Checko

He's the new Ian Bogie!

VAR tells him to have a look but he's still got to make the decision. Do feel it would be useful to hear dialogue between the ref and video assistants, like you hear in rugby internationals.

Plus we don't want his torso getting so big that it starts to lose its deceptiveness.

Just as Burn got and took his chance when Targett went down, Tino's got and taken his chance when Burn went down. First choice left back for now for me. Just need to cut his arms off to stop him giving away penalties.

This recommendation wasn't actually taken up though

There's a certain brutalist simplicity to 'CELTIC PEDOPHILE CLUB' that I quite admire. Wish ultras would just fuck off though.

I like Nick Pope. Nick Pope is dope.

Tbh the deflection is completely irrelevant. Deflection or not it's accidental handball so should only penalised if the player: "touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised" - https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/fouls-and-misconduct/#direct-free-kick I think his arm is in a perfectly normal position considering he's running, arms do go up and down then, but that's why it was judged a foul. Pretty bad decision for me, but then I am quite biased!

Shocking handball decision. That said, they probably should have scored at least 2 or 3 second half so can't be too upset at the result. Tough defensive performance, but would have been nice to see us at least try and keep the ball even once all half. We need to start being able to handle posession under pressure to go to the next level. Still, the lads gave everything and one more game to go. Hopefully a good final performance vs Milan.

He just looks like he belongs at this level. There's a calmness about his play that top quality players tend to have.

Good half. Sitting back a bit but hopefully pacing ourselves. Hope we can retain the ball a bit more 2nd half to keep some of the pressure off. Also, if we could just score another 3 or 4 then we could flex on them by bringing Dummett on.

Such a Joelinton goal. Just power, hustle and aggression and their guys didn't want any part of it. I feel he's definitely at his best when he's allowed to channel his inner Miley Cyrus and just go full wrecking ball.

The 'Championship'/'2nd division' is actually the 'first' or 'top' division of the English Football League, so I always refer to it as the EFL Premier Division. Don't know why anyone would do differently tbh.

Thought he was impressive: looked good technically, put some tackles in, wanted the ball. Definitely looking forward to seeing him getting more game time.

Yeah, he's our one CM who's actually really technically proficient, consistent and can play under pressure. If you can't control the centre you struggle.

While my man can trap a ball further than many can kick it, he is very good at stopping the little ball from going into the big net.

Yeah, & quite a few had a bad game today tbf. I don't mind players having a bad game, that happens. It's more longer-term issues with the systems/way we play that interest/concern me. It'll be interesting how things go with some fans - We've been well-exceeding expectations for that last two years. Easy to keep morale high when that's happening. Now we're struggling a bit in the champions league and I think chances are we'll have a step back in terms of league results this year (which is fine and expected IMO, particularly with the injuries). We've got the the point where we're not so used to losing so it's extra annoying again!

Dreadful performance - Bournemouth very good today. Obviously players missing, tired etc. Still, same issues that often affect us eg. Milan, Dortmund, Arsenal before things got tasty: if teams push up the pitch we struggle to pass our way out of it and give it away, or try and play a quick ball upfield too quickly and lose it. We rely too much on counter attack and transition after we win the ball back [and we are generally good and well-coached at that]. Today there was no intensity in the press so we never looked like winning it high up, just let them come up the pitch. But, If we’re not winning the ball and countering then we need to be able to keep the ball and pass through them to get into their final third: we’re just not good at that tiki taka, quick pass and move stuff. Basically, we desperately need to sign more really top technical players for the middle of the park. Enough obsessing over signing tremendous athletes. Top teams have top technicians who make the opposition run. We need some more of those. Don’t think Howe had a great game today tbh. Big Joe up top clearly wasn’t working, no idea why we stuck to it for so long. Could of brought Tino on instead of Ritchie. More of a 4-4-2 might have worked better if we’re just going to play direct, give the striker someone to interact with. I do think there is a general lack of variety and flexibility in our approach. It's always that 433. I feel like we could have other set ups that we could switch to when that's not working.

Positives: Miley looks quality. Pope is a really good goalkeeper. Negatives: Everything else! Main problem is the same things that affects us a lot: We're just not a very good possession team. Everything's built around quick transition. But when we need to take pressure off or just get up the pitch we struggle. If we end up sitting back we then can't get out, can't do quick passing and interplay, particularly in the middle, so we end up constantly trying to look for quick out balls with isolated one player up top. If Longstaff and Willock want to be England players they need to start taking charge of games like this. Our 17 year old first time starter looks far more accomplished. We need real technical ball quality in the middle of the pitch. A few nice touches here and there isn't enough. They need to start trying to run games. They style we're playing, think we'd be better off going more 442 with say Big Joe and Gordon up top. Would give us far more threat cause we have nothing right now. Or go more 4231 with Willock behind the striker and 2 cms deeper to control posession more. Hopefully Eddie puts a rocket up their backside. Here's to a better second half!

Glad Hall's been given another game - I think he looks talented and just needs to get that first team game time. With Burn and Targett out makes sense. That said, suprised Tino's not starting at LB but sure he'll be on as Howe seemed to have him ahead in the pecking order. He's probably the only one of our substitues that would normally ever get a game Looking forward to see how Miley gets on. Some inexperience, some areas where people won't be familiar with each other. Be interesting to see how we get on.

And was he limping and muttering 'Ahh my fucking hamstring' under his breath?

Ah, don't think I've seen that one. Any deliberate strike to the head that's non-negligable is a sending off. Depends on how hard negligable is I guess.

Gordon just needs to keep it up and he'll get there. He's only had a dozen odd games playing at this year's level.

Though I agree with their conclusions, surprised only 3 out of 5 thought Bruno shoulld have been sent off. That looked pretty clear to me.

Agreed.