Rolta

3 minutes ago, useless said:

Arsenal fielding a really weak side... Five changes from our game against them.

Edit misread... It's actually quite strong...

Ahhh I did not enjoy this post until I read your edit. 

**** this thread for today! Hopefully we can all move on tomorrow.

16 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Promotion, cup final and a strong chance of survival with the 3rd best team promoted.  Yeah they are making bad decisions 

Saved us from administration, invested hundreds of millions, plan to invest more.

There's just no point.

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Are they gonna sign more mercenaries from Belgium?

Relentlessly negative. All the time. The way you repeat the same moan over and over again, every day, every week, every three posts on every thread really neuters any point you actually might have.

Yes nobody wants us to buy below-par players. 

Having him back has been really important. We missed him. His work rate, his bum shield special move, his quality. It would be so good to see him get a goal on Sunday (goes without saying perhaps). 

4 hours ago, Hornso said:

Marcus Allback circa 2002-03.

Can anyone do a quick summary of what Allback did? I was thinking about that relegation fight the other day, but my memories are vague as I was in Australia. I remember him getting a few goals though.

EDIT: I just had a look at the season's wikipedia. I remember now.

1 minute ago, cheltenham_villa said:

I seem to think their record against watford is poor anyway and I just cant see then being up for it. Nothing to play for and could rest players ahead of the cup final.

For me we need to forget about them, beat west ham by 2 and that should be enough. Anything less and it could be nervy.

Yeah, my Arsenal friend told me that first bit. It's difficult to tell what Arteta will do—you'd think they'd want a positive result to prepare for the final, and players will want to play for their places.

You wouldn't want to go into the final having lost to two of the teams fighting relegation, especially since their previous two results were so positive.

15 minutes ago, cheltenham_villa said:

Agree with all but the arsenal part, a poor performance last night, not sure why they will be better sunday.

They beat the two best teams in the country in their previous two games.

It can't have been easy 30% possession against City three days earlier. I think we were helped by the fixture congestion a bit.

How could he say anything other than he did? The relegation fight isn't over yet. I'm open minded about him furthering his career but I don't think that reaction was quite as conclusive as people are saying. We do need to fight to stay in the Prem still. 

If he ever was to stay he'd clearly need us to be a decent prem team, and he'd want guarantees of significant signings. That kind of conversation isn't going to happen now. Anyway, we need to finish the first job on Sunday and that is all that matters right now. 

Is he a striker?

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

Watch it back.....arsenals crosses was raining in, from his side, he just stood off and turned his head......don't take my word, watch it back.

Reading this I genuinely don't think you understand how back 4s stay compact. It happened both sides—you obviously try to stop the crosses, but good players get crosses in—but you can't leave massive gaps between the back 4, so they go side to side as a unit. When they switch to the other side, it's inevitable there's a gap.

Played really well. He's a good player.

Great finish. Fair play. He worked so hard.

27 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I think davis has to start tonight.  You nedd players to bullg arsenals back four. I know Smith doesnt like it, but he really needs to play two up top tonight.

For me this is a clear no-brainer. Surely Smith sees it too.

Talking about smoke and fire, Aaron Banks must surely now regret trying to pre-empt his appearance in the Russia report.

It's hardly the actions of someone guilt-free.

1 hour ago, Hobbit Feet said:

I love our rose tinted glasses on here. People do realise it’s no forlorn conclusion Watford will get stuffed by city, they could even potentially take points. We will draw or beat Arsenal even though Watford have no chance against them on the last day. And then to top it off we will get a result away against West Ham even though everyone has been saying they have a far superior squad than ours And shouldn’t be in a relegation battle. 

If England were in a world cup final against a better team would you be as critical of people looking for reasons to hope we might win? There have been a lot of odd results this season—it's not as if the things being described are impossible. A lot has to go our way, but they can. It's entertaining at least.

7 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

They also had to do some crazy running against city on Saturday and to a lesser extent against Liverpool last wed.  
 

They may be better than Villa but their legs will be feeling it no matter what the case is.  Fine margins at this level of football 

My Arsenal friend just pointed this out. They've had 30% possession or something in their last two games.

