Lush Vlad

Fuck sake man

Loving the pace we are playing at. Press is working, finding loads of space out wide, passing is good for the most part. Just a touch wasteful when we get in some good areas and can’t keep this tempo up. So need to bag one whilst we’re so dominant.

Kudus is brilliant on the ball.

They are miles better at the back with van Hecke. Glad Joao Pedro is out, mind. He’d be finding space for fun.

I know he scored. But Bellingham regularly looks a bit unsure on what he is meant to be doing for England and almost gets in the way, somehow. Foden the same. Palmer wasn't great, either. So many massively talented players who are a bit different to what we have had at times in the past. It has seemed like for quite a while, we don't know how to get the best out of them.

Chelsea fans raving about Sancho's 3 assists so fat this season, the other week. 2 were just like this. That season Pogba went mad for assists and another with Ozil. Half of them were a pass to someone who blasted it in. Didn't Cabaye get an assist for HBA's goal vs Bolton?

True. But we do still rely heavily on his passing out from the back. Especially if we end up with the unholy ball playing trinity of Tino, Longstaff and Murphy down that right hand side. Hoping Trippier missing might be negated by Tonali now seemingly the starter, Hall on the opposite side offering some line breaking passes and possibly a change at RW. Barnes/Gordon or even Almiron, at times. We are so weak down that flank or side of the pitch in general when we have so many that are bad on the ball.

That has to be the Carsley experiment done with. Enjoyed him trying something different the first 2 games. But if Greece won 4-0. We couldn’t have complained and we looked utterly clueless for most of that. Still got loads of players who look positionless or just totally useless. When they are anything but.

Bellingham will be telling us we’re all idiots and haters after this inspiring performance and heroic comeback. Like he did at the Euros.

Yeah. Dubravka may be past it. But this lad isn’t even any better than Ruddy, is he? That is a safety smiley BTW. But he should be saving that.

Nah. I really remember Brentford away when we came back to win and Fulham home, which was an awful late 1-0 win. He was behind Wilson.

I know. Yet every season it somehow feels worse and worse. Barely even back to it and it just stops every 5 minutes.

Agree with this. They have the ability to take us apart of they get it right and our press is off. But they arguably look even more fragile and open at the back than they did under De Zerbi. Despite winning yesterday, Spurs created loads in that first half. They've already conceded 10 goals, although TBF, they have played against better teams than us.

Not really for or against it. Just wouldn't mind a bit less rigidity, at times. That said, the top managers do seem to have their system and whilst they will tinker. The way the 11 lineup is often the same. I would rather have that and a coach that believes in their philosophy and that it will work. Than some of the chancers we've had over the years. Who would change formation and tactics week to week based on one bad result. Or stick to a certain tactic that is clearly ill-suited most the while. Like Bruce and that bloody 4-4-2 v Brighton when it could have been about 0-10

Second international break after only 7 league games FFS. What an absolute shambles.

I agree with this and who's to say Howe won't change things over time as the team hopefully starts to evolve. I still think 4-2-3-1 was what he played a lot of the time at Bournemouth, for example. But I just don't think in the whole time he has been here. He has ever looked to play a DM or a number 10 and the fairly flat midfield 3 has been a mainstay. The closest we got to the 10 was a few times when Isak played deeper behind Wilson. It actually looked promising. But a very small sample size from memory. Fulham at home for a bit, second half at Brentford. Can't think of many more times where they were both on the pitch in that kind of set up.

Saw a still image that some Everton gimp posted on Twitter when he is about to hit the ball. Fuck me, Pickford went early. He's almost on the deck and way off centre before he's even kicked it. You notice against City and on Saturday. He doesn't look at the keeper at any point during his run up or for quite a bit beforehand, actually. I guess every player has their process and the style of looking at the keeper, waiting for them to go is a fairly new and not that common approach. Toney, Jorginho, Schar off the top of my head, for example. Isak, at times waits for the keeper to start moving. But I think if you're not trying to give the keeper the eyes or see who blinks first. You really need to be hitting the corners or going for the Shearer thunderbastard special. Gordon certainly didn't do that, it was tame as fuck. Probably over-thinking it as it was just a pressure penalty back playing at a ground where 90% of the people there don't want him to do well and are audibly abusing him all game. But I'd rather Schar is our penalty taker if Isak and Wilson (haha, good one) aren't on the pitch.

It's his left shoulder that is dodgy. Again, the decent save he made was to his right. Small sample size, but it does look like he is going down awkwardly to his left. Although perhaps he has always been weaker this side and nobody has ever flagged it.

The game at Stamford Bridge looked like the polar opposite to the snoozefest on Sky. Watched the last half hour. It could have easily been 2-2 in the 13 minutes of injury time alone

Reminds me of when you play a push shot in pool/snooker. Such a weird technique. It’s like he’s trying his hardest to leather it and it ends up being tame as fuck.

Fell asleep after 20 minutes. Terrible game.

In hindsight, a game like yesterday was probably more suited to Miggy’s skillset. Against teams like say Spurs or City, where we won’t have as much of the ball and there is space to attack. Then I think you go with Murphy. A bit depressing typing that out, TBH. Why are these still our main options at RW after all this time?!

Not sure Isak, or Gordon for that matter. Would be particularly effective if we started crossing it regularly, mind. They’re not good in the air against centre backs. Perhaps different for Wilson, but that’s a moot point as he’s never fit. We do need to do more to create and support whoever is playing up top, though. We can often look tidy and at times, dominant. Right up until we get near the box. All that said. Even without the penalty. We created more than enough to win yesterday. We were just wasteful along with some good fortune for them.

Thoughts? I was watching in the pub, so never great for analysis. But it was almost like he was trying to do too much. In a good way, though. He was popping up everywhere and trying to force the issue and certainly adds a bit of pace and dynamism to our team. Did give it away cheaply a few times. It nearly cost us at one point. But as I said in the Trippier thread. Everyone was at it yesterday. Which could be seen as a positive for them with how they swarmed the ball and a negative for us with how sloppy we were at times.