Kid Icarus

Gameweek 13 Brentford 2-1 Burnley Man City 3-1 Leeds Sunderland 1-1 Bournemouth Everton 2-1 Newcastle Spurs 2-0 Fulham Palace 2-1 Man United Villa 3-0 Wolves Forest 2-0 Brighton West Ham 1-2 Liverpool Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal Gameweek 14 Bournemouth 2-1 Everton Fulham 1-3 Man City Newcastle 2-1 Spurs Arsenal 2-0 Brentford Brighton 2-1 Villa Burnley 0-2 Palace Wolves 1-2 Forest Leeds 0-2 Chelsea Liverpool 2-1 Sunderland Man United 2-1 West Ham

Tbf, I feel like this one is pretty legit. Same houses and spitting distance from Tynemouth

I basically lived in that for 2 years like, proper loved it.

It's easy imo. It ends in a draw and Isak gets injured.

He was defensively suspect for ages while he was developing. Even then he's not the only example. Before Hall it was Gordon that was brought up as the player everyone was too quick to judge and there was bits of it with Barnes too. There's just no point coming to any conclusions about players that aren't performing after a few months under Howe.

Might just be me, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I reckon people can use examples of things happening over and over again to make a point like. Hardly controversial or irrelevant. Hall is just one example among many that show why players not immediately playing or performing well under Howe doesn't mean a great deal. Some will fit right in, others won't and as plenty of the examples show, age is irrelevant. Or, keep judging them early, watch as they keep eventually coming good and never learn anything.

Kind of what I'm getting at really. If Ramsdale comes in and consistently makes those saves in the same way Pope does then fair enough.

What school do you go to? North Gosforth Academy. Ah, sound, where's that? :.......

Don't see us winning this and honestly wouldn't if we were in form either. This isn't the same Everton of the last few years, their relegation woes are over for the foreseeable.

I do think in all of this Pope's strengths are kind of being taken for granted and as things we're just assuming Ramsdale also has tbh. Pope's talent for shot-stopping, particularly one-on-one and his (usual) reliability on crosses aren't necessarily going to be things Ramsdale has at the same level. Even last night Pope made a couple of good saves that we just see as standard, that I could definitely see Ramsdale not making.

Yeah I'm banking on the whole goalkeepers mature later thing happening.

Not sure where this idea we don't play on the counter attack comes from like. It's a huge part of how we've tried to play this season.

He definitely needed to Martinez him if he's made that mistake. I do think Ramsdale is probably imminent but I also think it'll be followed by a clamouring for Pope to come back in.

His form and the criticism of it from January 2022 to the end of that season was nigh on identical to Elanga's. I remember it well because the same excuses I was making for Gordon (he'd have x number of assists if other players had taken their chances) are also the same as the ones I've made for Elanga.

What's your opinion on Lewis Hall now vs not long after we signed him? Ramsey's been here 3 months.

Think that's a bit of correlation ≠ causation. They had to cut their cloth accordingly and were punching above their weight until then. It'll never be one single thing that caused relegation, but it's very hard to look past goal line technology failing them as the biggest factor. I don't think that's happened before or since.

He made signings that were viewed like that at the time that then with hindsight turned out to be great signings. It's no exaggeration to say that Howe's only failed signing at Bournemouth for the money paid was Jordan Ibe and that can probably be attributed to the player's own personal issues.

Why would Everton away be that match? Doesn't really make sense to me, they're in good form, at home, we've historically struggled against them away, and they're miles better than times we've lost against them while we've dropped off. I'm not seeing it.

Ramsdale is basically Xzibit's solution to the goalkeeper making mistakes problem.

Bright is about as good as it's got with Ramsey tbh and his best performance so far is still his debut when he came on against Liverpool. Still early days so I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do rather than hanging my hate on anything he's done so far.

Course there was, it's in his and everyone's best interests to back Pope.

If they turn out to be great this time next year will you learn your lesson?

It's not the position and output so much for me, I can forgive him not being much good in a position that's not his as well, it's the sloppiness: misplaced passes, getting caught in possession, waiting for the ball to come to him, decision making. At the moment it's all way off.

And that's not even including the games that don't fit that pattern but felt the same. Liverpool at home, Arsenal at home, Brighton away, off the top of my head. We're getting into a weird position where scoring, especially early, is just about the worst thing we can do. It's almost better if just kept hammering away and win 1-0 in the 85th minute.

He was useless