Checko

Kind of disagree on that, I think he's got pretty strong game intelligence. He's certainly not the ideal type of No 10, but when he does have a bad touch it's far less dangerous when he's higher up the pitch.

I wonder if this would stop happening if he ate enough ham.

I think if I was in charge, given the players we have I'd play Big Joe as a No. 10. I really think Isak needs someone near him to get the most out of him, and he needs to be free to float around and get involved in the game. A system like this [mix wingers however you want]: Isak Barnes Big Joe Gordon Bruno Tonali I think Bruno and Sandro seem perfect for ye olde double pivot: both are DMs who like to get on the ball and dictate tempo. Both like to get forward, so here one can go forward and the other covers, at their discretion. Instead of a system where our DM is also our main attacking playmaker so we have to leave ourselves open on the counter to allow him to attack. Big Joe's then there to provide a physical presence further up the pitch. He's played well there in a more defensive role (eg 4-1 vs Brighton) & he's good at the back to goal, hold the ball up with a defender on his back and bring people into play thing, which is exactly the part of Isak's striker game that isn't good. It gives us two players to play it forward to through the middle instead of one, and would allow Isak to drift around and do whatever the fuck he wants (which I think is when he's at his best) while still maintaining a presence in the middle. Kind of a withdrawn target man role, but with a proper striker ahead so we don't have to rely on Joe actually scoring. We really struggle to move the ball forward through the middle of the pitch, we're so reliant on whacking it long down the channels, and with the players we've got that would be my best attempt at solving it. You could try Willock in the No 10, I think he and Isak have a decent understanding, but he's a bit similar to Isak in playstyle and I think Big Joe & Isak would compliment each others' strengths and weaknesses better. Could maybe give little Joe a go on the RW.

If we can get this handsome bugger back playing well then, if we do have any money to spend in Jan, perhaps we can put it towards a RW/playmaker type, instead of an overpriced Marc hates-the-Guehis

I feel 5 games is a bit soon to write Amorim off like.

Didn't see the Brentford game but the half time posts seemed to be generally saying we'd played well and should have been ahead. They had 2 goals from 0.15xG or something silly like that. Didn't sound like it was a dreadful starting set up tbf. After the flak he got for running players into the ground last year I'm not too worried about him starting to rotate a little bit. I am a bit worried that we haven't had a period of playing consistently well for a year now. We had a good run of results near the end of last season but I don't think we were very convincing in the performances. There was some mitigation with injuries etc, but that and the way we still exclusively use the 433 set up that we've never been able to play good posession football with are causes for concern. Still, every time it looks like Eddie's struggling he turns it around. Let's face it, If we'd beaten Brenford we'd be a couple of points off 5th after a couple of good results and everyone would be happy bunnies. Three good or bad results in a row completely changes the mood around a club.

I have nothing against Leicester at all, but I hope we fuck these motherfuckers like Brexit Jim fucked Ashworth. It's badly needed.

Froggy's on a fucking trawler boat right now!

Guy's going to build the biggest garden centre in the country and make a packet. Just wait.

Dammit, this is going to ruin my stats post on Nick Pope.

I still wonder how much of a sliding doors moment that game was. Losing at home after being ahead and a man up for most of the game. Was a proper gut punch after an evening eating bad shellfish. Imagine we go to Brighton with wins against both Villa and Liverpool and a narrow away defeat to City. We'd have been in a good place. Might well still have lost of course, but after the high of the Villa game, things felt really low after Liverpool and we were always playing catch up.

Statistically over the last year, the first half of which he was injured, so basically this year, in the top 5 leagues in Europe: 1. he's the 87th % for PsXg-GA (post shots expected goals minus goals allowed) [concedes less than you'd expect based on the chances - some of this may be down to luck eg if you've played Darwin Nunez twice already] 2. 93rd % for crosses stopped % [pretty easily career high so will probably come down a bit] 3. 89th % for defensive actions outside of penalty area [charging out, sweeping and clattering fools - he's always very high on this] https://fbref.com/en/players/4b40d9ca/scout/365_m1/Nick-Pope-Scouting-Report Basically Nick Pope's a really good goalkeeper. Yes it would be lovely if he was decent with the ball at his feet (though for some reason I find myself a bit less terrified this year) and that probably stops him being a really great goalkeeper, but he's still very good at the most fundamental parts of goalkeepering. Plus he's a good lad and fucking massive. He also seems to be in the 9th % for passes atttempted per 90 and 99th % for throws attempted. So I don't think the throwiness is a particularly new thing. He can javelin it though. Love a quick throw out.

