St. Maximin

Often thought he gets unfair stick. He’s not the most talented but as well as being a grafter, has decent technique and is reliable enough. At this level should only be a wing-back though.

5 points gets us through surely, even if it’s third place as the best four get to the next round. We’ll go through. Scotland are no mugs mind.

Wouldn’t have seen him as good looking or possessing any charm before all the negative news stories came out. Saying that he’s a very successful footballer of course. I saw that podcast also and Rhodri came across really well especially when you consider what he’s been through. That Ryan didn’t properly apologise shows he’s clearly got a lot of issues under the surface. Wouldn’t surprise me based on what Rhodri said about their upbringing that Ryan lacked a male role model but this is hardly an excuse for his behaviour.

it wouldn't surprise me one bit if we have a third wave this summer, but from my minimal knowledge of covid it should be a lot different with the continued vaccine rollout. Millions still won't receive the vaccine so there is still scope for the virus to infect people regardless. However, the speed of the rollout, studies pointing to vaccine success and excess deaths stats are very encouraging. It seems pretty reasonable to have half-full stadiums in July given they're outdoors, but full stadiums seems pretty optimistic.

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they influenced the PL but was there much evidence of this? I know Staveley was adamant but I don’t know if there’s been any communication confirming this? Obviously the further developments with Big Picture and Super League do support this notion somewhat.

He’s sublime. 21 goals and 13 assists in a pretty negative team.

Rice and Henderson could fill in at CB if any injuries and Mount can also play a bit deeper, plus we'll only play with one striker I imagine. So it's the wings and attacking mids we should have lots of options in, which is where we excel. Rashford can play CF if we have injuries also. Think versatility is the key here.

Yeah I think it does but the media outrage seems more to do with human rights issues.

Obviously you can’t deny Bin Salman’s involvement as chairman of PIF, but it’s not the same as him owning the club or being directly involved in its day to day business. And I don’t see the uproar about their other investments on the same level. They’re one of the richest investment funds in the world so naturally they will invest in large businesses used in the western world. Granted their Uber share is only 5%, but the investment was over ten times the size in value. How much of a fuss is kicked up in the media about all the Saudi money that goes into such a successful taxi company?

He wasn’t bad though and was RWB rather than RB, otherwise Manquillo would surely be ahead. Playing as a wing-back he has slightly fewer defensive responsibilities but more is expected going forward. He was our most threatening player that started going forward. Scored a great goal, bombed up the wing and put in a few dangerous crosses. He struggled with McNeill but he did have an extra defender behind him and McNeill is very good, so less of an issue imo.

I don’t think he was awful. He’s not a defender, but playing WB with an extra CB he can do a job and he had their best player to mark. Put in several good crossers this week and last week I thought and I’d say his crossing has been a bit under-appreciated tbh. Wouldn’t start him in a back four but plenty of wingers can play WB if they have enough pace and discipline that I think Murphy does. Don’t see him more than a good squad player, but worth a new deal.

Don’t buy this at all. He put in several good crosses, his pace was useful and was always going to get a tough game from their best player. He was a wing-back also with three CBs so naturally I expect less from him defensively. Also think Longstaff had a much better second half than given credit for.

Don’t think Dyche has done anything to be associated with that brigade aside from Burnley fans being big on Brexit. Always seems like an intelligent and articulate bloke to me. Though I’m sure ASM infuriated him with his magic. The man is a delight.

Willock probably benched because he publicly said he was surprised to be dropped last week. Him, ASM and Wilson all on the bench is tragic.

Half of Bruce’s chums in the media aren’t even subtle about it - “I like Bruce”

Maybe I'm ignorant of the risks but I really don't see why a country would not justify having 25% full stadiums in over two months time, given they are outdoors and how spread out people will be.

Without wishing to become Bruce, I think there were plenty of positives from yesterday and I quite like how the formation worked. Whatever it says about our situation, Ritchie and Murphy clearly should have had more game time in recent weeks and the positions were far more logical (Willock not starting bizarre though). Saying that I think we’ve seen Bruce (/Jones) can change a formation, get some instant success before the lack of plan becomes apparent and things stop working. He did that initially by switching to ‘Rafa tactics’ (of the highly watered down kind), before it all just got defensive and hoping ASM did something brilliant. Then he switched to a back four and we had some initial good performances, but over time the lack of plan and defensive frailties become clear. Then more recently the split strikers formation was brilliant against Everton, but once Wilson got injured no one had an idea how to threaten and it just looked bizarre. So we’ll have to see here... but maybe we’ll do enough if we play like yesterday.

He’s positive, hard-working, athletic and seems to have some footballing intelligence, so I can see why Bruce doesn’t pick him.

That’s a very good and interesting analysis of things, but Bruce is being compared to Rafa and in fairness to him (painful as it is) never should he be expected to achieve similar feats, whether we like him or not (despite all the loons claiming he was better last year). For me simply the fact we are fighting relegation with our squad isn’t really a disgrace. I’ve said it before but we really don’t have a great squad when you look at some of the players who should be getting regular game time. It’s a pretty similar level to Fulham, Brighton, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Southampton imo and I’m yet to be convinced otherwise. They all have decent players as well and are better than the squad we had in 2017/18. Outside the top 8 or so I’d say there isn’t even that much variation and recently years have seen teams like Burnley and Sheffield United finish high up and then fight/get relegation the next year. However, the way Bruce approaches just about everything is a shambles and our form over the last 20 games is not acceptable. There’s a reason Brighton are where they are also but the way they play makes them so much more tolerable. Utterly bizarre how some pundits expect us to be happy with what we see, but then again a lot of them are incredibly dense. So yeah, Bruce is still absolutely shite of course.

Can't imagine Wilder being a yes man but on the other hand he is used to working for a Saudi

100% I'd guess he is fed information from a member of the playing squad as articles always lead with a view on how the squad or members of it feel about a decision i.e. a player being allowed to travel home for recovery, a bust up or argument. When Bruce said that fights happen up and down the country I'm sure they do. We've had Andy Griffin v Laurent Robert, Andy Carroll v Steven Taylor and I'm sure there will have been more over the years! Even more recently Shelvey got an injury for breaking up a fight under Rafa and apparently Ritchie is constantly gobbing off in training. Clearly the clash with Bruce went a bit deeper than tempers fraying on the pitch though.

To be honest there wasn’t much substance to the claims last year about his argument with ASM, whether it was intentional or not. ASM went to celebrate a goal with Bruce afterwards and Carroll was joking on Instagram about their fallout. Whatever happened, it didn’t seem like the Ritchie situation, which clearly was true.

It was that piece that gone him banned if I’m right? So wouldn’t be a reaction to it. Hope might have an agenda and I think some previous stuff (like the Bruce/ASM argument last year) might have been fabricated, but not so sure here. These players, by and large, don’t come across as mercenaries to me, especially the guys who have likely fallen out with Bruce (Ritchie, Carroll, Longstaff brothers, Schar etc.).

Agreed. Dunno about a top 10 side but it shouldn't be anywhere near a relegation battle. Is it really though? Granted we have some injuries but is the team we put out similar on paper to Brighton’s yesterday? Or even Fulham’s for that matter? We have absolute dross getting game time for us. Yes ASM, Wilson and Miggy are class but take them away and there’s no depth. Brighton have more options as well as playing better far football. This isn’t a defence of Bruce because he’s terrible, but I don’t see how our squad on paper is much better than a survival candidate?

Watching Fulham now and I’d say Parker. Think he could have been a legend here.