Pelle

When we score as many goals as we've done so far that shouldn't be an issue for them. And we're having loads of possession in most of the games. The problem for the defence is that they too often seem to not being playing on the same wavelength. Which isn't that strange as it's a rather new lineup. They're still learning to know each other, and so on. And Mings has done a few errors. I won't say that our defence is shockingly bad, but it's more of a concern to me than our striking force. We've lost 8 games and won 4 of 15 and still only has -2 in GD thanks to scoring quite a lot.

I ran out of likes, so here's a thumb: I guess we're not the only fans that in a newly promoted team who's scored 22 goals and conceded 24 are most of all concerned with our striker, who has scored a decentish amount of goals, rather than being concerned with our defence who while not bad concedes too many easy goals. It's so strange. About yesterday's game I can't say he was great, only Heaton was IMO, but he wasn't as bad either. Too many seems to neglect that he was on his own up against a very good defence. The whole team was up against one of the best teams in the league at their ground. It would always be a tough game. Especially as they'd lost two in a row and really had something to prove. And about that goal we got. It probably wouldn't have come without him doing his job. And certainly not if we'd had Kodija on instead of him. It's not that he did something fantastic that no other striker would've done, but probably not Kodija. But he did it. Which you could never believe reading this thread. He took his run to the near post, pulling a defender with him and made it hard for him, creating space behind him for Trez to come in to and score. If to believe many on here he never takes run into the area or does anything else that is good. No, that run wasn't amazing, it's something to be expected. But he did it anyway, and he did it well. He still has a lot to learn, absolutely, and for some strange reason he's better at hitting a apss on one touch than he is to control the ball, but those passes he hits pretty well. I think it was Hourihane he put through in the early minutes of the game with a one touch but he wasn't awake or offside. Can't remember. I'm a little concerned about him working a bit too hard sometimes. There are a few times when he's been chasing the opponents far down on our own half, almost ending up in the pen area. As good it is sometimes it will most of all make him tired and there's always a risk that there's no one up front when we get the ball. He's rather slow on the first 3-5 yards, but on longer runs he's not that slow. Problem is that most runs from a forward are just a few yards or at least those first are crucial to get to the ball first. And yes, he needs to be more hungry and get into scoring positions more often, IMO. It's not that he's not doing a job along the line of the pen area, but we don't have enough midfielders who comes in behind him when he's bullying the defenders. And far too often he's out by the sideline and don't get back in the area quick enough. But that's something that can be taught. If Smith wants it. I don't know what he's telling Wes to do. For me, for being a lone striker, he's too much involved in the play around the box instead of inside of it. So far he's been the serving striker no 2 in a 2 man attacking line more than the goal scoring lone striker. And that's not his fault. It doesn't make him a bad player. And to say that he's the worst striker we've ever had, which I've read several times, is just daft. Or coming from someone who's only been a fan for the last few months.

I don't know what to think about this guy. I mean he works hard, really hard, perhaps a bit too hard, he's good at coming into scoring positions and has started to score quite frequently, 3 in 4, and had a great shot that hit the bar against manure. But on the other hand sometimes he can't shoot better than a 10 year old, can't handle the easiest pass to his feet. There were two quite typical sequences yesterday: One time in the first half he got an easy pass that he couldn't control, it was like he had 10 thoughts about what to do with the ball and couldn't decide what to do, and just when you thought he'd lost it his feet started to move and he got a couple of yards away from the defender with the ball at his feet. And then in the 2nd half Luiz got quite annoyed when he passed Trez a rather easy pass to his feet and it just rolled over/under his feet and out to a throw.

I know this will surprise everyone now. Top artist for me this and every year since 2011: Queen I know, I know, you can't really believe it, but Spotify says it's true. Top song 2019: The headless children- W.A.S.P. Probably more expected.

Very interesting that. Good read. Also interesting that David Moyes is under pressure because of Iheanacho's goal. That's a bit harsh.

Hm, I sense bullies, big bullies.

Of course we need a striker. If nothing else so for cover. Davis is out and if Wes gets injured too we're left with Kodija... Doubt we'll sign a big name, though.

