tajjuk

Looked similar to me as the Keane penalty yesterday, how is a defender supposed to stop something like that? Never kick the ball, Mane comes from behind him, Aurier is looking at the ball and is trying to kick it and Mane just blocks his leg in the way.

I had a few people yesterday saying they had to get home early because they heard MOTD was going to be a long one, as it turned out MOTS was quite kind to us, wasn't the main game and they put us on third.

It's the players and the crap going on behind the scenes, completely rudderless in the board room and player scouting department. None of which is Ralf's fault and you can clearly see that he is frustrated with the players not doing their jobs. He took responsibility for Friday, but the manager can only do so much and it was a completely gutless performance from professional players who just capitulated. He's a good manager, he has a proven record of making clubs over perform but those clubs bought into his philosophies, clearly we haven't, he needs help, he needs time to get the players he wants in and who work hard, but 3 years of inept signings has hamstrung that side of it and we have an owner who doesn't want to invest to help sort it out. We need like 3-4 transfer windows to sort this mess out, we need some more leadership at the football level behind the scenes, we need a complete overhaul of the backroom staff who have pretty much consistently failed for the last 2-3 years. Honestly I think Ralph is probably our best asset right now, changing the manager has done nothing, we need to build around him and overhaul the players/support staff IMO.

Doing a Sunderland is a very possible reality, sack the manager, appoint someone worse, don't tackle the recruitment/backroom/board room issues we clearly have, go down, appoint another manager, struggle to get rid of overpaid underperforming players, go down again, sack another manager, rinse repeat.

Yeh that massive 5 points after playing easier teams and spending hundreds of millions over the last season or two. West Ham have lost 4-0 at Oxford, drawn with Bournemouth, lost to Everton, lost at home to Palace, drawn at home with Sheff Utd, drawn at Villa, drawn at Brighton. The have beaten Norwich at home, Watford away and their only decent result is beating Man Utd at home. Look at that fixture list - Bournemouth, Everton, Palace, Sheff Utd, Villa, Brighton, Norwich, Watford, Man Utd. Their only tough game has been against Man City at home, where they got thumped 5-0. They have spent £165 million this season and last.

Our home loss to Chelsea not looking so bad, they are on fire at the moment. Our team has been pretty woeful but we have probably played 2 of maybe the 4 most on form teams at the moment, and lol now we have to play one of the others.

Come on seriously, signing Cahill on a free for those sort of wages is West Ham, old Pompey levels of signing. He could get injured next week and be out for the rest of the season and never come back. We are already stuck with flops, at least they have some re-sale value. There is nothing wrong with signing younger developing players, I mean look at Leicester FFS, but its about signing the right players. The issue we have is clearly the senior players in our dressing room are not leading the team very well and not setting great examples.

I don't blame the manager, its not his fault the team literally capitulated. We have too many players who are mentally fragile and think they are better then they are. Most of our players have been coasting for 3-4 years thinking they are part of the a top 8 team, they think they can beat people by just turning up. The squad needs an overhaul, we need committed fresh players, but with no owner investment and high paid flops on the books its not going to happen. We are going to do a Sunderland I think, could easily see us in League 1 in a few years still trying to get rid of Gao and hamstrung with over paid players still on the books. Changing the manager doesn't do anything.

Aren't most goals like that though, most can be traced down to some sort of error, like City's first goal yesterday was terrible marking leaving Jesus free in the middle to head in. Yes it was poor from Coady but the team's pressing forced the error, forcing the first defender to play it long poorly under pressure and then Ings was quickly closing down Coady who made the error. We'll get goals like that because we close defenders down and don't give them an easy way out. I thought we created some ok chances and were the ones making most of the play, which is not bad against a decent team, and I think with Djenepo back we'll create more

Not sure how we rode our luck on the first one, without using his hand Jimenez is not controlling that ball, he basically used his hand to control it and go round Gunn, even their players recognised that was obvious. The 2nd one is close but its pretty clear offside , their pen is bought, and I don't see the point of using VAR on pens, its just a giant waste of time if they are not going to overturn clear dives where the player literally throws his body into the defender.

