Tiresias

Yeah used to like him and thought he had a good sense of humour for a manager and that seems to have completely sucked out of him. I wonder if it's time for him to move on just out of his sanity, it appears to be doing him no good. Football wise he will get them going again I am sure but it doesn't look any fun there

I think he was focusing on proving he can do the defensive work, which he can but isn't particularly great at and didn't produce any moments of genius in attack. He definitely gets a load of stick a way other players don't. I suspect he will be starting behind Gordon and I am fine with that, unfortunately I just don't see ASM reacting well, he'll be gone in summer imo but we need more than 1 good winger per side.

Oh I am aware it makes no sense as a take, it's not meant to be a serious complaint. I think it's just selective from when I've watched match of the day, or when i watch you get hammered by city in a pub and then never bother watching when you win boringly or something. It's more just slight frustration of us being very consistent and not letting in goals and still not clear of teams...

Top 4 will probably require a drop off from Man U or Spurs, the latter will probably improve with injured players coming back. Man U will probably lose form at some point. Brighton look very very good right now, though I doubt they will sustain it for entire second half of season. We remain really really tough to beat which means we will keep accumulating points at a reasonable rate but can see us dropping more points until Bruno is back. It will be a slight disappointment now if we don't make top 4 but the truth is it is very early, the squad is not deep, just see how much we play Jacob Murphy. We absolutely still have a chance but I think I am below 50% in my head anyway. The squad knows now what is required to get top 4. Any of them under any illusions about the really high consistency of performance for the whole season needed should be dispelled. I am still annoyed at Man U and Spurs being close to us, they seemed to spend a lot of the season being utterly rubbish, and we won loads and only lost once and still they are there. I know we draw too much but it scrambles my brain a bit. We have never once in this season been terrible. Our only loss we didn't deserve.

Not good enough for finishing in top 4 performance, but equally think this may be inevitable, squad looks tired.

Maxi wasn't great but i didn't think he was lethargic, was tracking back but wasn't very threatening

Absolute rubbish Joelinton there

This. We have been brilliant but it is also overperforming and dips are inevitable.

People have no reason to be angry, I think we are in a very slight slump of intensity probably from tiredness. Bruno is a huge miss. Every chance we win this still and West Ham have been good since the first 10 minutes

Noone gambling on asm doing anything there

We are not as good as we were before the world cup tbh and especially so without Bruno. Hopefully can grind this out surely will get another good goal scoring opportunity

hahahahahha

The flag has fucked us, no coming back from that tbh

Grim.

I agree we are short, but my point in the 4-3-3 we only need one defensive mid really (although they all contribute defensively with the high press). Anderson could theoretically play a more creative role in midfield 3 but completely agree he is nowhere near ready. We do have Joelinton, Longstaff and Bruno can all do the deeper role, and Willock and Anderson could fill in ahead if absolutely necessary, though more likely we would go to a midfield 2 i guess in a 4-2-3-1 with gordon/asm/isak in the no 10 position. If we lose Joelinton and Bruno we are seriously in trouble though. I wanted a centre mid too, we're short but i am not going to be overly critical, if there wasn't anyone good enough then fine, Shelvey was no guarantee to be fit or to be at his best anyway. I would maybe have erred on keeping him but Howe probably doesn't want players sticking around who don't want to be there.

As much as losing Shelvey feels a risk (and I was keen for us to sign a backup)I think we're fine, with Joelinton, Bruno and Longstaff all able to play in the deep midfield position in our 4-3-3 with Willock and Anderson able to play the other two positions should really be enough.

Hate 4-2-3-1 with a passion to be honest, double pivot midfields can go to hell :P Is Isak out due to concussion? If so just move Joelinton to middle and ASM wide left. He is only player that can be as creative as Bruno so needs to come in.

It was a red, it doesn't matter really if it was accidental, we can't have tackles like that being common occurance and refs can't base decisions heavily on intent. He was also throwing daft tackles around. He plays with his heart on his sleeve and this is the disadvantage of that, Trippier came up to him to calm him down when the yellow was given which was unfortunately too late as it turned out. First red of his career speaks that this isn't a big part of his game

Get in!

He's a very emotional player and as much as it maybe wasnt intentional he was making a bunch of stupid tackles before it. Daft.

Absolutely did not need that. Idiot.

Howe out!

i fucking love this team

Bruno just playing with a cheat code

Would have loved Gallagher a few seasons back when we were shit. Looked to me an explosive player with a lot of great attritubes but also seems more of a Gerard style player who comes in and out of games to make big contributions but not sure works very hard off the ball (could be wrong) and I don't think has fitted at Chelsea because of it. If I've got wrong end of stick on that apologies to the player but not greatly fussed