danceoftheshamen

This thread is so depressing, kind of makes me think what is the point of renewing my & my daughters season tickets next season to be honest. if there is no chance of success then what on Earth is the point exactly?

If this is what football has become quite frankly..........I'm out! 

Ah!! So Arsenal are contacted and apologised to by the FA for the “ human error” in their game against Brentford and now we get given the dodgy VAR ref who apparently can’t even draw lines for our game against them? No doubt the FAs way of making it up to them. 
Dodgy VAR assisted defeat incoming then no doubt

16 hours ago, The_Steve said:

A braver, competent ref ignores his pleas and tells him to get up. 

Or “A ref adjudging the exact same scenario with the teams reversed ignores his pleas and tells him to get up” is probably more accurate 

6 hours ago, Jbvilla909 said:

Won't get carried away but, I'm pretty certain he's the best striker we've had since Heskey...

Well Heskey was shocking so lets hope so 

Never understood why we paid so much for him from Everton in all honesty. I always thought he was overrated when he was there. Lots of hype about him but in reality he had very little impact on games for them too.

Just bang average at best.

So another biased Referee assisted team incoming. We would have to play so incredibly well to overcome that and Arsenal that sadly I only see another defeat. 

Lets face it these "Scummy 6" clubs get helped so much by the corrupt FA officials, that effectively the impact on their performance is like this....

A poor performance = Average

Average = Good

Good = Very Good

Very good = Excellent

Excellent = Totally unbeatable

Unless they are playing another scummy 6 team of course when normal form applies.

19 hours ago, rjw63 said:

Can't we have another category for ultra-wank referees like today? 

Very poor just doesn't cut it. 

I think the missing word is "Corrupt" 

Once again it is a "Favoured 6" team against one of "the other 13" and yet again it was as clear as day he was simply going to give them everything. I lost count of the amount of times their players dived when nobody touched them. DeBruyne & the german bloke were doing it all game... heck they were all at it and every single time he gave them a free kick or whatever.....Meanwhile at the other end of the pitch, our player gets crunched when their defender goes right through him and takes ball man & everything...Nope that's a good tackle apparently. 

So tiniest touch on them it's a freekick or penalty and yet they can go right through us and it's a good tackle.....Yeah alrighty then!

35 minutes ago, useless said:

We shouldn't be anywhere near relegation, and I don't think we will be, top half should be the aim and that's more than achievable. I've got a feeling we will get a result against Arsenal, maybe a draw.

I certainly admire your optimism Useless 

We are so riddled with Sunday pub league style errors at the moment that I'd be shocked if it's any less than three in this game too and I really cannot see us scoring the 3, 4 or 5 goals we would need to score to get anything from the game. The problem is you cannot really coach out those type of errors, in fact I would go so far as to say no Premier League coach would even be expecting to have to deal with such pathetic play, so wouldn't be used to having to try to coach players out of it at this level. Then there is the sheer lack of drive that some of these players are showing, you can't coach "drive" or "fire in the belly" either. 

Hopefully he drops the players in question having said that I guess.

As for relegation, well in a weird way if you are going to have the worst performance of the season you may as well have it against Man City rather than against one of the teams you would hope to beat. We need to start playing again though, rapid, as it does appear that we are on the beach currently, a typical "nothing to play for" team. The issue is if it carries on we'll be dragged back into it a lot quicker than some seem to think.

He is surely near a start now? Has looked a lot better in his last two appearances, albeit short ones (no pun intended ). 

For me it appears to be partially a confidence issue with Bailey and partially a strength thing...Both physically and mentally sadly. He needs to replicate what Gary Neville has mentioned has made the difference to Rashford, namely "get on the weights". He reminds me of Rashford when he was way out of form, weak on the ball, running up blind alleys and getting disposessed easily, lacking any confidence and wayward shooting etc. Rashford disappeared for quite a while but came back much stronger and look at him now. A similar thing is needed for Bailey i feel and that starts with him being dropped.

It was a good atmosphere initially but that ridiculous mistake for their first literally killed us for 20 minutes. It was so so sloppy and typical of what this team does far too regularly. We battled back after that shock had been swallowed only to do the exact same thing again not once but twice before half time even and this having once again taken the lead, albeit somewhat fortuitously but then also somewhat deservedly having missed a couple of good chances. So I am not surprised there was a frustrated reaction from the crowd. It was so typical of this team. Doing all the hard work but then repeatedly making amateurish errors fit for a Sunday League pub team. 

For me that is what kills the atmosphere. Not the conceding of a well worked goal by the opposition but the shockingly poor way which we keep on giving them to teams. It is so demoralising as a fan to see that once, let alone twice but three & four times is frankly embarrassng.

