Dr Jinx

Mental decision but probably highlights the precarious financial position they face. With 8 games left it’s not impossible but highly unlikely. West Ham (a) - ? Nothing here Southampton (h) - ? Not in great form Wolves (h) - ? - mixed form Watford (a) - ? Equally poor Villa (h) - ? Mixed form Spurs (a) - ? Nothing here Villa (a) - ? Mixed form Us (h) - ? Depends on what we’re playing for. Maximum 7-10 points…

Well in the sense that anything can happen in football, yes they could get things right again, but certainly not imminently.. that club have problems from top to bottom. They’ve changed at the top without really changing at all so it’s hard to imagine them getting some sort of inspiration. They’ve run through a train of mostly excellent managers, damaging their reputations, Ralf Ragnick (sp) the latest.. he looks totally out of his depth there yet he’s highly respected in European football. I can’t imagine sticking in any other current candidate, either Poch or Ten Haag would make all that much difference when so much of that squad look checked out. Can’t see them lashing out another 500m over next 2 seasons on new players, so who’s going to come in there and make a difference?

Everton are a weird side, they have some good players who seem to raise their game against better players, then can’t seem bothered against the dregs. Maybe it’s a case of some of their lot playing for moves to better/bigger clubs in the summer. As a club can’t stand them.. but looks like it’s going to be Burnley. It’s far from over though.. we need one more win and maybe a draw so we can just breathe a bit easier. A run of 3 losses again where Burnley win twice would be a nervous end to the season.

Probably the best team we can field currently.

I think we were expecting some sort of defensive powerhouse and he’s not really like that.. if I could compare him to any other player it would be more like Modric and that’s exactly how we should use him. He makes space for himself in the same way and keeps things ticking over, but when we’re being overrun he’s not going to prevent that. We’ll see the best of him when we’re a possession based side. Or is that if we’re ever?

Eddie Howe has done really well with what he’s had to work with, January was a fucker in terms of who was available. Aside from Trippier and maybe Bruno, we couldn’t secure first choice targets. We know we’d be fucked if we hadn’t gone out and overspent on a whole lot of average. The squad is fitter, no doubt about that and they seem to enjoy training.. competitive and the little things like having the photo taken of the winning side in their training matches, the players look like they’ve bought right into all that. But.. for me there's a niggling doubt, like can he hang with the best of them?.. he was totally outmanoeuvred by Conte on Sunday. We were matching them comfortably, but showed our hand for their equaliser. Conte knew we’d be vulnerable to the whipped ball into the box so he changed it up, dropped Kane much deeper and pushed other players further forward and wider to create the space. Howe didn’t know what to do about it. Yes the players had bad games too but it’s a group effort and they were let down by the manager as much as they let him down. Conte has had a few stinkers as well so hopefully this is just a one off , we played well against Chelsea and ok-ish against Everton so it’s not like the wheels have come off but 4 defeats in a row will be terrible for confidence. He needs to up his game again… if we totally tail off for rest of season and just scrape survival it won’t be a good look for him considering how well the side were playing.

Before we started bidding for him in January, him and Maldini were commenting on each other’s instagram posts. Milan’s pursuit of Botman has been going on for quite some time and Maldini has played a part for sure.

Our captain should be looked after until he’s 100% ready. Too important to risk, he’ll be a beast for us next season.

He’s had one bad game since he joined. 1.. and people are saying get rid. A bit of an overreaction? He was poor yesterday and lost the head. Hopefully that won’t happen again. The rest of the team need to help him out a bit too, time and time again they likes of Kane had all day in midfield to pick out passes that were killing us. It’s too easy to pick out one or two players.. the whole team weren’t good enough yesterday.

Kane wound him up and was getting the better of him, especially second half. Resorting to shoulder barging people off the ball. He was probably lucky to be still on the pitch. He’s had a few great games and a few bad ones now. We’ve also been playing better opposition so maybe he’s just good up to a certain level. We just need to finish this season and let the cull begin this summer.

I’m not sure the players carried out the managers tactics at any point today. To a man they have just been second best in every single position. It’s been a sobering result.. we’re light years off them

Total shambles

Bruno on for Joe please

Burn and Schär have been shocking this half.

Be surprised if there isn’t a sending off at some point, they look rattled but we’ve also picked up stupid cards.

Solid line up, he’s had time to work with all of these too so shouldn’t be any excuses. Hopefully we can spring a surprise, bookies have us 11/2 to win

Without naming any particular player we’ve been linked with, it just needs to be said that any player who’s not prepared to break their bollocks for the club in terms of effort and helping out teammates, or a player who has just as more interest in their golf handicap than reaching their maximum potential with us should be avoided at all costs. I’m more than happy to see other clubs make those expensive mistakes.

There’s a mirror article which couldn’t be arsed to link but was Pistone who got the sheeps heart, Ketsbaia got a hairbrush and Duncan Ferguson got a prison shirt.

Aye we’d have gotten to enjoy it for all of 9 months! Hamann might have stayed longer had there not been so much shit going on in the dressing room. He was given a copy of Mein Kampf as a Christmas present by the “lads” - top banter.. Think that was the same year that either Pistone or Domi was given a sheeps heart, to suggest the player had no heart for the rough and tumble of the premier league.. There was more too, can’t remember right now.

If we were just going to get top level players, for goalkeeper position would look no further than Edouard Mendy, you never know, they might be in a position where their top players want out as soon as the window opens?

Just here for the money!

Booze is a funny creature how it effects people differently, for someone like Barton who doesn’t seem to have a limit on where the red mist will take him, he should obviously avoid it like the plague, would throw cocaine into that too. There’s ways of letting off steam that doesn’t result in someone getting battered.

It was going ok for him here and then he dislocated his shoulder, had to have it pinned back.. then when he was nearly back it happened again so he missed a chunk.. when he did come back he wasn’t the same and the final nail was that sort of half hearted jump to try and stop Drogba when we played Marseille, where he just sort of flattened him and ran on to score the goal that knocked us out. He did a few good things in his time here but overall I think us wanting him to do well outweighed how he actually played for us.

Ok not the best pass from Joelinton, but ASM’s instinct was to get control and run with it. Not “this pass is a bit short, I’ll just lay it back” He was tackled as was receiving the ball and he was brushed off far too easily. It wasn’t a hospital pass, he just wasn’t in a position to do what he wanted to do with the ball. Pass, pass, pass, shoot. Dan Burn is equally culpable, not sure what was in his head at that point.