punkiller1981

Love how mental clubs like every still think this guy is a decent manger when his last ten years show he is an anti football relic who drops into clubs causes chaos and leaves (bit like Rafa to be fair). He is not of the current football world anymore but you know the usual suspects in the media like Robbie savage will be saying “look at what he has won”

I think you only needs to look at his numbers last year to this year to see the trajectory. I felt last year he was nice and tidy but lacked a bit of something! Maybe a bit of physicality. This season he has progressed at an astonishing rate and for me he is our nailed in starting Centre midfield engine. Yes he has the odd patch were he is a bit quiet but he is 20 years old that's inevitable. In three years time this kid is going to be a top class international

Mistake aside I thought he was very good and also quicker than I realised

Is this based on the fact that Man City and West Ham moved into their respective stadiums following large athletics events ? The difference being that the Etihad was built purposely for the commonwealth games and the London stadium was built for the Olympics. The Alexandra stadium already exists and is a permanent athletics stadium which will have a very nice refurbishment and temporary additional seating. It will continue to be the main Uk athletics stadium after the games so unlike the other two the is no need to find a use for the stadium as it already has one

Looking at our set piece delivery yesterday I can’t wait to have the option of Digne and phil on the dead ball

Served his purpose here and has probably over stayed his usefulness by 6 months or so. The playing squad had developed beyond the need for him and he is just taking a place up

I dont think Ramsey helped the situation by facing away from the goal and facing Cavani. Had he been facing the goal and got himself in the way of Cavani I think the goal would have stood. Still think Cavani went down cheaply though

The problem with that is your left with a load of players that are good in the championship but can’t get a kick in the prem (Tom Cairney at Fulham springs to mind with one year on one year off) and you can’t offload them because you over pay on wages to get them in the first place. Not a problem for Newcastle in terms of finding them but in terms of FFP it’s a big problem. I do think them going down even with their owners would be a bit of a disaster and elongate the process of premier league domination.

I imagine the idea of moving to the north east for a freezing winter to play for a guy he had probably never heard of and play for a team that is still almost certainly getting relegated probably played a part in him not wanting to go there. I imagine a relatively pressure free environment (in comparison to the Barca bubble) will give him an opportunity to express himself for a manger that wants and believes In him. I think the cost of wages etc is majority covered in the new spark in interest and exposure a marquee statement signing this would bring. It’s low risk for me with a potentially massive upside

I know this is one really for the VAR thread but why was it even needed bad refs are bad because they don’t understand football, seeing it again on tv doesn’t make there decisions any better. I’m firmly in the camp of football wasn’t broken and was actually doing ok before VAR and with VAR the product had got so much worse

Probably make the game a bit better I think VAR makes the game so much worse

My god deli Alli really is a shit footballer. Unless they have no other players I can’t see why yet another manger thinks they will make him into a player.

