markavfc40

15 minutes ago, Genie said:

I have mixed feelings on this because like most things this government touch it’ll lead to widespread suffering no doubt I know family members that absolutely take the piss with sick leave.

My mother in law will regularly take several weeks off because she feels like a break. The GP’s just can’t be arsed to challenge it (and she knows it). She has a colleague/friend who is equally piss taking.

Shes currently on a 7 week break which started because they asked her to do something she doesn’t usually do when someone else was on holiday.

The trouble is for everyone like your mother in law there will be 10 genuine cases of people who are ill and will now potentially be assessed as to whether they are fit to work by someone who is incentivised to find them fit for work.

Digging a little deeper it seems that these Tory proposals include wanting to reform PIP which is a benefit to support those with long term illness/disabilities. Things like cancer, parkinsons, MS, COPD. In a lot of cases illnesses that are unlikely to ever be cured. Instead of giving cash payments he wants to replace those payments with access to treatment apparently. In 2024 in the 6th richest country in the world you'd expect people who are ill to be getting access to treatment anyway but the Tories have run down the NHS that much they are now looking to get people who are ill to give up their disability/sickness benefits to pay for treatment. Just when you think the bastards couldn't sink any lower. 

Just to add insult to injury the guy who announced these proposals today is a billionaire. 

I love him. If he played for another club though I'd hate him. I'm glad he is ours.

I was relieved he had to go off as I'd have put money on him getting a second yellow with this card happy ref. The injury just looked like an impact one and I'd hope he'll be fine for Sunday.

I think it well and truly has Emi.

On 13/04/2024 at 20:33, Kuwabatake Sanjuro said:

The psychopath Rachel Riley strikes again

 

 

 

Yes her and the usual suspects, Tommy Robinson, Julia Harltey Brewer etc, were very quick to blame the Sydney attacks on Islamophobia before it came to light that the person who carried out the attack was a white male. 

The only Muslim involved in this tragic event was the brave man below.
 

Unai masterclass. Simple as that. 

4 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

Watched it all tonight, very good.

Hope you enjoyed the six episodes, my Netflix has seven though

 yes mate you're correct it was seven. In fairness I spouted a load of bollocks in my last post as I'd actually already watched 5 episodes and not 4.

I watched the last two tonight. Like you I thought it was really good.

Fair play to Man Utd they have done us a bit of favour taking a point here. Three points for Bournemouth and they would have been on a high and sniffing around the European places and been more up for our game against them next week.

I think the worry here as got to be Bournemouth catching us. They will be 16 points behind if they hold on here and have us to play still.

2 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

3 goal defeat for Spurs would be nice meaning their game in hand will have resulted in them pushing us back up to 4th

I posted the above more in hope than expectation but fair play to Newcastle they have gone one better.

Looking at the remaining fixtures you'd have to make us slight favourites for 4th now. 

The wankfest over Van Der Ven has come to an abrupt halt. He has been dire today and at fault for all three goals.

I watched 4 episodes of Baby Reindeer on Netflix last night.  A new 6 part mini series based on a true story about a stand up comic who is stalked by a woman he meets in the pub he works at. That doesn't tell the half of it though. It has everything and is funny at times, distressing and sad with some great acting (the man who wrote it plays himself/the lead role).

I'm going to watch the last two episodes later.

3 goal defeat for Spurs would be nice meaning their game in hand will have resulted in them pushing us back up to 4th

I notice in a lot of the predicted line ups on this thread people have McGinn as one of the sitting midfielders with Tielemans further forward. That is not how we have been lining up recently as when Tielemans and McGinn have both started McGinn has pushed up and been been the one closet Watkins and Tielemans has been further back.

I am assuming Lenglet is still out so with Cash also out the only decision at the back is Digne or Moreno and given it is Saka they will be up against I'd go with Digne. 

If we go as strong as we can and really go for it then we'll probably go:

……………...….Martinez…………………..

Konsa…..Carlos……Torres…..Digne

……….......Tielemans…..Tim………....

Bailey….…......McGinn.................Rogers

………………..…..Watkins…….……………..

I wouldn't be at all surprised though to see either a back 5 with KKH getting a start or us going completely the other way and the back 4 above, McGinn and Tielemans sitting and Rogers and Bailey wide and a front two of Watkins and either Diaby/Duran.

However we go this is going to be tough. I think I'd rather see us have a real go though, whilst acknowledging the risk of a heavy defeat, as we don't have it in us to grind out a low scoring draw or a 1-0 with a breakaway. 

I don't know if this is the right thread for it but I noticed when I looked across from the Holte last night that every box in the Witton Lane stand was empty. I know the club are apparently very much focused on increasing revenue from this side of things but they have a long way to go if they can't sell out these existing areas for a European quarter final.

I wouldn't rule Liverpool out of getting to the semis yet. If Atalanta can go to Anfield and get a 3-0 win I am sure Liverpool on their day can go over there and do similar. An earlyish goal for Liverpool next week and it is game on. 

I think what the results have shown in all three European competitions this week is that at this stage there are no easy games. Only two ties have more than one goal in them and that is Liverpools and West Hams so pretty much every tie is in the balance and could go either way so trying to predict how things will look this time next week is in fairness a waste of time. 

I also think what results have shown over the week is that getting a win at this stage isn't easy which makes our result last night even more impressive. 

I think given how the game went 2-1 is a good result. On another day Lille could have won that by a couple of goals had they been more clinical and Emi had not put in such a good performance. 

I think hopefully we'd have learned a lot about them from tonight and I'd like to think we'll be better next week. If we're not it is going to be really tough. Unai is a master in Europe though so that is a huge plus we should never over look and he'll have vast experience of managing a 1 goal advantage in a second leg away from home. 

Just as an aside I thought the ref was dire. How we have ended that game with 3 bookings and Lille none is shocking as they made worse tackles than either Dougie or Tielemans did for their bookings. 

I thought the atmosphere was really good although did go flat after they scored. 

17 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I reckon I know exactly what it was.

The protest group against Lerner had put together a load of A4 signs that I believe were to be shown on the 74th minute. They had previously done “Out the door on 74” with people leaving the game and this was a variant of that. A visual representation of discontent for people who wanted to express ill feeling towards the owner but who also (inexplicably) wanted to endure the game.

I was handing out signs that day, I met @markavfc40 (whom I believe was chief organiser that day), @HanoiVillan and @Hev. 

Crikey mate nearly 8 years ago. So much has happened since then at the club and I am sure neither of us have aged a bit  

Saka just can't help himself can he the diving/cheating bastard. He could have stayed on his feet and scored yet chose to initiate contact.

41 minutes ago, TRO said:

 

We have conceded 49 goals this season in the league....3 more than last season with 6 games to go....surrendering leads, even when we have won, is a concern, and it questions the very notion, that we are convincing.

 

We've also scored 15 more goals than we did in the whole of last season with 6 games still to go. It suggests that perhaps we are a little more attacking leaving us a little more vulnerable defensively, or given the defensive injuries we have had that we have suffered in that regard whereas our forward players have in the main stayed relatively fit. 

The above doesn't excuse individual or collective errors within games but it possibly goes some way to explaining the bigger picture. 

In an ideal world I'd love us to score tons of goals and rarely concede but given the option of being tight defensively and winning games 1-0 or being a bit more adventurous/open and seeing 3/4/5/6 goals a game and coming out on top more often than not I'll take the latter every day of the week.