Dr Jinx

Each week that goes by exposes Bruce even more. What we could have had the last two years..

Struggled for the first 20 mins. Then they changed things up a bit and he seemed to grow into it. You’re just never confident that he’s capable of shutting up shop when we need to see out a narrow win though.

It’s not about scapegoats, there’s no denying what sort of player he can be for us. He just looks off the pace at the moment, for whatever reason (Bruce..) Also he’s a young kid, he’s probably wondering about his future now with all the speculation about players coming in. He should be given time, on form he’s better than Hayden.

Called it a month ago ?

At least Shelvey doesn’t give the ball away much, Willock isn’t doing enough to deserve a starting place. Hayden has to come on for him. Or drop Joe back to midfield with Shelvey and bring on Murphy or Fraser who would offer much more going forward.

Ok, went through all the fixtures between now and Jan 1st At the most optimistic while still being realistic, I can see us picking up no more than 10 points between now and then while also best guessing the fixtures all the other teams have. Burnley and Norwich have tough fixtures, they won’t add much to what they have. So where does that leave us? 1. Man City 50 points 2 Liverpool 49 points 3. Chelsea 47 points 4. West Ham 36 points 5. Spurs 35 points 6. Man Utd 33 points 7. Arsenal 32 points 8. Wolves 26 points 9. Palace 26 points 10. Everton 26 points 11. Leicester 24 points 12. Villa 23 points 13. Brighton 22 points 14. Brentford 21 points 15. Southampton 20 points 16. Leeds 18 points 17. Newcastle 17 points 18. Watford 15 points 19. Burnley 12 points 20. Norwich 10 points Remember, this is a realistic best case scenario for us but if it turns out to be what happens I think we have a great chance with some improvements in squad from January.

The delusion over on the Everton board is staggering. They think David Moyes would leave West Ham to come back and have no money to spend. I feel sorry for Rafa, I think he was sold a pup when choosing that job. It’s wearing him down. The timing was against him. I’m all in on Eddie now but I wonder If he was unattached to a club in the near future would he come back in a consultant type role to work on a defensive shape while Eddie then had more time to get his ideas embedded in our midfield and forwards?

It’s not just last night, he’s made several absolute howlers this season. Kept getting picked inexplicably. I’m still fuming about it, same as I still am about Shelvey against Spurs. Just pure stupidity. I think back to when Rafa was picking players who we knew were less talented then some who were being left out, but I get it now. It’s all about trust. It would be a small squad if we only named the ones we could count on.

The list of players who’s contracts are about to run out would be a good place to start looking. Expensive loans could be the sensible play. Mercenaries who will play well to earn a contract here or elsewhere.

He looks like he’s carrying extra weight. As I said in the match thread, when he came in after a pre season with Arsenal he was our best player. Had one with Bruce and he looks a shell of what he was last year.

Two draws and a loss to Arsenal isn’t the worst considering the dumb individual errors which were made in all three games. Think of what he’s learned about certain players. Darlow - errors which literally cost goals. Lascelles - Zero leadership, statue like, watches the disaster unfold around him like a spectator. Clark - ugh.. enough said. Schar - needs to be kept in check, if he does the basics and gets to pass the ball when he’s in space he’s our best option at the back. Fernandez - better than Lascelles and the real captain imho. Lewis - deserves a chance Joelinton - transformative. Best player on the pitch tonight and against Brentford. Almiron - dependable. Think he’ll find a place in the side, until January at least. When everyone is available this should guide team selection.

Arsenal pre season ?

Bruce pre season

Had a similar argument with a cretin on Facebook about Rafa over the weekend. He did the very best with what he had, remember, we had nothing down the left. Had to loan Kenedy and got half a season out of him. Made Lascelles look like Baresi and turned Diame into a powerhouse midfielder. He built things methodically, you could see how things changed once Almiron was added, all we needed was a goal scorer then and full backs of his choosing. He was dialled in here, 2 seasons of total confidence from the supporters gave him the time to gain that insight. He’s not got that at Everton, they’ve been on him from day 1. Our current squad is overall better now, aside from losing Lejeune. We should be doing better. Hopefully Howe can see some of our squad are just shell shocked at present and need to be taken out of the firing line.

I’d say he’s seen enough of Lascelles now to know he won’t be starting for a while. Basically both goals Arsenal scored he was looking right at it and did nothing. Good chance for Fernandez to step up.

Can’t bring someone in for that kind of planning when we’re staring relegation down the barrel of a gun. If our fortunes are better by then (January) they’ll have people lined up. If not they’ll have to put that off until after we get promoted from the champo.

Could tell Eddie Howe was pissed off. When asked if he thought the players switched off he didn’t defend them, said “you’ll have to ask them that” I think they reverted to what they were doing before which will have annoyed him more so. The manic pressing from the very start isn’t sustainable throughout a game so they need to learn to contain teams in the first 10 minutes without knackering themselves. Fitness did look a bit better though. ASM looks like he needs a rest, even just to the bench for next game. And Lascelles.. at least Ritchie you can make excuses for not being his position but that second goal, Lascelles was looking right at that player ghosting in and stood there like a statue until was too late.

He had a life threatening trip to the hospital yesterday, still found time to make a video about it though, for his fans. True Geordie started out total cringe as well, he just used to rant incoherently about how shit we were (under Pardew) And now he’s probably got a house out of it. It’s a strange world.

Fraser picked ahead of Murphy, who I thought did well let week. He must be pulling his weight in training now

Our bench is aids ?

It’s a game nobody is expecting us to win so despite our position in the table, the pressure is on them more so.

You would have thought proving PIF are influenced by MBS would have been a slam dunk, but it wasn’t, proving some company or tourism project isn’t directly linked/related to PIF would be even more difficult. The temporary ban is also an obstruction of free trade etc.. none of this would have a leg to stand on in court.

George Best gone 16 years today

They were actually the better side against Liverpool for the first 20 minutes maybe and played some lovely football. As soon as they went a goal down it all went wrong for them though. We can’t sit back against these but we can’t overcommit either. Their left back might still be suffering ptsd after Salah last week, maybe ASM can keep that going another week.

Absolutely shameless.