Carlos_the_third

Love it

Called the penalty situation as soon as I saw him steaming back towards goal after neglecting his man and arguing with the official about the throw in, was so obvious something like that was going to happen. However, it was an extremely difficult situation to play centre back in today - opposition launching the ball up into the wind, and a very physical striker plus another in top form to deal with. Overall, a decent performance I think (despite two obvious hiccups), especially considering his lack of playing time at CB.

Was never concerned when the ball was anywhere near our left CB position, even given the opposition consistently launching it in the air on an extremely windy day (they weren’t the only ones guilty of this), which says it all. He just looks so assured - similar to the way VVD always seems unflustered whatever the situation (not saying he’s as good of course but you know what I mean). Quality signing and one that Bournemouth must surely be regretting allowing to happen.

Finished in 29:15 today. Pleased with that, plus the course was really boggy, and it was also super windy, so should hopefully be able to improve on that in the future!

Didn’t get round to a park run last week, but went to a running club on Tuesday evening and ran the 6k route without too many problems, which I was pretty pleased with! Especially given it was right through the cobbles of central London, which wasn’t kind on the ankles. Hoping to go for the first park run on Saturday, will report back with a time!

Thanks! Yeah the one thing I really don’t want to do is set off at world record pace before getting a world record intensity stitch 400m in and panting round after that. Will be sure to post my results!

Thanks! That’s really useful to know - I certainly won’t get disheartened if I go over 30 then. I’m pretty sure I can do 5k that fast on a treadmill, but I always find running outside infinitely harder so will see how it goes... Thanks again!

Hoping to do my first parkrun this weekend (if I can find a printer that works beforehand!). Absolutely no idea what time I should be aiming for - I’m in pretty good shape (25 y/o) but haven’t really exercised in ages, or done timed running before, especially outside. Is 30 mins a good starting point? Or should I be aiming a bit lower?

Really sorry to hear you’re going through some tough times. Definitely, 100% go and talk to a doctor. It’s free, and could make a world of difference. It is very overwhelming coming to a realisation that you may need some help (I think this is especially the case if you, like me, come from a family that is no stranger to mental illness, as there is an inner pressure to be the strong one in that case), so it is totally understandable if you’re scared of talking to the doctor, as admitting you’re having issues is a whole new world from the one that so many of us are used to where we bottle things up. Going to a doc can simply be for a conversation, it doesn’t have to lead to medication (although I’m sure it can if you want it to now or further down the line) - the doctor can then provide an initial assessment, and some advice for the future. This advice will almost certainly include therapy. You can either pay to go private, or wait for one on the NHS (waiting times can be long but exact times will depend on where you live in the country). There are all sorts of different types of therapy, and I’m sure the doctor would be able to advise which is best for you (for instance, there is just standard talk therapy where you let all your problems loose, cognitive behavioural therapy where you look at how to rewire negative thought patterns, plus many more). Therapy can be an amazing tool, and is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of - I was foolishly embarrassed to admit to my friends that I was in therapy, and it turned out a load of them had also been in it or were still in it! There are also so, so many aspects of life that we can all improve on that can lead to a massive added positive effect on our mental health and lives. Diet, exercise, hobbies, meditation, yoga are all proven to help with wellbeing - I have recently changed my diet completely, and feel a world of difference to before. You are not an awful person - would an awful person think they are an awful person? No. You have a massive advantage over a lot of people, in that you have identified something in your personality that you would like to improve. This is a very large positive step in the right direction, and going to the doctors is the next step along this path. They will have some valuable advice, and then you can take that on board, in conjunction with therapy and all other sorts of things like I mentioned above to improve your happiness and quality of relationships tenfold. It won’t be easy - you will have to re-wire your thinking patterns, which may take some time, but it will be so worth it!

Anyone here go to the gym before work? I’m tempted to put some serious effort into the gym as I need to develop some self discipline and this seems like a healthy and risk free way of doing so, but don’t want it taking over my life. Before work seems to be the best way of doing this, but not sure how easy it’ll be to adapt to this lifestyle from my current laziness.

Started a PPL routine about a month ago - first time doing deadlifts and bench press, and boy is it demoralising having to remove all heavy weights from the bars and putting on the puny little ones! Gotta start somewhere though I suppose...

I think McGinn has been a revelation this season, and would not be surprised to see him getting a lot more measurable output in the coming weeks (he’s been very close to scoring a number of times of late), so would probably go with him if I had to pick. However, this is no slight on Conor - even taking into account the fact he has some goals/assists from set pieces (not sure of exact number), his output from DM is absolutely great, and is so far away from all those years where we had one striker (various different players) getting all the goals and if he didn’t score, we didn’t score.

