mrfahaji

I didn't see that game (in full at least), but I thought the same about the Palace away game, and yet apparently vs WBA he was even better!

My post was in response to shurlock, not you - I got the impression he was just from the tone of his post!

I know you're teasing Lord D, but I never had a problem with Jesse Lingard until I watched an interview with him on the even of the tournament and all he could talk about was his instagram. Now I can't stand him, especially when after scoring a brilliant goal he saw fit to do a celebration inspired by a video game. And not even a retro/classic one. I might be a dinosaur before my time, and sometimes it's easy to forget that they are just overprivileged youngsters, but can't stand that stuff...!

I think they did, briefly. Perhaps because Walker is stooping a little, and also because Perisic beats him to the ball, so it's head against foot rather than foot against head (I doubt this is the rule, but might explain why it wasn't given!) Objectively it was a great finish so would be a shame to have it ruled out. Being against England makes it a bit disappointing though, and if it was against Saints I'd be livid

There's no doubt that Walker could have done better - obviously he could have, because as you have pointed out, if he had attacked the ball then Perisic couldn't have scored. My point was more that Perisic was being marked by Trippier at the moment the cross was delivered (if you pause the footage you will see that he starts from behind Trippier), and from that position surely Trippier has to do more to make it harder for Perisic to get a run on the ball/Walker (and also that Walker probably has no idea the Perisic is there, so why the urgency to attack the ball?) To blame Walker and exempt Trippier is not right in my opinion, they at least have shared responsibility, but I would put most of it on Trippier.

Sorry but that's simply not true. This is the moment (hopefully this picture works...) Perisic connects with the ball. He is leaping with leg outstretched. The only way Walker could have kicked it clear is if he did the same. Yes, he could have attacked it quicker with his head, but if you don't know there is a forward about to pounce why would you take the risk of misjudging the ball in your own area?

Was he 'waiting' though? Ok so he didn't attack it, but it wasn't like he was going to let the ball bounce. If you don't think you're under pressure why would you charge towards the ball and risk misjudging it? I'm not sure Walker could have know Perisic was behind him and went to head the ball away in a reasonable, not lackadaisical manner.

I think that's it. When the opposition have the upper hand for so long I think you begin to tire mentally. If the equaliser was mental fatigue then the winner definitely was. Stones and Maguire just not alert enough.

Yeah I heard that too, and hence thought it extremely strange that we took Walker off instead of Trippier, especially as Walker could have switched to RB with 4 defenders (in fact probably better suited for it).

I'm surprised no-one picked out Trippier for their equaliser. Perisic steals a march on him, as a full back he should have been much more aware of where Perisic was, and if he do lose him surely you have to let your centre back know. BBC said "Walker was beaten by Perisic" but think that's unfair on him, and letting Trippier off the hook. He has had a good tournament overall, mind.

Yeah it was pretty obvious even at the time it was a booking for kicking the ball away.

Yep. Fine if people want to get someone else in for if/when Austin gets injured or he's struggling for form, but seems crazy to be desperate to offload someone who knows where the back of the net is.

I suppose if you look at Fulham and Blackburn, you might be right. I'm not sure about Stoke though, they eventually became shaky at the back and it felt that when he followed Pulis he did more with their attack (although maybe inheriting a Pulis team means that is necessarily the case). I thought we were significantly better going forward with him at the helm though, but again perhaps that's because he followed one of the most incompetent managers there has ever been.

I'm more confident of Hughes getting a tune out of our attackers than making the defence rock solid though, aren't you? He doesn't have a great track record in that department, and the main reason we improved last year was that we started to show a bit more purpose going forward. Normally I think a good manager can organise a bunch of defenders regardless of quality, but Hughes hasn't convinced me he can do that to the level that some other managers seem capable of.

Well there's a surprise...

The only reason I can think of is that they thought giving him a new contract would somehow trick other teams into thinking he must be great and tempt them to come in with an offer. I mean, that does seem ridiculous when other teams could just, you know, watch him in action... But I'm at a loss to think of any other possible explanation, and it's the kind of thing Les "I think I'm much smarter than I actually am" Reed might do.

Tend to agree, though not by much and he is certainly poor at crosses as well. I find Yoshida plays well alongside a more commanding centre back, as he reads the game well and has pace to cover. When he's alongside someone a bit iffy like Stephens or Hoedt he tends to get dragged out of position and starts making his own mistakes.

Yoshida is pretty quick, isn't he?

Ah, maybe that was it!

stu0x clearly says that he "isn't a passenger", that's not the same as being good at defending. I have seen Boufal put a shift in and tackle back. In the same way Tadic was always pretty responsible in terms of putting a shift in defensively, even if it clearly wasn't his strength. We need some creativity in our team, but I think it's a fair concern that Shaqiri doesn't even bother tracking back at times and is therefore a bit of a liability. The term 'luxury' player definitely applies to him!

He had one of his best games playing more centrally last season, can't think which game it was now - maybe Everton away when he came on at HT and also scored? Seem to remember him getting back in the team and immediately playing left wing again, where he went back to being a bit crap.

Qualifying.

Good post, totally agree about that back-heel at Anfield!

Oops missed this one before I replied!

Bamboozling Ivanovic in our 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge.