JB

Splendid. Difficult to pick an MOTM as Mings, Cash, Moreno and Luiz all played really well. 

Can Emery be our manager forever please?

4 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

Dombrant has really struggled this tournament and he must be worried about his place. Even the great VDM try I was very critical of Dombrants defence, a number 8 should not have been that easily handed off. 

Yep and he’s not been alone in that. The gap between a being a good Premiership player and a decent international is increasingly vast. English rugby is relatively **** for the foreseeable I reckon. 

Yes Dougie! Fully deserved - we’ve been brilliant so far. Really pleased we’ve been able to make it count. Well played Bailey, too. 

Meh. 

Some nice attacking interplay at times but otherwise a pretty flat performance. It’s a shame as West Ham were crap. A better side would’ve punished our high line.

Thought McGinn and Mings played very well. 

State of the game if that’s a pen. The rules need to get on top of players going down too easily. 

4 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

borthwick deserves time and i'm not sure the coaching is necessarily the issue. players need to take a long look at themselves today because there were shocking individual displays across the board today. basic handling and awful discipline against a top, top side (as much as it pains me to say that cause french rugby fans are a bloody annoying bunch)

we were never winning this 6 nations...but the tournament isn't over yet. need to see some of today's wrongs be righted vs irelend

Agreed, and that wasn’t what I was saying. I like Borthwick and I really, really want Sinfield to be good, given what a great bloke he is. I was just thinking out loud about how ridiculous it is that Edwards has never been involved in the England set up over the years. And tbf, that score line isn’t happening to a Shaun Edwards defence.

Shaun Edwards has been coaching with great success at international level for the best part of 20 years. It’s a bit mental that his home country haven’t done whatever it takes to get him on board. 

It’s almost difficult to believe that one group of men playing at the highest level of professional sport can be so significantly physically stronger and more powerful than another. France just dominating every physical contest and making it look easy.

It’s men against boys. France are significantly quicker and stronger of body and mind. Even our supposedly big lads like Dombrandt are being manhandled. There are so, so many levels between these two sides at the moment. 

Italy are making a complete mess of this. A bit more composure and they’d be winning. Decision making, passing, discipline all very poor. Too desperate. 

Extremely, extremely lucky. That’s not the sort of offside that should be given IMO. Far too tight. I’d be livid if that was us. 

Just now, mikeyp102 said:

He’s been playing really well for Saracens this season.

It’s not just coaches who rate him, you listen to anyone who has trained with him, played with or against him. Everyone in the game will tell you how good he is. As a coach it must be so good to have a coach on the field like him. 
 

That’s not to say he doesn’t deserve to have his place questioned, because he does, but you can see why coaches want him there. Also, with the stage Borthwick is at with this England team, you can see why he’d prefer the stability of Farrell over the exuberance of Smith. 

Yep, agree with that, particularly the second paragraph. Would’ve written similar if I wasn’t posting and watching at the same time.

Everyone in the game who works with him rates him extremely highly. Whereas, at least at international level, almost every fan thinks he’s somewhere between poor and limited - particularly at 12.

I don’t see his game management as anything special. He’s consistently failed to get back lines going, he’s not elusive, quick or powerful. But I acknowledge that there must be something us laypeople are missing.

I think he’s been objectively poor this 6N, though. A lot of bad decisions and execution when kicking the ball away. Place kicking has been awful. 44% success rate.

3 minutes ago, theboyangel said:

I genuinely think Farrell holds England back

Massively! I genuinely don’t know what consecutive coaches see in him.

Grim game this. Flattest Wales England game I can remember. England dominant but got very little to show for it. Farrell is shit. Kicked 2 out of 5!

Brilliant goal!

We’re so lucky Everton are shit. God knows how many a decent side would’ve scored. 

How the **** do our players look so isolated whenever we get the ball in their half?!

Was hoping we’d come out brighter second half but this is just a continuation of the first. Such a disappointing performance. 

Oh great, another moron of a co-commentator. Thinks that the time in the match means that a studs up challenge shouldn’t be a card. Idiot. 

The refs are generally rubbish. Managers moaning about refs to the point that it has an influence on them getting sacked is rubbish.

What’s more rubbish is that it actually worked in Arsenal’s favour. There was no way a VAR call (or other major decision) was going against them today. There would’ve been hell to pay. 

It’s not something I’d like to see a Villa manager doing but after all the times we’ve been screwed by VAR, it’s pretty sad that it might help to create a slightly more level playing field if they did. Officials are scared of Arteta’s wrath.

Obviously, the powers that be could grow a pair and clamp down on the likes of Arteta and players screaming in refs faces constantly but I can’t see that happening any time soon, unfortunately. 

58 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Goes to show its the players are nit good enough

It’s a real head scratcher. 

Bailey such an enigma. Looks like he can’t run or kick a ball properly most of the time but then has flashes of explosive brilliance. 

Big call taking off Luiz. Been our best player IMO. 

We last finished higher than 14th under Houllier according to Darren Fletcher. I mean, come on. That’s appallingly poor research. 

1 minute ago, rodders0223 said:

Saka leaves one on Moreno. "It's just the force he was running at."

 

Saka starts a fight. " He does get kicked a lot tbf."

 

Are these commentators on BT for real???

Absolutely. Made a bigger fuss of Mings catching someone in the process of kicking the **** ball. 

I’d say they’ve been pretty good and evenly balanced on the whole, though. 

WOW! What a **** goal. So good to see Villa play that kind of football.