Thanks! I remembered him but couldn't remember his name and it buggered me.

chelsea rarely drops points 3 games in a row never mind lose 3 games in a row. I hope we can keep up with them and don't get another tonking like 6-0 or something like that. 3-2 loss.

citeh tears burnley a new one. And just because of that burnley scored. Still 4-1.

From the top off my head: (The) Beach boys (The) Beatles Bryan Adams Bon Jovi Bonfire Bad Religion David Bowie (Is he allowed as I use the first name on others?) Bruce Springsteen Black Sabbath Brian May Bing Crosby Jussi Björling (Same as with Bowie) Probably a few more that I've forgotten.

That can explain a few things...

Wow, I don't think I can imagine you saying something worse about a song than that. It must be really shite, IYO. I approve the thrashing.

Well, not that weird, really. I agree that it's too early to judge Trez now and he might be as good as AEG a year from now, but when it comes to who should start games we have to compare how they are doing now, not how they might be doing a year from now.

We're joint 6th highest scorers in the league and we're 15th in the table and people think that scoring goals is our problem, that if we had a striker that could score more goals (4 in 14 is btw not that bad) we'd be flying high? It's hard to get my head around that. What if Mings hadn't made that late, poor clearance against manure? Or Heaton hadn't decided to cut down that bournemouth striker after 2 seconds or Luiz let the ball go to another bournemouth player a few minutes later? And so on. I think Smith & co are more concerned about our bad habit of making silly misstakes than our attacking "problems". No one says that Wes is perfect, but he's been here for about 5 months, is only 23 and is learning by the day. He wasn't a prolific scorer before he came here and I bet Smith knew that but still saw something in him and thought that was enough to spend £22m to get. And keeps playing him. Ok, the last part can be down to us having one option only atm. Even though I've seen some really silly suggestions like playing McGinn up front. I think I got a serious headache reading that. I wouldn't bet much money on us to get a expensive, high flying striker asa replacment for him. I think we'll get one or two strikers in, depending on if we can sell Kodija or not, to have some cover and backup, but that's it. Maybe next summer if we survive, which I think we will.

Was it? I thought he just put it through. Looked like it, but I take your word for it. And no, he hasn't. At least of late. AEG has really stepped up his game the last few games while Trez is getting there much slower. I hope and think that next season they both will run up and down the wings for us creating lots of chances and goals. As for now it's just one of them, and that's AEG. I hope he's back soon.

And served Grealish a goal on a plate. Still think AEG is better, but Trez is IMO a bit underrated here.

And win it for us, so I don't see a problem there. Seriously that was a good, although annoying, call. But the thing you quoted me on wasn't about that. It was about Iheanacho's goal against everton on which the linesman got the wrong decision but with the smallest of margins. But that call is pro VAR too.

He wouldn't have been screwn over. No, it wasn't offside, but the margin was the tiniest you can imagine. Even tinier than Terry. But it was a good example of when VAR works. What I meant was that it was bs from Iheanacho that he was so sure that he was onside when he in fact could've been ruled out just as easily. And then of course, due to that being the game deciding goal in OT the big celebrations came. Had it meant 3-1 the celebrations wouldn't be that big and lesser than it would've been had we not had VAR. But the celebrations is one of my least arguments. It's the way that it's used, the onconsitancy in how and when it's used. The things it brings and takes away from the game. For me it takes away more than it brings.

Yes, it was a correct goal so they got it right and they celebrated necause of the timing of it, but that's a one off. Then again you can ask if it should've stood since it was scored at 93.37 and the added time was 3 minutes, but that's another question. Still, a one off. And the misstake wasn't very clear, was it?

