Dr Jinx

Second to everything. Feel foolish for thinking we might get something today. We’re so far off these.

Wood should have scored but since we signed him, how many decent balls into the box have we provided for him?

They have better players. We knew that. But what’s annoying me watching this is how much slower of thought we are, when you play a team with a decent press, you need to make the right decision when you actually have the ball, we’ve been terrible in that sense. Even Joe and Bruno have been very quiet. If we can get our shit together and get one goal they will get nervous. If Wilson is ready send him on.

Actually, Pep also has form for it. Totally forgot about this. https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2001/1128/160376-guardiolaj/

Wilson might start. Even if he doesn’t, I think we’ll play better than we did against the dippers. City are great but they aren’t juicing ☺️

I don’t but into this whole “they haven’t had a decent manager in years” They’ve had excellent managers, namely Van Gaal and Mourinho and to a lesser extent Moyes. There’s also a case to be made that Ole probably overachieved too. Recruitment has been poor but it’s a deeper problem than that. Half the team are strolling around getting embarrassed week in week out and they don’t care in the slightest. I think the wage structure they have there is a huge part of the problem”.. once certain players started earning 300 grand a week (or more in some instances), it just created a massive motivation issue. It’s not just Man Utd, you can see it affecting other big clubs as well.

The drug cheats looking fresh as daisies this half.

I’m disgusted with Chelsea, haven’t seen it but the radio were saying they were poor. Giving Fwank a bit of a breather eh. The last relegation spot will solely come down to who’s playing whom and what do they have to play for. Lot of mid table teams on the beach already. Even before today I had a bad feeling Leeds would just end up slipping down.. they’ve had awful luck with injuries all season.

Teams that can defend competently have figured out that if you get to ASM before he can get into full stride, he makes awful choices and will give the ball away repeatedly. Its been this way for weeks and he’s made absolutely 0 adjustments to his game. Trying the same thing again and again and expecting a different result is lunacy.

ASM very poor today. Midfield quiet. We just came out second best in almost every challenge, every loose ball there were red shirts there to collect. Disappointing but that’s how far we are away from them. The difference between the top sides and everyone else is the pace they can play at. We were a good bit off them man for man.

It’s us who look like we played on Wednesday

Lascelles looks leaner

Aside from losing concentration when not given the foul and getting caught out, we’ve mostly contained them, but we’re clearly second best here. We’re losing many 50/50 challenges, they just look stronger. Need to be smarter

Stupid yellow

Asthma innit, he has a doctors note

Quite clearly offside but that’s what we need to be doing

If Schär gets the ball first, that’s every much a red card as the one that was given against Everton when they played us. Stupid to lose focus, we’re chasing the game now

Good team selection, Wood, as good as he is in the air, he won’t get much change out of Van Dijk (who does), the more intelligent option is to try and get in behind them with pace. I’d say Joelinton can drop back if needed. Just hope we’re at them from the start.

Yeah I remember that.. it was when the judge simplified the example of how Ashley was out of pocket that you could see he was leaning that way. The PL we’re about to be found liable so they had to back off and the new owners allowed them to draft some nonsense statement about legal assurances.. as if that happened, they could have had that in week 1. Was a case of how do we get out of this situation while saving face.

So he’ll be back available for City, great news! You have to admire the way Howe will always stick to the group he prepared all week, even if there’s a better option available, he gets a game plan together with what he has at the time and that’s better than throwing someone in who hasn’t prepared with the squad.

All gone a bit quiet on this front. He's nowhere to be seen in the training photos so i'd say he's still a few weeks away maybe. We essentially have 3 free ones coming up before Burnley. would it be mad to risk him when the job is done?

I can’t see how you can keep a player who is club captain but not play him. It’s probably not good for morale to keep him but give the armband to a new captain either.

You have to be cold when making the decisions Eddie Howe will have to make.. Can he keep Shelvey another year? Sure he can but let’s look at the situation, Bruno can do everything Shelvey can and then some.. Short passing ✅ Long passing ✅ Tackling ✅ Pressing ✅ Except he’s more progressive. And he has that sudden burst of pace to get in ahead of other players that Shelvey just never had to begin with. So that’s the dilemma, keep someone in the team when you have another player who can do all the same things, but better. Or drop him and bring someone in who can make an impact. What about ASM, I think it’s been shown that Joelinton can be just as effective out wide.. he might not beat players in the same way as ASM but he’s capable of driving the ball forward and then plays a simple pass. ASM will rarely do this, (although he was better in 2nd half against Norwich) Willock is probably worth a place in the side, but I sort of have a feeling of square pegs, round holes with all of our midfielders.. there’s no combination that looks totally balanced. Longstaff is probably the worst of our options there but we also need players who aren’t going to kick up a fuss when not playing.. that’s definitely him.

I think Targett is just fine for the role, but if this Lodi chap is that good and they don’t want anyone else getting in this summer they might make a move.. but I think if that was unlikely Howe would be more than happy with Targett. You have to remember, someone else is also calling the shots transfer wise. Ashworth will be talking directly with the owners so he’ll have to try and match their aspirations too. I have a feeling the sudden resurgence of the team has given them the confidence to make a go of it ahead of schedule?

Looked like Courtois ducked out of the way of it