Miercoles

Nah I'm not having that like, I'm a Miggy supporter and his goal versus palace was definitely goal of the season for me, but it's less of a sexy finish and more of a superb all around goal. The context, the pass, the run, the headed first touch, fending off the defender, and then yes a world class finish. But was it sexier than this one? No it was not. That's some sexy shit right there. Not saying it's a better goal, it's not, but it is a sexier finish.

Yeah Miggy is kind of the same story as Perez, a number 10 in a team that doesn't play a number 10. The obvious difference is that Miggy doesn't have the absolutely sexy finishing that Perez would show on occasion, but maybe he'll surprise us this season. Thinking back, such a classic example of the dark times under Ashley was the period we spent playing Ayoze Perez as a lone striker. What in the very real fuck was that.

The smaller goals thing is stupid, just look at the scorelines, they look like regular fucking football games. It's not 21-13 out there. England's 8-0 over Norway stands out, but that happens in the men's game occasionally too and has more to do with a Norwegian meltdown and England having a razor-sharp attack this year than anything else. Trying to solve a problem that isn't there tbh. Also, weaker wrists? For real? Jesus fucking christ. I mean, setting aside how ridiculous that is as a statement, even if you take it at face value it's not like their weak womanly wrists are out there being shattered by powerful righteous men's shooting. It's women's legs kicking the ball at women's intuitive sensitive wrists, so what in the flying fuck are you on about with that one? It's not a zero sum game guys, women's football rising in popularity doesn't mean men's will dissipate, so relax.

Oh shit, that was a banger too! How have we not won a world cup yet?

Dunno mate, that scarf with "Full Steam Ahead" on it is pretty fucking legit. Best slogan US Soccer has come up with since "I Believe That We Can Win"

Maybe we can bring some of the Ultras over from Atlanta for our first home game...

True, a natural scorer like him should probably play at center-forward, and we already have a ready-made backup striker in Wilson. Sorted.

Waiting to hear about how scoring away to Benfica is crap *I know its preseason lads come on, but you have to give him a run at this point don't you?

Me too, England/Sweden is always a classic. It helps that I'm not English so I'm not shitting my pants the whole time, mind.

A proper fucking preseason is exciting on it's own! Would look like a whole new team just from that, remember how many leads we threw away under Bruce?

Seems insane when you put it that way. And then to score that backheel volley for his first NUFC goal, and then go on the best scoring run of his career after that, what in the actual fuck man.

Joey really nailing the pose there too

Joey Linton looks fast as hell in that drill. God damn I am desperate for the season to start...

Would agree with that, hopefully we can bring a young player in who can jump right in when called upon and contribute immediately, I'm sure that was the idea with Hugo but who knows about that now. However I think you're right that we don't necessarily need a top tier signing because I definitely rate Wilson when fit and I'm a confirmed Chris Wood apologist too so I'm not sure what I'm complaining about here haha.

Yeah I dunno about retiring it, but it just seems like the added pressure hasn't been helpful for our last few marquee strikers... Then again, maybe we have just been signing crap players

We should also stop handing out the number nine shirt for a while, but that's another matter.

That's fair. I guess my thinking is that we need to be signing someone who will start over Wilson, who in turn needs to be used as the backup and not our main goal threat. I know he's really good, but he's completely unreliable over a season.

I mean, I'd love to be wrong, but unless he spent the off-season in a bacta tank I don't expect to see him for more than twenty games this year.

Why do people think Wilson is going to play?

Yeah, that feels right as an answer to the Ben Arfa riddle. Some guys love the grind of training and practice, and some guys just put up with it in order to play the games. Some guys are really good but hate training, maybe Benny here, some guys aren't that good but love to grind in training and end up very successful, and then you have your Tom Brady types who combine the two and are just monstrous.

https://youtu.be/JppwKpfOgyo

Hell yeah. He'll be solid for the next 2-3 seasons, very pleased we got this one wrapped up.

This was posted before in the Executives thread, but in case anyone missed it: https://trainingground.guru/articles/dan-ashworth-inside-the-mind-of-a-technical-director Really cool in-depth interview with Ashworth on his role at Brighton etc. Goes into a lot of detail, and a very engaging listen for such a dry subject. That podcast in general is pretty great actually, it's a really nice reprieve from the usual over the top podcast-y antics you get most places, just in depth long form interviews with industry professionals about their jobs. It's kind of sad but that format's pretty unique these days.

What a year for this stupid fucking winter world cup. Instead of just enjoying that we have a player in the Brazil side we'll be worried about him missing games for us, injury, etc.

I'm an Almiron defender usually but he was poor yesterday. He had a chance to play in his favored position and went completely anonymous for most of the game.