Cf

Would be a very soft red that but was basically the same offence.

Superb goal.

Hodgson

Yeah. I don't recall seeing the lines. And didn't play resume very quickly rather than the usual ages they spend analysing it?

Hmm watching highlights I might be completely wrong there.

I think if I remember right that the reasons Isak's was chalked off against Liverpool was because the linesman raised his flag just as the shot went off so VAR can't do anything about it. So it was a linesman error because he should have let the play finish. He was onside.

I can see why it wasn't given in real time. Ref is miles away. The argument for it it not being a penalty I guess is that Jiminez's touch was also bad. He's not nicked the ball off Pope he's kicked it away and not even really towards the goal. It means he's running across Pope which causes him to go into him. If it was given I'd have no arguments but the fact there's discussion means I think stick with on-field decision. Refs should perhaps be a bit more forthright in saying to the VAR "I was miles away - what do you think?".

Isak and ASM linking really well.

Get in. From a Trippier delivery too. Great header.

That's comically bad officiating there. Free kick for falling over.

Danger with Burn is similar to players like Almiron, Longstaff, Wilson, etc. No-one can deny the exceptional job they've done in getting us to where we are. But longer term we need upgrades and the longer they stay in the team the more these players will start to grate through really no fault of their own. I do find the Burn/Targett thing odd though. Apart from let ASM run with the ball a bit we don't have any movement on our left so it seems such an obvious change to make.

Last few performances I'm not sure we'd have noticed the difference if Wood was on. Injury or covid, but for whatever reason a switch has flipped and he's shit. I hope he turns it around but not feeling it at the mo.

That was a lot closer than it looked at first.

We don't have Bruce managing us anymore.

Why was that corner blown?

Yeah. Don't think Karius was at fault there. If it doesn't deflect he needs to be down there to save it.

It's not game over yet but ffs. Just not going out way recently is it?

Quite how Schar's skull is still in tact I don't know.

Wow what a view!

Well I've been drinking all day and feel appropriately tipsy. I hope this goes well.

Next time you all do this I need to get you all into a castle...

No-one signs up for that of course. But you might consider the chance of it happening.

I really like ASM and want him to do well but something just niggles at me that he's not quite right for us. Obviously at the moment with our various squad issues he's in the team. One of the problems he poses for opposition is he's unpredictable. But on the flip side one of the problems he causes for us is he's unpredictable - it's hard for the rest of the team to know where they should be. This won't be helped with his time out of the team and there were some encouraging signs with Isak in the last game so hopefully this understanding starts to develop. But at full strength when we've solidified ourselves as a top 4/6 team? Not so sure.

I know not everyone is a fan of xG but variance is a real thing and xG/xPTS are a great piece of the puzzle in determining if anything is wrong. Against Liverpool despite being down to 10 men it was essentially 2-2 (narrowly I'm their favour) in xG. On another day Almiron and Wilson's chances go in, and they don't score two greatly taken goals from nowhere. When your xG/xPTS is good and we can see ourselves the performances are good is when you can have confidence what you're doing is working. As much as e.g. Almiron had a purple patch earlier in the season we were still performing well. Compare to Bruce when our xG was continually awful and we kept getting last minute headers from defenders salvaging points. In short I'm happy we are doing things the right way. Howe will no doubt continue to tinker and clearly the squad needs improving as time goes on. Continue to play like we are doing though and top 4 is very much still a possibility.

You pretty much have to have a suspension though because otherwise a red card in say the 90th minute essentially carries no punishment. You could maybe say if it's in the first half no suspension needed.