S-Clarke

Absolutely feels like a Dortmund conveyor belt type signing. Certainly out of our league, sadly.

Another piss poor result for Fulham that. That's the last two games they've had a chance of getting out of the bottom 3 - at home to Leeds and away to Villa. They didn't take either. They won't get many more opportunities like that in a season. Pretty disastrous last two results for them, all being told. Not the final nail, but it's not too far away. But I think this has certainly rubber stamped it to between Newcastle and Fulham, hopefully it comes down to that last game as for pure entertainment that would be an absolute whopper.

That's a strange opinion of what battering is tbh. But each to their own.

On the ball, not great - but his running opens space for us and that's why we looked more dangerous. He's intelligent in that sense, but typical Theo is that final touch/final pass which is more often than not powderpuff.

Agree, that's the biggest plus for me today. As a big doubter of the character of this group, we just came from being 0-2 to win a game and that's as huge as any win for me.

That's not battering us. They didn't batter us at any point of that game. We started off poorly, a diabolical start from us really, but at no stage were we battered by Burnley.

Not the biggest fan of Redmond myself, but that's a bit harsh on today. Thought he was one of our most dangerous. But I do agree, a better wide player would benefit us massively (well, not particular wide - someone who can roam all over). I don't think that's a priority though.

As i said, what did you mean?

Can you expand on that? Bit of a throwaway comment with no context.

After 20 mins, we were much better. Took the game to them, attacked them, moved the ball much, much quicker. We fully deserved that win as our performance for about 60% was good - better than them, created lots of good opportunities too. It's amazing what having a fully fit attacking group can do - Whilst Theo was frustrating, his runs and movement with and off the ball was opening space. Redmond was excellent floating all over the front as well. And Ings was back to his sharp and pest like self. The break has done the attack wonders. Defense, Bednarek in particular, an absolute liability. Vestergaard was ok, but Bednarek needed to go home. That win will hopefully stop everyone panicking now. We'll still finish in the 40's imo.

This is how Jan has been for weeks and weeks tbh. He's a proper liability for us at the moment. He's either a decent PL defender, or an absolute mess at this level. There's no in between with him. I'd be tempted to sub him at HT as he seems like a mistake waiting, but I know we won't.

If we're worried about not being able to defend against Woods, then our defenders are not good enough for this level.

Define battered?

The first 20 mins of that was a disgrace, it was the lack of effort and the lack of winning any 50-50's that irked me. Keep turning up in games like that and they'll be finding new clubs in the summer. But we actually responded and we showed some belief. We started doing what we should have started doing, putting them under pressure outside the box, playing quickly in and around the box, getting down the sides etc. That' how you beat Burnley - you have to play quickly and stretch their centre backs, get down the sides etc. Didn't really want the first half to end as we were so on top, but the 2nd half is going to be different. Let's hope we can actually turn up in a 2nd half for once and turn a game around fully. We've got a chance if we keep the tempo up.

Why are you thinking about substitutes already??

Forster KWP Bednarek Vestergaard Bertrand Armstrong Diallo JWP Theo Redmond Ings Bench - McCarthy Salisu Stephens Jankewitz Tella Adams Djejenpo ------ Back to our start of season strong-ness tbh. Only Romeu missing from that squad who'd be a starter.

What does the performance against Bournemouth have to do with anything? Surely winning is winning, wherever you win a game as well as we did, i'm not sure I can class that as a negative - I'm not sure what you're getting at there. We will need at most, in my opinion, 3 to 4 points. Fulham's form has been overstated. They haven't scored in two and lost to Leeds last time out, a mid-table team. And why do you have more confidence in Newcastle, with Steve Bruce at the helm and no fit attackers, than us? I don't get it. We can do both this year - stay up and compete in the cup, so let's not worry about winning against Leicester. I wouldn't want to be relegated either, but the reality is that it is incredibly unlikely and as rank outside as us winning the cup. (I'd say we've got more chance of winning the cup)

I find it absurd that he wasn't liked by some - he's one of the best CM's we've had in our PL years.

And he was still the best player on the pitch. He didn't 'cheat' that pass.

Why? Let's not get into that debate again! It does seem pointless prioritising winning against Burnley for the battle for '14th' than wanting to get into a Cup Final. Give me the two wolves or arsenal games again, and I'd still choose the FA Cup wins. Let's go all out and win a cup I'd say.

Oh dear. Think we need a complete re-vamp of the academy setup in the summer, if we have the funds to do that.

2-5! Great effort by West Brom. Still a minuscule chance of staying up, but at least they have something positive to remember from this season.

Still sounds like we're just resting him to be honest. He'll be fine for Sunday.

Yeah he kind of intimated that. But it's true, anyone is deluded to think otherwise really - including him. It would be a shame to waste the last couple of peak years of his career as a squad player at Man City. I'm sure Nathan Ake is loving the minutes he's getting on the pitch. No fun it that really, and I think Danny looks at it more than just the pay cheque. But maybe that's just me being naive and he's also all about the money.

I'm also not one of the selfish people who only think about me. A couple of people I knew died during this pandemic, not through COVID but because they were isolated and shut away and no one could see them. And they just had enough. That is sadly more common than is seen. Those stats aren't put onto the graphs we see presented to us though. It feels like I've gone and started an entire debate on this, but I haven't really! What I feel is that there needs to be a balance between peoples lives (I guess you could say freedoms) and protecting against catching it - the debate if it's serious enough or not is something totally different. I feel that the world has gone way too far the other way and sadly there are quite a lot of people whose lives have been turned upside down, not due to COVID but because of COVID. No jobs, alone, isolated, no money, mental health through the floor. As I said, those stats are invisible though. I'm not denying that people have died and families have lost loved ones due to COVID, of course that has happened and it's been quite a year for a lot of people. But there needs to be a balance because there is another crisis behind the screen of COVID. People who have support around them are fortunate, not everyone has that and Individuals who live alone and haven't been able to see any friends or family have had the worst year of their lives - even more so if a family member has died of it and they haven't even been able to see them. There will always be variants, there will always be mutations. There will be a mutation which will evade the vaccine, I can see them talking that up already. But we cannot continue to live in fear for what will be an evolving situation for the rest of our lives.