Mbemba Youre A Womble

Used the word 'swaz' in his post match interview on MNF tonight

Can't find quote but fairly sure Leipzig's manager made some comment about him being lazy, or a bit brain dead when it came to applying himself. In a hypothetical situation how many of those West Brom players would you take in our squad? Despite them being bottom of the league would take a handful - think Ben Foster is decent, Evans and Rodriguez solid enough. Rondon would be an upgrade on Joselu as that big man option, Krychowiak's probably much better than being made to look... Would stay clear of Gibbs, Hegazy, Phillips. Dawson has all the composure and natural talent on the ball of Paul Dummett, yet none of the defensive capability.

Murphy has looked equal 'value for money' much of this season to be fair! Please expand. May have opened a can of worms here... Thankfully don't watch too many WBA games, so can't really judge Burke over a seasons worth of games. Didn't look great tonight, just as much I think Murphy has looked rather bad for much of games this season. Obvious exceptions and moments where he's contributed aside, but really hasn't looked too good in my opinion. Have been impressed with recent improvement, and obviously he's young enough to come good (which I obviously hope so), but have my doubts.

Murphy has looked equal 'value for money' much of this season to be fair!

A few on here wanted us to sign him on loan. Signing defenders that manage to stand out as being bad at defending in a team that is notoriously bad at defending - yeah that can go well!

Kieran Gibbs is the perfect example of just because a player plays for a big club, doesn't mean they'll be good in a lesser team. They've still got to play against the same players each week, and alongside worse players.

Remember when Chelsea put 8 past Aston Villa a few seasons back - think under Rafa - if there was another 20mins in this game wouldn't put it past them racking up something near that. They look totally gone. Complete mismatch and cluster fuck of eleven football players in one team there. God knows what Pards thinks he can achieve, total lunatic.

To a certain extent that's what has happened to football. The continued evolution of how teams defend has seen teams favouring interceptions, and favourable tackling situations through sophisticated pressing of certain areas and players. What you're saying is itself quite ridiculous, and dragging any point I've made widely out of context. Situations anywhere else on the pitch, outside the penalty area rarely arise whereby a player is at their very limits whereby they would need to go down from contact. Rarely you'll see exact actions of a goalkeeper and forward nudging the ball past them, from any two players on the pitch. When, and if you do, and a player slides in it's often deemed that the player is out of control and a free-kick is awarded.

Smalling yesterday overran the ball and ended up throwing himself to the ground, and looked like a right fanny doing so. He took a risk in that situation, it didn't pay off, and was rightly booked. That's that. Shelvey was smart enough to see it coming and exploited Smalling's weakness he'd given up. Equally so, Shelvey could have been daft enough to stick a foot in, allowing Smalling to win a foul and exploit his weakness given up. Fouls are won all the time like that. When teams are running down the clock, running down the by line, a winger will knock the ball past a player knowing that the full back will foul him. If I'm a manager, and Shelvey gives away a foul, I'm going to be frustrated at him for being stupid enough to be sold like that. Cortouis coming out last week after the Watford match and moaning about the penalty decision was an embarrassment. Defend your goal better and don't dive at a players feet. What on earth was he expecting, complete naivety. Defenders and goalkeepers on the whole need to wise up and stop putting themselves in these sorts of situations. Whenever a player has 'won contact' it inevitably comes from a defender making an error in judgement. On the point of there being no sportsmanship - that's a slightly rose tinted view. A very easy thing to say as well. Plenty of nefarious business happened before Sky Sports News came along. Would say more so. You can't be telling me that Harry Kane winning penalties from silly arse defending is any worse than Billy Whitehurst punching, kicking and elbowing defenders every Saturday.

When was the last time you saw that happen? It's part of the game that's disappearing - strikers would much rather take a tumble, try to win a penalty and attempt to get the keeper sent off at the same time. Sportsmanship has been completely eradicated from the game by cynical cheats and that's a very sad feature of the modern game. Just because cheating is now accepted at an institutional level doesn't make it right, and the game is a lesser spectacle for it. When was the last time you saw that happen? - Happens all the time, as does forwards being fouled and brought down. Sadly, the latter and the resulting coverage and discussion over a refereeing descion will always gather more media coverage than a 'simple goal'. When was the last time you saw a foul committed in the box, advantage offered, but play brought back. Until referees apply the same logic to the rules in the box as anywhere else on the pitch, strikers will always have to go out of the way to win penalties. 'Cheating' has existed in football for god knows how long, I just don't understand the sudden turn of attention onto this subject. It's just become such as a mass media agenda to fuel incidents that have always been taking place in the game. But now, because it's a focus, it's all of a sudden become such a deplorable act. Really don't think it's such a big thing anywhere else than in England or Scotland either. Liverpool Tottenham last night was a fantastic game, but all the coverage was spent on talking about refereeing decisions, and whether Kane dived or not. Little or no coverage was made on any other area of the game, how well certain players played, how the game was won or lost.

Snip

But why are we just focusing on holding back forwards and their interest in the game? It's the prerogative to exploit weakness for their gain, just as much as any one else on the pitch. Completely accept that out right diving, without any contact has no place in the game - but you've got to accept that it's always going to be there. Doesn't mean you have to like it, or even encourage it, but the level of focus and outrage on it I find boring beyond belief. Karius and Cortouis last weekend coming out and diving at the feet of Delefeou and Kane put themselves at risk of fouling the player. Why should the forward then go out of their way to avoid them? If they can knock the ball past, and then round the keeper to score, score. But for whatever reason the keeper halts their progress by touching them, go down. Their knocking them well out of balance, and chances are they would fall within a couple of strides, or certainly wouldn't be of composed stance to finish as easy if the keeper didn't make contact. Any team will give briefs of traits and likely situations ahead of games. Don't show Arjen Robben inside! Don't dive at the feet of forwards that are likely to go down.

