St. Maximin

Sorry, I should expect mocking from a load of people behind s keyboard for saying I don’t like someone’s cheating. If you guys don’t mind it I’m sure you can cope with my difference of opinion. The Tory bit was a joke before you get too upset.

Stop being a moron, I’m just stating my opinion. Absolutely ridiculous the way people jump on someone’s back here for having a difference of opinion. I’m sure none of you have ever complained about anyone else diving.

I agree they (and defenders in general) should be criticised for antics like shirt-pulling etc. Strikers of course foul too even without the diving fwiw. I just said I didn’t like it, having talked up what a player he is. It’s not going to change anything. Each to their own but hardly worth the reaction I’ve got

If he’s conning the same refs and defenders who screwed him over I can defend him more, but he’s not.

Oh yes they do and I have called them out previously before. Totally fair to appreciate these guys as players and still criticise behaviour. Quite why you’re having a go at someone calling out cheating from his own players I’ll never know but each to their own.

Yes and I’m also a Tory too as we’ve discussed previously. Sorry I don’t agree with everyone here. Hate it when people dare come on a forum and have a difference of opinion.

Doesn’t take anything away from a cracking performance mate. Was full of praise for him. But it’s still cheating and I don’t like that. He’ll get away with more than other players will, which isn’t really right.

Sorry I forgot I can’t criticise things like cheating. All the other teams do it you know. Great dive Callum, quality shithousery etc. ?

He is class and has been since he arrived aside from a brief spell mid-season this year. Tremendous season. That looked like a dive though and I won’t be tolerating that or defending it just because other teams do it.

Pretty close between him and Richarlison mind. Only 16 goals in it.

Yeah I think it would have been a goal without the deflection, but probably doesn’t get it because it wasn’t en route to Murphy. And I think that ultimately confirms why it’s not an assist because you can’t give it based on hypotheticals. That he created a goal with a stunning run doesn’t change. But there’s definite logic to why it’s not his assist.

It’s not really a joke though. It wouldn’t be his goal if he did the same run, then an off target shot went in off Tarkowski. Stats are overrated anyway. It was a brilliant run that led to a goal however the PL want to see it.

I know it feels stupid he doesn’t get an assist, but it’s like not giving a striker a deflected goal when he’s gone on an amazing run but his shot is off target. Understandable. But it doesn’t make it any less brilliant. Absolutely immoral stuff.

I think his first touch was always pretty good tbh. But he wouldn’t normally get a third touch back then… One of the odd things I find about him is how he never seemed able to outmuscle defenders with his back to goal (obviously not his role in fairness), but now he’s facing the opposite way he’s probably the strongest player I’ve seen here. Absolutely ridiculous.

Yeah I know, need a name change

If the one and only Dean Jones from Give Me Sport thinks ASM is going then he’s almost certainly off. Might as well start thinking about his replacement now.

Mate I know - I completely agree with you on your comments here. Simple analysis of our performances and his decisions should tell the ordinary fan what they need to know. I was just saying if we go by the table it’s not hard to see why some people might defend him. We comfortably stayed up despite having a squad that was very poor when the star players were injured. It doesn’t change the fact he’s a dinosaur and as I said he’s now been shown up over time, just like how Pardew has. We have quite a lot to thank WBA for actually.

Sorry mate this is ridiculous. Trying to show some understanding and this is the response . It’s an interesting kind of ‘defending’ when I’m agreeing with everyone that he’s a moron.

Playing Devil’s advocate, but it’s not hard to see why people defended Bruce tbh. We finished 13th and 12th under him, which imo was on paper around par or overachieving if anything. We finished comfortably above mastermind Graham Potter’s Brighton I believe. Of course his managerial qualities were still terrible, his overall attitude even worse and he was well defended by his mates in the media, but we shouldn’t be that shocked by the “he did as well as Rafa” comments because a lot of football fans will just look at the table and not follow other teams closely enough to see what the football was like. Thankfully Howe’s brilliance combined with Bruce’s car crash performance at West Brom have proven he’s a fraud to most people.

Spot on, it’s a shame people would rather be ignorant and not examine why he was so popular here. I do hope he gets another decent job and shows what he’s capable of, though I feel there are some adjustments he might need to make, in line with how football in general has changed. I imagine he’s constantly studying and learning though, rather like our current manager. Really doubt that about the other bloke in between…

Oh aye they were incredible. Playing ultra-defensive is still risky though and only achieved in us not ruining the goal difference too much. They could have easily scored more on another day, though I guess that doesn’t matter as they didn’t. I’m agreeing by and large with the pro-Rafa comments here thankfully. Just don’t think it should be too black and white (ironically) that his achievements means we shouldn’t be happy with criticism. He certainly has his limitations and it’s fine to recognise those without making out they mean he’s a bad manager. Not like we don’t criticise our favourite players after all.

Good point, though don’t fully agree about the outcome of that Man City match. Many weak teams have had a go at home to them and got thumped, but many have got positive results too. I don’t really blame Rafa for that, but it wasn’t pretty to watch and we’d have been far less complimentary to a less successful manager for that. I don’t have an issue with pundits criticising it tbh - more annoyed Bruce wouldn’t get the same treatment. Also this might differ to others here, but I have reservations over him pointing out the limitations of our squad, which helped him get away with some pretty bad runs of form. There’s often not an awful lot the separates teams that scrape into the top 10 from those in the relegation zone. We had no more of a ‘Championship squad’ than plenty of other teams, or Bruce did at times.

He did a great job here. Find it hard to see why some of our fans would disagree if they were following us closely and seeing the bigger picture. Doesn’t mean it should always work out for him, or any failure is never his own fault. Whatever you say about Everton’s toxic environment, he hardly helped himself. Also clearly it’s very open at the bottom, but I wouldn’t be overly confident he’d keep them up as he didn’t in his first season here and typically needs time to let his methods work, if they do.

Seems highly realistic that Marsch could get sacked by a team that gets relegated and then turn down jobs at both of the other relegated teams. What a season for the bloke.

Might be my ignorance as someone who doesn’t referee, but I’m pretty sure we could significantly improve VAR through, in addition to some solid evaluation of issues, not employing idiots. I often rightly hear about the issues of subjectivity and determining what is ‘clear and obvious’, but both of those Brighton penalties weren’t down to issues of subjectivity but down to the fact the people operating were idiots (or corrupt/both). Refs not giving those are perfect arguments for a system that involves video replays where someone who isn’t a complete idiot can take a quick look and overturn them. Shouldn’t be hard really.