Palestoon

So good today. could have had a hat-trick of goals and assists. Think he will take his game to another level as the quality of player around him improves, and the coaching staff works on his flaws.

I don't care that his legs turn to spaghetti in the box. I love Big Joe 

credit where its due to the captain. after all of the criticism hes gotten, he could have completely folded after the opening goal. got us right back into the game, and was solid in the 2nd half.

someone wake me from this dream!!! GET THE FUCK IN!!!!

10 minutes ago, joeyt said:

Him and ASM must have a decent social media team behind them

Lets hope with someone in the team capable of actually playing a defense splitting pass that ASM will mix up his movement and make some runs instead of coming deep to get the ball to his feet all the time. they could do some serious damage on the counter if they link up well.

Haven't watched much of Everton this season but really interested to see how they operate in midfield. On paper, without decoure, they seem really lightweight. hoping Bruno and big joe and impose themsleves in the middle of the pitch 

I love this man already. just listened to the media briefing, he said all the right things.  

he was asked why he joined now instead of the summer. His response was that the club really wanted him, and he felt that by joining this project in the early stages, that would endear him to the fans and earn him more respect. He seems to really get it. If hes as good as been touted, he has club legend potential about him. 

Just now, Conjo said:

 

Individual players sure there's a few from all teams that could be useful for us, but I was talking about swapping an entire attacking line-up from one of those teams for ours.

You could maybe make a case for Watford when fully fit and available. Sarr, Joa Pedro, Denis and King is a solid group. but overall i agree, i wouldnt trade our squad for any of relegation rivals

both these teams are awful. We have no excuse after the investment in January not to stay up.

Just now, TRon said:

Lascelles did fine while he was on, there seemed to be a really weird hate campaign going on against him and Willock in particular in the first half for some reason. Try watching the game back and see if it could be maybe reassessed. 

Agreed, he did well today before he went off. both our fullbacks were getting beat like a drum in the first half, Schar and Lascalles dealt with everything. Second half trippier sorted himself out, and Manquillio was excellent. Our CBs had much less to do.

agreed on the effort, he never stopped running. maybe my memory is hazy, but I remember him having this burst of pace that would leave defenders for dead in his days at bournemouth. Not sure if hes just lacking fitness, or injuries etc, but he looks so weak in everything he does.

What a fucking win! still haven't caught my breath....

Dubs - 7 - solid, good save from james in the first half. claimed everything in the box 2nd half.

Trippier - 7 - much better second half defensively

Lascelles - 6 - best game in a while before going out injured. always looks nervy but dealt with everything that came at him.

Clark - 6 - did his job to help close up shop

Schar - 9-  was absolutely fantastic defensively in every aspect. MOM

Dummett - 6 - struggled with raphinha in the first half. 

Manq - 8 - Was fantastic coming on. shut up shop down the left, got forward, and played some good composed passes forward. needs to start

Shelvey - 7 - solid today 

Longstaff - 8 - Was involved in everything. great energy.

Willock - 6 - grew into the 2nd half. some good moments late on.

Fraser - 6 - seems to have lost some of that explosiveness from his early days at bournemouth, doesnt really produce much, but credit to him for running to the end.

Maxi - 7 - better second half. created good chances for wood, willock and fraser. also should have had a penalty.

Wood - 6 - looks not much more than lump. some poor touches and seemed to lack that sharpness in the box. worked hard and won a lot of headers though. need more from him without wilson

4 hours ago, Biggsbond14 said:

Out of interest I wonder what our results have been like without him involved with the team when injured? 

Found this from last year. doesn't include this season, but i doubt it changed much.

OVERALL TOTALS AT NUFC WITH ASM STARTING:

Played 26 Won 12 Drawn 6 Lost 8 Points 42 Goals For 34 Goals Against 31

OVERALL TOTALS AT NUFC WITHOUT ASM STARTING:

Played 16 Won 1 Drawn 6 Lost 9 Points 9 Goals For 10 Goals Against 32

Until we have a team that is actually capable of creating chances through actual build up, incisive passing and good movement, discussing the merits of ASM is absolutely pointless. For anyone to think replacing him with murphy or almiron would make us more capable of scoring a goal is laughable. Take ASM out of the team, and we turn towards pinging the ball up to wood/wilson and hoping for the best. this team is not capable of anything more than that. 

