Erikse

For some reason I'll have to remind you that we're having a discussion about how much he can contribute today. Why are you using goals mainly scored in 2023 as an argument? Him scoring 4 goals in the last 1 year and 4 months is 10x more relevant to the discussion than the 7 goals he scored from aug to nov 2023.. But hey, lets forget all the context and try to push an agenda instead.

He scored 3 goals after october. This season he has 1 goal. So 4 goals in 1 year and 4 months.

Exactly how I see the final go aswell, unfortunately. We put up a decent fight, but they are too clinical. That's how they win most of their games anyways.

I remember when Serie A tried giving penalty as long as the ball hit the arm, no matter how it happened. Attackers started practicing how to make the ball connect with the opponents arm, and it happened all the time. Amount of penalties given went from 122 in 18/19 to 187 in 19/20, crushing the former record. They always find ways of abusing the rules as much as they can, and all rules has to be made in a way that will protect against being abused in such ways.

You think they are rare until the rules are changed, and we get to see how often it can be used. The ball is in the air a lot. Sometimes the ball is at a height where it would be much more convenient to use you upper arm to hit the ball past someone (or make a pass) rather than having to raise your leg or put it down with your chest. Players would practice using the upper arm to your advantage on the training ground. It's hard to know how often it can be used when it's against the rules.

But there are also situations where a ball is in the air and you can deliberately use your upper arm to block it/control it or even take it away from an opponent. In this case you could even deliberately score with your upper arm or elbow. Players allways bend the rules and take full advantage of them.

That's fair, but it's also worth mentioning Man Utd being 15th and Spurs 12th. That's also very unusual.

I was told that City away was insanely difficult after the january signings. This Liverpool team must be a special team.

I agree. But I can't be too bitter about them being where they are. This is what we want from the league.. Not the same old "sky six".

Honestly this season is quite refreshing. The CL spots are wide open between like 6 teams (atleast) fighting for the last 3 spots. This is including teams like Forest, Bournemouth, Villa and us. Enjoy it while it lasts boys, might be the same old in the coming seasons..

Got Pereira on FPL. Please hold on Wolves.. I will lose tons of points if they concede now.

I suppose the ref will get death threats again.

Automatic CL qualification based on "historical performance".

Can't believe they're losing with Højlund and Ugarte in the lineup. Wild.

0 goals. My lord.

Teamtalk definetly called him to ask about it. He told them that he was very interested, and told them to "tell the world about it".

They're going to call it an "audition".. Like Arsenal fans did in the semi.

Did we expect them to not try to exploit that weakness? If we play him in a back 4 against any decent side, they can do the same. I think we can safely expect the opposition to at least have some knowledge about our players.

Yeah, hope we've been through it enough times for our nerves to be eased. Ofcourse those types of games are the hardest ones out there, regardless, so beating Liverpool will be very hard.

See my post above.

There's no team in the world that loses all the high pressure games. Generally we do well in several of those. But, some can't handle it when the pressure is too high. So far, it looks like we have a ceiling when it comes to that.

I'd say in terms of nerves, the difference between a semi final and a final is massive. Where do we draw the line? Is the carabao quarter final seen as a huge game if we haven't been in the semi final for a long time? The sort of "big games" that are talked about?

From that Leicester 0-0 game. The signs were there. On that occasion it was our players who started acting up, kind of like when Schär went on that solo run. I think we just lack the mentality in the most crucial games. I don't count a Carabao semifinal as "the most" crucial. Whether that's all on the players, or if it's also on Howe, is a bit hard to tell. We have some players who never thought they would even play in these kinds of games a few years ago.

They haven't beaten us by more than 2 goals since the 21/22 season (right after the takeover), and this is by far their weakest season in many many years. If you're talking in Mike Ashley years standards, then yes, we used to get a whopping and couldn't expect much more.