pas5898

9 minutes ago, bobzy said:

That's incredibly harsh on Leeds tbh - "chaos football".  They should have had a penalty, had one cleared off the line, had a goal disallowed for offside - we'd had one shot all first half, just scored it.  Leeds were the opposite.  Even our goal came from their early attacking play.  

Second half we were better but more to the point that the game became more even.  At zero point in the match did I, personally, feel comfortable.

I agree with the first half, they should have scored, but didn't. Most of their chances was them pressing extremely aggressively in the midfield then pouring forward in the breakdown, catching our wide midfielders up the pitch and unable to make up ground. That's why we had 57% possession but they had the most chances.

The second half Emery completely shut it down with the likes of Kamara, Kamara and not even bothering to engage higher up the field and keeping the fullbacks deeper. There was no space for them to pour forward into therefore the came just petered out, which is what we wanted. Marsh couldn't adjust as they only know one way of playing. 

Good player, but we don't have the squad or system to utilise his talent (finishing). He needs support or service and get neither with us.

If we still had the guile of Grealish or someone like JWP pinging 40 yarders onto his head he'd score a hatful, and I suggest he might do the same the West Ham with Benhrama providing the ammunition.

For us, he had Watkins who is selfish at the best of times with Buendia not quite hitting those through balls we were expecting.

17 hours ago, bobzy said:

I really like Marsch and he's got Leeds playing relatively well on the whole (certainly the better side against us).

The Ted Lasso thing is ridiculous (still).

Interestingly I think the complete opposite. He's an absolute awful manager, and despite us having an off day, and nerves after Stevenage,  our elite manager made us win the game at VP.

We nicked a goal early on, and from 20-45 minutes we fell into the Leeds trap of chaos football (when they should have scored), all instigated by an energetic midfield and Marsh jumping up and down like college cheerleader. We fell into the chaos trap with midfield scraps and quick tempo which is when they look to break away and score. They only know and are coached into 1 way of football.

Emery realised this and shut it down second half and we were fairly comfortable until Bamford nicked a goal after the foul on Young, and even after that they didn't look like scoring. 

37 minutes ago, villa89 said:

It won't get that far. Nobody picks a fight they know they are going to lose. Send NATO troops, vehicles and planes into Ukraine. Within two months all Russian forces have left Ukraine or are dead. Russia cannot retaliate for a variety of reasons. The only downside is the shitshow that's left after that when NATO withdraws and Ukraine is constantly undermined by Russian interference in politics/corruption etc. while they are trying to rebuild a broken country. 

As one with Russian, Lithuanian and Ukranian relatives, the problem with "full scale" Nato assistance means Putin will be proved right with his anti west retoric, therefore making a 1,000,0000 - 3,000,0000 mobilisation very plausible. (On a separate note, expect some sort of false flag attack on Moscow, St Petersburg etc)

In the main Russians are extremely patriotic and have been fed anti-west nonsense all their lives via heavily controlled state sponsored TV. Videos of American Abrams tanks rolling into Crimea and/or Russia itself would cause a further loss of life on an almost unimaginable scale (on both sides).

10 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Or the fact we were relying on only one Striker in our entire first team squad and we were lucky he never got injured or tired. 

No matter what anyone things of how Ings has done we needed another striker that summer. If it wasn't Ings who was it?

Too many people on here hate context 

We just signed a striker? 
Im not a mathematician but 1 + 1 = 2 

8 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Actually i take the first part back we didnt overpay for Ings, we overpaid for a player we didnt know how to use. I am 100 percent convinced Smith had no idea as his struggles fitting Ings/Watkins showed

Ings was purely a "keep the fans happy" signing. We were losing Grealish, and getting a proven premier league goalscorer kept a bit of positivity.

The fact he didnt fit into the team in any way was not Purslows problem at all, he just palmed that over to Dean Smith, who also had no idea how to play him.

5 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

Could we do better? Sure.

Is selling Ings for book profit and getting his wages off the books a bad move? Financially, absolutely not. 

Getting a lot of grief for this, but i'm actually quite pleased we are selling Ings. He's a good striker, but mainly sitting on the bench and picking up a big wage whilst losing any resale value.