He deserves criticism for some aspects of his game, but unless we have a miraculous next 2 weeks of the transfer window, he is far and away our best chance at staying up.

At some point our luck has to turn. We are due a result we dont deserve. Fucking Bruce used up 10 years of luck in the the span of 18 months. fat prick

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

He was very solid till around the 70th minute when he was clearly out of gas, and again can’t blame him after so long out. Blame lies with Howe who should have taken him off.

agreed. his positioning and tackling are very underrated. Offensively he is who he is. I think Howe thought bringing on Almiron to support him would be enough, and Almiron fell asleep in the moment that ended up being our undoing.

there was a moment where he received the ball in our own half with our back to goal, turned his defender, burst past 2 players into the opposing half, and played fraser in on the right wing. 10 seconds later he was by our corner flag tackling one of their players. i had to rewind to make sure it was him. great engine. Shelvey should be embarrassed strolling about for 90 mins  

I know he missed a couple of chances, but he was immense again. the best player for on the pitch for us bar maybe trippier week in week out. get him some help in midfield and i think we'll see another level from him.

Lascelles has to be replaced. get carlos in now. our midfield is so bad, so unatheltic. Its scary to think how much worse we would be if we hadnt discovered that our #9 last year is a solid option in midfied. Imagine playing shelvey longstaff and hendrick. beggars belief

Just now, Chicane said:

Shelvey/Longstaff or Anita/Colback

 

Who you rather?

wow. sums up how much we've neglected the position over the last 10 years

Just now, ManDoon said:

So city have an average possession of 70% which is well yeah. We have 36 (second only to Norwich woo). So not only do we not turn the ball over much, we can’t fucking keep it 

No doubt about it, we are awful in midfield and have been for years. Shelvey used to be at least good a few goals from balls over the top. Cant remember the last time we've scored from one of those. Longstaff is like a deer in the headlights, Willock looks like he'd rather be anywhere else. hendrick.... the less said the better. We literally need an upgrade in every facet. Someone to protect the back line, someone to control the tempo, and someone to carry the ball forward. Shocking state thanks to Ashley

Just now, TRon said:

 

It's why it used to annoy me when people had a go at Tiote or Diame. Tbh, I used to even get fed up with criticism of Amdy Faye even though he wasn't really a footballer, only because he at least attempted to close the opposition down. Seems like forever we've been buying midfielders with no engine or bite. We get the wool pulled over our eyes with the odd fancy pass, while the rest of the time the opposition run rings round us. 

I know he was frustrating at times, but man do i miss Tiote kicking the living shit out of everyone up and down the pitch 

R.I.P. big man

 Dummett hold down the left with ASM advanced playing off Wood. Fraser with Trippier overlapping to provide service for Wood. think this is the best we can hope for for Saturday                

                   Dubs

Trippier Lascalles Schar Dummy

                 Shelvey  

Fraser  Longstaff Joelinton ASM 

                    Wood

his best game for us by far. credit where its due.

I've always felt the classification of flair players as wasteful can sometimes be lazy. almost every flair player playing for a bottom half club at some point is questioned about their end product. Is it because they actually are bottom half players that lack composure and a clinical touch? im sure yes sometimes that is the case. But i cant help but wonder if sometimes its the optics of it. these bottom half flair players are relied upon to create chances for the their team, and when they dont turn the few they get into something positive, they stand out as wasteful.

Compare that to our last match against liverpool. In the first 10 minutes alone, i counted Salah one on one on the wing about 6 or 7 times with a free run at our LB and he produced nothing from them. ASM on the other hand probably gets that chance to go 1 on 1 with a full back 2 times an entire game if we're lucky. the difference is, Salah continues to get those opportunities because Liverpool are capable of creating chance after chance for him at will. Eventually he scores, and there you go. end product... nobody goes back to the other boatload of situations where he produced nothing. wheras with a player like ASM, his mistakes are highlighted because they're one of the few chances our team creates all day.

thats not to say ASM and Salah are players of the same level  but theirs definitely something to the team set up that affects how a players contributions appear.