Checko

Wherever you draw the line you're going to have the exact same issue: you're either in an offside position or you're not. It's a binary thing. Just like the ball has either completely crossed the line or it hasn't. There's always going to be this infintessimally small boundary line where a player moves from an onside position to offside and officials have to make a call on it where: 1. The offside line (defender) will generally be moving because players are rarely standing still 2. The attacker will also be moving 3. You need to look at something else (the ball) to judge when is the exact right moment to compare 1 and 2 Judging where two moving points are in relation to each other at an exact split second of time determined by looking at a third thing is insanely difficult, and changing where the actual offside line is again (i.e. the Wenger law) will do diddly dick to change any of that.

No idea if Will Still's any good, but gotta say, I do like the fact his names rhyme.

If Hall was to get a mohawk, would that help?

Writing's been on the wall for Moyes for a while now, looked like they'd move on last year until he inconveniently won a trophy Still, he kept them in the premier leagues both times he was brought in, got Wham back to back top 7s for the first time in the Premier league and then won a European trophy. He should be able to look back and say he did a good job.

I think it's obviously helpful to have a number of tall players in the team to defend set pieces. I'll be honest though, I don't quite get why it's essential that at least one of those tall players must be one of the fullbacks.

Bit diappointed he wasn't able to stop their goal when he was back near the line. Think we need to sign someone taller.

Camel racing is mint tbf

Fucking going for it at least. Think Isak and Wilson work together well as a pair in the middle - Wilson likes to be the focal point & Isak likes to drift around, find space and get on the ball. At least if we can't pass out the back we can play more direct and have a chance of coming up with it than Isak on his todd. Be interesting to see where they play defensively as WIlson went into the AM role in defence vs Sheff U, but that might have been due to him being fresh and Isak looking for a hattrick.

Sports Possession-based

What if PIF just were to just buy Sunderland FC and wind the club down? Then there'd be a free stadium for us to use.

Given the only team in the bottom half I'd say we've comfortably beaten away this season is Sheffield United not feeling confident about this one. Feel like we need to go back to last year's model of playing it long to the flank and putting the squeeze on in their half, rather than trying to pass out of the back, which we can't do. Play more of a territory game. Either way we need to show up and stop playing like a bunch of fucking pussies letting everyone overpower us in the middle, like we have done away most of the year.

I mean points for trying something different, but it does make it look like a bad photoshop job.

Burge applied to be manager at Port Vale after his playing career ended as well: https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/cheltenham-footballer-apply-port-vale-488802 Little bit of the blagger about him.

Premier League players can't even sign a pre-contract with us for another month. Anything at the moment is agent talk drumming up the price.

Also worth mentioning, we can't even sign a pre-contract with him until the beginning of June, right? Though I guess he could informally agree first.

So much about being a good defender is about the mental side of the game and just being switched on and alert to danger all the time. An attacking player can mess up numerous times but do one really good thing that makes a goal and they've had an effective game. A defensive player can do really good things all game but mess up once and they're Titus Bramble. Labelling any mistake as a lapse in concentration, instead of, say, lack of awareness or decision making can be unhelpful, which is kind of timeEd32's point I guess. Take Isak's first goal vs spuds - from the moment Bruno wellies it upfield and for the whole pasage of play Isak's on Romero's blindside. Romero doesn't once look round and doesn't notice Isak until he's committed & Gordon plays him through. Is that poor concentration, poor awareness, poor decision making? Basically, he's a good defender until he's not, like all defenders. The question is, how often is the not?

See the latest page of the Longstaff thread, though I get your point.

Had a quick glance at a fulham forum and that seems to be the consensus there. Most don't seem to think he be a starter if he went to a Top 6 club, though there could be a slight degree of copium in the comments. Most seemed reasonably sanguine about things.

Good signing I reckons, though the article doesn't really commit much more than 'we're leading the chase'. With our injuries we can pretty much guarantee him a starting berth at the beginning of the season, which may help. Anyway, he was an absolute mainstay of my FM20 Burton Albion team (signed him on an end of contract then too) so I hope it goes through.

There's this, football insider again, but also with Kieran Maguire, who is basically the only person on the internet to confidently assert he understands how FFP fucking works. https://www.footballinsider247.com/newcastle-united-budget-to-rocket-under-new-rules-kieran-maguire/ "Maguire explained that the rule change would be “excellent” for Newcastle as the current regulations stop them from challenging the established elite. If anchoring rules are introduced to the Premier League, this will be excellent for a club such as Newcastle,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher. "They are very much constrained by the existing PSR rules which are designed to favour the interests of larger clubs. Giving all clubs in the Premier League the same ceiling means that Newcastle can take off the shackles that they presently have and increase spending significantly. However, it has to be kept in mind that Uefa are using a soft salary cap, so therefore any benefits given in terms of the domestic competition will be offset should Newcastle be playing in Europe.“ Of course given no-one else understands any of this he could just be blagging it.

And we probably didn't deserve the draw to Wolves or the win against Fulham. Forest away wasn't particularly convincing either IIRC. Sheffield United was good though.

Yeah, especially if we get Lloyd Kelly. Perhaps we're looking to get extra income for FFP by becoming a physio training academy. I'm very paranoid after this year, every time someone says 'he'd be a good signing' I have to go and look up their injury history

Colwill seems to pick up a few injuries mind, which is a bit worrying for a young player. A couple of months this year, a month the year before, couple of months the year before that. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/levi-colwill/verletzungen/spieler/614258

De Zerbi wants to bugger off. I remember seeing in an interview last year he was saying he didn't plan to stay for long. It's tough trying to build something at a club where you know you're going to lose your best players every year. Still, his team's form's not putting him in the best position for a better job.

Bowen would be quality but after the season he's having he's probably at peak value right now so I very much doubt we could afford him. From Wiki he was a Man U fan growing up. If they can shift some players this summer he'd be a cracking Antony upgrade for them.