Holmes_and_Watson

Presumably Mara and his agent have agreed to go to a club, that better suits him. Win for us, getting the fee. But also to see how he gets on. Martin said he works very hard in training. This will be a chance for that to pay off. His all round game will have got better under Martin, even if we didn't often see the results. All good things for him to have going forward.

Hill

Chelsea working the rules. They need the immediate profit. So they buy Felix, splitting the cost, across as long a contract as they can get away with. Madrid then use the funds they get to purchase Gallagher. As he's home grown, any sale will be pure profit for Chelsea. Madrid will defer that cost across a similarly long contract. Clubs will develop relationships to assist each other to get round the rules.

Some players get better in the mind, when they are out the side for a while. Balancing that up... 🙂

Meanwhile in Rasmus' HQ.... Too many CBs... Need a new 'keeper... Outfield players can convert to 'keepers. Look at our success with Baz... Hmmmm... And the big question...is it left field enough? Yes! Problem solved!

Who picked "Pugilistic Posting Training Camp" in the "Where in the World is SOGgy" sweepstake?

They'll feel silly, when it turns out that people using the microwave in the next room, was messing up their equipment. It wouldn't be the first time a club has come up with issues with the medical, solely as a negotiating tool. Hopefully nothing really to it, and that the obvious implications putting off others don't get in the way of a departure this summer.

The club's medical team will be fully assessing their progress. In Stewart's case, possibly with Mr Insurer taking a close look. Their reintroduction (only a couple of weeks away...apparently) will be gradual, and designed to mitigate any unexpected niggles or concerns. I think it's very unlikely it's in their heads, and that they could/should run it off. That just increases the risk, which is exactly what this approach is designed to avoid. There's plenty of physical work being done to support the approach. Lallana was brought in, in part, because of his big club experience. Again, very unlikely to be having stage fright about performing in front of us. Expectations, I'd say, were minimal for either of them. We've brought in midfielders to compete along with Lallana. We've got 2 new forwards, and that still leaves a more centre forward berth for Stewart to claim as his own. I think I get your points though. Long term/ recurring injuries can have an effect, mentally as well as physically on anyone. It does no harm to remember that everyone should be treated as human beings, and we all want them to do well. When they misplace their first pass, and hear the moans, then they be really back. 🙂

I was never against possession based tactics. I had some concerns about the wisdom of putting it in place, in a promotion season. As Sunderland dismantled it's early days, I wondered if it was going to work. Overall, it was mixed. We'd create lots, but not finish. We'd have lots of possession, but not create. Or we'd have one of those, and leave ourselves open at the back. Martin was as frustrated as anyone, if it didn't come off. But when it did work, it was excellent to watch. I'd see us pinging it through the lines, after having used the possession well. Sometimes, right at the edge of everyone's patience with it. But the players knew when to take the time, to create the opening. That's the side of the game, we miss Baz in. He dealt with all sorts of rubbish, short passes. Without him, and without that sharpness from another keeper, then we diminish part of a system that Martin was relying heavily on. Elsewhere, I'm seeing Les and Fernandes, if he joins, as Charlie and Charles' replacements. Charles needs a season elsewhere to develop. Charlie just may not suit the overall system, as much as he's liked and talented. Both incoming players, should better suit Martin's approach, and provide proper competition across the midfield. Which is something SR will be keen to get back to. Downes, Smallbone, Aribo, Les, Fernandes, Lallana and Dibling

Nope. It doesn't do that. I don't know Scott's level of involvement. Since there's nods to everything else, there are nods there too. And each of the characters has some sort of personality/ subplot, which was also decent. Hope you enjoy it.

Oh. This is the match I've erased from my memory isn't it. Just little warning signs coming up there. Whew! You nearly said "six pointer" and the first poster to say that gets...oh heck...>ACME sound effect of falling piano< We're a little unsur going into this with all the changes, and set up to be fairly solid. Forest don;t offer much, and it looks very likely to be a draw. But since that's no fun for a prediction, I'm going with an Archer winner, late on.

I saw Alien Romulus yesterday. Since Aliens takes a lot from Alien, it's not necessarily a bad thing. This one looks back, and lifts from pretty much everything across all the other films, including prequels. Not to mention what I think might be unreleased screenplays and other non film bits. Some of it works fine (and good in a couple of bits), but I was tripping into references quite a bit. There's a number of set pieces. They work to underplay the aliens, quite a bit. There's some set pieces of what would be certain death, that aren't...well, because. Looks good, sounds good, is a decent enough watch, maybe getting better if you've not seen some of the others. Not a patch on Alien and Aliens though. Sometimes, all those call backs are just reminders to the better bits of other movies, at the expense of this one.

Bad

Crime

Edozie tried a number of different things, yesterday. He took on opponents, both inside and outside; looked to hold it and release a pass; cut in field to draw a foul or a shot, and at least once looked for one of our successful cut backs. We got little from it. Mainly because we did nothing at a pace to worry a Newcastle side, happy to be given time to get compact and hold a lead. As a unit, including Edozie, we needed to work them at a higher tempo, and use that, and them getting that ball, to create space and punish them. Instead, we had loads of possession but didn't move them about much. So, he was varied but everything was too slow a Ross our attack and played into their hands.

Yeah, and Martin's system, when it was working with Baz, made a lot more use of this than others I saw. I think that this brings a bit more pressure on Alex, as they know it's not a strong suit, that there will be times he'll be expected to do it anyway, that it's now in the PL, and that errors are going to happen with it anyway (shout out to Baz, who was excellent in that department). An error to be sure, but there's always more going on than just the pass out itself. There were also a lot of misses in yesterday's highlights. Some a lot easier than anything we had.

Looking at the Sky highlights, another 2 'keepers played the ball directly out to opponents. Of the 3, we were the only ones to concede.

You forgot your cot pic of how you scored 🙂

Ferox

Posters to watch out for...

I only caught the second half. Where the comments seemed to suggest we were doing fine, until an error cost us. Looking at the highlights ... One off the line, a strong save to stop AA among other good moments. We have a system where I'd trust Baz with passing it out and accross the box, and McCarthy to be a better shot stopper. Neither is currently ideal, but the replacement must genuinly be able to play to Martin's system, or we're going to have the same issues. Completely fair red card. Silly use of the head. Second half, we failed to stretch 10 men. Loads of possession. But the old lack of incisiveness when needing to change the risk. Newcastle were allowed to settle into defensive shape easily, and we did little to move them out of shape. We created none of the quick passing moves needed to shift and create chances there. The slow approach play gave Edozie lots of the ball, but with no outcome. We caused them no panic when holding their lead. Quite a lot of positives from the game, with new signings bedding in. Good to see youth used from the bench, and hope that Martin thinks they've developed enough to get more minutes. No surprise that we lacked that creative midfielder to try and unlock things, a 'keeper decent with both feet and hands, a more experienced driver out wide than Edozie and a strong presence up front. All areas we know we have to improve in.

Edozie wins a freekick. Considering the end product they could just have let him run until he fell over. 🙂

Absolutely. Ideally, Edozie would be the developing player getting regular minutes from the bench. His directness and speed of decision aren;t there, so his opponents are coping fairly easily, regardless of what he tries.

Archer and Edozie combining to be less than effective there.

Edozie: He's trying lots of different things - passing through and running behind; stopping and passing back; trying to get to the byline. Zero joy from any of them today.