kevpants

Buendia has changed the game

Jesus christ. Even the penalty goin in is an anti-climax.

Who the hell takes this?

2-2 if Watkins is s top finisher. Sigh.

An expensive squad of sh1te.

Look at it really simply. To kick on we need to be signing players who, when they leave their current club, the fans are devastated or unfurlinng banners with "Thank you <insert player name>". Instead we've been signing players from clubs where the fans are delighted at the fee they've received and basically laughing at us. This is the case for Bailey, Traore, Sanson maybe even Ings. I feel like Phillips is at least in the former camp, a player who's proven he has what it takes and is on the up.

It was sad to watch. I mean he's not awful. He's just not getting the ball that much and when he does he does fine and tries to drive forward. But it's just not a Grealish performance. I think he needs to receive the ball in tight spaces, on the turn etc. City don't play those passes. They roll it left and right. Cancelo in particular rarely passes to him unless he's massively open and in space out wide. I actually watched Cancelo today and I think he's a bit over-rated, football intelligence wise. He makes a lot of poor decisions but he does 2 or 3 magical pieces of skill per game to cover it up. I actually think Grealish would benefit from being played deeper, in midfield., where he can pull some strings rather than being the furthermost forward player in the team.

JUST STOP PLAYING WITH 2 NUMBER 10S

JUST STOP PLAYING WITH TWO NUMBER 10S

Yep. One loss with the 4312 and he chucks it in the bin to go back to this sh1te. Utterly awful formation. Smacks of some footballing hipsters idea of a formation that "hacks" how other sides play. In reality it leaves gaps everywhere

But the Arsenal players surrounded the ref so he had to book Mings. That's how it works. If Mings had screamed and pretended Saka stamped on him and our players surrounded the ref he probably would have booked Saka. The refs aren't corrupt, they're incompetent.

We've been bad but pretty sure that's aimed at the ref.

He might have had a boo boo so the ref scurried over to make sure he was ok.

Buendia's a fiery little sh1t isn't he. Love that.

I watched Rodri closely tonight and in terms of ability with the ball at his feet he’s arguably as awkward as Marv. Better passer probably but make no mistake he’s a lumbering beast in there to break it up. I feel like we should cut this guy more slack. I think he’s a good player.

Calm down Matty we just asked you to sort out your final ball not turn into prime Zanetti.

Great hustle from team Leeds there tonight. They showed a lot of spunk. They just gotta keep making heads up plays and moving the chains and draft well in the post season. GO WILDCATS!!!

Put him in midfield. Put Luiz in the sea.

This system is like some kind of abstract thought experiment. You could probably put together a nice document, maybe even a book, outlining its merits. But it doesn't actually work in real life. Maybe it works with top players. Not the jokers we have though.

I'm angry at him and wouldn't object to his sacking. But I also think these players are fairly awful. Not necessarily skill wise, but mentality wise. It's woven into the DNA of this squad and several previous squads, to be a weak, passive loser. Grealish injected us with some actual quality for a few seasons. We truly were/are a one man club.

If it was my club I think I’d sack Gerrard, Purslow and Lange tonight. I might come to regret it but I’d do it. This “project “ horse sh1t is all a scam. Be good now or f off.

Clearly his system doesn’t work and he has no other ideas.

I'm not happy with our full backs. I'm happy with one. Digne is a good signing but he was awful yesterday. In this system the fullbacks are the absolute key players, more so than your strikers or CBs or anything. The are your chief attacking outlet, the ball always makes it's way to them in attacking situations. Liverpool have excelled at this but they have Robertson and TAA, two of the best attacking fullbacks in world football. And they are covered in midfield by Henderson and Fabinho who are athletic, energetic and incredibly positionally aware. We are a bit like a pound shop Liverpool. At the moment I can only see Digne being good enough for this system. Cash is a liability, I really like him as a traditional fullback. A tough tackling energetic player who is perfect acting as a foil to a good winger. We don't have wingers. So he needs to be TAA. He never will be. His delivery is just not good enough, there's no guile in his crossing or passing or his dribbling. I don't know if McGinn is clever enough to be one of the two covering midfielders but I think he's be great in a more advanced role. I always think we've played him 15 yards too deep. Luiz is clever and can do a job but we need someone with a bit more presence and awareness in midfield with him. I can't help but think Ramsey's rise to being this exciting player needs to be slowed a bit because he's so young and he clearly doesn't fully get the system yet, especially defensively. I'd love if Iroegbunam could step into the team and save us £40m but it's a lot to ask of a young player. He appears to have a better defensive mindset though and I think that's what we need.

I think it's worth remembering that this is a team of players playing badly rather than a team of bad players. We've given plenty of big teams huge problems going toe to toe with them this season. I actually expect us to kick the lard out of a team soon enough.

I expect him and Chuk to start against Watford. Even if he's been shite in training McGinn and Luiz have played themselves out of the team for me.