As far as I can see there's two reasons for him to write 'Jesus loves you' on the rainbow armband: 1. To extra emphasise his support for gay people. It's not just him supporing them, it's God too. 2. To publically message that he's a Christian and so signal that he doesn't actually support Pride. Let's be realistic here, it's 2. 'God loves the man He just hates the act' is the classic way it's put. 'No we're not being hateful or discriminating against you, because as we said, Jesus loves you. Yes I think you're going to hell, even though you're not actually negatively affecting anyone in any way, but Jesus still loves you so we're cool. You just need to change a fundamental thing about yourself to avoid all-powerful God condeming you to eternal damnation but He still loves you. Clearly.'

I think in the 'Time person of the year' context maybe - where it's the person who "for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year"

I dunno, I may well be wrong about this, but I've definitely seen games where from Gordon's positioning it's looked like he was under instruction not to come back too deep and position himself as a counter attacking outlet instead, while the LCM comes over to cover. If anyone on here is secretly a player, please confirm one way or the other.

I've never really got this Bruno can't shoot thing. He's always scored goals for us since he came, including outside the box ones, that was supposed to be his weakness but I haven't seen it. He certainly doesn't have a cannon of a shot (which I guess is why people think he can't shoot), but according to FBRef, since he's joined us he has an expected goals of 11.5, he's actually scored 16. All his shooting stats over the last 365 days are well above average. per 90 80th % in goals 76th % shots on target 73th % shots on target % 80th % goals/shot 76th % goals per shot on target 67th % average shot distance 80th % goals minus xG https://fbref.com/en/players/82518f62/scout/365_m1/Bruno-Guimaraes-Scouting-Report Obviously stats are stats, perhaps they look a bit better because he picks his moment to shoot well etc. (though he's stil very high in shots -xG) but there's a lot of evidence he's actually a good shooter. Anyway, I feel the 'he's terrible at shooting' thing is just a bit overblown.

Feels they've been asking him to come deeper & get into the game more recently, which suits him. The 433 we play with very wide wingers tends to leave him very isolated, which doesn't suit him well IMO. He's not a Drogba type, he's not that good at the big lone target man role and he can go a bit cold when he's not touching the ball regularly. He's rapid, so yeah you want him on the last shoulder getting in behind, but he's also a fantastic passer and good dribbler so you want him dropping deep or wide to get on the ball. Which means we need a system where there'll be someone there to take his place up front when he moves away. For me that's why I think we looked a bit better when Willock came back into the team - he's our one CM who really looks to make runs and get forward to support the striker. Given that in Bruno and Tonali we have two potentially very good deeper CMs, and a CF who likes to move around and would benefit from an advanced midfielder to play with him, a 4231 system, at least in passy passy situations feels like it would suit our players far more. Just need a really classy, technical No 10 (and some flexibility from Eddie).

Yeah, whenever I get annoyed & think about how much better we could be I always think: imagine if Eddie had Mo Salah on the RW. How would we be then?

Nice to see us really go for it. It's Liverpool, one way or another they'll fuck us over, that's what they always do, but the aggression's there so far.

Think we've been ok, put some pressure on them at times. Bit sloppy at others. Just lacking one or two more really technical players to fashion better chances. Still feel having our best playmaker as our deep midfielder holds us back a bit, but Bruno's kept the ball well under pressure. Could be any result here.

Heard Rashford was fine going down the staircase, but was very unhappy he'd then have to walk back up it.

Can't stand Maidenhead United personally.

If it's based on public voting I look forward to our home matches at StadyMcStadiumface

I read Palace are struggling for goals & don't have much budget for reinforcements. If Guehi doesn't want to sign a new deal then this is probably the last chance to get a real top fee for him. If they do decide to sell they might want to get it done sooner to ensure they can make signings. They won't want to give much of discount because Parish would look silly, which means I bet we're still looking at a chonky fee. Probably more that he's worth. On the other hand I don't really know how good he is so perhaps he is worth a chonky fee. Cue: there will be better value on the continent etc. BREXIT!

Mate, asterisk that shit. Far too offensive for a public board.