Midfield_General

Thought-provoking opinions there from the ‘fan’ who reacts to us conceding a devastating 97th minute winner by gleefully posting the betting slip that shows he celebrated it. Great supporter mate. Really, really great supporter. One of the best. Bet you’re still basking in it today, must have made your whole weekend. Fair enough if you enjoy it when we lose, that’s up to you, but don’t then go around lecturing the actual fans.

So according to MOTD Taylor said he saw it and chose not to give it because the shirt pull 'didn't have consequence'. He literally pulled him back for about five seconds, in the penalty area, as he tried to attack a cross that was heading straight for him. Corrupt.

Fernandes was on a yellow so I understand taking him off. Should have been Lallana who came on though.

Onuachu tried to be honest, stayed on his feet and got nothing. If he’d thrown himself down like everyone else does we’d have got a penalty. Then they wonder why players go down at the slightest touch. Joke.

When you’ve been given two yellow cards in the first ten minutes, and four after 36 minutes, for absolutely nothing, it’s only going to go one way. Then he let their player stay on the pitch after treatment, but ours had to go off. Then there was the blatant shirt pull on Onuachu that should have been a penalty, ignored even though he was looking straight at it, and no VAR review, then for the same offence we get a penalty against and a straight red. Then he plays a minute over the seven minutes of injury time he’s already given. I don’t usually moan about refs because generally speaking I think they make honest mistakes, but that today was a fucking disgrace, it really was.

You must have really punched the air when that went in Fucking prick

I don't blame Martin or the players for that That is on that cunt Taylor, 100% Needs to be investigated because I've never seen anything as blatant as that

The most bent refereeing performance I've ever seen Absolutely fucking disgusting

Ipswich 2 down (Or Everton 2 up)

This prick is going to send one of ours off at the first opportunity so we need to sub out some of the players on a yellow. I'd swap Fernandes for Lallana and Manning for Taylor second half. Also we need a third goal, because if they score next I've got a horrible feeling we will crumble.

He's been one of our best players in the first half

And not a single bad foul yet - genuinely one of the worst refereeing performances I’ve seen. Gave a yellow for nothing in the 3rd minute and has painted himself into a corner. Absolutely diabolical

No way are we finishing this with 11 men

Yes - it was his run that played in Manning for the cross for Archer to finish

KWP is five foot eight. Surely we're not playing him at centre half. Has to be the other way around.

Roll up, roll up, for the formation and team selection tombola. Is that a 5-4-1? At home, against Leicester, in a game we absolutely need to win? If Manning is playing as a third centre half, why him and not Taylor who actually is a centre half and is on the bench? Cornet, BBD, Wood and Edwards not even making the squad. If I was Dragan I would be asking serious questions about how my money was spent in the summer. On paper that looks like an absolute mess, but they've had two weeks to prepare for this one so I'm guessing they will be well-drilled and organised in yet another new combination of formation and personnel. Let's see shall we.

West Ham collapsing against Spurs the way Spurs did against Brighton. Conceded 3 in 15 mins and the inside of a post away from 4

Totally. It seems absurd that we as simple fans can see basic things like that but the management can't. It's ridiculous. But then even without taking into account the goals given away through the suicidal passing at the back, this is also the same management that pissed away winnable fixtures by playing a revolutionary U-shape with two centre forwards hugging the touchline and no-one at all playing in the middle (Forest at home), and no centre-forwards on the pitch at all with five on the bench (Bournemouth away). So yeah. I'm less and less surprised by it now.

Or we could try not making an already hard league much fucking harder by not passing it to the opposition in own penalty area multiple times every game under the guise of 'philosophy'. It doesn't need an outstanding manager to identify that, and doesn't need an outstanding team to execute it. It's basic common sense which is the key ingredient missing from our management.

Tadic in as player-manager, running the midfield with Lallana at a combined age of 157. There’s experience for you.

Nah. There are plenty of criticisms that can justifiably be levelled at RM but not using Alcaraz or Sulemana aren’t among them. Alcaraz showed some flashes of promise but couldn’t keep hold of the ball, wasn’t a great passer, regularly played the team into trouble and had an extremely suspect temperament. He looked bang average even at Championship level when he did play and did nothing at Juventus. There’s a reason he’s gone back to South America - not one club in Europe wanted him, even at £18m let alone £40m. Sulemana is just shite. He’s had so many chances at both Premier League and Championship level and just has no end product or football brain. He was also given lots of game time pre-season and did absolutely nothing. I’m not a Martin defender by any means but neither of those players should be anywhere near a Premier League first team.

Also won his first match 2-0 at home to Wigan in the FA Cup quarter final, went toe-to-toe away at Arsenal, eventually going down 3-2 (after going 1-0 up and then equalising for 2-2), and again at home to Chelsea, losing 3-2 after going 2-0 up. Ultimately Hughes was a limited manager, but he was also a common sense manager and a pragmatist, had an immediate positive impact, and got the most out of the resources he was given to grind out the results he needed to keep us up.

Onuachu Archer Dibling Lallana Downes Fernandes KWP THB Bednarek Sugawara Ramsdale Cut out the suicidal passing in and around our own box. Move the ball from front to back directly and quickly. Get the ball into Fernandes and Lallana as quickly as possible, with them playing on the half-turn looking for the forward pass or through ball. Use Onuachu as the hold-up man, with Archer and Dibling playing off him looking to run into space in behind, or getting wide to put crosses on his head. When Lallana gets tired, put Aribo or Les alongside Downes and push Fernandes further up. Cornet and Fraser as fresh legs later on. Smash that little rat Vardy at the first opportunity. Don't do anything silly. 2-0 Saints and the start of our relentless march to 18th.

Orhan Erdemir: giving hope to 61-year-old men the world over