Smal

yeah. Can’t believe both of their pivot players are constantly in acres of space on the edge of our box . What was the plan for them?

Hall looks absolutely spent

all 3 CBs dragged out of position

wonder how many more times they’ll re-referee the game to make sure PSG go through

pure corruption

I don’t really mind it, I don’t think. Kinda hope it’s 3-5-2 with Elanga/Willock alongside Woltemade though. Little and large terrorist ball.

he’s full of shit, they were already 15 points ahead by the time of the 2nd leg vs PSG he’s a cunt and a charlatan

I don’t see any justification for that narrative really tbh. Howe has talked about the need to bring down the average age of the squad several times. Hall and Tino were almost certainly his signings. Hall had his best Chelsea performance against us whilst Howe was manager, I don’t think he’ll have hesitated after that.

Livramento, Hall and Barnes we can se with certainty were Howe signings. They’re all on the same agency as him. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/wasserman/beraterfirma/berater/440#google_vignette We’ve been linked with so many of these during Howe’s tenure and it’s surely not a coincidence that we own several of their most valuable players . Football is well dodgy.

Didn’t vote and won’t give an arbitrary score, but I thought it was awful at the time because we sold our goal-a-game striker to a team we’re supposed to be competing with. Yes he wanted to leave and we had to sell him, but that didn’t really make it less awful. Haven’t changed my mind on that despite how the signing has gone for Liverpool. Ultimately it’s the thing that has cost us a lot of points this season.

I think they’re enjoyable because pretty much all of them give everything and snap into every tackle with full commitment. It might sound like a basic thing but not many teams have a full XI that do it.

I reckon volleying the ball away with your elbow is a handball, like

this Leeds performance is about as dominant as I can remember seeing a PL side this season

yeah, this is what I meant when I said I don’t think we’re that far off clicking. I think earlier in the season our attacking play was pretty dead and I was pretty worried, but it’s improved dramatically in the last month and a bit or so imo. We are working the ball into much more dangerous crossing positions more consistently like we used to. People will groan at me for it, especially with yesterday’s enraging defeat still fresh in the mind, but our underlying defensive numbers are better than ever this season; and going forward we’re getting closer to last season’s metrics and we’re starting to look more threatening from set-pieces again. I keep saying it but our biggest issue is getting a striker into the right position to score easy goals atm. That’s the main difference from previous seasons.

some pretty good analysis in this of why we’re seeing what we’re seeing this season league-wide. And also why English sides are dominating the CL group stage. For those feeling despair at our performances, I think you can take something from the fact that pretty much every team in the league is struggling to play effective/good football with any degree of consistency this season. Teams are pretty much cancelling each other out. Sooner or later somebody is going to come up with a counter to these man-to-man systems with heavy reliance on set pieces and they will dominate for a while.

Atm, assuming Joelinton is going to miss games, I’d like us to try: Pope Miley Thiaw Botman Hall Bruno Tonali Gordon Woltemade Barnes Wissa Allow Bruno license to get forward so that he can still be a goal threat. I think Tonali has been individually poor on the ball and that’s on him, but he also wants to play it forward quickly and there’s usually nobody close to him either. Having a #10 in front and Bruno closer should give him more options. Now that Osula is available you have a Wissa backup/sub option and Ramsey can come in for Woltemade.

Because it’s the wing he has a chance of playing for England on, I’d guess.

this is exactly what I meant, and yes, it was an issue for Isak that was highlighted by both Howe and Shearer. It wasn’t really until part way through his second season here that he regularly started scoring those sorts of goals (and Murphy started getting loads of assists).

I don’t think we’re that far from things clicking. We defend very well imo, up front is our biggest issue. It took several months to coach Isak to score tap ins so I’m still hopeful we can get Wissa there.

The amount of crosses that go across the face of the opposition goal does my head in, man. Callum Wilson of even 2 seasons ago would have 20 goals by now this season.

Our full backs have 1 assist between them in the league this season and it was Hall indirectly from a corner, so basically none from open play. Something not right there.

I don’t really see that tbh. In fact I don’t see much value in their attacking play at all this season. They’ve just been consistently and inexplicably fortunate like Forest were last season when Wood was banging in 4 half chances a game and Mats fucking Sels was somehow the best keeper in the league every game. We had the better chances in the game today, as poor as we were.

Absolutely fuming at this, like . Villa are a poor side full of cunts with a twat manager and twat fans and somehow get all the luck. Cunts.

It irks me when players look up for it one night and then don’t a few days later.

You are largely describing all PL football at the moment here tbf. It is all system based designed around going man to man, winning duels and scoring from set pieces. It was a move to counter Pep’s dominance and now everyone’s doing it so the football is frankly awful.