KentVillan

I like him, will improve a lot over the next couple of seasons, I’m sure. Good athlete, brave, seems well liked already. The running out of gas thing will be fixed, we’ve seen the same with other players.

We didn’t lose this game because of squad rotation. The two key changes (our two most important players) were forced on us. The rest all made some sense, and we’ve just been battered by a very good side.

Olsen did absolutely nothing wrong

Pussying out of that wall is a nail in the coffin here surely. A shame as he has started to look much more useful recently, but that was unforgivable.

You seriously don’t see him “making it as a PL player”? When he’s doing stuff like this at the age of 20 away at Man City? It’s more than a half of football isn’t it, he looks dangerous, he passes the eye test.

25 mins in and this is looking like a shocking take

Good post, thanks. Yeah I think it’s more his “chaos” role rather than him being an unmanageable loose cannon. And refs generally show more cards towards the end of a match. Altho of course he needs some refining, no doubt about that.

Is Duran’s disciplinary record really as bad as everyone keeps saying or is this a bit of a Loco Colombiano stereotype? As I see it he’s very enthusiastic, young, can get overexcited / frustrated. I don’t see the lunatic Balotelli type figure some people keep painting him as.

Was sitting with a load of neutrals and WH fans and nobody was saying this. Was a 6/10 performance. Need to calm down

Tough fixture away from home. I understand why Emery started this XI for psychological / motivational reasons. Dominated possession. The goals were correctly disallowed. Should have had a pen first half. Think some of the reactions here are a bit hysterical. Not a bad result at all.

I think he has that X factor, though. Force of personality. Not exactly the same type of striker, but Didier Drogba springs to mind. Someone who brought their whole personality onto the pitch and made defenders' lives a nightmare, even if they weren't technically the best player. He's also superb in the air, like that's not even a question of potential, he's already brilliant in the air.

I think he’s a much better option than people realise. Yes, very raw, a bit more maverick than Emery probably likes, but what he has is terrifying pace and physicality, mad shot power, and a proper aerial presence. If Watkins is out for a few games then I hope we just let Duran enjoy the limelight, don’t get on his back too much when things don’t come off. Seems like a proper confidence player to me who needs to feel loved.

Think this game will do him the world of good

Hope you’re right, but very unusual for Watkins to go down like that, it will be something he’s pretty worried about I’d think.

Henderson is such a div

Being a journalist is a job, they have to write things people will click on. Man Utd have probably 20x as many online "fans" as we do. That's just the sad reality. I don't think your average sports journo cares too much where Man Utd finish, but they will definitely spend a lot more time reporting on them because that's what generates clicks. I think we've done well to go under the radar, tbh. The lack of focus on our performances has probably helped us. Let them wank over Big Ange Mate.

I absolutely fkin hate this about football fans in general. Such a cringe personality trait for anyone over the age of 10

Favourites yes, but still only about 30% probability implied by the bookies odds, just too many good teams left and they only need one bad night. Imagine we’ll be sweating on this for a while!

Absolutely f**king bonkers, sorry

They don’t happen in every game. On the other angle it’s very clear he couldn’t realistically have won the ball. There was no cynical purpose to it either, it was just dumb. That’s no attack on McGinn really, get his frustration etc, been excellent this season. Just made a mistake.

Andy Robertson was upgraded to red by VAR for a similar incident (at 3 mins here). Key point is lack of attempt to play the ball, it lowers the bar for how dangerous the foul needs to be to be a red card.

You honestly think that was a mistimed tackle? Watch it again a few times, please.

Yes

In Sunday League, the ref is probably giving the player the benefit of the doubt that it’s late and clumsy. At this level, we all know McGinn timed that tackle exactly as intended, ie he never meant to play the ball. That changes the offence to violent conduct. If you’re making no effort at all to get the ball and you want to foul the player, you need to be pulling them down or doing a little trip, for a yellow. A proper kick like that is a red - it’s equivalent to just randomly doing that off the ball to someone. He might have got away with it on another day, or if he played for another club, but we can’t have any complaints. There was a similar(ish) incident in a Cardiff game a few seasons back, Joe Ralls got a straight red for bringing down Moura. “Tackle” was yellow card level of violence, no real injury risk to Moura, but as there was no attempt to play ball, it was a straight red. Warnock was incensed but ref got it right. This McGinn foul wasn’t quite as obvious as that, but I think if you watch it a few times you can see it’s clearly not a genuine attempt at a tackle and that’s what has got him in trouble, bc then it doesn’t need to be a flying lunge or studs up to be a red.

We just need to calm down. It’s still advantage to us with a lot of football left to be played. Angeball could easily see their goal difference take a battering in that tough run of games they have. There will be more ups and downs in this run in. I can see McGinn coming back from his suspension like a man possessed.