Lord Duckhunter

Modern players I’m afraid. They take no responsibility to think for themselves. Graham Souness tells a story that he was in the dressing room for his Liverpool debut & Ronnie Moran said “ok son?” He replied that he hadn’t been told the tactics or how to play yet and it was 10 to 3. Ronnies answer “ we paid 250k for you and you’re asking how to fucking play??? “. That’s how it was then, players sorted stuff out themselves. If we’d have got done like that in the 70’s there would have been a sort out in the dressing room, probably involving fisticuffs, now it’ll be high fives and Instagram messages about trying harder.

Even if we had Moore & Beckenbauer instead of Stevens & Bednarak, I fail to see how they could have stopped Son, unless they dropped off. So the question is why didn’t they? If they didn’t because they couldn’t think quickly enough, that’s their fault. If they didn’t because they were specifically told to keep the high line, that’s the managers fault. The issue was the ease at which Spurs were able to knock the ball in behind. The centre midfielders job is to disrupt that, not track Son’s run. They failed quite spectacularly to get anywhere near their midfield, who were playing the game with a cigar in their mouth, it was so easy. We’re too nice, too polite and too fucking soft in midfield.

He’s ok, half decent, pretty steady but not really the quality we need if we want to improve. Clearly they expected Gunn as number one, but he’s been a let down.

If that was Leeds or Fulham everyone would be saying that they’ll need to wise up or they’ll be straight back down to the championship, they’d be saying you can’t play like that at this level. Yet we have experience to play at this level. Our manager has had a full season of English football, full back has played for England & won the champions league. OR has been at Barca & Chelsea, Armstrong an international, Ings knows what’s needed in England, Prowse an experienced pro, even our centre half have been a pair for pretty much a whole season. The fact that they can’t seem to see or react to what is blatantly obvious to 95% of the watching public, is quite shocking.

I notice Ward -Prowse escapes your summing up. Why? He was awful today and his one paced lack of defensive awareness was part of the reason we were so poor. He is bang average and we need an upgrade.

That maybe the case, but the centre halves need to manage the game properly and think for themselves. Proper players won’t just accept that, they’ll dig into the midfield, giving them clog till they do their fucking jobs, and they’ll also think for themselves and drop when there’s no pressure on the ball. They’ll also challenge the manager, winners like Roy Keane & VvD wouldn’t have put up with that. What are they doing, just blindly following the managers instructions to the letter, even if it costs us time and time again. I hope senior players got into Ralph afterwards, but I doubt they’ve got the balls. Sums up our lot, bunch of son in laws.

The manager has some questions to answer. Did he tell the back 4 to play a high line no matter what, or did he tell them to drop when there was no pressure on the ball. I imagine from the lack of bolockings & maybe even substitutations, they were carrying out his instructions. If so, he needs to take a long hard look at himself. You don’t need to be a tactical genius to see that it was killing us. Elsewhere, finishing was awful, really cost us. But the turning point was their first goal, they were on the rack and showing signs of losing the plot. Ward-Prowse should have chopped the bloke down & take the yellow. Shocking soft arsed choir boy attempt to win the ball, that summed his whole game up. The majority of the forum piss themselves talking about Hojberg, but Prowse is no better. Him & Romeou aren’t good enough. The 2 wide men & Ings played well and the 2 full backs were ok, Adams did ok, until it came to doing his fucking job. The central 4 (centre halves & central midfield) the goal keeper, Adams’ finishing and The manager were pathetic today. That’s what cost us.

Bobby Moore & Jack Charlton in their Prime would struggle playing a high line when the midfield don’t make a tackle. Pathetic, from the captain today. Like a little boy lost.

When is someone going to put a fucking tackle in.

How many centre halves are as quick as Son, a handful at most. The lack of pressure on the ball is just as responsible. Way too easy.

It’s not just the defenders. The manager tells them how to play, he needs to look at himself. There’s also no pressure on the ball in midfield, easy for them. Had we taken our chances, they’d be dead and buried. Too easy to just blame the defence & keeper.

We can’t finish.

Fucking Armstrong, bury the fucking thing. Too airy fairy

Confirmation that it wasn’t JWP booked. They’ll know full well on the pitch who has been booked, so his pathetic attempt at a tackle looks even worse.

We also need pressure on the ball, having 2 plodders in central midfield makes it easier for them. We need one of OR & JWP and then someone that gets to players quicker.

