JPJCB

ACLs are clearly bad luck but Newcastle have had a whole load of muscle injuries which are likely the result of howe’s playing style and lack of willingness to rotate

6 hours ago, Vancvillan said:

Assuming he's fit / available to play every game.

I disagree that if Kane's out it's over. The midfield is one of the strongest in world football - having a striker like Ollie who provides so many assists should be a deadly combination.

Agreed and plenty of teams have won these tournaments without a world class striker at the helm. The two strikers for Argentina and France in the World Cup final for France were Alvarez and a 37 y old giroud respectively for example 

Mainoo has looked really good and all but he’s literally made only 15 PL starts in his career with his first coming in late November. It’s incredibly early to have any idea how good he’s gonna be.

As others have said, there’s absolutely no way he gets that call up if he doesn’t play for Man Utd. The way it’s been done is literally as if Southgate is doing it off one game alone (the Liverpool game). More generally has anyone got the stats on which players have got called up for England with fewest PL appearances? This has got to be right up there which you’d normally associate with a generational talent. Maybe Mainoo is that but it seems a bit far

None of this is to take away from his performances so far but one of the biggest stains on the game is the way the England set up entrenches the top 6 bias and this is yet another example. Instead of promoting a more level playing field so that there’s greater development of talent across the board, England will repeatedly favour the bigger sides, incentivising players to sign for those clubs and sit on their bench knowing their England career is better off there than actually playing for one of the weaker sides.

We were all completely bemused that chukwumeka pushed to leave to go to Chelsea despite doing next to nothing in the game to date. It’s bullshit like this Mainoo news that makes things like that happen 

14 minutes ago, tinker said:

I fear the worst tbh, who's gonna pay for this quango and what government regulator has done any good, the water ones a disaster for starters. More jobs for the rugby playing Eaton boys network.

Government sponsored regulators pay far too little to satisfy the desires of the Eton old boys network 

He was absolute wank every time he started for us and I have no problem with the decision not to play even if it was Gerrard who made it. He’s a billy big bollocks who thought he was better than us and made a stupid move to a club which will now hang him out to dry. I’m enjoying watching his failure play out in real time 

14 minutes ago, GeordieVillan said:

I’m thinking he’s picked that team based on height to an extent. Adding Duran and Rogers, and also having Lenglet, gives us an extra 3 players that can defend set pieces….

Yeah I completely agree with this. Every one of the line up decisions feels designed for extra height. Duran and Roger’s in, konsa at RB instead of cash. The only surprise from that perspective is lenglet retaining his place over Carlos who is more aerially dominant.

As others have said already, this might pay off on the basis that West Ham aren’t gonna seek to engage in a midfield  battle so sacrificing control for physicality could work. I think it’s a massive game for tielemans though and he really needs to step up 

Imagine if @CVByrne were a spurs fan right now 

5 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

We don't deserve to qualify for CL 

We are a joke side when an important game is played. 

You’re right. Winning against city and arsenal was practically comedic. I was rolling on the floor laughing 

12 hours ago, Genie said:

It was interesting watching OGS speaking with Neville, Keane and Wright on their podcast.

Saying when he had Haaland at Molde he was telling United to sign him. United said they knew all about him and had reports. No action.

Then Haaland was sold to Salzburg but didn’t play for 3-4 months. OGS again telling United to sign him before he plays because he would very soon attract the top clubs and he knew he had just a €20m release clause.

United again did nothing.

Absolute shambles of a club.

They’re a shambles of a club but I don’t think not trusting OGS is one of their worst sins. He reminds me a bit of Tim Sherwood with the way he talks about Haaland. He happened to manage him early in his career but OGS’s later transfer dealings don’t suggest he had any particular niche at spotting talent 

One of the athletic journos suggested a line up that I thought could work nicely:

                      Pickford

walker      Stones.     Konsa.     Colwill

                             Rice

                 TAA.            Bellingham

Saka                                               Foden

                               Kane

the idea would be that in possession stones does what he does for city and pushes up into midfield to form a box midfield with him and rice at the base, meaning that walker, konsa and Colwill form a back three. That solves the “who do we pair with rice?” question and should give us ample control in possession. You could then be creative with where you put TAA and potentially position him quite far wide almost as a wing back to create space and enable saka/foden to operate more centrally which could suit each player’s strengths better. So in possession it could look like this:

                         Pickford

          Walker    Konsa   Colwill

                    Stones   Rice

        TAA                  Bellingham   
            
                    Saka                    Foden

                             Kane

The big outstanding q is who plays in defence. I’ve gone for Colwill in the LCB/Lb role but shaw could also potentially do it given he’s played CB for united (mings would have been good at it if he was fit). And I’ve arbitrarily put Konsa in the other slot (though that’s largely villa bias).

Theres of course absolutely no chance Southgate does this. But if you were to exploit the best way of operating the main tactical innovation of recent years (the box midfield), this would be the way to do it. 

8 hours ago, VillaChris said:

I actually think Grealish being selected will cause issues aswell. A couple of years back the "people's champion" but his stock has fallen since then. Can't remember but did he even feature much in the World cup when he was playing consistently well for Man. City? Bar a few starts for England straight after leaving us he's never been a Southgate favourite.

