Kilcline

I think his injury record is massively overstated and probably has some extreme recency bias. He's been in and out this season, but his first injury was in the Arsenal game and only came about due to Saliba doing the cunts trick of shoving him in the back while he's in the air and he's done his knee when landing awkwardly due to said shove. We've then had to play him pretty much every game as Trippier and Krafth were out, and he looked like he needed a rest before he got this injury. I'm not convinced it's anything to do with him playing in the U21 Euros either. Anderson played in them and played just as many minutes last season and this, it's just one of those things. In his first two years with us he's made 35 and 45 appearances, the first year coming off the back of a cruciate ligament injury and when Trippier was still clear first choice until he started shagging around. It's not really as if he's a perma crock (yet!)

Hilarious lack of self awareness, this one in particular And this 🤷🏻

100%, journalists largely know fuck all

Alas, they never learn. They're the rat that keeps going back for the food despite getting electrocuted every bloody time, the daft bastards.

Any chance of Sela hastily arranging an early hours light show and fireworks display outside their hotel for the next two nights?

Hope the early bookings for "Wembo" were non-refundable

Definitely something he needs to work on in terms of aggressiveness and attacking the ball in the box but I do think he has got a lot of unfair stick at times for not being in the box for a cross when if it wasn't for his dropping deep and linking play we'd be nowhere near the box in the first place, like if he plays the ball through to a winger when he's 40 yards from goal he can't teleport to the penalty spot to get to a first time cross, it needs the midfielder to read when he's dropped that they need to run beyond

I read your B as an 8, which somehow seems fitting

I know you're talking in terms of last night here but the deference to Man City many among our fan base have pisses me off in general - "they can win everything until it's our turn because they're not one of the red clubs." Part of the same fucking gang wanting the thumb kept on our heads and the door kept locked. They can get to fuck just as much as any of the other cunts. Their fan base is also now largely a bunch of insufferable wankers, the older generation is dwindling away while their younger ones have either forgotten when they were shit or aren't old enough to have seen it. Which is a shame as historically they've kind of been kindred spirits, good hardcore, turned up when they were shit etc. Although that's partly down to the club and their ground becoming a tourist attraction aswell.

Probably a bit of an unintended back-handed compliment (and/or a sign of how good he is), but I thought he had one of the poorest games he's had in ages last night, not that he was crap or anything mind - just a 6.5/7/10 rather than his usual 8.5/9, and yet was still pretty comfortably our best player, looking forward to seeing how he matches up with Yamal on Tuesday.

Brilliant until we scored, then just surrendered. Could see what was going to happen a mile off aswell. Feel a bit like a disappointed and frustrated parent than anything else this morning. As an aside, I thought Man City's pressing set up was excellent last night. At times in the first half their front five were almost like a 2-1-2 - a box with one in the middle. So we couldn't play through them at all and had to go around or over, and the number of times we went with the long switch or up to Osula and either didn't win the ball or just kicked it out was pretty glaring, think maybe one or two passes got out to Trippier and him and Elanga got something going, but that was about it. Was a very smart set up and we largely walked straight into their traps.

I think he's absolutely quality and will have a great career, but sadly it's becoming glaringly obvious it isn't going to be with us. The solution to getting the most out of him is playing him upfront with players closer to him, which means we either narrow the wide forwards or play 3-5-2. The issue with either of those is we'd then be heavily reliant on the full backs for width, and we're already overly reliant on Hall and Livramento in our current system with a bit of a cliff edge when they're not available, let alone lumping more physical load onto them. The upside is we'd naturally thicken up the middle of the park and be less likely to be played through/could counter-press better, but if we didn't win the ball back we'd look a bit agricultural in that our defensive retreat would be little more than an old school "just run in a straight line back towards the goal and organise when you're behind the ball." A shame it doesn't look like working out, but it is what it is. Been a while since I wanted to be this wrong about something.

Another for the "looks way worse in slo mo" files

That's a more than beatable team so long as Doku v Tripps isn't a massacre. Unless it's of the Tripps on Cunha the other day variety of course

He never does anything against us anyway, we usually mark him out the game and give someone else an easy goal or three

adidas having a full Italy 2026 World Cup Collection is going to be pretty funny when they don't even qualify from their playoff

Yeah exact same, but in silver. Bought it with some of me compo money after my first car was written off by a lorry on the A1

Today's random transfer of choice...Jesse Lingard to Corinthians: bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c20zg2w7zwwo

We do at least seem to have discovered that we're allowed to shoot from outside the box in recent weeks so hopefully we'll have a bit more than slowly sideways and backwards to throw at them this time

Jeez, and I've spent 20 years thinking I got away with one when my Micra engine blew up at 70mph on my way home from a 14-hour nightshift! Loved driving that car, as shit/cheap as it was

I reckon that matchday sales bit is just going to be a 10am online sale on the day of the game, no chance there'll be walk ups or anything like that. The club will spin it as "another chance to get a ticket" so when they stiff members by allocating more to the ballot or doing this £720 for shite scran and a normal seat carry on they can copy and paste the old "Members have another chance to secure their ticket in the 10am sale on game day" and "we guarantee an extra block of tickets will be on sale on the day of the game for members who have not yet guaranteed their ticket." Interesting that the FAB statement about the ST price rise mentions the club were thinking of adding extra booking fees, presumably that would have been an extra tax on members to go with the extra fiver a ticket or whatever it's going to be.

He did indeed. Funnily enough in the mackems glory years of finishing 7th they never used to cut the grass or water the pitch before games against the big teams either, was one of the first things that really got up Wenger's nose before Fat Sam and the like started sticking it to him on the regular

Chelsea have goal music. Manchester City don't but their PA guy announces their goalscorers in the style of their chant to get that going (or at least used to) similar to Onedek giving it the Breeeeeeeewwwwwwwnoooooooooooooo

If we ever got goal music that would give me a decision to make like, it's very much a red line in my mind. Forced fun in general is the absolute pits

Racist Keith there upset we've benefitted from the scrapping of the previous rule of cup winners getting a Champions League spot. A rule that has never existed.