8 games FFS, where we have played Liverpool, Man Utd, Spurs, and Chelsea. Liverpool we were unlucky not to win or at least draw, Man Utd unlucky not to win due to the sending off, Spurs game was unfortunate as IMO the sending off switched the pressure for them to win onto us and they could just sit back and counter, something we wanted to do. The Chelsea game was a heavy loss but they are in an in-form team, they beat Wolves 5-2 away as well, put 3 past Norwich as well, put 7 past Grimsby and created plenty of chances against pool, they are clearly looking good and getting better every game. Of the other 4 against lesser teams, 3 have been away, two of which we have won. The only really bad performances were Burnley away (though we were ok for 60 minutes) and the Bournemouth game where be battered them for most of the game but conceded from a corner and on the counter. We are 5 points of 7th. The team is very much a work in progress and is also a young team, that means we will be inconsistent. But crucially we have had a pretty tough run of fixtures, 50% of our games so far have been against the top 6. Burnley are sitting on 7th, they have only played two top 6 teams so far, and have played 2/3 promoted teams already, plus an out of form Wolves, out of form Everton (and us at home on a day conditions suited them). Similarly Palace have only played two of the top 6, their other 6 fixtures have been against West Ham, Everton, Sheff Utd, Villa, Norwich and Wolves. I am pretty sure had we had their fixture list we'd be on more than 7 points.

Again need to reiterate, 9 of our first 13 games are against last years top 9 teams. Of the remaining 4 against bottom half teams/promoted teams we have played, 3 have been away and one at to Bournemouth, we have won two of the those away games and Burnley away is probably one of the tougher away fixtures in the league generally. Comparisons to other teams is pointless, we need to see where we are after we have at least played everyone.

This.

Koeman made some odd decisions and had some very poor runs of form and he is probably one of our most successful managers for a long time. Thing is we do not have the full picture, we only see what happens on the pitch, we don't know what instructions the player is given that they may not carry out, we don't know what they are working on the training ground and what the players show there, we don't know what players attitudes and approaches are.

None, none of them are good enough. The only ex players that I'd want are ones we would never get like Bale, Van Dijk and Mane. Maybe Shaw. Most of the rest have just gone downhill. You could say Tadic has had a renaissance, but he was decidedly average for two years for us, and is playing in a much easier league. Obviously the change of surroundings has helped him so no guarantee he would replicate that form. Chambers is only playing for Arsenal because Bellerin is injured and they have no real proper right full back to fill in for him. Maitland-Niles is midfielder and Chambers is some sort of in-between players that is too slow for full back, too error prone and not strong enough for centre-back and not good enough technically for midfield.

No it isn't when Leicester have a vastly better squad than us, I reckon Ralph would have Leicester probably doing even better, but at least as well, he'd be a dream manager for Vardy.

Maybe his excellent and proven track record of making clubs overperform? Including taking on this relegation threatened team and steering them comfortably clear of relegation in his first 6 months? The guy has only had one window and 3 actual signings that he has had any say in FFS, one which has been injured for most of the time and one of the others came in at the last possible minute so is probably not up to speed yet.

It looks he was dropped and he was intending to play the same back 4 as started against Pompey, so that is a thing I suppose. That to me at least says he has recognised he shouldn't be starting, but he's still getting ahead of Danso which I find a bit weird seeing as Danso actually hasn't had a chance yet as a centre-back.

I think we will do alright, we were pretty decent at home against Man Utd and Liverpool, unlucky IMO not to take more points from those games. Chelsea will come to try and beat us I reckon, which will suit us, they play out from the back which will suit us, they are also a young inconsistent side, I think a good game that will come down to who takes their chances.