If they have strong end to the seasons then Ollie, Bowen and Maddison all have to be in the squad but I can't see any space if he calls up Grealish and Rashford.

I’d probably call up rashford in any case just cause he offers something a bit different to the other wide options. He’s much more direct, has more physicality and effectively plays as a second striker wanting to run in behind which tends to complement Kane nicely when he drops deep. I wouldn’t start him but I think he’s a decent alternative option if we need a goal in a game.

Its more difficult to justify picking grealish given foden and saka offer similar qualities in my view- wanting to get on the ball and take players on 

7 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

One of those dumb "soccer fan" language questions, if you don't mind?

The British football media use the idiom "take his chances" or "take their chances" often. This is a confusing phrase for these American ears. The meaning seems to "scoring when given an opportunity," but to me, it sounds always like it means "taking risks" or "risking shots" near the goal. The difference isn't all that subtle, obviously -- it's dramatically different. But anytime a British commentator criticises a team or player for not "taking their chances," to me it always sounds slightly absurd, like what they're actually criticizing is the risk aversion of the players, but I am certain that's not what they mean -- right? 

Yeah it’s as you first described- it’s basically criticising the team for not being clinical enough in front of goal and therefore coming to rue not having scored later on in the game.

It’s interesting though that it sounds odd to American ears. When I lived in the states for a year I used to confuse people by suggesting we meet at “midday”, which I later learned didn’t have any meaning for Americans: “ok so that’s like 3pm right?” 

3 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

Who presents it these days. Do not think. I’ve actually watched it since Desmond Lynam presented it. It’s completely irrelevant.

Some bloke called Gary linekar

I think we’re now at a stage in the league where every game is gonna be seen as a cup final to secure CL football. That means it makes sense to rest players where we can for the ECL games in my view. Based on that I’d go with:

                          Martinez

Cash         Konsa.           Lenglet.       Digne

                    Iroegbunam   Mcginn

Diaby                                               Rogers

                      Zaniolo. Watkins 

There’s a common theme when we lose control of games that dougie has become anonymous. That’s either due to him switching off a bit or being marked out of the game. Often a combo of both I guess. Luton made the centre of the pitch v congested in that second half which would have made it difficult. But I think there were a couple of times where Luiz made a couple of rash decisions in possession at 2-0 when he could have slowed things down to take the sting out of the game.

I think this is the other area where we really miss Pau. Without him (as well as Kamara), we really massively on dougie for control 

1 minute ago, Djemba_Villan said:

WTAF ‘not going away’….havent we been above them for pretty much the whole season so far. They can PO.

You can say that again! 

Fully in control. Watkins looks unplayable at the moment: a constant threat and contributing loads in terms of hold up play. Looks like he’s hitting a purple patch which bodes well.

Honourable mentions to lenglet and  McGinn who have been very composed. Roger’s is also fitting in nicely 

46 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Over the course of this thread, yes

I take the narrative more to be: “he’s not as professional as he could be and so likely won’t have a career at the top level that far into his 30s”. Feel free to disagree with it of course but I’ve not seen anyone saying that he’s a washed up alcoholic or that he’ll retire by 30

7 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Being injured isn't based on the shape you're in. He's hardly being played because he's out of favour. He hasn't been good enough to get in the team. That is a completely valid criticism

It's a guess then

I don't know why people pull this one out. I am perfectly happy with other people's opinions. But I like opinions based on fact. You've literally just admitted yours isn't, so i'm rightfully questioning it.

You have made up stories. You've just said he doesn't care enough and it's not based on anything. Just your opinion.

 

it's fine, each to their own and that. but yeah I find it amusing that people form these opinions based on nothing just because the guy left us.

 

There are plenty of things to validly criticise the guy about. Like I said he clearly isn't performing well enough to hold down a place in the team and that is something that can be thrown at him.

But everyone pretending he's this washed up alcoholic who doesn't care about football and will retire by the time he's 30 or whatever nonsense it is this week is, frankly, amusing to me

Had anyone said anything near to this? 

18 minutes ago, useless said:

Probably because they're not actually as bad as people claim, sixth in the table, just three points off Spurs in fifth, before yesterday they had won four games in row and only one defeat in the last seven. They're not good relative to what is expected of them or where they think they should be, but ignore the name and the expectations that come with that and they're not a bad Premier League side, with their current points total they would have been just one point off top four after the same amount of games last season

Their performances, goal difference and XG metrics place them mid table at best. This is an average team getting lucky results. The performances and stats prove it 

22 minutes ago, Xela said:

Bizarrely they have 94 points from the same period that Unai has been here (we have 101)

I'm shocked by that - thought it would be lower. 

They went on a brilliant run at the start of 2023 which ETH has been dining out on ever since 

The most worrying thing if I were a united fan is that ETH seems to think they’re playing well 

I know we do this every week but how, just how, is the Utd - Fulham game first on MoTD. An average game other than the last 20 minutes between the teams in 6th and 13th respectively. Literally the only “justification” is that it’s Utd