birdman

Players don't care how bad it looks on camera. If it wins a free kick then job done. Yes the game has gone soft but so has the officiating. Jack took a late whack to his leg and it would have been ignored had he not dropped to the deck. He gets kicked every game, mainly becaue he's one step ahead of the opposition. 

I bet Watkins will go to ground next time as well! 

28 minutes ago, tom_avfc said:

There’s also a picture with him at the scene with one slipper and one flip flop on. I mean it doesn’t mean anything I suppose but it’s not exactly helping the impression the whole thing gives off. Hopefully he’s learnt his lesson from this incident and that stops anything worse happening in the future.

At least he wasnt wearing crocs.

29 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

It’s the fact that at times some of them just stop clearly just to watch him and what he’s going to do. 

Indeed and need to do more damage when dominating but most of all cut out conceding soft goals that put us on the back foot early doors. Dean needs to address the zonal marking issues as it's killing us!

Regardless of the VAR nonsense he must be extremely frustrated with some of his team mates tonight. Just not good enough.

We can't afford to have a one trick pony playing! Yes hes been fantastic for us and yes he can play well when the going is good but it's too risky imo. I think we need to invest minutes in Traore and use Connor as backup. If Dean picks Conor then fair play I will always back him and hope he scores but I just don't think he's the best option for us.

Jack behaved very very poorly if indeed he was drunk at the wheel. As I understand it there is no evidence so he's extremely lucky. Hopefully get banned for 12 months and in the meantime learn the hard lesson and never repeat the mistake! I'm sure he realises this could harm his ambitions. Not a good week for the club what with the racism report too. As fans we're gonna get a load of stick but nothing changes there I suppose!

On 21/11/2020 at 18:07, villalad21 said:

He lost his playmate from minute 1.

Traore is a liability and Jack had to carry the team on his own.

#ReleaseHourihane

Release Hourihane? Release to do what exactly?

28 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I've thought he thinks he's better than he is long before his England debut tbh. He's good enough for where we are, he was one of our better players last season, and he'd slot in well at pretty much any mid table PL club. If we want to do better than that, I don't think he's good enough, but we're some way off having a first 11 that's good enough that he is the one we need to replace.

The thing that frustrates me is that he doesn't seem to learn. He makes the same kind of mistakes over and over. When he focuses, he's a very good defender. I suspect if he could could those errors out, he wouldn't be playing for us.

Fair comments. Well he's going to have to cut out the mistakes and improve if he wants to retain his England place long term. That should be motivation enough. 

2 hours ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

No service for Watkins today, losing Barkley won't have helped but he didn't get much help from those around him.

Problem also is Brighton swarmed him, end of the game they had four Centre-halves on.

Half the problem was when there was a ball in the box Watkins was nowhere to be seen!

8 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Funny near the end when he was played in down the left and showed himself to be the slowest man alive. 

Anchors in his boots.

When this happened I thought yes we're in here... but he got nowhere near it

1 hour ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I heard the commentary of the first goal as i was driving home to watch the match on TV...the radio said he switched off and was day-dreaming.

We all know he does it, he's got one of them in him every game. 

Defense were playing a very high line and got caught napping

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Conor takes better set pieces and offer more in open play.

I dont remember Conor having any positive impact on the game unfortunately. 

14 minutes ago, tinker said:

Can't see how Traoré was a liability, he assisted and never gave the ball away, offered in areas other players don't. Hes obviously not fit enough for 90 min but other than that I can't see what he's done wrong. Jack was knackered, simple. 

Correct! 

He did OK I thought. I think would benefit from a run in the team. His work off the ball is my biggest concern but then the whole team were guilty of that today. 

Poor start, then he looked decent for last 15 mins of first half. But he was knackered again, we all knew he would struggle after international break.

Best player for us today. Just unlucky nothing was coming off for him. 

46 minutes ago, grobs said:

Thought he might have a bad game but not that bad!! 

He was average and better than most but was clearly knackered which most of us knew was going to happen but still won free kicks regardless. Doug was much worse than Jack. Trez very good. Brighton were great and capitalised on our weak defensive showing then simply parked the bus. 

Also I should add I think mental tiredness too.. his decision making was poor. Needs a good rest is all. 

19 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Mam utd fans are a right special breed

"I think we can get him for £40m plus Phil Jones or Romero" 

You would have thought that after the sancho debacle they would have learned that he's worth whatever we say he's worth 

And just like sancho that number will be one they can't afford 

 

Thick as a plank. Too many prawn sandwiches! 

25 minutes ago, est1874 said:

So you think he's starting ahead of Rashford and Sterling when they're back fit? Not to mention Greenwood who will be back in the squad I'm sure.

Sounds like Sterling only plays for England when it suits! Maybe he'll drop down the pecking order... 

1 hour ago, TRO said:

This is not going to be a dead cert , by any stretch of the imagination.

If we start getting ahead of ourselves, be ready for the consequences.

you start a losing run and its hard to shake off.....we have to be a "at it " tomorrow.

I agree that we cannot be complacent but no reason why we shouldn't be confident. I am concerned about energy levels after the international games and just hope Dean will react decisively if any of the players are struggling.

1 hour ago, PaulC said:

I thought Jack played in cruise control . Wasn't at it like against Belgium but still one of the best players on the park 

It was a bit like this I think and although Jack stood out he was definitely holding back a bit. Sensible! Also because Iceland werent that good, the game wasnt stretched at all making their defence a very crowded place! We tried to tik tak our way through but it just wasn't effective.

59 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I had a bet for him to be motm and I saw that Will Hill had paid out last night. Just checked and they have taken the winnings back. Wtf

They can't take back can they?! Email customer services!

Taking nothing away from Foden but he scored towards the end of the game when Iceland were down to 10 men and we had fresh legs on. But that's by the by... most of the votes were in by then. Jack easily stood out first half as being the best player and seems that was enough for most voters! 

I though Mount was quality and Maguire excellent too. 

42 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Where did you see that? Says Foden on sky sports. 

England twitter. Jack has said Phil deserves it though. What a man! 

2 minutes ago, leemond2008 said:

kind of got distracted about 15 minutes into the game and didn't pay any attention whatsoever when it was obvious that it was an exhibition.

 

How did Jack play out of 10?

I would say a 7 for Jack. Pulled the strings mostly and was the main driving force in first half. Second half I don't think he saw as much of the ball. 

He's just been awarded MOTM actually which is surprising as thought Foden would pip it with his goals!