Ex Lion Tamer

Well herd immunity is around 70% if I remember right. One way or another covid is going to move from pandemic to endemic by enough people getting it and building immunity. How quickly we get there depends on how transmissible this or a future variant is, how much it/they cause serious disease, how many people have already had it, whether pressure on the NHS forces lockdown(s), and the extent people tire of being cautious and decide to face the music. I honestly think we're not far away from people being widely infected in large numbers but who knows, even the experts don't

There's still a lot of uncertainty about how many people will get seriously ill from the new variant. I'm not in the group who are desperate for an immediate lockdown but if the NHS is going to get overloaded, then we'll have to. To answer Turkish's point, this variant is so transmissible that everyone is basically going to get it. Vaccines + natural immunity through infection mean covid won't be as strong against our defences in future. Just like how Spanish Flu was a huge killer during/after WW1 but now it's descendents are largely harmless because our bodies have had it so many times and built immunity. That's not to say that previous lockdowns were a waste because they allowed us to wait for vaccines, protect the NHS and wait for this potentially milder variant

That was one expert, he didn't say without a shadow of a doubt, and he later owned up to being wrong. When have the covid deniers ever admitted to being wrong?

I'm hesitant to wade in here having not read the whole thread but isn't the point that while most of us would agree that we need to get back to normal as soon as we can, we can't have a situation where the NHS gets overloaded and people die who could otherwise be treated. People dying outside hospitals is not something we can tolerate. And that is the concern at the moment - even if Omicron is less fatal, the sheer number of people who are going to get it mean that more people will be hospitalised. Personally I think we just need to get over this wave, potentially with restrictions, and then the pandemic will be basically over and we can go back to normal by summer

Most likely it'll be rearranged for the end of the season, they'll be safe from relegation and we'll need the points, we'll get the win

The best strategy is obviously to try to find a young goalkeeper who's on a learning curve. In practice they may not be ready or just not turn out to be good enough (like Lewis), in which case you bring in a short term loan. But if they are good enough then you've saved some money. Bringing these players through isn't an exact science and sometimes players won't make the grade

He took so much pressure off us defensively with his breakout runs

They're still playing for Ralph. Not sure how you could sack him after that. Brentford game is big though

Tella was great tonight

Man Utd's new manager is using it and indeed invented it

Pirlo is a terrible shout, he was a disaster at Juve

I think this is too harsh. He was decent enough defensively last season, just offered nothing going forward. Still streets ahead of someone like Danny Fox

There were people on here complaining that we didn't give him a new contract...

I for one welcome our new statistical overlords

Have not checked last season's score, I felt sure we were going to be dropping on the head to head front this week! Good stuff

People have been saying this on here for years and we somehow keep managing to stay up. That said, of course relegation is always a possibly for a club with our resources, and given how long we've been in the Premier League now, we're probably "due"

There's always one team that goes on a horrendous run and finds themselves in the mix. Could be Brentford this time I feel

I might be wrong but I thought we slowed up before the end of the first half against Brighton

I'm also 40 and definitely well past my prime!

Yep, bang on, this guy is legit

I suppose the issue with your third strategy is the blitz wouldn't be as effective in the second half, because the players would already have 45 minutes in their legs

The goal at 0:10

Frankly I can't remember, but I'd say that it's easier to kick a ball coming at you than a stationary one. Plus in open play it's easier to make sure a defender comes for a short pass or make sure players simply don't pass back to the keeper

I can't explain the mechanics but I've definitely seen it several times before where a keeper can't take his own kicks but is otherwise able to play on