Has the game improved? Has it become fairer? Is it fun to sit and wait for 3 minutes to see if the tip of the nose was offside or not? Does it make sense? For me it's a no on all those questions. The implementation of it has been too bad and it's still humans making the decisions so it's not become that much more accurate. It seems to be there more to help the "big" clubs than make it fair. Take arsenal this weekend. They got a penalty against norwich which Krul saved, but it was VAR.checked and it turned out to be a few norwich players in the pen area too early so they decided it to be retaken. Perhaps nothing wrong with that, but when arsenal had a penalty against us several arsenal players were over the line too early without it being checked. And then there's this "clear and obvious" thing. They can scratch that right now, 'cause most times it's about checking every f**king detail. And they still don't get everything right. Take Hourihane's goal against brighton. Was that a foul by Wes on their keeper? Was it f**k. He barely touched him. An allowed goal that was disallowed thanks to VAR though it was nothing to call for. And then there's the insecurity about how it works. Like our goal against palace. VAR couldn't check it because that stupid ref had blown the whistle. But still they went out and said they had checked it but to see if it was a penalty, not if the decision to call for a dive was correct. Which it obviously wasn't. Still, some take that as meaning that they checked if it was vorrect to call for a dive and that VAR had worked and the ref was right. And then there's the celebration. No, I don't hesitate to celebrate afraid of looking silly. I don't celebrate because of the uncertainty if there is anything to celebrate for. Grealish's goal I celebrated as it was such a stunning goal. But there are so many goals I haven't been celebrating as I haven't known if it was a doal or not. Before VAR we knew within seconds if it was allowed or not, and it wasn't very often it was disallowed. These days there are very few goals that aren't checked and you have to wait. And even the players hesitate many times to see if it will be allowed. Even more so after some fully legit goals have been checked and disallowed. And for the last. Yes, of course Iheacho knew that he was onside. I mean, there's no way he could miss that the defenders knee was a millimetre further down. That's just bs. He was lucky, but the call was right. And again, clear misstake by the linesman to call for offside... If he did. Unsure about that.

From what I remember he was questioned during the first half of last season but worked hard and improved a lot. This season I wondered how he'd turn out in the PL and he was a bit off in the beginning. He's worked hard and now shows signs that he can make it big. Before his injury he owned the right side of the pitch. He would've torn them apart if he'd stayed on. I really hope he's back soon.

As much as I agree I still have to say that I fear leicester, of all clubs, more than united and arsenal. But yes, it's good to have those away games out of the way this early. Only liverpool and leicester away after this.

I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't win. Not disappointed with the players or Smith, they did a good job. Especially in the first half. It's just that I feel that with the margins more on our side we could've won it. We were at least as good as they were. Mings clearance were abysmal, but it got even worse that it by chance landed on a manure player on his own. Then he was too far down and played Rashford onside. And after that Rashford's header hit the post then Heaton and then in. Grealish's f**king heel was offside. Correct call, but by a very small margin. Grealish is inches away from scoring giving us the lead again, and moments after Wes can't really reach the ball but the touch makes it go to a free standing VNL. Great header, btw. Unfortunately. Those small margins took the win away from us. That's what makes me a bit disappointed. Thought we played really well in the first half. Sat a bit deep in the 2nd, but it's a strength that we still got back from being 2-1 down. Grealish was really, really good in the first half, didn't get that many balls in the 2nd half. I think it says something that they got 3 or 4 yellows and we didn't get anyone, IIRC. Most of those cards were after fouling Grealish. Guilbert got my vote for MotM as he was a bit more consistant than Grealish IMO. Thought he was really good. Wes is getting better and better. Would've got an assist if it wasn't for Jack's heel. He stands his ground better and better and makes it hard for the opponents defenders. He needs to get more into scoring positiones, though, but I think he'll get there. Needs to get more balls in those positions too, so it's not a one way street. Apart from Mings lapse of concentration, or perhaps stroke of arrogance, I think all players were at least good. Trez is a kind of his own. He's not as fast as I thought, he sometimes looks out of his depth, but he works hard and he's dangerous. Scored one goal, though disallowed, hit the bar with a cracker that could've put Grealish's goal to no 2 this weekend, and set up Grealish for what should've been a goal. And he was just behind Mings when he scored. Given time I think he will surprise a few. But I can see why AEG is preferred. Hope his injury isn't too bad. All in all a good performance and I think we deserved at least a point. And I would take it beforehand if offered. But... We could've won that game. Let's take on chelsea.

True. Untill things go wrong. Then you can hear a lot about how bad the squad was trained/unbalanced etc, etc, by the former manager. But in this case I think Smith is genuine in his praise. He seems genuine. I'm neither pro nor against Bruce. He was here, did a decent job but failed in doing what we wanted him to do. And I doubt we'd be promoted today of we'd kept him. But he was not a catastrophy either, IMO.