Palestoon

The turn on ASM from the supporters is crazy. Is he a perfect player? absolutely not, their are several areas of his game that can be frustrating, but he is by far and away our only attacking threat. I promise you, when opposing managers game plan for us, it is centered primarily around neutralizing him.

Some people may have forgotten what this team looked like the last 2 years with him out of the side... it was absolutely shambolic. I think it was something like 1 win in 16 without him. Would i like him to track back more and make better decisions at times? of course, but to circle him as a reason for our current situation is unfair.

now if we actually build a team with some actual quality in other areas of the pitch, that gives him actual options to play off of, and take some of the load and attention off his back... and hes still not contributing, fair enough. Until then, i think he deserves the benefit of the doubt 

58 minutes ago, Inferior Acuña said:

Relegation rival's games getting cancelled in the next few weeks is good news for us I reckon. Although it doesn't affect points ultimately, I think it's psychologically beneficial for us that they don't get to extend the gap while we're losing all these December games, especially with transfer window coming up.

agreed, i think more importantly than us picking up points in the next 3 games, the bigger thing to watch will be the teams around us. if we can get through the next 3 set of fixtures and still be within striking distance going in to January with the optimism of fresh signings and a very reasonable set of fixtures for the next few months, we can definitely pick up points and build momentum.

anything from pool, city and manu would just be a bonus.

wonder what it would take for us to land bennacer from Milan. reminds me a lot of cabaye. tenacious worker, good in tight spaces and can pick a pass. would be exaclty what need in the middle of the park.

echoing some of the other comments on here, think he would look much better in a midfield 3 in a more advanced role. If howe wants to stick with the 2 in the middle, he needs to drop him and go with hayden to provide cover for our hopeless defense. regardless, we need a new CM or 2 through the door January 1st

really good performance again. still feel like he lacks confidence in his decision making. I think if howe can give him the direction to be more decisive, he can take another step forward

thought he played well today, but this is probably the type of game that suits him the most. Battling in the air for 90 mins, no nonsense clearances. no high press to deal with etc.

lewis looks terrified to pick out a forward pass

Look devoid of any confidence. so shaky on the ball, no composure. Need to settle down and get the 2nd

3 minutes ago, Aiston said:

 

Literally in one game

 

Let's not rewrite how shit he was last season when he got dropped for Ritchie.

 

 

i should clarify, relative to what we're used to 

funny, when we signed him, the narrative was that he was rapid, and good overlapping but very questionable defensively. hes been the opposite. solid defensively, but pretty clueless going forward

any other day, and that is a great point and a great effort from us. Today was the one day it meant little. we had to win. going to be really difficult now...

one fucking mistake from dubravka, typically punished

fucking unforgivable

I refuse to believe Lewis can be any worse defensively than Ritchie at LB. Watched him the other night as part of the N Ireland defense that completely neutralized the Italians. Surely his recovery pace alone will help mask a lot of our deficiencies down the left flank.

4 hours ago, LV said:

Some quotes from Chris Brunt about Owld Pards at West Brom:

 

“There was quite a lot made of when I had a go at him one day after one of the games (against Huddersfield). But it was just about seeing lads out on the pitch not knowing what they were doing. And that happened a lot of times.

“We didn’t do enough on how we were going to get a result. It was like, ‘We’ll score more goals by crossing the ball in the box and shooting’.

“But how were we going to get there to shoot? What are we going to do when we’re up there trying to cross the ball into the box? Where is everybody else going to be behind the ball?

“Just stupid things like that — sometimes people just think these things are a given but if a coach is not there telling you those things all the time then people get lazy and switch off.”

 

Christ we’ve been cursed with some charlatans haven’t we and then gaslit by the media telling us they’re great and we should be happy. Hopefully those days are over..

 

 

 

Sums up his time here with us perfectly. no gameplan, throw more forwards on the pitch = more goals in his head. So thankful we never have to endure him or Bruce ever again