Out of interest - if the media are protecting Kane and Alli, who exactly aren't they protecting? To be honest I'm not the slightest bit bothered about Kane, Alli etc. 'diving' or 'cheating'. Not impressed with Smalling taking a tumble yesterday, Alli, or whoever - it's a bit ridiculous, but can appreciate what their trying to do. They get booked, and shown up on TV to be a tit - leave it at that. I'm of the firm opinion that if a defender or goalkeeper is putting themselves in the situation that they can be taken advantage, basically by not convincingly winning the ball - it's fair game if the forward finds contact and gets a foul. Surely it's the evolution of the game, leading from an offensive sense. Defenders and goalkeepers especially need to evolve in how they defend when they know there is a risk of giving away contact without getting the ball. It's not like it's been going on for decades either. 10 years ago, without 24 hour news coverage on football, nobody worried nor cared about who would win a penalty at the weekend. You'd see it a couple of times highlighted on Match of the Day, probably concede the fact that Bellamy (for example) went down a bit easy against whatever mid 00s goalkeeper (Schwarzer), won a penalty. That was it.

TBF, it's something that has improved loads since Mo Viera turned up. I think that partnership has been key to it all really. He needs to get more goals and direct assists IMO. That'd involve having players clinical in the last third. His ball through to Ritchie who was called offside was fantastic, but even if he was called onside don't think Ritchie was going through and finishing. Don't think he creates enough chances, whether that being a direct assist type chance, or that pass before the pass that really opens a team. He was doing that regularly last season, but he was regularly much further up the pitch when he was on the ball. Now he's more often in his own half, or faced with two lines of defence in front of him - even at his best not sure he's of sufficient quality to be opening teams up from those positions. Can't think of many in the league that can let alone outside big clubs.

Garth Crook's and his team of the week

Unrealistic to expect him to start producing those performances every week. Not unrealistic to expect a far better commitment in games from him though, especially when those around him aren't necessarily up for it. Plenty of times this season I've been rather disgusted by his lazy application in games as soon as we are not seeing the ball and allowing him to play. Him being 5 yards of James McArthur for the whole second half at Palace defined our collapse that day. The players fed off each others performances yesterday, and they all grew into the game. What we need now is Shelvey to show leadership on the pitch and help drag those around him to a better level. Gives those alongside him the confidence to play by seeing him on top and in control of his game. Too often in his time here he's had fantastic phases of games, and looks a quality player when the game is rolling for us. Moments later, when it isn't, he simply goes missing and allows games to pass him by, which has a huge knock on effect to our whole team collapsing.

Think that 4 year old needs to have a look at himself, get his prioritise sorted! Quite impressed with Mourinho's interview - unusually rational and sane. Can tell he has huge respect for Robson, and by extension Newcastle.

Does make you think, above a certain point, what are you really paying for? Nobody can say that however much Sanchez is costing Man United, more than say Lingard, or what Rashford would have done - really showed today, or against Spurs. Over the course of the season there is going to be a difference, of course because Sanchez is a better footballer - but sometimes I wonder if it's quite a marginal difference when you look at it. Chelsea for example - the millions and millions spent on players like Rudiger, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Barkley - when they've let go Ake, Loftus-Cheek, Chalobah.

Whilst today's performance and result will draw headlines, and praise - rightly so - it shouldn't hide the fact we've still a lot to do until the end of the season. We've every right to enjoy today's result, but as brutal as it sounds if we can't use today as a launching point for remainder of the season, today's joy will be worthless. Have been behind Benitez ever since he stepped foot in the club, and will continue to do so. Will never doubt his approach in games like today against the top sides, whether the result comes or not. That being said, I still feel there is a lot more to come in games that we should feel we have a decent chance in. There have been many performances this season where we've looked rather hapless and flat. A million miles away from what we showed today. I'm really hoping, and quietly confident that Rafa can now galvanise the squad on the back of this. They've all shown now that they have enough about them to compete against teams around the bottom if they can do so against second in the league. No excuses now, performances like we've had to endure at home up until now can't be allowed to creep back in.

Didn't see that coming at all, best performance from us in I don't know how long. Was first to think we'd get nothing out of today - so over the moon to be wrong! As much as every player seems to boil my blood each week, couldn't fault a single one. Best game I've seen Shelvey have for us, Dubravka outstanding debut!

Can't Seconded! Amazing today, was like there was two of him in there last 20mins. Bound to be one of his best performances of his career so far. Can't imagine he ever played better for Liverpool or Swansea

Finally found his magic hat :frantic:

Much, much better than expected! Going forward we still look as effective as bludgeoning someone to death with an inflatable hammer. Man United don't seem to be at it though. Story of their season though, embarrassing amount of quality in that side, rarely any of them are actually performing though, let alone all at once.

Part of me just wishes Rafa would start picking a consistent XI. Swapping and changing personnel for each other every week hasn't seemed to make much of a difference up to now. It's never been a case of player X coming in and starting this week and you can really see why their in the team.