Baird of the land

Also last week the defence looked comfortable until JWP/Mccarthy's brainfart. So why drop the CB to bring in two players who have been injured.

I think the set piece issue is more the fact we've got no threats. It's no surprise that our set piece goals have come from clever short corner routines. We love to see how Arsenal would react if we could somehow get the next goal.

Think we maybe should have started elyounessi over Armstrong. So hopefully the change will help.

Curious why Lyanco was dropped?

Teams will sometimes beat the press. The issue is how other players react. Unfortunately Bednarek thought doing nothing was the right action.

Glad i bet on Arsenal. Completely predictable result. Let's just hope it doesn't end up another 9-0.

He made no effort to cover.

What was bednarek doing there. Giving Saka all the time in the world. Just ended up standing in no man's land doing nothing.

Unless there’s a corresponding drop off in harm, the spike in transmissibility will surely lead to more hospitalizations. Given nhs doctors have been pretty clear they are already struggling due to combination of winter/Covid/backlog that requires. Really this action should have come sooner.

Boris at some point is going to play the part of the sacrificial lamb to pretend this level of corrupt arrogance can be fixed by simple shifting of chairs.

That last minute goal last night just made me think we’re going to be on the end of a reaction from Arsenal. Hope i’m wrong and we can keep their poor form going.

Call the position whatever you want. He's there on matchday as a cheap extra redundancy like on Saturday. You don't have to drag the young prospect away from the B team to most likely not even warm the bench. He's not there because we think never playing and sitting on a bench will develop him as a footballer. To quote Stuart Taylor on his time at saints, "nobody promised me anything. I know my role."

Yes we do not intend him ever being in the first team if we can help it. It shouldn't be that hard to fathom, it's hardly a new thing in the prem in terms of the job description of a third choice goalie. Just because he's 23 rather than 37 doesn't change the fact he's taken such a gig, probably because it pays better than any other option he had.

He's there to be the cheap match day warm up person, which is exactly what Stuart Taylor's job was.

Be interesting to find out how long we will without either of our two keepers. West ham seem obvious choice if it’s a week or two as we don’t play them till Boxing Day, sadly we don’t appear a threat to them and gk could commute fairly easily.

I lost some respect for Mccarthy for refusing to step aside once he couldn't even do the basics of his job due to injury.

Which is why lewis is also happy filling the same role as Taylor.

I don't really it being the same. Third choice keeper is largely a cheap superfluous position(outside of these rare instances). It's why we had stuart Taylor on the books for several years.

We largely did draw because of Alex not going off and the idiocy that it led to with JWP. We played pretty well in the 2nd half until we panicked at the pressure of playing 10 men.

If Bednarek's not fit you've always got Valery who played well there in the Chelsea cup game.

Assume it would have to be free agents, looking at transfermarket at UK keepers that's a very poor bunch (The likes of Ben Alnwick/Lee Camp). Might as well just give Bycroft or Lewis the gametime.

With all the absentees i'd maybe try something slightly different. A 5-3-2 or 4-5-1. Try and beef up the CM with 3 players (Jwp, Diallo & Smallbone) with Romeu out.

This one has heavy loss written all over it.

Don’t see that as any consolation really.

Cannot it not be both. If McCarthy told him he couldn’t surely a sensible person would tell him to go down and get treatment.