Lush Vlad

Much better. Looked a lot sharper with his passing and pressing. Was attacking the box like the Willock from a couple of seasons ago. Still has the fastest jog in world football. Seems like once a game he gets that chance 1 on 1 to jog with it for 70 yards past someone

Hard to take too much of that game literally. As Chelsea really weren’t that arsed about this. But we were still playing against a talented, ridiculously expensive XI. We made a few changes and were without plenty of our first team ourselves. All whilst in the middle of a rough patch. Deployed the press to perfection first half and could have been 3 up after half an hour. Rode our luck a touch second half. But bar the penalty shout and Felix getting through. There wasn’t really many scary moments where it felt like they’d score. I’d look for a similar front 3 on Saturday, I reckon. But it does mean you need Joelinton interchanging with Willock, who was much improved BTW. Just not sure he gets in ahead of Longstaff based on tonight and previous games.

Outstanding tonight. Kelly, Krafth and Big Joe the only ones better, I thought. The goal did not look offside either? Only had the one angle and whoever nodded it back, was it Schar? Didn’t look off.

Back to beast mode playing 3 positions. It’s what he does best.

100%. I said as much in another thread. But he seemed much better at finding space tonight to receive the ball and does move it on quickly. It might mean that we look to build attacks in other ways than just Bruno taking it off the CB’s toes and trying to magic something up. I doubt we will see it too much this season. But the Big Joe/Little Joe dynamic also massively helped our midfield and general balance.

Same. Started to come back into it a bit late on because of them two. Oh and Krafth

Faded a bit late on. But we basically just surrendered possession. Wouldn’t mind seeing him start off more central and in the ‘deeper’ (if we actually play with a deeper CM) role with Bruno left or right of him.

He has so many good attributes. But whoever it was (Southampton fans?) saying he will become more of a Bale type couldn’t be more wrong. He is so bad in the final third. Actually annoying how wasteful he is every time he gets near the other box.

His punches are hit and miss. But I genuinely don’t mind it. You can’t always just catch it with players all round you. As he proved when cleaning out Kelly (punch was shit) and when he attempted to catch it and Nkunku beat him to it. He does look a bit less confident, for sure. But teams are packing the 6 yard box and dropping it right in there most games now.

What a performance from the Krafthmeister.

Better at CB, he uses his speed and aggressiveness well there. Seems the polar opposite at full back. Drops off and doesn’t go tight.

He has something. First thing he did was win a big header and batter one of their CB’s, giving a foul away in the process. Back to goal he was solid and he made 2-3 unselfish runs to open up space for the man on the ball. Unlucky with hitting the post and all. Promising.

Very good. Game of two halves and all that. In the hat.

WTF is Gordon doing. Had all that room down the right. Did his usual of this season, cut in and ran straight into an opposition player. Horrible challenge. Looks like he is sulking on the right again, to me.

They may have made 11 changes. But they have some very good and very expensive players on the pitch. Our back 4 is nowhere near full strength and we’ve rotated the midfield. It was a near perfect performance for 30-35. They were always going to have spells in the game.

Nearly a perfect performance so far. Getting sick of Schar’s half arsed defending and backing off the last two games, mind. Willock and Tonali look much sharper than recent weeks.

They weren’t, were they? That pass into Palmer took Bruno and Tonali out. Joelinton was doing his usual weird left CM/left wing role. I’m not watching it again. It was too infuriating watching a catalogue of errors. The argument could be why was Bruno not sitting closer to Palmer/Schar engaging him. But it was a bit of an unexpected quick turnover and inexplicably shoved it in reverse for some unknown reason.

Guessing it must be this. Don’t mind it….. if it is. Then even when Gordon plays right. Barnes can’t get a gig

Terrible passage of play to use, mind. Wasn't that when Isak managed to fuck up a flick and then his 2nd touch, as well. Meaning we lost the ball when on the attack, so players would naturally be a bit out of position and they hit us on the break. If our CB's are supposed to engage players aggressively. Than Schar was struck down with a terrible case of the Danny Simpsons. On a yellow and all, which wouldn't have helped. But yes. I'm sure you could probably use other times in this game and previous matches to highlight how flat and wide it often is. I'm just being pedantic.

Not sure that was the best game to go with. As it was very Basketball and Barca got lucky a few times with their high line. But I disagree with the overall point, especially that they are just athletes first and foremost. I think the standard of football as a team game and in some ways as individuals is much higher. The fitness levels is one thing. But also the ability to retain possession, passing, the amount of tactical information they have to take in, the data, the analytics. Everything, basically, is at the highest standard it has ever been. It has evolved so much as the science and standard of coaching has improved. But not all for the good of the sport, IMO. Do I think it makes for a more interesting game or means that we see mavericks, or people scoring thunderbastards on the regular, or flair players trying to skin whole teams? No. Because the data driven approach and how tactical it has become says that it is better to do X than Y in certain situations. Feels like we have built a load of footballing robots in some ways. All amazing at understanding their role and the tactics the team are going with. But not individual, skill based players that take a man on or try scoring from outrageous positions. The game can be quite dull at times. I thought Clasico was a great watch, mind.

Very good at that aggressive defending style, though. Bringing the ball out from the back and his passing, also. Plus his pace. Partnered with Botman, I think he would have been great. Still might be at some point. But I think that ship has sailed.

I think in certain games, it would be a good way to go. Especially if we want to continue with the CB pressing the striker deep into the opposition half. But Howe recently mentioned about height in the team and losing the likes of Botman, Lascelles and Wilson for aerial prowess at set pieces. Think it is either on record or regularly alluded to, at least, about how much he favours height in his back 4. So I just can't see it happening.

But 2 seasons worth of stats for 19 home games, against similar level teams across both seasons. Makes sense to me. You can draw some conclusions and perhaps follow a trend across certain metrics up to a point? 4 games, two of which were against decent sides (City more than decent), plus a game where we had 10 men for an hour and then the Brighton game where we actually looked good for the most part. Is surely nonsensical? What can you take from that? We are certainly not scoring enough home or away so far. That is a concern, for me.

Pens have been high quality so far.

Isn’t he a vegan and votes for the Green Party or something? That is so woke. What a soy boy cuck beta. MAGA.