Kid Icarus

That's 224 732 clubs in the first round

There's no real reason why starting Botman over Burn at home to fucking Bournemouth should be a match-defining decision. I really don't think it's worth picking apart, particularly as Burn was probably the only player that wasn't poor on Saturday and Schar was one of the worst. It seems like an odd thing to hone in on, the whole game plan wasn't right and there was no hand-in-glove connection between the midfield and Isak and the wingers and Isak.

That happens now, it's just a two-way thing in terms of how vociferous it is.

I think the reality is that it's a two-way thing and has been for as long as I've been watching football.

It was my first time back in years but it felt unique like and the match didn't help to get the crowd in the right mood. Weird atmosphere among fans pre-match, weird atmosphere in SJP, strange pre-match music, subdued feeling with the minute's silence, a mixed reaction to the national anthem with very few singing it and some sitting down. All of it contributed to a feeling of things just being a bit off. Then it just continued throughout the match with all of the things that are annoying, people coming in 5-10 minutes late, leaving on 40 minutes then the same again 2nd half. Absolute never-has-beens telling Kieran Trippier what is and isn't a good ball or decision. Players doing something positive and winning a corner and instead of encouraging them, whinging because it wasn't the perfect ball. Far too many go on like football consumers rather than supporters. Like I say though the match itself did little to lift the crowd and take them away from that. Maybe if it had no one would have been leaving, whinging and so on.

He is a lone striker, he's just not necessarily one that's most effective against a defense that's sitting deep. At least not at this stage of his development anyway.

Please start getting a tune out of your 1 in 2 striker. I noticed a while ago how Hope plays down the Bruce thing after he's the one to bring it up for the umpteenth time. Thought it was canny obvious how much he loved the attention he got from that.

Maybe we're just his bogey team because I also think he's looked poor when I've seen him in those matches and in the other odd couple I've caught little bits of.

That's exactly how I calculated it as well. We should have picked those points up Vs Bournemouth but were also robbed of them against Palace. Considering that and that we've had our best 3 players out injured, I think we're in pretty good shape all things considered. Think we should be and probably are aiming for around 60 points though.

Is it not all just recency bias with Everton not being terrible and Villa looking one dimensional? It wasn't that long ago that the same was said about Gerrard being miles ahead of Lampard when Villa were looking decent and Everton were a shower of shit.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFJWspop/ Love that.

Seeing Sergio Ramos celebrating goals with Messi still seems so weird.

They're all decent in hindsight of very recent form, but we'll see how it goes. None of them bar Coady and possibly Maupay were that great at the time imo.

Missing out on Seymour and Duncan was a blessing in disguise

Everton's signings were nothing special imo, with the exception of one player who I had a feeling would have a huge impact on them on and off the pitch - Coady.

Back end of last season Fraser was like. He's been generally good under Howe.

We're having a fair few hamstring injuries like. That's Shelvey, Wilson, Bruno, and ASM now I think.

All in all I think we're about par for where we should be VAR at Palace notwithstanding, 2 points down overall because of that. We've gained unexpected points against Brighton and Man City and dropped expected points against Palace and Bournemouth, but that's the chaos of football. Forest Expected 3 result 3 Brighton Expected 0 result 1 +1 Man City Expected 0 result 1 +2 Wolves Expected 1 result 1 +2 Liverpool Expected 0 result 0 +2 Crystal Palace Expected 3 result 1 =0 Bournemouth Expected 3 result 1 -2 Not that big a deal and not a great deal to worry about imo. Yesterday was the only poor performance where we didn't get a result (Brighton away wasn't a good performance but a draw there is definitely a result) There'll not be loads of teams who set up against us like Bournemouth did imo. Even then we're talking about a disappointing performance where despite everyone being off it, we had 73% possession and hit the bar and the post.

He was outstanding against Liverpool tbf

I can't stand Murphy but the unfortunate truth is that he was a clear improvement when he came on.

The booing was largely at the ref where I was sat. It might not have been picked up by the microphones but the crowd were really on his back for constantly giving nothing free kicks to them.

Always has been. His football knowledge is shocking

He had a bad game, I don't think that means he's bad overall and doesn't offer anything. Likewise Almiron who's very limited on his best days had a worse day than usual. Likewise Joelinton, Schar, Bruno, Targett, Trippier to an extent. Everyone was off it.

Willock's obviously the whipping boy on here like. I said it before but you're mad if you came out of that match singling out Willock as the problem, he was probably our best midfielder today. Bruno was off it and Joelinton put in the worst performance I've ever seen from him. Saying all that, I do think Willock needs a rest considering how much he's played and Shelvey coming in also means pushing Bruno forward where he's more effective.