Means we are moving into the next phase of our strategy now we are consolidated in the premier league and removed the Apprentice manager. We need to make business led decisions in some cases, and with Ings going to be 31 in the summer with 1 year on his large contract, selling him for a book price profit is good for us. We have replaced him with player who is 10 years younger, on 3rd of the wages, who will most likely have a decent resell value and suits Emerys style. 

We can't be getting the likes of Kamara, Guendouzi, Thuram etc in with 7 x 30 year old players on high wages and no resale value. We don't have that commercial income (yet) to, that's how you end up like Everton.

Wanted by Benfica and United. Done well here.

Anyone Benfica buys is immediately worth 80 million in 2 years.

3 minutes ago, ender4 said:

Norwich didn’t drop them because of their core business.  

They were only dropped after a large outcry by their fanbase due to their website having lots of scantily classes & semi-nude ladies

We can be sponsored by Pornhub if they stop charging £50 quid a ticket for Leicester at home

Watched a bit of Marseille this season and last due to my friend being a fan.

For me he comes across as energetic and the ideal box to box runner for Kamara's class and athleticism and Luiz guile. Altogether the 3 of them could be a very effective midfield combo with each complimenting the other.

44 minutes ago, Genie said:

It feels like the strategy from those opposing Russia is to arm Ukraine just well enough to keep the invaders at bay. Not really to kick them out or unleash fury on them. I do wonder about this strategy. If Putin does mobilise millions of men then the response from the West will be increased for sure… why not go all in now and push Russia back?

Is it a deliberate tactic to destroy Russia long term by extending the conflict as long as possible?

USA in particular would love this war to go on forever. They could give Ukraine enough firepower to retake their land tomorrow.

They are giving Ukraine older 1990's weapons, then paying off their military machine to build newer hi-tech weapons.

They are modernising their army & spending more on their "defence" than ever whilst having no dead American Soliders on TV, or innocent children being droned in the middle east. All whilst completely crippling a former superpower.

It's literally perfect for them. The longer the better.

55 minutes ago, bickster said:

Surely the age boundary for feeling Russian is much higher than that though? I was in Lithuania and Latvia at the end of the Soviet era. Glasnost / Perestroika times. The Baltic countries had just been allowed to fly their flags a year or so before. Even back then it wasn't easy to find someone my age at the time or even slightly older that felt Russian. Old people back then sure, they were the ones going back into the reopened orthodox churches (we quickly learned that hats on men inside churches is disrespectful  )

From that experience I imagine that the age boundary is more like 65 or so. Is that not correct?

I can only talk from my family and friends in Lithuania.

75+ = Russian

50+ = Basically Russian

<40 = Speak Lithuanian + English, Hate Russian and Putin

40-50 are probably more confused than a Small Heath fan at their sisters wedding. 

15 hours ago, fruitvilla said:

Are her parents of Russian origin? 

But I agree, my experience of Latvia, younger people have English as a second language, while older people have Russian. In Latvia just under thirty percent of the population of Russian origin, but they seem ambidextrous when it comes to Russia. I have relatives who changed their Russian surname to a Latvian one.

Everyone is technically of Russian Origin if over the age of 40. It was one big happy soviet family!

Maternal side is Russian Origin (her nan moved during WW2)  -  Despite only living in Lithuania my mother in law is 100 percent "russian", speaks russian, watches russian TV etc. They are angry with me for learning Lithuanian.

Her dad is Lithuanian / Polish by decent but is 100 percent Russian politically, speaks russian and despite living in Lithuania holds a distain for the european side of things.

All the younger generation are 100 percent Lithuanian / European and anti Russia.

20 hours ago, PussEKatt said:

Watched a documentry here about Ukraine and a mother said that she was against Russia and looked on them as invaders but,her 2 daughters looked on the Russians as saviors

Generally speaking, it's the other way round. In Lithuania / Latvia / Estonia and parts of Ukraine.

Older than 45 - remember the soviet union, speak Russian only take in Russian TV / propaganda

Younger than 45 - Tend not to speak Russian, all speak English, more European and definitely anti Russia.

My Wife has cousins in Ukraine - the younger ones were fighting, the older ones were quite pleased at the though of Soviet Rule again.

Her parents are 100% pro Russia and would welcome Russian rule in Lithuania for example.