Comparisons with Leicester are a bit stupid, they have a much much better team than us that has been developing nicely for a good few years now and is starting mature with the youngsters starting to hit their stride coupled with their few more experienced players still maintaining their form. The likes of Chilwell, Maddison, Barnes, Ndidi have improved a lot whilst the likes of Vardy, Schmeichal and Evans are still at the tops of their games. Rodgers is a good manager and I would have been happy to have him here but I doubt he would be doing much better because the differences in the squads are massive sadly. We are very much a work in progress, remember the guy has only been here half a season in reality, he's had one full pre-season, one transfer window, Rome wasn't built in a day yada yada. If you look at his previous clubs he steadied the ship but it still took another year or so to make proper progress, and we have the extra problem of having to overhaul a squad that has been built on the back of like 3 years of poor recruitment. We have also played 7 games, 3 of which have been against Spurs, Liverpool and Man Utd, some perspective is needed. (Yes Spurs was against 10 men but not only were we a bit unlucky IMO not to at least get a draw 2nd half, but it played into their hands, they were a big team under pressure for results, they were expected to win with 11 and had that pressure on them, but going to 10 took that pressure away and allowed them to basically play on the break which they have very good players for). Results and performances have of course been mixed, poor away to Burnley in conditions that suited them more than us, decent vs Liverpool but failed to take our chances, ok vs Brighton but helped by the red card, decent vs Sheff Utd (who showed away to Chelsea and at home to pool they are no mugs especially at home), decent vs Man Utd and probably would have won it without the red card, poor first half vs Bournemouth who finished all their chances but dominated them 2nd half but the damage was done, decent in the two cup games and finally I would say an expected loss to Spurs but should have done more with them down to 10 but still a bit unlucky. For a young team, that has had a few injuries playing almost half their games against top 6 teams so far, has it really been that bad? Not IMO, it's been more as a I suspected, inconsistent. Has he made a few choices that are difficult to understand? Yes, but we don't know the overall plan and what he sees on the training ground. I think we will come good and long term what Ralph is doing will improve us but it will take time. I also don't think we will find a better manager. I think there will also be a lot more ups and downs as well, as I said in another thread, our first 13 games will see us play all of last years top 9, so that needs to be taken into perspective as well.

11 men Newcastle are easier to score against than 10 men Spurs. And are more likely to score as well.

I have never really understood violence related to football and all the hate spewed etc. shouting hate and abuse at players doing their jobs just because they play for your rival team is just idiotic. It is at the end of the day just a game, enjoy it, have some banter with other fans, some cheering/jeering/booing, whatever fair enough, go home it doesn't really matter at the end of the day way more important things in life. To then punch a horse because your team lost a game is just stupid. Have to say by the looks of things, and with the low number of arrests and incidents, seems that the Police did a pretty good job.

Never really got this argument when most full backs in the league are small and will get bullied by bigger strikers dropping onto them, so firstly its the job of the centrebacks to stop this happening and help their fullback. And secondly how many teams actually have big striker these days in the PL? Hardly any. A full backs primary jobs in defence is stop the opposite winger/wide forward, which Cedric does very well. Finally to suggest he is often out of position is IMO nonsense when the guy is often bailing out his centre-backs with good covering which shows good positioning. Defensively he is superior to Bertrand IMO.

A shame if so as he has looked a real threat (when played in his correct position). But I'd then go for Boufal, Ings and Redmond.

Always thought he was a good player, was very consistent for us but like many in the squad under 3 pretty poor managers just went off the boil and went a little stale. Also have always thought that he is actually a way better defender than he is going forward which is against the norm for modern fullbacks these days. He is quick, rarely gets beaten 1v1, seems pretty strong/stocky for someone his height and his positioning/covering is excellent, note how he got round and covered with a crucial back post intervention last night, something that Valery doesn't do. He covers the centre-backs very well IMO, just reads the game well and that adds confidence to the whole back for IMO. Going forward he is always been a little bit hit or miss, he certainly has good enough control and passing to be decent in forward areas and makes good runs, but his crossing is often a lottery, but put a great ball in last night that was begging for someone to slot in but no one gambled. Should really see if we can get him to sign another contract IMO, we look a lot more solid defensively with him in a back four. We also I think would be hard pressed to find a full back as good as him when he is at his best without spending a lot. What he was doing there for the goal I don't know. Still though get the impression he wants to elsewhere and has only knuckled down to earn a good contract elsewhere, 'shop window' style, his celebration of a rare goal in a derby, in front of the away fans was a little muted IMO for someone that wants to be here. Contrast it with Hojberg's end game celebrations and even celebrating a good sliding tackle at the end of the game, he looked like someone who was enjoying playing for the club.