WooJung

5 minutes ago, Xela said:

I look at Rogers and think is this what Aaron Ramsey should have been? Or could be? I know why we sold him, but could he have flourished in the same role? He was more effective than Rogers at Boro by far. 

Not knocking Rogers at all, he's been wonderful. 

Difficult to compare, they are young players with different skill sets who were playing under different managers in a different league.

It could very well be that Rogers is being much better utilised, is maturing more quickly and suits the system better, and Ramsey "peaked" at that level and may not be transposable to the premier league, as happens to many good championship players.

Some decent premier league players also don't seem to get significantly better when they drop down a division, I'm thinking of Westwood and Ayew when we got relegated.

All speculation mind you, I haven't seen anywhere near enough of Ramsey to make that judgement and he may well end up being the better player 

For the the most frustrating thing about him is how limited he is in tight spaces, whenever we are in possession in the opposition half, when the ball goes 9/10 its going back. We'd be a lot more dangerous with a more creative and gifted player, which should be one of the focus purchases this summer 

Never thought I'd ask, but does he get back into the team?

3 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

We scored inside the 5 minutes added time, the ref should probably have added an extra 30 seconds/minute.

Banking on fair officiating is a very poor strategy 

It must be said, Germany has it marginally easier due to having a smaller league (18 teams) and only one cup competition, making it a minimum of 5 fewer games they play compared to an English team.

How impactful in terms of fitness that is I cannot say, but it could potentially be the difference between health and injury for key players 

Very disappointing performance overall, but that penalty was class

There is now something Grealishesque about him whereby we know we can give him the ball and he'll not only look after it, but likely make something happen.

Absolutely crucial player for us

CAN WE STOP GIFTING THEM CHANCES?

Why does Unai wait so long to change something that clearly isn't working?

This ref makes Premier League refs look like Collina

I would fine players for committing fouls on attacking set pieces. Such stupid, pointless and needless thing to do. Imagine if Dougie had scored there 

We're laughably poor at pressing 

This Tiago Santos is such a little word removed, can't stand him.

He was also diving all over the place at VP

1 hour ago, MWARLEY2 said:

He wants Champions League above the Prem according to this  . Maybe he wants to see if we get there before committing. Didnt he sign with Kia Jooronichan as his agent ? 

Seeing where we are next season clearly makes a lot more sense, because it allows him to value the costs/benefits/missed opportunities, as well as potentially ask for money if we do qualify for the champions league.

I strongly doubt anything will be done before the season ends 

On 15/04/2024 at 02:22, DJBOB said:

Turns out, John can play in the double pivot when needed!

He did that for a run of games last season when Kamara was injured when we went unbeaten for however many games that was and was also very good 

I can see him starting on Wednesday, it will be a tough atmosphere, Lille will be up for it and can see them having a lot of the ball, having him as a "target winger" like on Saturday could be a valuable asset 

Hope he gets at least another league goal this season, he deserves to finish in double digits, especially considering that ridiculous var decision which ruled out his goal against Sheffield United back in December 

It's scary how good he can get, even now, on current form, it would be difficult to drop him even if all players were fit and available.

I was critical of this signing at first, I felt we urgently needed someone who's battle ready. He is 

That's probably been the best performance in central midfield for quite some time

I gave Motm to Tielemans, he covered magnificently for Luiz, dictating play, in the first half especially he was really helping getting the ball out under a lot of pressure and was flawless every time, and ended the game with a perfectly weighted pass to assist Ollie. And that shot deserved a goal.

Carlos is equally as worthy, and an honourable mention to Zaniolo who did the dirty work really, really well 

He can be very good when concentrated. Let's hope he stays concentrated 

So they basically field a full strength side, we are blighted with injuries 

27 minutes ago, jimmygreaves said:

The booking last night was bs though. The ref didn't book players for identical shirts pulls on a least 5 occasions prior to Dougie going in the book. Doing that sets the precedent. You either book them all or none.

A shirt pull is a booking, the ref being an absolute mug and not being able to have any consistency doesn't make Luiz pulling a shirt any less of a booking (or a stupid decision)

He's a bit like el Ghazi in the sense that you can see there are attributes there but he's absolutely clueless as to how to make the best out of them

17 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

We've been poor since this guy got injured. He's our best player so gonna have a big effect.

He's not our best player, but he's the only one playing a very important role/position and that has left a huge hole.

Not having any backup (other than Tim, who looks miles off it) was a huge mistake