Sheaf Saint

No, definitely Bedders. He did have a good game overall, granted. Did look like he ducked away from the shot though.

No more than Poland deserve really.

I know it was a good hit from Kane but could Bednarek have tried to head that clear rather than duck away from it? Difficult to tell from the replay angles.

That booking for KP was ridiculous.

Did they deny they were planning that then? Must have missed that.

I think you're bang on here. Everyone's tired of it all now, and most people were flagrantly ignoring the rules before all the restrictions lifted anyway.

One thing I have learned about this government is that if they deny they are planning something, you can pretty much guarantee it will actually happen. Best start planning for more restrictions soon everyone.

I thought you were going to propose that Gao pay for it 😆

Perhaps they just couldn't find the right man during casting, but they were impressed with Sharon Duncan-Brewster when she auditioned for a different role? Who knows. Like you said, it doesn't really alter the story, and maybe even that character works better as a woman? When Herbert wrote Dune in the early 60s, it was still very much a male-dominated world so maybe it didn't even occur to him to write Kynes as a woman.

Considering it was basically our B team that played for the majority of the match, it's not that bad really.

Yeah Arrival was also very good. Loved the twist.

Gidge - New Light. Album released in 2020 and completely passed me by until a work mate recommended it recently. It's a wonderfully rich piece of ambient electronica, which has dance music evidently in its DNA but definitely wasn't made for playing in clubs. I love this and can't get enough of it. Gets better with every listen.

The new Dune movie finally gets released next month, after being delayed from last December. I've been cautiously excited about this ever since it was announced a few years ago, because Denis Villeneuve is a brilliant director who did an outstanding job with the Bladerunner sequel. But given how difficult the story has proved to be made into a film previously (I liked the Lynch version but I can see why it was so widely criticised), there was always the possibility it would be another dud and a massive disappointment given how long we've had to wait for it. However, I've read a few reviews of it in recent days and they are absolutely raving about it.. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dune-review-b1913870.html https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/03/dune-review-denis-villenueve-venice-film-festival?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other Can't wait.

I've watched Thierry Small a lot in the Everton U23s, and believe me he is light years better than Vokins. Livramento hasn't always been a RB, he is an attacking right sided player who was converted to RB out of necessity in the Chelsea youth team. Suggesting moving him forward is not the same as advocating playing a naturally right sided player on the left.

KWP was clearly at fault for one of Newcastle's goals last week though, so is he really the best option we have at LB? We signed two new LBs this summer, so it makes no sense whatsoever to play KWP there out of position when he was arguably our best player last season in his natural position. Tino has looked very promising so far, but he's got a long way to go before proving he is our best RB ahead of KWP.

You don't need to drop Armstrong though. It's a squad game these days, and Stu often seems to be blowing out of his arse by around the 70 minute mark. Bringing on a fresh Tino to replace him in the second half would terrify the tiring opposition defenders.

Could we have made a late bid? I'd imagine a bishop would have always dreamed of becoming a Saint one day 😉

Well I'm gonna buck the trend here and say I think we will do alright and finish comfortably mid-table. I know it all went to shit from January onwards, but people seem to forget that our form over the calendar year in 2020 was top four. That's no blip. The PL is an unforgiving league so you can't fluke a run like that. IMO the reason it all went so horribly wrong is because Ralph's system requires high intensity, that we were just incapable of sustaining due to the horrendous injury crisis and the condensed season, meaning we couldn't rotate and what fit players we had were being forced to play for 90 minutes twice a week without a break. It's no wonder our second half performances dropped off so much. Yes we've lost Ings' goals, and that is a big miss of course. But Che has improved a lot from this time last year, and he and Arma already look like they are forming a decent partnership and between them I reckon they will easily score 20+ this year. Now that Salisu has settled he already looks better than JV ever was, with Lyanco taking his place from last season as the unproven backup CB. Perraud looks to be at least as good as Bertrand was in his last couple of seasons, if not better, and we have decent cover at FB now, where we had none last season at all. So our starting 11 looks only marginally weaker than the one that briefly topped the table last Autumn, and we have much better depth now to absorb any injuries we may suffer. With the season less condensed, and having our recovery facilities available to us again, injured players won't miss as many games as they did/would have done last season either. So, despite the obvious weaknesses we have, I'm actually fairly confident we'll do OK, and I'm going to predict we'll finish somewhere between 9th-12th. And, yes, if we end up really struggling then please feel free to stuff this post back down my throat any time you wish.

Oh goody. Yet another thread gets derailed by Turkish's crusade against wokeism. Woo-hoo!

But that's precisely my point. With the number of chances we concede due to our comedy defending, we need a better keeper behind them otherwise we are taking a massive risk. Signing one defender may or may not improve the overall defence and reduce the number of shots on target, but signing a better keeper would instantly reduce the number of goals we concede.

In which case, assuming that Macca and Forster will be good enough to ensure we stay up this season is a massive gamble.

So what are you suggesting - that because the players didn't hear it and no mics picked it up, it obviously didn't happen? In a noisy stadium filled with tens of thousands of people, when you're concentrating on the task at hand (to win an important qualifying match), can you honestly say you would be able to single out certain noises coming from a particular section of the crowd? And even if you could, do you genuinely not think the players will have been instructed, as part of their media training, to say they didn't hear it and not comment on it? Honestly - the lengths certain people here will go to in order to deny a problem exists is so depressing.

Remixed a few years ago by a friend of mine...

I've not bothered to un-mute Turkish to read his posts, but is he genuinely trying to argue that the Hungarian fans in that photo are just mis-understood? 😂😂😂

It's both hilarious and tragic that these morons consider themselves to be genetically superior to Sterling.