saintwbu

I think that the dropped points stat is skewed by the fact that we score the first goal in a very high percentage of our games, or so it feels. I’d be surprised if anyone in the bottom half of the table has scored the first goal in anywhere near as many games as we have.

Che has 6 goals (sort of 7) in 18 appearances, 4 of which came off the bench. Broja has 6 goals in 20 appearances, 8 of which came off the bench. So they’re pretty even in terms of goals per game.

Saturdays goal was his 6th of the season in the league, drawing him level with Broja, also would really be 7 as our goal at home to United was down to him. Going under the radar a bit in what feels a bit of a stop/start season for him. He’s on track for back to back double figure seasons, which for a club of our size is very respectable. Remember Lambert got 13 and 15, whilst Pelle got 11 and 12 in their Premier League seasons. I’d also argue Che’s role is much more sacrificial than those two, he’s often the support for a partner, and he’s playing in a less able team. He’s become a very good signing.

You clearly don’t watch/listen to Jenas much then. He’s borderline teary when Spurs lose a game he’s on comms, there’s a clip of him acting like a petulant child when Chelsea beat them in the FA Cup a few years ago. If he’d been half as good a player as he thinks he was, he’d have been a hell of a footballer. He is just a massive, massive twat.

Moi looked to be cramping up a bit to me on Wednesday so it’ll be interesting how much he has left in the tank. Happy with the unchanged team though, a point would be great.

Will be tough but would be great to have gone 6 games without defeat to City, Spurs and United this season.

One of my least favourite players of our Liebherr era. Gave the impression he was all blood and thunder and leave it all out on the field for the team, but actually used to jog back whilst runners bypassed him, passed responsibility to others and his ability was very limited. Still can’t think of a worse performance than home to Inter under Puel, he looked like he’d won a raffle to be on the pitch that night. Glad he’s Spurs’ problem now.

I thought exactly the same after the game

Chelsea had that goal ruled out against us where Azpilicueta fouled KWP early in the build up. It had everyone up in arms that it was too early in the phase of play to matter, but it was much further back than last night. To me, if the player wins the ball illegally, and that directly starts the attack that ends in a goal, I don’t see how it can be too early. That goal last night was about 3 passes on from the foul?

Son

I’d also be happy with Valery in a back 3 with Salisu & probably Bednarek (although i’m not a fan). Forster Valery Bednarek Salisu KWP Perraud JWP Romeu Armstrong Broja (if fit) Redmond That’s probably what i’d expect dependent on Broja’s fitness.

I’m sure all our players, most of whom will probably have moved on themselves by 2024, are gonna just give up now they know their manager won’t be their manager for the rest of their lives.

Plenty of revisionism on here regarding Adams. I always thought he would be good enough, but more than plenty did not so it’s not really accurate to say he looked any better than Armstrong at this stage as he didn’t. Armstrong has two goals this season, it took Che about 30 games to get his first. I also remember very clearly being at Pompey away and thinking it was Adams’ night to announce himself - he was totally anonymous, and he knew it, and looked very frustrated at the end of the game. There are lots of parallels. It’s still too early to write off Armstrong imo.

If I was a Newcastle fan, i’d be worried about how much noise their owners make - I really can’t think of a club who’ve had a publicity loving owner/chairman, and also had success. It always makes me think things are going to fail when I see them shouting their mouth off in public all the time.

Not sure other clubs would be as happy to agree to buy back clauses and sell on fees etc. Newcastle in particular see themselves as an upcoming threat to the top table (deluded, i know) so not sure they’d be keen to spend money on a player and know he could be bought off them cheap by the selling club within the next couple of years.

We definitely do this - It’s often Tella, this weekend it was Stu. I think Djenepo has done it in the past (although he’s always injured, so maybe just coincidence). So assume it’s one of the wingers/10’s given the instruction each game.

With Garth Crooks (and Tim Sherwood) opinion of Salisu, it’s pretty apparent to me that the only game they’ve seen him play was Spurs when he got sent off, and have made that game their opinion of him. That’s fine by me, if they want to send that message to the world. Sadly I can’t imagine it’ll influence too many interested parties, given that they’re both thick as shit.

I think maybe you’re talking about different things - initially i thought you were talking about the new rule of officials keeping their flag down in the case of offside, to cater for VAR. It sounds like you’re talking about the rules around interfering with play - Firmino was deemed not to be interfering with play, rather than a case of the linesman waiting to raise his flag due to VAR. That call yesterday was ridiculous, i thought under the current rules, attempting to play the ball (which he did) makes you offside.

I always thought West Ham was his most obvious destination to be honest, just had a feeling. They can offer him game time and money, we can only offer him game time.

Thought he got at least one assist away to Newcastle, no?

Yeah i’ve no doubt, but is more a reflection of a linesman’s ability than the rules. A linesman shouldn’t be ignoring offside, he should just be waiting for the attack to fizzle out before he raises his flag.

In that circumstance it would suggest the linesman didn’t believe the attacker to be offside. The flag is to go up once the play has died, the ball going out of play is that point. If the linesman didn’t flag, then it wasn’t anything to do with the new rules, it’ll be that he missed the offside.

I was surprised he was getting some stick after the Swansea game, as all the games i’d seen him it I thought he was decent. Maybe we’ve become used to some very good full backs in our recent history, we’ve set the bar a bit high. Pleased to see plenty of praise for him last night, he was great.

God this thread is bringing back some dark memories - Paterson, Pekhart, Pericard - thankfully no one has mentioned Jordan Robertson to complete the set.

That Salisu tackle on De Bruyne should make any highlights reel at the end of the season, it was absolutely superb and a perfect summary of his performance.