Nine

Yes yes. The issue in this particular fixture is that Brightons set up is the kryptonite to ours if you like. We can make wide observations over league position or we can look at each fixture objectively.

The problem is Brighton want to be pressed, as we know pressing is the substance to our style. Everton beat these by stepping off and sitting deep and narrow, our management will know this buts it’s the opposite of what this team has been doing all season so what’s the call here? I’m interested to see how we set up, if we set up as usual and try to press them to death we likely lose just like Arsenal today. And that’s without taking into account the fact we have slowed down over recent weeks, 10/11 seems very short to me.

If we try and press them like Arsenal did they will use it to their advantage like they did today. They play it out from the back but are so deep they draw the press high enough that it leaves a massive open space between our midfield and back line which is usually exploited by a long ball creating a 4v4 situation. They are truly beating the press meta right now, we will have to adjust our shape and/or style.

Now he’s been out of the side for a few games I can safely say I did him dirty by saying this, he’s better than that.

Wilson has 10 in 10, I’d be amazed if he was benched for the next game

Why I don’t understand when people claim Allardyce is useless, yes his football is technically shit and ugly to watch but it’s effective in the short term when executed well. He gets teams scrapping and believing, today was always going to be a tough game for any side. People going on like we had a divine right to win today are ignoring the context of the circumstances and the situation entirely.

Expectations have gone through the roof already, I don’t want to be around here if we ever actually start winning things

We got a point away at an Allardyce side that’s fighting for their lives while we have tired legs across our team, it’s not a bad result.

Was through on goal when he got fouled for the free kick at the end.

Everyone looks gassed by half time at the moment, truthfully we’ve been looking leggy for the last 3 games or so. We get these brief moments of momentum after we score when everyone’s fired up but it dies out again quickly. We are running out of steam, a thin squad combined with our style of play was always going to result in this situation at some point. Having said that, today was a big potential banana skin and a point isn’t terrible. We are probably going to need 2 wins out of the last 3 games to seal it, it’s going to go very close if Liverpool don’t slip up.

We are so leggy man, besides short bursts of motivation we’ve been tired for 3 games or so now

Cold

This feels like it could go either way still

Beauty

I’m not defending him I’m making the point that he’s done well over his career at keeping teams up, you don’t like him and don’t agree. That is also okay

Great save

Sam Allardyce is good at keeping teams up, who’s talking about Jesse Marsch? Listen I don’t like the fat cunt either, but he’s generally good at what he does.

And how many teams did he keep up? He’s no Pep, but he’s good at keeping a team up in survival mode.. not sure how anyone can argue that.

His record would suggest otherwise

Expected this to be difficult, people make Allardyce out to be shit but he always gets teams doing the basics well and has the players believing in themselves. We have also looked tired for weeks now.

I had my doubts when he was linked last summer, I wasn’t sure if he was physically gifted enough to play in our current systems midfield and his injury record concerned me. The links just arnt going away though, so there defo seems something concrete here.. if he is signed and his inclusion means he plays out wide, we change the system or he just slots right in then I’m all for it. He’s clearly rated by management and that’s good enough for me.

Wage figures are usually pretty inaccurate, they never specify if the figures are a base wage or all in. It’s just roundabout guess work.

He’d be one of my top targets this summer, I think he’s under rated as hell and a perfect addition to this side all round.

Wow

If you dont understand that the way we play and train under Howe will invite injuries to players that are prone to (especially muscle/tendon) injury then I’m not sure what to tell you. We now deploy one of the most intense, fast paced systems in club football. I also gave you cold, hard evidence that he is getting injured more frequently under this set up this season.. the % of games isn’t the the entire context here and that stat is thrown off by singular, isolated injuries of seasons past anyway. I understand if you are attached to the idea of him staying, and it’s ok to disagree on this.