YouUnastanFren

I thought he'd be off and primed to take the Juve job. They'll continue to play well under him but the whole project just seems a bit stagnant at the minute.

Ah ****, Pep is staying. By no means a guarantee that DL goes, but it makes his departure more likely than if Pep **** off and got replaced by A.N. Other imo.

It's from cricket I think, from when batsman was able to score lots on a flat pitch. Basically saying someone is good at taking advantage of easy conditions. In that context it's pretty much a compliment but these days it's transformed into a criticism by virtue of also implying that the subject can only thrive against poor opposition and struggles in harder games.

You'd think Southgate could at least pick CBs well but apparently not. Nothing encapsulates the shitness of this England regime as well as Eric Dire turn back towards his own goal every time he gets the ball because he can't use his left foot

Agreed on the reasons he would get one, but did he actually get rewarded? Was a new contract actually signed and announced this summer?

SHAMELESS soccer diva Marcus Rashford SHUNS the entire nation in its hour of need to promote DEFORESTATION

This is the part I'm confused about. It was widely reported he was getting a new contract but did he actually get one? If he did, what is the benefit to the club if it doesn't effect his buyback clause?

I was impressed when they signed a current German international CB for less than £20m despite not knowing a lot about him. It's starting to seem like that's not quite as prestigious of a title as it once was

Seeing he played another 90 minutes worries me. Him and McGinn will have played a lot of football as well as flying long distances over this break.

Agree on Wesley's character but if Watkins doesn't get a contact injury I think it's likely we can rely on him for 90 minutes every week. He played all 90 minutes in 47 of 49 games for Brentford last season. The other 2 were him getting subbed in the 88th minute for a standing ovation after a hat trick in a 3-1 win and also him being subbed in the 82nd minute after scoring in a game they won 5-1. I think it's important to have a back up striker that at least might score if he plays so I'm still glad Wesley is returning.

Wasn't even on the bench for Argentina last night. Hope that means they allowed him to fly back early rather than him having picked up an injury in training

Disclaimer: I know the mirror and John Cross especially are more hacky than a group of stoners on the 20th of April But this is possibly the worst take of all time Saying PL minutes were a requirement despite that not being the case, giving interviews that suggest you don't know what qualities he (or Mount) actually provide, leaving him out of the initial squad in the last break after the Liverpool game and only being forced to bring him in because of indiscipline by others, not giving him a single minute to come on and make a difference in the 0-1 loss to Denmark after he was MOTM against Wales. That was all actually apparently just good management because Grealish was hungry for the ball on Sunday, like that hasn't been the case in every single game for years.

We do imo. Last season Dean Henderson was amongst the best keepers in the league as far as the stats for stopping expected goals go, Pickford was second worst ahead of Kepa IIRC. Unfortunately he's now benched but even then, Pope is better than Pickford. I've seen it suggested that Pickford is ahead by virtue of his ability with his feet but for England he almost exclusively knocks it long when under even the slightest amount of pressure so that shouldn't really matter.

That bloody VillaReport is probably just making stuff up again

Agreed, 2 Nations league games are preferable to 2 friendlies. I think the problem is that instead of no longer playing friendlies we're just shoe horning them in as well. We now play 2 nations league games and a friendly over the break instead of just 2 friendlies.

There are some fascinating posts throughout the years. This thread is going to be a goldmine for internet archaeologists in 10 years when he's captained us to consecutive European titles

I get what you're saying but he still only owns 6%. I don't think the owners of the other 94% would even consider allowing him to use company profits to supplement a player's wages if it didn't make commercial sense for them.

You would have to imagine that he just doesn't practice them much. There's a bit of cross over with dead ball practice and shooting/crossing practice so some players can be quite good without excessively working on them but the best ones have invariably put in the 10,000 hours doing specific FK drills.

Haha I did see that, I know you don't actually want it to happen, it was the mere suggestion of us ditching the system that has made us the most exciting team in the league (imo) for the system that has stifled England's embarrassment of riches to 1 (deflected) goal from open play for the entire NL group stage that made my eyes bleed.

Trez - 4.4m Samatta - 1.9m Elmo - 0.9m I'm not sure how strong the insta follower number to marketability correlation is

I almost had a seizure reading this. Mings already makes a few of those runs for us, especially when we're losing. Pretty sure he did it against both Leeds and Southampton. We really don't need to sacrifice our AM for another CB for him to be able to do it. Watching England play has soured me against that system, maybe forever.

Yeah they won their 5 team division handsomely as well as finishing top of their 15 team conference. Wes bought in when they had finished bottom of both the season before. My knowledge of the NBA is very limited as I only watch highlights so I don't know about their finances but they seem to be pretty universally regarded as a team on the up. Edit - Giannis is really unplayable, 7ft and moves like he's 5ft 6, the Grealish of the NBA if you will.

He also bought into the Bucks when they were at a real low ebb and Giannis was a huge talent that wasn't yet fulfilling his potential. The parallels are really quite striking. They haven't captured the national title yet but they did finish top of their conference in the regular season. Much more reassuring to look across and see our sister team is on an upward trajectory than the days of Randy and the Browns.

Including France IMO. We've also got the best attacking fullback pairing. This squad is crying out to play 4-2-3-1, only Gary can't see it.