1 minute ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Just on your edited point, didn't realise the season was only 5 games old....

I was going to leave it as you love holding the stick at the wrong end. I can almost imagine you juggling one. And you're definitely coming across as if you want 'to get confrontational' as you say.

OK, so you seem to want Mings to get the same critique as El Ghazi. The thing is, he did get stick, back when it happened months ago. I did it myself. I remember. I don't think Mings is the worlds greatest defender, and I said so to people when he got his England cap. But he has also been our best defender—we missed him when he was injured in a critical part of the season when we actually had a chance to get some results. I picked 5 games because that's the quickest thing I could get on google, but we've looked far more solid since the restart, which is a good proportion of the season.

Yeah, we've not been great defensively, but that's not just on Mings. I guess if you think that's all on Mings then continue as you are.

For clarity, what's your point again? Oh, yeah, Mings should get the same level of critique (as in ripping to shreds) that El Ghazi got.

6 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

And our defence isn't solid.....

So which one of your vague points is your actual point, and do you mean the words you say? 'If AEG can cop the VT wrath for missing that sitter then TM deserves the same critiquing for some of his blunders this season.'

EDIT: Just had a quick look and in the last 5 games our defence ranks 10th= in the league.

6 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Wow my friend, I was putting forward some thoughts on a player on a internet forum. Pent up rage much?

I don't do vile hatred of players and wouldn't promote, you accusations are wild and off the mark.

I said, 'I'm sure that's not what you're actually doing.'

Perhaps I should have made it clearer that this was how your post came across to me, more than what I actually thought you were doing. I have no rage. It just seemed a funny thing to bring up, and maybe using El Ghazi was a poor example because he has been getting vile abuse. And the tackling stat is, as pointed out, a really odd one to use because obviously a solid defence does a lot of shielding, marking, positioning work to avoid having to tackle. When someone pointed that out to you, you said, '66 goals conceded, there is nothing misleading about the stats.'

As I say, you definitely came across a certain way.

18 hours ago, Blasterpocket68 said:

Really had smith been a little more conservative at the start of the season we would be clear of the relegation scrap. Managers pick and coach teams, over the course of the season luck injuries balance out, lack of basic coaching and game management are his responsibility.  Since the restart he has adopted a different approach , had he done this in December we might be in a stronger position. His players his responsability!

A slogan (EDIT: or a cliche) isn't a fact. It's just a slogan (or cliche).

1 hour ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Willing to admit that it not be a stat to use for judging his season. 

However my eyes have told me he hasn't had a great season. If AEG can cop the VT wrath for missing that sitter then TM deserves the same critiquing for some of his blunders this season.

So El Ghazi gets some pretty vile hatred and you don't think Mings has had enough? So you produce a stat that means nothing to get the fire going?

I'm sure that's not what you're actually trying to do really. Mings has been good since the restart. He also made a few mistakes earlier in the season, but he's been good a lot too. We also missed him massively when he was injured. 

Sorry I just can't get myself worked up into a VT wrath. 

Unfortunately for El Ghazi the miss was in a highly emotional moment in a game that felt more crucial due to time running out. It was ott though.

40 minutes ago, Only2McInallys said:

 

Unfortunately Arsenal winning last night was bad news.They will rest players for their final game against Watford so l can see Watford getting something from that game.

 

There's another way of looking at it. They played a big semi final yesterday and are playing again on Tuesday. They'd surely rest players now, then use the Watford game as preparation for the final.

3 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I get the negativity for obvious reasons.

However I don't understand the purpose of posts like this.

Why would we bother supporting the club if we never have any hope for anything?

If England were playing in a world cup semi and the other team were much better, I'm pretty sure MCU would still have a little hope and be looking for reasons to be optimistic (presuming he's English).

7 minutes ago, MCU said:

Hey no fair, I’ve just been called an ‘arse’ for saying something not nearly as bad as this. 

(FTR I couldn’t agree more with you)

Wasn't there a bit of irony in what he said?