It was a re-run of Spurs at home last season when we outplayed them and lost 0-4...all four of their shots on goal going in The only difference being we looked much more threatening and scored a couple at least. 

I actually thought he looked decent when he came on, aside from the once a game space shot. He literally does that at least once every time he plays. You could say it was a "sighter" but it's that far off it that would be pushing it. Very odd how he used to bury those in top bins regularly for Liverpool. Overall though I personally thought he looked quite bright.

If we are to have any hope of Top half finishes / Europe we need something now from this game or at least 2 points from the next two to make up for the kamikaze Leicester performance.

That's called shooting yourself in the foot, emptying the barrel into your own feet in actual fact. 

Amateurish defending.

On a side note ...Bailey 

Not a chance of Europe looking at that shambles defensively today.

2 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

If only we had a Louie Barry thread.

It's a transfer & this is the transfer thread??

So Louis Barry just signed for Salford City on loan.

CLICKY

Salford City is excited to announce the loan signing of Louie Barry from Aston Villa for the remainder of the 2022-23 season!

The 19-year-old impressed on loan at Swindon Town in the second half of last season, notching six goals and an assist in 14 appearances as the Robins reached the play-off semi-final.

He was then loaned to MK Dons for the first half of this season, where he scored one goal and registered three assists in 22 outings for the League One side.

In his youth career the forward spent a decade at West Bromwich Albion before joining Barcelona, and signed for Aston Villa when he returned to England.

An attack-minded player with good pace and attributes, the former England youth international is keen to get started:

“The Club’s going in the right direction, they’ve got really good owners backing them and when I spoke to the Gaffer, he put down the foundations of the Club was and that’s what I liked.

“I met him a few days ago, and he told me everything that I wanted to hear, with facts as well. He showed me a really good presentation on the history of the Club, and what he wants to put into the players and that’s showing on the pitch as well.

“I feel like coming here will improve me as a player, and hopefully help the team get up the divisions.

“It happened last season as well [January loan] and I just got thrown straight into it but I dealt with it, and hopefully I can do the same here. They’re at a pinnacle part of the season, where every single point matters, so yeah it’s really tight up there at the moment.

“I’m a very attacking player, I’m very forward thinking, whenever I get the ball I think forward. I’m a goal scorer, that’s where I made my name, scoring goals. I like to create, I like to make things happen in the box when I get the ball, I want to drive forward, get players and put them on the back foot.”

The loan is subject to the usual EFL and FA ratifications; welcome to The Peninsula Stadium, Louie!

I am just hoping that something happens tomorrow. It often does go to the wire, especially in january. It may be clubs, agents or players basically seeing what options are on the table by tomorrow when the final decisions will be made (Presumably with a lot of the peripheral stuff already being done so to speak).

Personally I would be surprised if Guendouzi signs this window. I also think the Delafeyou injury may well have scuppered us regards a wide player.

We do now have Duran as an option for striker of course, who will hopefully get some game time this season. 

Fingers crossed something good happens tomorrow.

As it's really quiet on the transfer front at this moment in time, I've been thinking about the impact Coutinho has / doesn't have on transfers at the moment? As in the fact that he can't get a start under Unai. Does that work in our favour or not? I remember Gerrard stating that every potential signing he spoke to asked him if Couts was staying or not? As though it was a key factor in signing the likes of Kamara etc. So with him not able to get in the side does that highlight us as a bigger club than expected in some players eyes? Does it hinder us in some way or is it simply a non issue? 

So some of the best known Duran Duran songs: 

The Reflex, Rio, Wild Boys, Hungry Like A Wolf, Girls on Film, Ordinary World, A View to a Kill...

Been trying to think of something amongst that lot which would make a good song?!  Not easy is it 

Cue the Duran Duran songs for him......... 

If Emery keeps up his current average points haul, we'll be knocking on the door.

48 minutes ago, mattyvilla said:

its very common that people sell or let friends have away tickets now , it looks like you have been to every away game so always get one.

For me this is why it needs to change. It's a ridiculous situation to have zero chance of ever getting an away ticket (Unless you happen to know someone who is effectively denying you any chance through their actions as you state) They should reserve 1000 per game for rotational sales for me. The rest can go to those who by the looks of it often sell them on illegally.

I used to go to loads of away games too and as a season ticket holder I think they need to re-organise it in all honesty to give others a chance. The current system is wrong in my opinion. Especially as a season ticket holder! Surely you should get the chance at least a couple of times a season, if you registered your interest when buying the season ticket for example?! 

Most season ticket holders would naturally not want to go away regardless, so out of the 30k we currently have lets suppose 10k (Total guess) would want to go to an away game. If there are 19 away games & maybe 1 cup away game (seems all we can muster in recent years lol) then surely if 500 tickets were reserved for season ticket holder then you would get the chance to go to a couple per season at least?