Armchair Pundit

FYP (hopefully)

I've no fucking idea where four minutes injury time came from, let alone the extra half minute he game Barca to get the pen - absolute shit-weasel of ref

I'm starting to get less and less enjoyment from football. It seems that every single match is more about the officials than the game itself, every single match's outcome decided by the referees rather than the players. I mean, what's the point? Why have a sport where the supposedly impartial official, whether it be through them being shit or biased, has more of a impact on the outcome of the game than the actual skill of the sportsmen playing it? Every single fucking game.

Cunt of a ref

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! At least we got knocked out by one of the world's better teams... the Mackems have been bloody flukey all season, it's about time their luck evened out at last.

More bloody jam than Hartleys that lot. Still, same old shit in every game, shit officiating causing more talking points than the actual game! Because that's what everyone wants, a sport that's more about it's referees than the sport itself.

Bloody commentary love City too

I just hope, after going out of this competition we really put everything else into the league games for the rest of the season. If the league doesn't pick up we can forget europe next season and probably goodbye to a few of our better players over the summer. Side note, bloody Pep is getting on my tits tonight with his constant shouting and going outside his area.

We are a million times better when we play our pressing tactics, like we were a couple of years ago

Been a reasonable first half, not sure how Pep gets away with being outside his area so much mind.

One of the best leftbacks we've had, without doubt

Poor old Nick, he's struggling again, playing deep midfield. After a rubbish week for him, losing a bit of weight, probably feeling a bit weakened after a bout of rough guts, then playing there. I don't know where the player we had for those first few weeks after he arrived went, it feels like he's just constantly played out of position or gets no service when he actually manages a spell up front. I genuinely think he could be a great player for us longer term and I really like him, but I don't think he'll get the chance. I suspect we'll probably cash him out in the summer if a reasonable offer comes in - not sure how we'd recoup anywhere near the £69m we paid for him though. At least Elanga and Ramsey have picked up eventually, at least heading in the right direction for them.

Amusingly the thought crossed my mind that there was an air of a younger Steve Bruce about Carrick at full time, I didn't watch his interview though, did anyone ask him how the bacon was?

Of course, I'm a miserable shit when the ref's are making themselves the focal point of every game, but I still can't help myself

I'm still of the mind that the dangerously bad officiating is ruining the game as a whole though, regardless of this evening's result - simply put, the talking points shouldn't be about the ref fucking things up every match.

It's true, aye, has been since before the dark times, since before the Ashley... Empire... (to be fair, I've been a Toon fan since Keegan landed the first time round, or thereabouts)

Crack, craic, this ref is bollocks and I'm done with shit officiating and the wanky nonsense of a league

It's an Irish word and it's spelt 'craic' isn't it?

It's getting to the stage for me where it feels like there's either blatant rigging of results by officials or the level of officiating is so bad now that it's affecting EVERY game. Where's the enjoyment in this shit, it's sickening.

The enthusiasm tends to be there from Tripps, he's just looking his age now though. I read a heading somewhere that ManU had injuries, not sure who they're missing that'll make that much of a difference to them though.

There will be a mass exodus of players like Toney, etc who went to the Saudi league for big pay-offs if the situation of there continues.

There is only 4 points between 14th and 8th though

What sickens me is that the events of last summer were a massive blow in the progression of our club, it was something that has totally and utterly hamstrung our season and any plans that we had. The project being in it's infancy still and Eddie left to pick up the pieces, with huge expectations to cover a complete mess, during a season where we've essentially been the victim of our own previous success. I just think it's out of order to put much blame on the manager, when we've lost our main forward and his back-up, had numerous injuries and been expected to play at a high-level across all competitions. Add in some seriously poor officiating along the way and I honestly believe Eddie is being put under pressure which he doesn't deserve. I get that our league form has suffered, but when you look at the two, emergency signings we made for large sums of cash, towards the end of a window and expected them to hit the ground running and immediately fit into the way we play, it's all kinds of wrong. I would love us to play blinding football in all tournaments and get results every time, but it's simply not realistic with the current squad and demands thereof. If Eddie gets forced out by a vocal minority, backed by shit-stirring media, I'll be gutted. I saw it with Sir Bobby and I never want to see it happen again - especially when it's plain that our manager is much better than recent results have credited.

Wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, we were in with a chance. I'll not begrudge City the win, I'd rather they won the league than Arteta and the Arsenal fans, just because I love to see them bottle it and cry. For me, it feels like we've turned a corner and our performances are picking up at last, even with all the injuries. Just hope we can hold out until the latter parts of the season.