Fantail Breeze

Do we have any confirmed Covid cases?

Wouldn’t be surprised for VAR to look at that and give a penalty at the other end for Man Utd.

2-1 Wilson x2 Late Manc consolation

As with everyone he’ll get a clean slate and I’ll assess him based on what he does for NUFC rather than the past. Not going to pretend I’d really ever heard of him before and/or his achievements to date.

At least it puts the pressure on regarding future decisions.

The only thing I can think of, is they’ve (probably rightly) judged that Fraser was never going to get the ball and it was an accidental/natural collision rather than an attempt to challenge Fraser. What I mean is - Ederson was challenging his own player rather than Fraser and pulled out when he realised his player was going to easily collect the ball. There was then an accidental coming together which had no impact on Fraser getting the ball. I suppose the equivalent would be if a player slid in to make a challenge, but his team mate nipped in ahead of him and ran off with the ball, but the sliding player’s momentum took him into a an opposition player off the ball - would it be given as a foul or just be accepted as a coming together? I don’t know. I’m trying to find any way to make sense of the incredibly wrong decision

You could argue for every Joelinton who has improved, there is an ASM who has regressed. I think Howe’s philosophy will take time to embed and as time goes on we’ll get more Joelinton’s and less ASM’s. I just worry we don’t have that time.

To be fair, he’s usually massively wrong about everything. But on this occasion he’s actually right.

Calf injury, was due back in December apparently according to The Chromic. Not like them to be wrong mind.

Like a prime Mo Diame.

He’s always been average-good at best. He drops a lot of clangers but often makes up for that by keeping us in games and winning points singlehandedly. There are seven or eight other positions that need strengthening more urgently.

Yup. They’d be better off postponing Boxing Day and allowing teams to self isolate/not meet for the next three or four days, whilst the training grounds etc. are deep cleaned. Would at least break the circuit slightly.

My earlier post literally answers all of your points here. These same players looked like a solid defensive unit under Rafa. “I’ve said it for a few weeks but I think the reason is relatively clear. Trying to get our players to play it out from the back, puts us under unnecessary pressure and increases the risk of individual errors. They panic, which causes an already low on confidence team to be unsettled even further. If you’re asking them to do things they don’t understand, they’re too busy trying to think of a million things rather than the basics and the end result is brain farts like today. They’re not good enough and don’t have the right skillset to play this style, it’s why they were much more effective under Rafa’s defensive set up. Get the ball and play it forward quickly, countering.”

Not too dissimilar to Lascelles’ forcefully tackling the ball and taking a Man City player earlier. Both were attempts to get the ball, one got it, the other didn’t. It was a yellow.

That isn’t what happened though. He intended to kick the ball, Emerson got there a fraction sooner and there was a swipe of the legs.

That bar keeps changing height.

Is that true when we got away with Schar’s at Anfield in the first half, which was much more of a foul than TAA’s ever will be?

I don’t get that as an excuse, Pawson apparently said it wasn’t a foul and gave his justification. Gallagher is now saying it was a foul but didn’t meet this imaginary ‘high bar’. Sounds like a load of shit.

I absolutely love this guy but he’s been dreadful. 0 goals and 0 assists this season from 11 starts.

Because Southgate plays him in completely the wrong way with a dreadful style of football.

Salah hasn’t been in this game at all.

I’ve said it for a few weeks but I think the reason is relatively clear. Trying to get our players to play it out from the back, puts us under unnecessary pressure and increases the risk of individual errors. They panic, which causes an already low on confidence team to be unsettled even further. If you’re asking them to do things they don’t understand, they’re too busy trying to think of a million things rather than the basics and the end result is brain farts like today. They’re not good enough and don’t have the right skillset to play this style, it’s why they were much more effective under Rafa’s defensive set up. Get the ball and play it forward quickly, countering.

People need to realise there is a correlation between the wrong selection/tactics and individual errors.

Always thought Mike Riley was Alan Barnes’ biological father.

Great game so far.