Sheaf Saint

Second season of Love Death and Robots out now on Netflix. For those unfamiliar it's an anthology series of animated short sci-fi films, and apart from a few not-so-good ones here and there, it's mostly excellent. The animation in season 1 was very good but in season 2 it's incredible.

I don't think the back for per se are the real problem. Yes they all have their limitations, but the midfield protection in front of them since Romeu got injured has been pretty much non-existent, and they have been badly let down by having a crap keeper behind them. I'm still utterly at a loss to work out why Ralph thought it was a good idea to keep rotating the keepers towards the end. Forster saves a penalty and then gets dropped for a guy who is woefully out of form, who then goes on to concede 5 goals in 2 games - at least 3 of which he should have done much better with (WH's second yesterday was a mis-hit and he didn't even move FFS!) He just can't help tinkering with the team for no good reason. Tella has looked really good lately, so of course Ralph drops him yesterday for the perpetually useless Redmond. He can't find a settled midfield or attacking combo so it's no wonder we always look dis-jointed. It's no coincidence that our run at the end of last season coincided with us having a settled team. I'm not convinced Ralph is the right man to lead us out of this rut, but I would only be in favour of sacking him if we could guarantee we have someone better lined up, and we don't end up with a repeat of 2017 when we got rid of Puel only to find that our top targets then turned us down and we ended up with Pellegrino. That would be more disastrous than starting next season with Ralph IMO.

For me, the biggest problem aside from our obvious lack of quality is the constant changing of the starting lineup. Teams like us need a settled starting team to get some sort of solidity in defence. Yet Ralph changes things seemingly for the sake of it. The JWP / Armstrong partnership was working, so why has he broken it up and put in Diallo who has been gash in DM recently? Just mental.

It's a mis-hit and McCarthy didn't even move.

And that's 2-0. Fucking brilliant Saints.

Same old same old. Lots of the ball in the attacking third but unable to do anything useful with it. Then let the oppo score with their first meaningful attack. McCarthy should be holding that. He's been fucking useless recently.

It was our season in a nutshell really. Plenty of neat passing and slick approach play in the first half, but without Ings we had zero goal threat, and when he came on at HT the rest of the team had run out of steam so he got no good service. What I really can't fathom is just how poor all our players are when we get into the attacking third. There were a number of times last night when the #10 players came deep and wide to win the ball and fed a player in the middle with acres of space to run into. Multiple times either Arnstrong, Vest or Stephens had the freedom of the midfield to run at their defence, we had attacking players up in support, but they just had no idea what to do with the ball when they got there, and gave it away cheaply every time. Also, can anyone remember the last time we scored a headed goal from open play? I watch MOTD and it seems every other PL team is capable of pinging in a decent cross for a striker to get between the CBs and get his head on and score, but we just can't it seems. The chance for Adams early on was probably the closest we have come recently in that respect, but the cross from Armstrong took a deflection and had no pace on it, so Adams' header was never going to beat the keeper. Finally - McCarthy. Wow. Talk about abject. He looked decent in the early stages of the season but now he just looks lost. I can't for the life of me understand why Ralph wants to keep rotating the keepers when it's painfully obvious Forster is the better option right now. There is no way in hell a PL keeper should be letting that first goal in. As for his lunge on Bamford that should have resulted in a penalty for them - it's not the first time this season he has done that. I just can't wait for this season to be over TBH. We're finished now. No way we will get anything at West Ham on Sunday, given their form. Might as well not turn up and take the 3-0 loss.

Sorry. That was my fault.

For us to give away another soft goal?

We had two in the first half.

Fucksake McCarthy. How the hy fuck did you manage to let that in? And how come we didn't get the lines drawn by VAR? Looked very tight to me. Wasn't even checked FFS.

So if that's a yellow card for Strijuk, how on earth did Harrison not get one for his tackle on Djenepo?

Erm, they are both on already.

That's a little unfair. He's doing good work coming back to win the ball in deep, wide positions, then releasing players in the centre to carry it forward. He doesn't have the presence up front that you might want it expect, but he's playing an important part in our overall play IMO.

No. The yellow was for the Leeds player for simulation. Rightly so.

How is that not worth a booking? Deliberate, cynical foul to stop him breaking. It's a yellow all day long!

Very positive start. Looks like the lads are buzzing to have the crowd back.

Are you really that naïve about the situation?

You do realise that when Colin Kapernick began the practice of kneeling before a football match it had absolutely fuck all to do with any prescribed political organisations (BLM or otherwise) and was just his own way of protesting about racial inequality? Just because BLM chose to adopt it, doesn't mean that everyone who does it is showing support for that particular group.

You say that, but he's usually blowing out of his arse by the 70 minute mark and frequently has to be subbed off as a result. Overall though, I agree. He has been a rare bright spot this season, with his willingness to run at defenders and try to make something happen, instead of just playing the crab football that many others are guilty of.

Well after weeks of throwing about the old "if we win our game in hand" cliché, it's satisfying to see that we actually did.

Indeed. Regardless of what we achieved in the first half of it, and ignoring all mitigating circumstances, any season where we equal our record defeat margin and set a new club record for consecutive defeats can only be described as a bad season.

Tell you what, if we can have Romeu back for the last few games of the season that would be a big bonus. Even half-fit, he's a better option in CM than Diallo.

Good that common sense has prevailed, but for love of God why did VAR not overturn it on the night? Absolutely ridiculous.

What happened to this then? Can't see anything on the OS or Twitter. Or has it been impacted by the planned social media blackout?