Recently been diagnosed with OCD at the age of 24 after somewhat of a meltdown this year. Looking back, I’ve had it on and off since I was a kid, but it was always manageable - things like when I was around 10 having to pray for random things I’d seen on the news seven times (eg ‘I pray that no one ever dies from an earthquake ever again’), constantly replaying conversations to check if I’d offended anyone, and more recently constant checking of my work in my job to try and find errors. This year’s meltdown was triggered by entering a relationship with someone I really really cared about (basically my best friend who I’d had feelings for for ages), and was all around ‘did I love her enough’ etc - again, guilt and hyper-responsibility being two key things. Unfortunately decided I had to end the relationship due to the severe self doubt that caused leading me to be a miserable shell of my former self, and the ensuing meltdown led to an OCD diagnosis - this kind of helped, in that I now know what I’m dealing with, and kind of made everything worse, as I so wish I’d known this before to avert the current predicament. Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of research on OCD, and found out just how vile (but also how interesting) an illness it is. OCD sufferers are typically known as hand washers/excessively thorough cleaners/tidyers, but there are so many other types, including intrusive thoughts that latch on to the things you care about most - this could be someone who is very religious constantly thinking about the devil, someone constantly imagining violently harming their nearest and dearest, someone convincing themselves they’re a paedophile, obsessive doubts over your sexuality, or like me someone obsessively thinking they don’t love their partner enough and therefore missing out on all the good bits of the relationship (and life!). Everyone has intrusive thoughts (eg I wonder what’d happen if I jumped in front of this train) but OCD sufferers assign meaning to their thoughts and play them over and over again in their head to try and ‘figure out’ the answer to find certainty and or prove that they don’t actually want to do that. Think this post has a couple of purposes - firstly, to see if anyone else here has experience of OCD, and how they manage it, and secondly, to raise awareness, as it takes ridiculously long to diagnose OCD (over ten years on average), often due to the shame of the thoughts (eg how are you going to tell your wife that you constantly think about stabbing her or your kid when that is the last thing you’d ever do and you know they may think poorly of you if you don’t have a medical reason for these constant thoughts??). Apparently it’s relatively treatable - through CBT (specifically, a type called Exposure and Response Prevention therapy), and medication may also be used (although I am really resistant to going on meds if at all possible - this is just a personal choice though). However, finding an OCD specialist is hard, and doing regular talk therapy may make things worse rather than better. If anyone does relate to any of this, and wants someone to chat to about it, I’m more than happy to PM if you’d rather not have it on a public forum! I’ve done so much googling (a classic OCD thing that needs to stop...), that I should be able to point anyone else struggling in the right direction. OCD UK and the IOCDF are good starting websites though if anyone is interested. p.s. I hope that everyone had as good a Christmas as possible - I know it can be a hard time of year

I have known people taking career breaks, so that may very well be an option. Sounds like a good one as well, so I will look into it more! Thanks for the advice

Having a bit of a dilemma around my career... Been on a grad scheme for just over two years, mainly working with data. However, the last three months I have been working in a more policy focused role, and have been enjoying the role type, but haven’t really been stretched too much in the role itself (partly due to commuting between London and Birmingham every other day, which is exhausting!). I get rotated at the end of February, which means I will have to move to a new data role for six months, which isn’t overly appealing. Spoke to the head of my current team yesterday, who strongly suggested she’d be prepared to offer me a permanent policy position. I wouldn’t want to take my current job on permanently, so would have to try and swing a promotion out of this opportunity if I were to go for it (not sure how realistic this is). I am enjoying the area I currently work on, but do think there are other areas that may be more interesting to work on - however, without much policy experience it’d be hard for me to get a job on promotion in one of these areas, and I’d have to move back to London on a salary lower than I’d like. To throw into the mix, I have considered dropping everything and going travelling for six months - I’ve never done anything like that, and might like to at some point. Now in theory is a good time whilst not having any commitments, but my mental health has been a bit ropey the last year or so, and being alone for six months without structure may not be the best idea right now. Also, I don’t really like the idea of not having a job to fall back on if I were to go travelling... Anyone got any similar experiences to any of this, or any advice?

How about Na, Na Na nananana, nananana, Dean Smith to Hey Jude (would’ve actually worked better with Steve Bruce but hey ho)?

Turned on the tv with a smile before the game, as I knew we were going to be far too good for the side who were second in the league. When was the last time you could say that?