Fucking centre midfielders both put fanny attempts at a tackle, then the keepers too deep, he should have cleaned that up.

I haven’t seen Moyes daughter, but I hope she resembles her mum.

Pickford doing his Forster impressions today. 2 pathetic attempts to save the ball, neither in the corner. Useless....

It happened to me at first. If you wait a bit, try again it my work second time. It did for me & my mate took 3 attempts but got there eventually. One watch out is there’s a delay before the option you need reappears.

Why would you want to opt in and out? Presumably, they’ve done it to stop people opting out of shite games and back in for the attractive ones. The only thing people can complain about is if you can’t attend because you or a family member have the virus and can’t attend. However, they don’t refund if you get flu or a heavy cold and can’t attend in a normal season . I guess asking people to prove it is just too complicated. Personally, I think it’s fair enough, they’re only asking for a handful of games.

This is just not true. Managers don’t expect wingers to go past full backs time and time again, if they did they wouldn’t play them on the opposite side. Managers were players, so I expect they know a lot more about beating players and the difficulty of it more than you or I do. If, as you claim, failing to beat the full back gets you benched, why does Redmond play every week? And if making tackles grantees a 10 game run in the side, why has OR spent most of the past 2 seasons on the bench. Your post is full of out of date cliches,

Flair players have never been given more chances than they get in the modern game. The game is full of players that do wonderful things that in the 70’s were only produced by Frank Worthington, Rodney Marsh & the like. Players that were frozen out by England mangers and shunned. I remember watching Tony Currie produce a masterful performance for England before being dropped, & Sir Alf actually warned Rodney before his first game that any “ fancy stuff” would result in him being substituted. The fact that Boufal can’t get 4 or 5 completely different managers to show faith in him is telling. Flair players don’t get treated terribly at all nowadays, centre halves are encouraged to play, midfielders encouraged to receive the ball in tight spaces and forwards are encouraged to try the “fancy stuff” that was so frowned upon in previous generations. Boufal is all fur coat and no knickers, a show pony who doesn’t actually produce very much. Managers haven’t given up on him because they’d rather have a steady solid average joe, they’ve given up on him because he’s not very good. They’re not Branfoot like clones who have a dislike for giving the ball away or trying something that doesn’t come off. If they thought he’d come good they’d give him all the time they needed to do so.

I don’t often agree with Martin Samual but he hit the nail on the head in his article today. “Alex Scott is going to be the new presenter of A Question of Sport. Apparently, she was considered the best person for the job. The best person for every job these days it seems. Maybe she could be both captains and answer her own questions, too. Matt Le Tissier played his last game for Southampton on January 30, 2002, coming on as an 82nd minute substitute for Kevin Davies against West Ham. Sky may think this makes him yesterday's man, along with Charlie Nicholas and Phil Thompson — all three have been stood down from their jobs on the excellent Soccer Saturday programme, replaced by fresher faces. Yet is Clinton Morrison or Tim Sherwood, Tony Pulis or Glen Johnson really more relevant to the modern generation than Le Tissier? His legend endures, beyond that of much younger players, because his highlights reel is extraordinary. And the way young people consume media these days, it is only a matter of time before a YouTube clip of Le Tissier, or a video lasting 30 minutes showing goal after spectacular goal, is discovered. My boys were five and four when Le Tissier quit. They all know him, though. They can all relate individual moments from his career, too. It's not the same with the rest of the Sky panel. More than any of the Soccer Saturday pundits, Le Tissier's feats live in the present. Yet the rush to jettison the old has meant the promotion or presence of any new face, certainly a woman or a BAME individual, is dismissed as part of a politically-driven agenda. The excellent Micah Richards has suffered from this, too. Change is inevitable. But it could have been handled considerably better.“

Unbelievable that Ball gets a pay rise after losing so many listeners. She’s horrendous & it’s no surprise she’s lost so many listeners. Sums Radio 2 up, it’s going right down the pan. Apart from Ken Bruce, it’s lost it. Ball, Jeremy vine smugfest & then Steve Wight, whose still doing his 80’s act.Here’s a factoid for you, he’s fucking overpaid, he needs serious sackin (no G). The weekends even worse. Tony Blackburn, whose 103 years old, Dermot O’Leary, that Carr mincer with some dopey bird, & then some clown could Rylan. It’s a piss take. #defundbbc

As opposed to Boufal who has set the league on fire, & excited us with his fantastic performances.