Checko

I dunno, he's always been an absolute miserable bugger when he loses tbf.

I think the main problem before was he was far too aggressive: you've got to be risk averse as a defender 'cause losing a 50/50 close to your goal can put your team in a lot of trouble. He's a lot more patient now and picking his moment better. He's now looking a solid defender who also happens to be great on the ball.

I'm planting my flag in the sand here and saying that having centre backs who are opposite-footed really doesn't fucking matter. What really matters is that you have two good players that work well together.

1 away from equalling it (6), 2 from beating it.

If things had been equal would it not have been a draw?

Didn't Tino basically just shut down Martinelli last time? I'd be inclined to keep him in.

Burn as well. There were a lot of injury stoppages. Edit: Plus Botman went down with cramp in injury time so that added to the 10 minutes, along with a bit of timewasting.

The handball rule is not fucking complicated. Why do no professional pundits seem to know the rules?

Yeah those 'I'm just going to run straight into the defender and throw myself to the floor' freekicks are the worst.

Phew, missed the first 20 mins but we dominated what I saw of the 1st half and deserved the lead. We were playing some nice stuff. Second half we just stopped trying to play and just booted it back to them all the time which was quite frustrating. That said, Gordon and Barnes' chances were maybe as good as any they created 2nd half. Generally we defended solidly & great to see Botman back. Wish we would be a bit more patient and confident on the ball to see games out, but we're looking tough and organised to break down so maybe just booting it away and sitting in a low block is the % play. I try not to be too biased with officials' decisions but I did think they got the rub of the green with a few. That said that can happen away from home. Wins vs Villa, Man U and Spurs, very nice. Now a run of winnable league games and a cup semi. Bring em on.

Sad day for football.

Think this'll be 2-2 as a starting point. They're basically a Kevin Keegan team but with less focus on defence. Realistically, as with Man U, this game's come at a really good time for us: we're in good form, their form's a bit iffy and pretty much their entire defence is injured, instead of simply AWOL. But... we're still away and one thing this Spuds team can do very well is attack. I'd probably still make us favourites, mainly due to their injuries, but could easily be 4-3 either way. Wonder if we'll just do the usual anti-Postecoglu tactic: park the bus. When we get the ball, boot it long over the top. Profit.

Feel like he needs a blue chip wrestler-style nickname. I'm gonna go with 'The Real Deal' Lewis Hall.

Yeah, though I trust our mods to title things properly. We don't need a thread for every team, obviously, but particularly for the most relevant ones for us, it's nice to have a resource to troll them specifically.

Dubs has definitely looked better now he's only facing one shot on target per game.

Is it just me who actually likes having threads about other teams? I mean, no-one complains about there being a specific 5under1and thread, even if it's just full of people unironically obsessing over how obsessed they are with us.

Salah pretty much never gets injured though, he's outrageously durable. Plays around 50 club games plus internationals year after year after year.

Match cam had a shot of him walking off & being substituted. It doesn't usually do that. Wonder if that means anything, or if it was just that we basically did largely fuck all but defend for the last 55 mins of the match so they needed some filler.

Had a quick google of Lejeune to see how he's been getting on. Since he left us just one injury, out for a month in September 2021 with an ankle injury. He's played 30+ league games in La Liga every year since he left us. Nice he's been able to play out his career.

Personally I'd give Krafth another year as a relatively low cost FB/CB cover. Particularly if Trips goes.

Alexander Arnold leaving Liverpool for Real. Apparently it's like leaving a super hotty for someone less hot but who has more street cred. The thesis is its sad that he's leaving a super hottie becasue being hot is apparently everything. Although if that is the case I'm not sure why he has a picture of Postecoglu as his avatar. It also assumes that Liverpool is hotter than Madrid, which it's not. Madrid is full on scorchio.

It's hard to sell off unwanted players on premier league wages. Clubs have to allocate more of the overall fee to wages than the transfer.

How have Villa done so well with a negative goal difference?

If all our players put on fake glasses for the pre-match identity parade and handshakes, reckon that might that piss him off enough to do something silly pre-match?

So is this handsome chappy getting a 1 year extension?