From what I’ve seen of Sessegnon (admittedly a relatively limited amount) he doesn’t really seem to influence games as much as Jack, but has a great knack of knowing where the ball will fall for an easy finish. He’s also very good at interplay around the box, and this has only been improved by having Mitrovic in the team, who pins the centre half and acts as a pivot for him to pass to and run off. He isn’t very strong though (hardly a crime at the age of twelve), and Tuanzebe bullied him in the away match to the extent he refused to go near him after a strong challenge two minutes in (albeit he did score!). Jack is a more complete player currently, and certainly far, far better for us in our current state. Sessegnon would be wasted in our team as we don’t play a style that’d suit him - however, Jack drives everything that we do (whether that be from driving runs in open play to making slide tackles to winning free kicks), and the fact we are where we are despite our two wingers being on a bit of a lean patch offensively is massively down to him. To top it all off, he’s a fan and you can really tell how much it means to him. In conclusion - Sessegnon has amazing stats for a teenager and has a great start on the way to becoming a really good player, but right now I wouldn’t swap Jack for anyone in this division (or for the majority of players in the division above)

Worried by Adama also, by all accounts he has been much, much improved this season and his end product has really come on. Was talking to a guy at work who is a Boro fan and he seemed to think their tactics were basically to keep it tight and give it to Adama, so he will be their main threat for sure. Therefore Adomah has to play, just because of the fact his defensive work is far ahead of that of Kodjia/Grabban. Hopefully Hutton can get a few strong challenges in early doors as well to dampen Adama’s enthusiasm somewhat. That being said, I’m not worried about a pasting - I would be very surprised if there was more than a goal separating the two sides after this game. Would go with Jedi for the extra height that will no doubt be needed when facing a Pulis team, and try and nick a goal somewhere. Johnstone’s first born Elmo Chester JT Hutton Jedi Snod Hourihane Grealish Adomah Grabban

Aside from 20 minutes in the first half (starting when we scored our first) where we sat back and invited Wolves onto us, we dominated that game. First half was a great contest, and then in the second the combination of us playing very well and Wolves playing poorly led to a very comprehensive win. Can’t think of a single bad performance - MOTM for Grealish as nearly all our best play came through him as usual. Wolves have got to play two poor teams back to back now, but will be interesting to see how their confidence holds up after today as that was a battering every bit as bad as the one they gave us at Molineux earlier in the season. The race for the top two could be very interesting if Wolves, Cardiff, Fulham and us maintain our recent form!

Was worried he would get overrun today with Jedi at DM, but none of that at all. A few misplaced passes as to be expected (if he was a great passer along with his strength and aerial ability he most certainly wouldn’t be playing in the championship), but was noticeably passing forward more than usual today and basically got the assist for the first goal also. Top performance.

Well 4-3-3 (as in 4-1-2-3 which is what we would play but that’s not a thing people say so I stuck with the basic!) really isn’t that much different from 4-1-4-1 if the wingers track back properly, other than winger starting position being slightly further forward in the former.. Depends how much we want to go onto wolves from the start - obviously you’d fancy our wingers chances against Wolves outer centre backs (although maybe not so much Boly as he is a very good player), but there will be a wing back going back the other way who needs some serious tracking so I’d be surprised if our wingers didn’t spend a lot of time in their own half whatever you want to call the system.

This is a really tricky one. Wolves battered Leeds on set pieces yesterday, and are a real threat from them with great delivery from Douglas and a lot of height (three CBs plus a tall striker in Bonatini/Afobe). However, if we played Jedi I fear he would get overrun in open play as wolves play it low and quick, and personally I think that seeing as wolves are likely to have a lot of the ball that this is a bigger threat. Only way I can think around this is by playing Tuanzebe right back (if fit) to get a bit of extra height in the team, and then Thor CDM, and hope that Terry/Chester/Tuanzebe can hold the fort at set pieces. Gonna be a tough game though whichever way - Wolves were terrible against Fulham but they seemed back to their best against Leeds, and obviously Ruben Neves is due to come back which will only make things a lot harder. However, we are on a good run and back to near full strength so should be a tricky proposition ourselves! That is, as long as we don’t play 4-4-2 like we did at Molineux - that was an absolute shambles, we got completely overran and barely touched the ball all game. I’d go same team as at Sunderland, with Bjarnasson for Whelan and Grealish for Hogan, and Grabban up top by himself in either a 4-1-4-1 or a 4-3-3.

Don’t tempt me... In all seriousness though, we need Snoddy to be on it defensively this weekend. He’ll be up against Barry Douglas at LWB, who is extremely dangerous going forwards and has one of the highest number of assists in the championship this season (although admittedly a lot of these have been from set plays). Jota also plays down that side, so whoever plays at right back (which I would not be at all surprised if it’s Tuanzebe if he’s fit after his showing against Fulham) will need a lot of help. Hopefully RS will be able to cover defensively, while also letting his quality show in the final third when he gets the chance.

Was clearly in jest - hopefully it won’t stop the weekend being full of nice things for all of us, including 3 points for the Villa!