Dandy Man

He's been doing well lately but he's still a liability when the chips are down and it will take a lot to convince me otherwise. Was a shocking tackle, there were a couple of little needly incidents leading up to it which the crowd had reacted to and he got stupidly carried away imo, away from home that's definitely a red more often than not. One positive is that he's becoming more sellable if he keeps playing like this I suppose.

We were never much shorter than a shade of odds on for all of January pretty much. Current odds of 9/4-5/2 would make us a great bet to go down if the 6/10 and 7/10 scores on here are to be believed.

He is definitely struggling at the moment and he is never going to be a long term solution but I think he has been playing a more important role in the team than people are willing to give him credit for. He gives us a focal point in attack and even if a lot of the headers he wins are relatively inconsequential it prevents the opposition easily getting control of errant long balls and bringing it out on the floor easily, most importantly he helps to create a bit more space for ASM to work in. If ASM stays fit, I think we will generally find a way to score even if Wood is not doing the scoring.

I like him a lot, he is never going to set the world alight but he gives it 100% every time and does the basics well. Will need to be upgraded on in the medium to long term but for the time being we need characters like him in the team, as mentioned above he also looks to have quickly developed a good understanding with Trippier

Aye I noticed that on TV, he was desperate to get on for ages

Woke the baby up when that free kick went in, with my shouting (not so she could get up and see the goal)

2.5 seems about right now, assuming we continue to build on these performances and barring any injuries to key players we will be fine

How far over the hill is Seamus Coleman too? Knew he was in decline but fuck me he would struggle to keep pace back in the League of Ireland.

So weird seeing the whole team putting in a massive shift and not blowing out their arses after 60 mins too

Howe backed the lads to deliver and deliver they did. Everton are horrific mind.

Not sure what to make of that but we're the better team, if we improve in 2nd half as did against Leeds then we've got this. Bruno or no Bruno, the sooner Shelvey fucks off the better.

Surprised more people aren't upset that Longstaff is missing out tbh

Would have preferred to see Bruno start obviously but can see the logic given he's had a whirlwind last week or so. If it turns out to be a mistake then Howe deserves criticism but if it works out and we get a win hopefully people will allow him some credit, we're still well up to winning this imo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0b7h36c

3-1 win, let's get in to these

Wait till you hear about Fumaça

There were massive deficiencies across all areas of the team that needed addressing and those largely got addressed, if a striker had been the only problem area then fair enough they fucked up but they did sign one striker for 25 million (bad value or otherwise) and clearly tried to get at least one more of similar value. It's obviously a non ideal situation to be in right now, but it's hardly a shambles or a massive dereliction of duty when we've reinforced with genuine quality across several positions in the hardest period of year to buy any players, it's certainly nowhere near the levels of shambles of the last 14 years anyway. But people love complaining.

There will be no striker then, I'll tell the children

He is going to be away for NZ World Cup qualifiers from 18th-30th March (assuming they get to final) which means he is missing Palace at home at a minimum - fuck knows who will be playing up front in that match

Caulkin piece in The Athletic also saying he's expected to join

This is a shambolic trophy presentation

Having your best penalty taker anywhere later than 3rd in a shootout must be a bad strategy

Glad Senegal won, Egypt are a tough watch. Mane wasn't exactly exuding confidence when he was pacing around early in shootout though.

There is (a fairly remote) possibility of Bruce getting them promoted and us getting relegated, if that did happen I think I might disconnect myself from society and become a monk or something

The Egyptian left back with his shorts pulled up like swimming trunks has been the highlight so far