weedman

According to the commentator anyone taller than Lionel Messi is a big man

No I don't think we would either. And we'd be right not to, he was a £12m investment that's coming good, even worst case scenario we'll make our money back so keep him developing here and see how high he can go

I mean sure, to us, but that's £60m which would make him one of the most expensive defenders of all time. After 1 good season in a fairly average team with no international experience. He may potentially be worth that in future, if he keeps improving as he is, but not yet. I'm not saying we would sell him for that, we are well run and building for the future, so it would take a much bigger offer - one that we wouldn't receive - to let him go. Talk of £60m is madness and just shows how much Man Utd have messed with people's brains - they weren't interested in buying Jack for not much more than that last season for gods sake! He's worth more to us than his actual worth, no-one is likely to offer us what we'd need, so he'll stay and once he starts making England appearances we can start talking about a £60m player

You can't compare Konsa with Maguire, Maguire had just come back from arguably being England's best player at a major tournament, was seen as Leicesters top player and his stock was as high as ever when he was sold, Konsa has been solid for us for under a year, has no international caps, and is currently not our best or most saleable defender. His value is probably around £20m, but you add on 10 as we have loaded owners and his potential, so £30m to any buyers. In saying that I don't think we'll be selling him as it seems that not what we do these days so get him a new contract and move on

The problem is the referees and the laws. As it stands referees know when players are making the most of situations, but "by the law" have to give the decisions. Its why 2 players having a bit of a wrestle is let go all the time (see any corner), but as soon as 1 of those players go down they give the fk/pen and VAR will back them up because of "contact" Decisions are being given solely on how players react to challenges rather than for the challenges themselves, and until that stops players will continue to go down at the first opportunity because why wouldn't they?

There's basically 3 types of dive. You get the full dives with no contact, the Bamfords of the world, everyone hates these You get the going down easily/buying a free kick. Every team will have at least 3 or 4 players doing this. We have a fair few (including Jack). Typically its the flair players that benefit from this and therefore get singled out (Jack, Salah etc), i think most people don't like these ones but generally accept it as it's the game these days Then you get the Harry Kanes and Deeneys, players that will wrestle, barge, trip, push, pull etc all day long, and as soon as a defender does it back they scream, fall over and win a free kick every time because there is "contact". I really hate these but mainly because of the refs, they need to judge a foul on the foul and not the reaction. As it is a shoulder to shoulder is deemed perfectly fine one second, then a definite foul the next based soley on whether the player fell over or not For me, if they could stop the lot of it then I would be more than happy. I remember when I was young being adamant that if the contact doesn't cause you to fall over and you do it's a dive, and if the ref deems that contact to be enough for a foul it should be a free kick to you and then a yellow card to you for diving. This is obviously impossible to apply due to the pace of the game and the fact that only the individual player will know of the contact caused them to fall Because every team has players in the 2nd category every team can be accused of cheating by bitter opposition fans, generally the 1st and 3rd are the worst (and easiest to stop) and should see far harsher punishments, the 2nd I just don't see how they can change it, so if you can't beat em, join em

That's the problem though isn't it? They seem to be only judged on the "big decisions" and none of the others. I mean Jack got a yellow for pulling back his man on the counter, fair enough. Literally 5 minutes later McGinn is pulled back in virtually the same area on a counter and no yellow. Look at the injury to Cash, 2 players shoulder to shoulder, Cash knocked off balance, gives ball away, fair enough. 5 minutes later for the Luiz yellow card he goes shoulder to shoulder, knocking their player off balance. Free kick and yellow card. The whole game was littered with these decisions for both teams It's maddeningly inconsistent and that's the stuff that refs need to be judged on, not just the "oh he gave a penalty that shouldn't have been then VAR didn't change it because it was Man Utd" decisions

Mate we could win 8-0 and he'd be here saying "sure, I'm happy we won, but Smith looks like he hasn't had a haircut for WEEKS! It's unprofessional and will spread to the rest of the team"

Barkley is clearly playing himself back to fitness. He won't get match fit from the odd 15 mins here and there. It's short term pain while he gets up to speed so he is fit quicker. He's not playing well, but each game since we came back he's been a little better (fitter) and it would be counter productive to drop him now.

Bielsa getting manager of the year should do it I reckon

I do love VT sometimes, we all gush over the fantastic football we play, the quick tempo one touch passing from the back football, but as soon as one of the players has a pass intercepted it's all "why wouldn't he just clear it?!" Its crazy, he doesn't just hack the ball clear every time because if he did it would be terrible for our game and Smith would replace him with someone that plays exactly like Mings does now. To play the football we play it requires taking risks at the back, Mings is our defender that does that, Konsa doesn't, so Konsa can focus on defending, obviously that will lead to him giving the ball away every now and then. We gain much more than we lose from this tactic which is why Smith will never try and change the way Mings plays, he's literally perfect for our style

Does anyone know what the fit is like on the retro shirts? I was thinking about giving one a go but I float between a L or XL depending on the fit (XL of last seasons green is actually really tight still). If it's the 90's fit I think I could probably get a small (jokes) but tight fitting I'd go XL, anything like our actual kits this season I wouldn't bother. If they make McGinn, a professional athlete look a bit tubby I've got no hope!

