Checko

Thought he was excellent first half.

Not an easy finish to be fair, first time, running at speed, at a fair bit of an angle.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if this is just deception.

Actually think 3 CBs suits our squad well, particularly with our attack-minded FBs. Realistically the game was always highly likely to be a bit back and forth in the first 20 mins before gradually settling to them camping in our half, us being unable to play out of defence and relying on immediate long balls down the channels to generate any kind of threat, with the second half just being us booting it straight back to them and sitting in a low block. Might as well start with the extra CB. Plus helps defend corners with no Big Joe.

Just turned 18. Yet to make a first team apearence for a Turkish second division team. Exciting times!

Yeah that's probably a better way of looking at it.

Good fee for him, I presume it includes some add-ons. He was the guy who was always first into training, always gave 100% and played with a smile on his face. I'm glad he got to go back to Atlanta and hope he does well there.

Dear God imagine the medical bills though

Rent them out to kids parties to beat PSR.

Let's face it, whether you rate him as a player or not, everyone loves Jacob Murphy. When he retires we should hire him to the important backroom position of Head of Being Jacob Murphy.

Had a look at points for 5th place in the last 10 years, from most recent to 10 years ago it's: 66, 67, 69, 66, 62, 70, 70, 75, 66, 64 So I'd say 66-70 points would be pretty typical.

I think the thing that really counted against him was that he was nowhere near the ball, so clearly a deliberate foul, but he got him with the studs. That said it looks like he was just trying to do an initial trip and then his foot got dragged onto the top of the Wolves player's foot. I agree I think a red's harsh there.

Puts Burnley's efforts to shame.

I gues the key thing would be is he reckless or using excessive force? "Reckless is when a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent and must be cautioned Using excessive force is when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off" - https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-12---fouls-and-misconduct

Yeah I feel the overall standard of the league, particularly the midtable teams, is getting better and better.

We had a 2v2 tbf but when Burn went to ground and didn't win it Hall had to fully commit to him. At the end of the day it's very difficult to completely stop people putting crosses into the box from deep and it was a good cross to a totally unmarked player in the middle of the 6 yard box. The lack of marking was the main issue to me. I think Gordon staying higher up is tactical personally, we do that quite a lot with him.

Also I should say I really rate Tino and every defender's going to have moments like this, but I think those were a couple of moments to learn from.

I'd say for defending you get goalside, you don't stand behind the attacker and give him a free run at the ball, particularly one in the middle of the six yard box. For the offside, I agree he played offside well. But he was following the guy's run and then slowed for a moment to wave for offside and let the guy get away. Absolutely no reason to stop there, VAR will check offside anyway, he should just follow the run as he has the recovery pace to get back. If he misjudges it in future which is easy to do that could cost. Not a good habit there IMO.

Yeah, looked to me that because Burn was out of play Schar went across to take his man at the near post but neither Tino or Murphy moved across one so left him completely unmarked. Whether he could have won against a big fuckoff centre back is another thing, but he could have meade the header harder. We had a marker for each of their guys, Tino and Murphy just didn't get goalside. For their offside goal as well, Tino played him offside fine, but he slows down to wave for offside for a second, he shouldn't be doing that, just letting the guy go clear he has the pace to keep up with anyone.

Bear in mind we then need to spend money to replace him though and it leaves us with only one CB in their 20s.

Ice baths in wheelie bins deserves to be publicly mocked tbf.

Yeah he played on the left of a 3 for Atlanta in MLS, then for us under Rafa with Rondon CF and Perez right. Then Maxi joined in the Summer and he took the LW spot IIRC. I agree, I always thought he was better on the left where he can shoot and cross. Then he had his hot run on the right so I thought maybe not. But overall I would prefer him on the left I think. Certainly against a low block where his main give and go game really doesn't have the space to work.

Hopefully the Bournemouth game was our Villa game from a couple of years ago where everyone was just crap on the same day. This is a game where we need to do them. Over and over again.

Fuck me absolutely dreadful performance. Kept giving it away at every opportunity. Still can't pass out from the back and no out ball if we need to go direct. Everything rushed and lacking in composure. They were excellent to be fair: physical, pressed hard and fouled and shithoused their way when they needed to plenty of pace and movement on the ball. We've been getting the run of the green recently, hopefully today's just a blip, but hard to take any positives from that.

Has to be said, we are so, so shit at passing out of a press from the back. Howe needs to work out how to get us to do that because he's never managed it so far. Plus generally a lot of individual sloppiness (partly from their pressure to be fair). Lot of people just haven't played well.