Rolta

I've talked about this a few times. In my experience in Spain we only ever had a lockdown for the first three months of the pandemic. Since then there's been face masks...and the results show that schools and unis have been open with normal classes, and the covid numbers have been nothing like in the UK. Again, just the one lockdown. Because we haven't needed it unlike the UK. The difference between the two countries, having spent all my time between the two seems blatant. I'm shocked at how difficult some people want to make the pandemic and it's really easy to draw conclusions that it's the cynical, moaning, ever complaining lot who are really making it drag on and worse for everyone. I'm not sure my point is clear: in Spain, we never pretended the pandemic finished. We have worn masks since the first summer. We've been able to get on with it, and the level of spoilt selfish moaning, refusing to wear masks, had been night and day. In the UK it seems like a massive proportion of the country behave like a bunch of spoilt children. And those spoilt children are making things worse. And then when things get worse they moan even more.

It's not. If you're not symptomatic or pre symptomatic the lateral flow test is about 40% accurate to my memory. The PCR is much higher.

I can imagine what it is, but maybe I have no idea. I've wanted to say for a while though, generally, I think Hawkeye is great. The first 10 minutes of the first episode was full of crap dialogue but since then it's been really enjoyable and high quality—good writing and some great moments and bits of direction.

Yeah but some players have great playing careers and don't make good managers. So having a good playing career doesn't make it a given that he'll be a good manager. So it's difficult to be 100% all in convinced by it. And it's also fair to say that Rangers are a massive club in a league dominated by Rangers themselves and Celtic, so it's also difficult to be 100% convinced by his success there either. I don't follow Scottish football myself, so it has little bearing on my thinking, and that's probably the same for a lot of people. It's not a mad thought that people might have needed to be convinced, or needed a bit of time to see what Gerrard was bringing to the table. I feel no shame at all about being a bit uncertain about the appointment—really I was kind of nervous/excited/intrigued tbh, and in fairness the more positive parts of that mix of feelings was because of his stature and from comments about his good job at Rangers. I'm loving it now though.

To jump into this discussion, isn't what you say a bit 'confirmation biasy'? There's nothing wrong with questioning whether Gerrard was the right choice. And there was nothing wrong with questioning his experience. And if people didn't appreciate that his job at Rangers was madly impressive and the sign of a true managerial master, then that's not a massive surprise either. Just because it looks good now doesn't mean anyone was mad to wonder if it would be the right appointment. You can pick out a few examples of where it went right, but there are plenty of examples the other way too. For me, I was really skeptical, but I've been really impressed. Now with hindsight, it all seems so obvious. But yeah, maybe some people have a better appreciation of his success in Scotland.

'In my opinion' ... 'so certainly a trust issue'. I'm not sure those two bits go together! Also, he was injured 90% of the time and Smith did play him!

I have questions about that fan's choices, but I fear the answer would be really unsatisfactory. Or maybe he just forgot his shirt. Or he gave his shirt to someone who was cold.

If only peeps hadn't pretended the pandemic was over in June. This is a rod made by the Tories for the country's own back I feel. Where I am right now, there's no panic, no rush for boosters. Anyway, I think I repeat myself too much on here.

Yep, he loves a bit of distraction tactics! OK thanks for the info. I don't know my NHS number, but I seem to be able to book an actual appointment, so maybe I'll go with that.

What info do you have to provide for a walk in out of interest? I'm coming over from Spain for Christmas next week, and I'm wondering if I'll be able to get the booster.

What evidence is that in favour of? And to which point? A while ago some people (how many—one person? Two? Three?) said West Ham would fall off in their subjective opinion, so now anyone else saying West Ham are good (it's a bit more objective now I'd say) somehow don't count? West Ham are good now.

We look like we can create chances (except for yesterday). We could easily have drawn with City and got more goals against Leicester. We played some really nice football the likes of which has been rare this season. These are early days, but we are doing positive things with the ball (obvs less so yesterday) as well as looking more solid—as you say. But because yesterday we had no shots and a few obvious posters have severe cases of recency bias, I'm sure a lot of that will go forgotten for a few days.

Why would they try and sign him for £50 million? We'd at best get our money back surely, more or less, and only if someone really wanted to push the boat out for him.

Such a dive. What impact by Mings makes him fall over? Nothing at all.

He held the ball up a lot. He might have had a lot of touches, but they often came off, even if he was fortunate once or twice. Tough game to play alone up front and he was fine imo.

His body being next to Salah's was enough for Salah to go down. It was a soft one imo.

This comment just reminded me that we signed him in my dream last night. So take of that as you will.

He kicked it in the net after harder and better work by better players. His goals might have kept us up, but also having him as one of our main wingers was part of the reason we were at risk of being relegated. His goals can't cover up he did pretty much literally nothing else positive of note and gave the ball away all the time. He and Samatta in attack was a shortcut to giving the opposition the ball. He tried hard though, and I respect that. And the goals.

I'd be more like, 'We even let that guy score. We must be shit!' He's not once looked good enough for this league as anything other than an uber defensive winger. If he can show otherwise under Gerrard, then great, but for me it appears that he's not quick enough nor good enough and gives the ball away too much.

The player I most link to languid (I think he was called it a lot) was Berbatov. I even think I learnt the word in relation to him.

Doooo it. Doooo it.

The Christmas Vacation theme tune. This was a new one for me last year, but it's pretty enjoyable. I'm surprised the song isn't a bigger deal. The film is good too!

What a turnaround. He looked great.

He's been a massive part of the team for the last three games. He's finally impressed me in a Villa shirt. I'm surprised people are having a go tbh.

Surely it's Chukwumeka. It makes sense after what he said after the City game (I think he pretty much confirmed the rumours of Chuk rejecting the contract).