Agree, if there was an option to block replies this site would be gold! It's so hard to catch up on stuff because there's 11 pages here and 9 of them are people arguing with an obvious troll, it's so frustrating! From what I've gathered no-one knows much about this guy but he's similar to McGinn and would rotate/be backup to him which, given how much we struggle when he's out would be great for us

Yeah think we'd go above Southampton...would 7th get us European football next year?

Leeds, Liverpool and Man City fans

Planning for Grealish to be left or cental I'd imagine would alter a teams preparation tbf

He was announced as nearly fit wasn't he? That's a big difference when it's only been a few days

It did, but also showed where he is a bit nieve still. I mean it worked and looked great last night, but if that West Brom player was slightly better he was ahead of Dougie and could have got in on goal. I think a top player just fouls the player on the half way line there and takes the yellow. I'm not gonna complain as he as v good last night and clearly one of our better players but little things like that are what keep him out of Man Citys team I think

Didn't they take action when it happened in March or whenever it was? I'm sure he got internally reprimanded at the time but could be wrong

I'm no Hamilton fan but I agree, it was the same when Messi and Ronaldo were being done for tax evasion in Spain and everyone lost their shit, none of these guys have the first clue what happens with their money. All they know is if they want something they tell their agent and the next day its theirs, with probably a nominal 10k in an account for them for day to day purchases like cocaine and hookers On Jack, he's a moron, keep him away from cars, deserved a longer ban, but all this is basically faux outrage as I'll love him like a son again if he bangs in a hat trick on Thursday, which I guess is the problem really but what can you do?

Of course it will

xG is a good metric. It's not perfect but much better than any other tool for analysing the match. Remember a penalty is worth 0.8 on its ownwhich I'd assume is the main reason our xG bettered wolves, especially in a game of half chances

I don't think I've seen anyone suggest that wasn't a mistake? I really can't be bothered to go back and re-read so I'll take your word for it that people have and agree that they are wrong. It was an error by McGinn for sure. And the mitigating circumstance. It was a one off error, whatever coaching has taken place since lockdown has seen us improve dramatically at set pieces. Every team will concede from a set piece now and then, and I think it was pointed out that we've conceded from 2 this season, making us one of, if not the best in the league at defending them. I really don't know what to make of this. You're right, these worldies ARE delivered against other teams too, no-one is arguing that, what we are saying, and please try and take this bit in and not simply skim over it, is that the rate these goals are going in against us is incredibly lucky/unlucky depending on who you support. Every team scores the odd "low percentage" goal now and then, every team concedes them too, but to concede several in consecutive games is very unlucky. We've conceded a goal with virtually every shot on target against us in the last few games, and there is not 1 you can look at our keeper and say he should have saved that. If you can't see that as being unsustainable then you're deliberately ignoring it This really irritates me. It's not a taboo subject, but when you constantly post the same criticisms over and over and over again regardless of what's actually happening and repeatedly completely ignore any points that contradict your opinion it becomes such a chore. Honestly I blocked villalad because he's an obvious troll and you seem to be just about the only person on this forum consistently agreeing with him, what does that tell you? You say that defensive work seems to be a taboo subject on here, well nobody wants to discuss it with you because you completely ignore anything that doesn't suit your argument. No-one is saying we haven't made mistakes, no-one is saying there's no areas of our defence we could improve, no-one is saying we're perfect. We are all agreeing with you on those points, what most people see though is that we have improved so much so quickly, have a young, inexperienced team and can accept that the occasional lapse or mistake is pretty much par for the course. You seem unable to see past win=good, loss=bad and big 6ft5 defensive midfielder who can also play like prime Viera is what we need immediately (ignoring the fact that if that player existed he'd cost as much as Jack)

I don't think that's how it works. We're conceding shots that have like a 5% chance of being a goal and the vast majority of them are going in at the moment. It's not sustainable and unless your argument is that the opposition should never have a shot on goal against us again I don't see what the issue is. Other teams will have shots against us in virtually every game from now until the end of time. The idea is to ensure that those shots have as small a chance as possible of becoming a goal. We're doing that and that is shown by our very low xG against. They just all happen to be flying in at the moment. Eventually this luck will even itself out. You really seem fixated on the negatives at the moment and refuse to hear any mitigation despite the circumstances being clear. I suppose it's easier to see goal conceded and assume that equals poor defending I guess.