like he could have tipped it over the bar.

I like him. I thought we massively overpaid for him and I never particularly rated him. But TBF, he looks a threat and he is quicker than I thought. When he kept getting isolated with van Aanholt. He had a decent amount of success. I'm not sure if they countered that in the second half, or we just went away from it. But it looked like we were going to score, because of this match up. His touch is pretty shit, mind. When he is facing away from goal, it always seems to be a bit heavy.

I was sat up the opposite end. But I thought their fans sounded pretty shit, considering their team looked much more up for it, they've won the last 6 and they were in front for about 40 minutes of the game. Only really heard about 3-4 audible chants. Kirchoff looks like a very good player and Defoe has still got it. We both could still end up going down. But if Norwich struggle, I think they'll get out of it. Boring as fuck to watch, mind. They are set up perfectly, for a team fighting relegation. But imagine having to watch that every week?! I know if they stay up, they won't care. But Allardyce football FFS

My scouse mate, who is a genuine scouser and a massive fan, not a plastic glory boy. So I actually respect his opinion. Has been spot on about Rafa, from what I have seen so far. The gist of it was: Rafa will have you scratching your head at some of his substitutions. But that they will often end up panning out - I think they nearly did at Leicester and yesterday, we were better off after the subs. That he will infuriate you, with some of his favourites, that the fans don't necessarily like - Still early days, but I guess you could argue he really likes the look of de Jong. I don't think a lot of match going fans, see it the same way. He is stubborn and he will play his way, whether the fans like it or not. There will be a lot of seemingly slow, methodical passing and possession for possession's sake - the crowd were getting restless, pretty early on, I thought. Which was a bit mental. As whenever we went direct, the ball came straight back. I thought in both of his games so far, there was a lot of sideways and backwards passing, along the back four. I don't mind that if we're trying to work an opening. But I do think we go back to Elliot, too often. This sounds like the guy was being negative, he wasn't. He absolutely loves Rafa and he wasn't pointing these things out as flaws. Just that he can split opinion. He said a lot of things. About how he'll make us much better from set pieces, more organised, more compact, better defensively etc. I like what I see so far and it looks like the scouser was right. I just hope it's not too late for any of it to matter.......

I always thought he was a bit chubby and overweight, TBH. He may be a bit too heavy and sluggish, to ever become a top player. But he certainly isn't fat Built like a brick shithouse. So happy for him to get the goal. Just a shame it wasn't the winner. I was down in the corner where he got double footed by the fan it was pretty hilarious. Sadly, he's not enough of a natural goal scorer. Unless he hits a mad run of form between now and the end of the season. I just don't see where our goals are going to come from? I don't think we'll score enough to stop up.

Today? Really? He was poor on the ball but ran up and down all day man Spot on. He's been lazy as f*** in the past. But the last two games, the effort has certainly been there. Some of our mong fans in the ground, man. "Sissoko, run for the ball. You've got to work you lazy t***." "Wijnaldum has done f*** all. Just walking around the pitch." Now neither had particularly good games. But I would guess both covered the most distance on the pitch? They ran themselves into the ground. Both very valid points from the mong fans. I'm shocked that you share the same opinion, as said mong fans.

Yeah. I thought Shelvey sat far too deep. Sunderland were just getting everyone behind the ball and organised. So Shelvey sitting next to the centre backs and looking to spray long passes, was a bit pointless. It wasn't like we were ever going to get in behind them.

When Borini ran with the ball, Colback made him look like Messi. When Borini had his back to goal, Colback made him look like Ibrahimovic. Fabio. f***ing. Borini! Colback made him look world class He is a complete waste of a shirt. Equally as s*** in midfield and at left back. Gives away so many cheap free kicks, in dangerous areas. Considering they have a team full of brutes. It didn't seem like the wisest idea. Him getting banned, was the best thing about yesterday's game.

Today? Really? He was poor on the ball but ran up and down all day man Spot on. He's been lazy as fuck in the past. But the last two games, the effort has certainly been there. Some of our mong fans in the ground, man. "Sissoko, run for the ball. You've got to work you lazy twat." "Wijnaldum has done fuck all. Just walking around the pitch." Now neither had particularly good games. But I would guess both covered the most distance on the pitch? They ran themselves into the ground.

Seeing the way he glides past people, you would think that playing him wide right, might actually suit. He has a lovely touch and turns and rolls his marker, really easily. So you'd think he'd have the attributes to play out wide. I agree with others, who were saying he'd be able to get back to what he did earlier in the season. Where he was ghosting into the box late from the flank. I didn't think he was that good yesterday. But he works his arse off, that's for sure. It's just so annoying when you see him skin 3 of their players in a flash. Then he disappears for the next 5 minutes.

Agreed. However, it was annoying that he wasted about 4-5 decent openings down the left channel. Usually he glides past players, but he seemed to keep doubting himself, or he wanted too many touches. Sissoko was just as guilty of this.

It was nice to have someone on the pitch, that actually showed for the ball and didn't seem shit scared. Unless they were totally unmarked or safe in our own half. None of our players seemed to want the ball. It was pathetic. I'm not a massive fan of de Jong. I think he's immobile and I'm not sure how we can get the best out of him? But Rafa obviously rates him and we were much better when he came on. When he was on, I thought we dominated. He does seem to try and link the play and make intelligent forward passes. Which is a massive improvement on most of our players.

A very good point. I like Lascelles. He's an absolute unit, seems to care, you often see him barking out orders and trying to organise and he still has time on his side. At this point, we know Colo and Taylor are past it and not good enough. So hopefully Lascelles can keep getting minutes and he keeps improving. I think he'll be starting next season if/when we go down. I think ideally, we'd look to get an upgrade, if we stayed up. We all know Colo will be back in the team when he's fit, though.

Scarily accurate. The bit in bold pisses me off. Especially as Elliot's kicking is so brutal. He just lofts it up in the air or slices it wide, all the while. I'm still at a 7. We did better than I expected last night. But it was similar to the Stoke game. We should have got something from the game, yet we came away with a 1-0 loss. Worrying. Disco called it right. Saw a lot of this again yesterday.

9. Still look pretty clueless going forward. I can't see us winning at Norwich and whilst it was nice to finally stop losing to the fuckers. Yesterday's result didn't help us at all. Especially as Norwich won on Saturday.