Sheaf Saint

Where are our subs? Why the fuck is Armstrong still on the pitch?

So our period of dominance after HT results in zero shots on goal, and now Villa have made their changes they have regained the advantage. We're screwed aren't we.

Digne coming on for Villa. Didn't he score an OG for us when at Everton a few years ago? He's probably our best chance of scoring today then.

Yep.

Aribo coming on, but who for? Edit: it's Bree. So is that Manning moving to LB?

They take plenty of risks. They're just in the completely wrong area of the pitch to get any reward from them.

So let's recap... 56% possession Zero shots on target 3 chances and one goal conceded from errors. It's Russball in a nutshell, and it can get in the fucking bin now.

Armstrong has worked out that the only way for him to stay onside is to not actually make a run at all. Wonderful.

Armstrong offside. There's a surprise.

That was too easy for Villa. Should have been two

It's all ok though, cos we've had 57% possession, so no doubt Russ is enjoying himself.

And then we gift them a goal, having nearly done that already a minute earlier. Fucksake.

Decent enough performance so far, but I can't help but feel that Villa are playing within themselves a little.

Nice to hear the 'Yellows' chant from the travelling fans. Good on them - a proper mission today with the conditions and they're in good voice.

Wasted a great opportunity there.

Ref clearly doesn't know the rules. That's a mandatory booking.

I thought McGinn was suspended?

Yeah but Liverpool is within the Met Office's amber warning zone, so it makes sense to call that off even if the fans don't have to travel long distances*, whereas The Midlands and South are only under a yellow warning. * Although I know plenty of lifelong Liverpool fans who don't actually live there.

We never played Norwich when both Farke and Martin were there. Farke joined in the summer of 2017 and Martin left the following January, and they were in the Championship that season.

Mastertwat.

I don't think it's out of context. He said it after the match on Wednesday as well, but to me it just further highlights his delusion. For a club like ours, with the limited squad we have, to even consider trying to go toe to toe with top clubs like Chelsea/Liverpool/City, is just madness. Sure, we might have a 10 minute spell where we look like we can hurt them, but their superior quality will ALWAYS win out, especially once we've gifted them a couple of goals from our suicidal passing around at the back. If we try and play these teams at their own game, we will lose... Every. Single. Time. It's as simple as that.

So what are you saying? That because RM has turned out to be just as shit (or worse) as a PL manager than his predecessor, we should just accept that?

Fucking hell, has he really said that? Has he not seen the league table FFS! Grinding out results is EXACTLY what teams in our position need to be doing, and what the fans demand. He appears to be saying that he would rather lose playing his possession game, than win ugly. For the love of God SR, please wake up to what a laughing stock you have made of SFC and end this insanity now.

I knew I recognised him from somewhere...

Defending isn't just about the ability of individual players though. You only need to have the most basic grasp of football to understand that. It's a TEAM game, and good defending means defending as a TEAM. And it's the manager's job to coach and set up the TEAM to do that. How do you not get this?