Tiresias

Man U remain looking more likely to score on the break and it's not clear how they are getting the chance to break considering how slow and unthreatening City's forward play has been.

This is rubbish so far. I am watching this in a pub in Middlesbrough and I am mainly just pondering why this sports bar has a Slushy machine

To quote my Everton fan friend there hasn't been a credible threat at goodison since Richarlison was sold

It's always the worst punditry, the contradicting fans opinions with bullshit gleamed from a 5 minute skim of a clubs own press release or something. If fans are upset too many pundits have the immediate response "they must be being unreasonable". Occaisionally they are being entitled twats, mostly they know much more about everything about the club than Gabby Agbonlahor or whoever it is on talksport

Aye, although it has to be said the new stadium isn't funded yet, they are planning to start building it before all the money in place apparently which feels a risk/white elephant in the making. The fans have every right to be furious with how the club is run spending that much, possibly putting the club in jeopardy (especially if they go down) and not producing anything.

Man City never have too much of a problem having multiple high class players (and grealish) for every position lol. They are competing on almost all fronts, there will be plenty of chances to stake claims on positions, if the player doesn't grasp that they can fuck off to saudi arabia with an interview with piers morgan apparently. I think sometimes the character of players is revealed in these situations and if they have a problem with it they probably don't have a place at a club that wants to challenge for the title. They can fit in just below sure but highest level of course the club has very high class competition and you aint gonna play every game.

This all sounds like material for a criminal offence top trumps deck

sorry was told to us during journo course (that put me off being a journo lol) so is just word of mouth. But statistics remain grim, see here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48095118 All is to say that I don't trust juries decisions much on rape trials, having said that of course he is entitled to being presumed innocent, I am not pretending it is easy or to have special insight on special case, but when you have these cases and the juries rule not guilty and then you get a barrage of THE WOMEN WERE LYING that can all fuck off. This is always grim all the way down.

Court reporter at the chron actually once told me a story of a burglary and rape trial he covered where a burglar broke into a woman's house wearing a mask and raped her in her bed. The jury convicted him of burglary but acquitted him of rape because they felt there was apparently reasonable doubt that she consented to this masked intruder. Rape conviction rates are an absolute scandal

What an idiot. Disappointing

Southampton, such a strange team, total wank half the time and then suddenly pull off results like ths

I can see the logic, were we still owned by Ashley I'd be yeah fuck City and these 'fake sponsorships'. I see the logic, and I don't think restriction of trade rules is a magic thing that will make all ffp stuff go away. Something needs to be done (and nothing will be done) to tackle rampant wage inflation and players costing ludicrous sums. Most clubs are priced out the market for players and it means we end up with ideas like the super league etc. I am not especially bothered though. We need to get our revenues up and there are plenty of ways to do that that aren't 'related party'. Obviously other clubs have a head start with just pumping money in, and Chelsea somehow are still fucking do this, but Howe is out there proving we can compete at the sharp end with sensible clever transfers and good coaching. I would much prefer us to compete there with sensible decision making than just spending and spending. Yes we are going to be shafted in a way Chelsea and Man U never are, but they are also clown shows. If none of tis existed and us and man city could spend unlimited the league would be worse than it already is, and there is a lot of denial about this in the media all invested in the premier league being 'the greatest league in the world'. There are a handful of clubs competing at the top, a small handful being run very well on a budget competing and a whole bunch sucking up the broadcast money and not really competing with those at the top. This is going to get worse but FFP should be there to help them compete and not let us and Man City disappear into the distance, cos sorry, I don't want us to win the league with no competition, I want to win the league with a good league.

Wonder if a veteran who wouldnt mind being on the bench a lot may be ideal cover, an exciting young prospect would need to be playing really

Should be in the market for a young right sided centre back as backup and long term replace schar when his age catches up but not a priority is lascelles contract up in summer? Long term we should have 4 high standard centre backs like man city try to fine for now

From what I understand he can play wide in a fluid front 3 but not really doing the defensive hard running our wide players are expected to, more that he will naturally drift wide to find space to run into and saw a bit of that tonight. if he does play wide I think it will be in games where we don't think a lot of defensive work will be necessary.

Everyone has that guy behind them at matches it seems, he gets about ;d

Hmmm they're a funny side and I am not a big Rodgers fan but I feel like he did do a good job for a few seasons but they have made some questionable transfer decisions, and also failed to make most of assets they had if they are in the sell to buy model. A few underwhelming signings and then you would think they could solve it by selling maddisson or tielemans a season ago and invested it back in. Instead they seem they need to sell at below their value just to get anything off them at all and I am not sure where that leaves them. They have also had very bad luck with injuries. All to say as much as Rodgers fails to impress me could they realistically bring in an upgrade of a coach who could turn them around considering deeper issues there? They have done so little in transfer market recently and just sold I think no matter who is there I don't know what more could be realistically done...

I don't think the scoring rate was sustainable but yes he does so much right, and I think it has to be said he did always do a lot of teh hard defensive work right but he a) didn't have players in front and behind that supported him properly (or were coached to support him properly) b) was not coached very well, and I think his lack of goals was allowed to get to him, Howe has said he told him not to worry just do everything right and goals will come naturally and c) he deserves so much credit for his attitude, many many good wingers would let their head drop with what he was going through in terms of being in an underperforming team and not delivering the goals and assists he expected to. But he kept going and it has to make a difference to team mates seeing him working so hard despite it all they have all clearly been behind him and willing him to succeed.

I mean maybe he's actually a goalkeeper and if he is put in goal he will be the greastest of all time...

Excellent tonight, really glad his form has recovered and it's not all about scoring goals he is doing excellent high pressing. I still think sometimes he loses the ball too easily but can't fault him tonight

longer clip in dressing room showing the photo being taken, this set of players are brilliant

It's funny how having rejigged his whole game into a physical midfielder without the pressure to score goals he is suddenly scoring them without snatching at them

Bruno grinning his head off when Dan Burn scoring mentioned, what a squad!

I'd still take him remember Joelinton before Howe and Joelinton after Howe

Pope 7 Burn 8 Botman 8 Schar 7 Trippier 8 Longstaff 7 Bruno 9 Willock 9 Joelinton 9 Wilson 7 Miggy 8 It's difficult I feal i'm being too generous but can't rate anyone as being below 7/10 such a team!