MrBlack

Pointless for me. But we do have 4 more to use so...

I figured out the approach. Have 8 players zonally making the 25 yards in front of our goal line at all times.

I don't understand how they can have an option out wide and then options in the middle as well. Its like our players have been instructed to mark open air. Its making me nervous, but miraculously worked in the first half

Don't bring logic into this

This is what has me hoping we may stay up. Whatever conditions we were playing under weren't working ( we were in the relegation zone...). A change can only maintain or improve our fortunes

At least he'd win the ball back before giving it away. Conor only doing the latter so far

Sooo, winning but playing terribly. Do you still change the formation? I'd still bring Nakamba on for conor

I do too!

Our marking is atrocious across the pitch. They have free men everywhere. Ball watching at its finest o.... omw we scored

Think mings was offside long before Jack had chance to release the ball, but what he did after is no excuse.

Jack's first pass was absolute trash. So long without the ball in their half and he's forgotten how to play

Nyland

Every loose ball runs to their players. We look so half arsed. This is going to be a very long game.

That's levy's fault for being a cheap skate and not paying the going rate for players, whilst spending millions on a white elephant of a stadium (only partially joking) As for the other clubs in the lower half of the league, you're right, it is extremely unfair to start allowing 5 substitutions against those teams.

There is an argument that hitting it any softer would have meant it got intercepted...or it could have resulted in us winning a corner, or the defender scoring an own goal. Definitely hitting it too hard in front of everyone does no favours to anyone. It had the feeling of a goal about it, looking like hundreds of similar goals that are scored every season, but it wasn't to be. Davis maybe could have been sprinting harder, suspect his lack of poachers instinct didn't help him either.

But we werent more clinical, hence a draw was "fair". They had a definite goal ignored, and we had a penalty (in my eyes) ignored. They cancel each other out. No one scored. I then bemoaned the fact we played with a non goal scoring striker as a lone striker and probably part explains why we couldn't score. We created a lot but only one shot springs to mind as threatening, which was well saved. Having more shots is not a precursor to scoring more. Sheffield were especially poor by their standards, so maybe we should have won, but on the basis of play that would have been unfair to them

Good result. Draw was fair despite the fact they had a definite goal and we should have had a penalty. Not a great performance but to be expected in the circumstances. Whatever formation Dean was trying to achieve, its not going to create much in the way of goals with Davis as a lone striker and Grealish effectively a wing back. Maybe just going defensive with the opposition in mind

McGinn, and indeed any footballer, should have been able to train and maintain a level of fitness that allows them to reach match fitness when things restart. The fact the Premier league chose to restart before any player can get match fit is a burden to all players, not just McGinn. I don't buy that he'd be in a worse position now than before the Chelsea game at all. Unless he had a recurrence of the injury or some issue directly related to covid-19, he should have been in a better position injury wise when we re-started training, and now be as up to speed as any other player in the team.

Assume the massive sheets serve a dual purpose of looking good and having the ball rolling back to the front of the stand. Limited ball boys and no fans to throw them back could see us out of supplies after 5 minutes, particularly given our wayward passing! Looks lovely though, hopefully the fans on the video screen give the boys enough of a morale boost to give us something like a home advantage.

Rightly so. You can't change the rules of engagement after everyone has started using them without agreement from everyone it affects. A farce to end the season early for anyone. A farce to carry on under different conditions and laws. What's the rush.... oh yeah, money

I get the feeling that the fact he puts in a half hearted attempt to defend is what makes him blow up like he did against Mings. In his mind he's doing his best and trying to defend, but not being a natural defender and (as you pointed out) probably having never had to do it consistently before in his career, means he's not very good at it. Being not very good at it, he will subconsciously be putting in less effort than when he goes forward. With decent actual coaching and a bit of time, he could be exceptional in my opinion. He does need to work on his mentality for when things aren't going his way and the club should recognise this

This has very much been the case in Germany. In fact, after the first couple of rounds of fixtures, away teams were actually more successful than home teams, with home teams only winning 20% of the matches. Looks like the trend continued, so home advantage is definitely weakened, if not removed. Which makes a further farce of the plan to restart in these conditions but, hey, integrity and overflowing wallets etc

Maybe not en masse, but I do think there would be enough of a gathering for it to be newsworthy, primarily of the younger parts of our fan base, just as an excuse if nothing else. As for liverpool fan celebrations around the country, you're probably right. It's definitely a matter of time before we find that out Let's hope we stay up and get to find out what our fans will do!

I hope you're right! I actually don't see the season getting "finished" anyway. If a game has already been called off because a manager has covid, it won't be the last time that happens. And the second wave incoming from the protestors that ignored distancing advice will probably mean restrictions can be expected in ~2 weeks time. Maybe I just see everything negatively now.

Reckon there won't be a gathering of villa fans if we avoid relegation? Sounds small minded but I'm convinced there would definitely be easily a hundred or more of our fan base that wouldn't be able to help themselves. Same with any club achieving anything. Increase/ decrease the number gathering based on the size of the achievement, the size of the fan base, and the general intelligence of the fans. A liverpool title decider being played in southampton won't stop their fans gathering in huge numbers, it will just mean they'll be doing it in liverpool and Southampton