I hadn’t realised the was a VAR thread until today so sorry I am very late to the party with this. FWIW i hated the idea of VAR coming in perhaps with the exception of automatic goal line technology but for everything else I think it makes the game fundamentally worse and I can’t see any justification for it other than those who say at least we get the right decision in the end. I don’t think quiet often we do get the right decision most of the time because we still have incompetent arrogant refs watching a tv and being given another opportunity to make a wrong decision while in slow motion while taking 5 minutes out of the game. We seem to have accepted that because refs are really poor that’s a reason for VAR rather than saying your a shit ref get out the game and we will train up some competent refs. secondly if it does have to stay and is genuinely here to correct clear and obvious errors then give the VAR one additional look at real speed not slow mo as that shows a completely distorted vision of reality and context, if they then don’t see an error carry on. Nothing for me kills a game as a sporting piece of entertainment than the game stopping so a ref can go frame by frame back and forth looking for the faintest touch on the ball. Add into that the joy and spontaneous celebration that gets ripped out of the game when a goal is scored and sky are straight away going VAR will check that. My real feel for it is the game wasn’t broken in the first place it was highly entertaining including the quirks of poor reffing and with VAR it’s less entertaining it’s more dull and personally I watch less football since VAR has been introduced, I watch every Villa game of course but I do watch less other games because it’s sucked the entertainment out of it for me. I also don’t buy into the idea it works well in rugby and cricket either. In rugby I often end up turning it off when I’m watching a really good try scored and then the ref comes on the Mike and says can you check for a forward pass about 9 minutes ago in the first phase of play. Why but if you thought it was a forward pass blow up for a forward pass at the time. Cricket is a bit better because it’s stop start but still going to edgbaston to watch the test England get an lbw we all cheer and then the batter challenges the decision. So next time I don’t cheer when we get an edge or lbw because im waiting for it to be overturned. sorry for the rant im just In the camp of I wasn’t aware football was broken before VAR and im in the camp if I’d rather be entertained than have every decision spot on especially when they are always still so subjective. I don’t believe refs cheat or are biased even though it looks like that sometime, I think they are just poor and they are still poor no matter how many replays they see.

This Leeds team really are a poor poor team. Other than raphinia and Phillips they don’t have a premier league quality player amongst them. I do wish the pundits would start calling them out as shit, it feels like the is still a Leeds love in going in from last season. it reminds me a bit of Sheffield Utd last year when all the pundits were basing their lazy assumptions on the previous year and saying they will be fine when they has hardly got a point at Christmas

I’m in this camp, wasn’t overwhelmed by the SG talk mainly I think because of the league he was managing in. I have to say the moment he walked through the door the calm, no nonsense, steely determined to win mindset shows what he is about to me and that’s the business of winning and being successful. it’s difficult to not be impressed with the set up and the results so far. 4 wins 6 with the 2 defeats to the top 2 in the league I think speaks volumes. As much as I love Deano I couldn’t see that happening and now I just see this new level of professionalism in the group clearly instilled already by Gerrard and GMac. I’m really excited to see the progression in a year or even 6 months given the sharp upping in levels in 6 weeks

I would say we are taking are time with Carney and easing him in nicely with 20/30 minute cameos maybe the odd start here and there.

Not a chance. A 29 year old on a huge salary that his last 2 teams hardly used him! Sounds like an awful signing to me for anyone. It’s his type of signing that showed me that Barca have no clue what they are doing and just pick names without any thought of how they will be used or fit into the group

Ramsey looks lost on wide

Decision making is very poor still too hopefully SG can improve that across the team

This midfield does not work

I actually thought he did a decent job of not making the game all about him for once but I am amazed he didn’t book anybody. The was a foul on the touch line of the witton lane stand I think by cancelo on Watkins which was a clear yellow for a normal ref so for Mike Dean I thought it was nailed on yet he did nothing

I don’t know what the stats are but other than the marez free kick towards the end did city have a shot on target second half? I don’t remember them doing much at all which I think was credit to us because they didn’t take the foot of the gas.

Really ?? I like the look of him but Ramsey is a premier league level midfielder already this lad isn’t and unless he learns how to press better he might never be

Good post in my view. I think Dean deserves and has the respect of the support base but I think it had got a bit to friendly around the group and the intensity had gone a bit. SG and Co seem to have the work rate upped and I think credit to the board for taking the jump to get fresh perspective in.

No Newcastle ? I can’t see how they stop up at all. I don’t thing they can sign a whole new squad in January and Callum Wilson apart they are a mid table championship side. Going down will cause them all sorts of FFP problems unless they choose to ignore it. Leeds are another interesting one. I thought last season they were a really poor side (raphina aside) that ran around a lot and beat sides that wouldn’t match the work rate. This season they seem to be running less and with far less intensity, almost looks like beilsa is loosing the dressing room a bit. So with that being said I think they might be in trouble not that sky would ever say that because they seem to think they are everybody’s second favourite side for sone reason.