SWLondon Saint

Was busy earlier and could only watch with no sound from 83rd minute so I had no idea who had scored but from the camera zooming in on him at FT I had a big smile on my face waiting to see the final score - Even just watching in that time could see: - Long throw on our right, flick on, Larin holds it up, rolls his defender and gets us another throw in their half. Classic centre forward play 👍🏼 - Wood comes on, they immediately play a ball into the gap between the wingback and CB and we're only saved by a handball by their guy. FFS why have we not learned more CBs can make the defence worse not better??? - Welington wins the ball, runs it up the pitch past 2/3 of their guys and wastes time in the corner. OK they had maybe given up but still love to see it.

This is it - the keeper always has the best view since he can see all the defenders and the oppo. As a defender you feel so much more confident when the keeper is vocal and helps you out and I think we're seeing that now.

Been in meetings all morning and come on here hoping to see some news at least, what are our lot doing?! Anyways, this Larin link does seem very 'Championship reality' - sas fact is if he had a better track record or was in top form he'd be looking for a move to one of the bigger leagues - PL, Series A, La liga or Bundesliga 1. Anyone who comes in is pretty much guaranteed to be either less well known, out of form or a young gamble...

Yeah, I mean it's obvious this is their plan, he's had little to no impact in the PL ever. I'd say around £10 mill is fair enough for both sides, just the question as always is whether we replace him with anyone decent or Downs MK2...

A hat trick to win the Europa League definitely seems like something to most people I'd say...?

That's fair enough, I just expect young players to have too much energy rather than loping around trying to conserve energy though. Look at their teenager who came on, he ran around like a headless chicken but also had a good chance and created another. That's what you want from youngsters imo.

Fair play to Downes, he put in a shift today. Also +bonus points for scoring a shit scrappy goal of the sort we usually concede 👏🏼

Fine for him to have a chance but I thought he was poor, he could have been way more aggressive and energetic running up front. He closed down less than Stewart and was always dropping back onto a midfielder instead of being on the CBs. Why is it literally only Stewart who seems to understand if your number 9 drops into midfield you drop the whole team backwards? He's the only one of our forwards who keeps up on the last defender.

Welington is surprisingly good in the air despite his size, he won a lot of long balls from Stoke and most importantly always competes. Him and Bree just make a world of difference on the flanks, they get in tight and don't let the wingers turn and run at us. To be fair when Jelert came back it looked like he has the same idea. Those 3 are actual full backs though unlike Fellows who should never have been put there or Manning who should also never be played there.

And the whole team looks so much more comfortable with 4-2-3-1, why the hell were we ever playing the back 3?

Leo doesn't look on it today, tired / injured? Still working hard but looks a step slow. Matsuki time imo, he has more of an end product than JRob.

If this is true can't imagine we'd say no, 10 mill+ is a lot of money in the champ. Get a journeyman big and physical striker who can lead the line and push the defenders back and our AM options are decent with Leo, Azaz and Fellows then Matsuki and JRob off the bench.

I'm with you on his movement, Stewart is way better at creating a threat from crosses and even Archer who scored a good goal just by getting ahead of the defender against Brum I think. @coalman said a lot of the stuff I wish I could've explained as well about xG - the thing that gets me, is for example with that 1st chance on Sunday - what xG doesn't and can't look at is how much better the chance would have been if he'd taken it earlier as lots have said. Or how about if someone takes a really low % shot from a bizarre angle but it deflects in off a defender? That's gonna look to the stats like he's a brilliant finisher as he beat the xG by so much but anyone who sees it knows it's bollocks. I bet the clubs who are making the data work for them like B'muff aren't using x -effing- G as their main guide.

Oh, so that's how they managed to build the second worst team in Premier League history. Utter c***s.

If we lose the next 2 our form since mid December will have been so bad I'm not sure they'll have much choice. But if SR finally stop being twats and get someone with experience in, they have to back them to ditch any of the squad they don't want, implement discipline and so on. Otherwise we'll be back here again in 2 months.