Crazy thought - Maybe, just maybe one of the most successful billionaires and serial entrepreneurs in the world knows what he is doing.

Xavi

Iniesta (even though they finished up about 2015/16)

Sergio Ramos (4 x CL + WC + Euros + Leagues)

30 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I'm just waiting for people to say 'the answer is to give shop staff more guns' when they already probably had a whole arsenal available to them.

As for the state of that guy's Dad, how depressing that there are probably millions of Americans like that.

Remember driving through Arizona on along drive from Vegas . We went into a retail park / Home Depot, just to have a break and look around. In the queue front of us 4/5 people had open carry pistols.... Imagine needing to take your gun to B&Q.

13 minutes ago, Rodders said:

Should just respect the local culture and religious practices too obviously. Even if they're insane. Honestly far too many regions of the Arabian world aren't fit to hold global events. 

A basic rule of thumb could be "would this country hold a women's world Cup or a gay player world cup" if no, then no mens team should be playing there.

I agree with regards to Women's rights and that's enforceable as that mainly applies to the Arab world, but throwing LGBT rights in there is just impossible and will never work for the majority of the world at this moment. Hopefully that will change in the future.

There's probably more religions / people on the planet who oppose gay marriage / LGBT rights than support it. It's not just the Arab world, its the vast majority of Africa, a lot of South America, India and Russia. China is making progress but still far behind. As crazy we think some of their laws are disallowing it, the majority of the world think it's absolutely insane we actively push and promote it.

This is only an issue for a handful of countries in the world cup. 

16 minutes ago, NoelVilla said:

Let the rumors of the return of Steven begin.

Rangers fans warned us, Gerrards whole coaching was all Michael Beale. I can't see them taking Gerrard back without a serious number 2. 

Just now, Nigel said:

I don't think there's a chance of them going down now sadly 

Agreed. Good manager and that team is far too good to go down. 

12 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

A proportional Polish response would be to station Polish troops in Ukrainian infrastructure targets. Power stations, gas storage locations. Everywhere Russia is targeting with missiles, then tell him that if a single Nato/Polish soldier is killed, they will invoke article 5. 

There would still be no fighting, and defensive RoE, and meanwhile they would be protecting Ukranian assets with their presence. 

 

Save the humans. Shoot down anything north of Kherson and anything west of Dnipro. 
 

It will also protect innocent citizens in Kyiv from being bombed every week. 

Just now, Rugeley Villa said:

I mean giving your kids a good belting. 

To be honest, if 2 older boys are putting sharp objects into my step daughters eye, potentially causing her to lose her eyesight, then they deserve "a good hiding". 

It's stopped now, however the father decided to deal with his children is his problem. My priority is my step daughter who is now no longer being targeted in a dangerous manner.

9 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

In certain cultures it’s still acceptable to give your kids a good hiding , so maybe. 

Do you mean hiding from your kids or do you take everything literally?

They were disciplined, and too right. They could have took her eye out. 

My step daughter was being bullied by 2 boys. 

It got to the stage where one child held her arms behind her back, another put the end of a broom against her eye. The children were "let off" as they claimed by step daughter made a comment which could have been construed as racist. I snapped at the headteacher who did NOTHING.

As she was brought up in Leicester, this is not her (there's more children of colour in her school that white kids) and she didn't even understand how the thing she was accused of saying could be considered racist until I explained.

Anyways, all I did was pick her up from school, ask her to point out the children, Fortunately one was being picked up by their mother who didn't seem too bothered by the whole thing when  I mentioned it. Fortunately, the following Friday a dad picked them up. A quick man to man conversation sorted the thing out, and the kids were given an absolute battering by their father and they have left her alone since. 

In short. The kids may be ****, just go to the parents who are 9/10 are reasonable people.

EDIT: Battering = A good telling off (for those who take every comment literally).

3 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Think big thing is they step onto the pitch at St James Park and simply don't believe they'll lose to anyone and that is reflected in their results. They've lost one home league game since last November I think.

Go back three years and it was a funeral atmosphere up there with Ashley as owner and Bruce as manager.

Players feeding off the crowd and vice versa.

Expectation creeping into the crowd. They were deadly silent until the penalty against us.