bobzy

Marseille missed a glorious chance first half. I thought they played alright bar really obvious mistakes but, eventually, Atletico's quality shone through.

But so what if they're getting less than half of what they could elsewhere? Well done chairman for having the balls to stand up to the completely outrageous wage demands that people have these days. Alexis Sanchez is probably being paid £300k/wk at Man Utd - well done Levy for keeping Kane "down" (lol) at £150k/wk or whatever. Runs club well, gets criticised. Game truly is gone.

Think he'd have a chance after this season - same with Thauvin who has been immense for Marseille. Their squad announcement is today (might have been?) so will be interesting to see who is going!

I quite fancy France, but that potential blow in losing Payet may hurt them (hopefully just a small thing for his sake). England squad is underwhelming but pretty much as expected. Huge lol having Heaton on the backup list who has played, what, 0 games this season? “**** you, Joe Hart!”

Yeah, OK

Nah, **** that. I like Spurs. They're fairly unassuming, but are now consistently at the top end of the table and look like a real force. I find it utterly bizarre that people moan about having a "top 4" etc, but then instantaneously want any club that pushes into that bracket to lose all their best players. I hope Pochettino, Eriksen, Kane, Son et al all stay at Spurs for a long time and that they find a way to get above the Man City/Chelsea/Man Utd snorefest. Ideally, they'd win the Premier League.

If a goalkeeper is handling the ball outside the box, it's almost always going to be fine margins. It's deliberate handball - that's the rule. It's not "deliberate handball if you are believed to know that you're outside the box". Same way that violent conduct isn't "violent conduct if you're intending to be violent". Oh, and he was definitely outside the box:

From that article, and as you partly quoted...: "The previous 'triple-punishment' rule required a red card - and therefore a suspension - as well as the award of a penalty under those circumstances... ...But deliberate fouls will still incur a red card. Those include holding, pulling or pushing, not playing the ball, serious foul play, violent conduct or deliberate handball in order to deny a goalscoring opportunity." In which case: a] This was outside the box, thus not a penalty, and thus not within the "triple-punishment" area which (should) be relaxed. b] It's a deliberate handball which stops a goalscoring opportunity. I can't see why it wasn't a red. I'm thankful, but don't get it at all.

I disagree; mainly because I've not seen as good a ball carrier in our team for a long, long time. Possibly can't remember the last one. At times against Boro (and, in fairness, probably because of the pace of Adama Traore), we were so deep and the only times we actually relieved any pressure was when Jack got the ball and ran with it. If you play him in that archetypal number 10 role (that we all saw him being at some point), I think you lose the ability to carry the ball up the pitch. Strangely, given his technique and passing ability, you'd lessen the teams' ability to hurt the opposition.

So true. Once, just once, a 'Boro player read the pass to Adomah and cut it out. I applauded that player (in my head, of course) as I think it's the first time I've seen one of those passes from Grealish actually be cut out.

If Thor had been playing recently, I’d play him. However, he hasn’t and Jedinak has been very good at DMC recently. I’m worried about the movement Fulham have and how we’ll cope on a large pitch, but it wouldn’t make sense to bring him in now.

I thought he did brilliantly with his work rate, BUT, 2 things.... a) For a guy who has a decent left foot and scores a fair few goals, he doesn’t half love passing the ball tamely to the opposition keeper. b) Slipping, appealing for a penalty and then having a go at the ref for not giving a penalty was an unbelievably dickish move. I didn’t like that at all.

Nah, I think the ref got the Friend incident right. Red would’ve been harsh IMO.

Lucky, lucky boy. I was preparing to praise him generally - had nothing to do, but came well for crosses etc.... then, THAT. Lucky, lucky boy.

So, let me get this right... Give defensive-minded Steve Bruce money, he stays defensive-minded. Give even-more-defensive-minded David Wagner more money, he becomes Jurgen Klopp? Let’s hope tonight didn’t hurt too much ( smile ).

Terrible news - somewhat more tragic given the circumstances. Thoughts with his family

I actually don't think that's too bad for a fan video. He doesn't like John Terry - I think it's fair to say most of us didn't before he signed.

He made more tackles than anyone else (10) in the entire game. I'm surprised anyone thinks he didn't do well defensively!

This is fairly classic anti-Bruce stuff. You cannot honestly want Bruce out because he's "too cautious" and then replace him with Wagner? He's even more cautious!

Guessing you were just in such a rush to post something negative about Steve Bruce that LITERALLY ANY THREAD WILL DO, ARRRRRRRGHHHH!! Glad you managed to relieve that feeling.

Yup, I'd probably give him the last 30 mins - depending on how we're doing, of course. I still can't get over his cameo in the away leg, though. Just looked completely disinterested. He must have been injured/not fit.

Against Blues, both games against Derby and both games against us, he's done very little (still scored twice, of course) ...but otherwise, you're right, I haven't see that many Fulham games in full so maybe he's been a genuine World Cup place contender in those. I tend to watch Villa games more, though.

...and there's the overhype.

So you'd all take him to the World Cup?

That's fair and I guess there's something about doing nothing then getting a goal - maybe. However, he's 17, had 8 touches of the football in the first half and yet the BBC sports page reaction to his goal was... "That was Ryan Sessegnon's 16th goal of the season for Fulham. No wonder some are tipping the 17-year-old for a place in England's World Cup squad." (Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/44029323). ENGLAND WORLD CUP SQUAD. **** off.