Basket case FC vs the Petro State Cheaters and the World (A match thread)

Interested to know from those watching on TV or listening to the radio… could you make out the boos before kick off for the EPL and also the anti EPL and Gary Neville chants? Was the crowd reaction discussed? Or did they just turn the sound down and ignore it all?

Didn’t hear a thing.
Why anti-Neville anyway?

Why not!?

(Lots of comments from him and Carragher about the penalties last week and Forest response.)

I just put the Everton game as it was a recent example of us not getting anything from a game.

The wider picture is 1 win in 10, with lots of seemingly decent performances yielding few points.

Which is apparently all going to change for the next three games.

Boos for the anthem came over on the TV and could also hear the Neville chants. Nothing mentioned.

Since Christmas, we’ve an almost unerring ability to be a little bit worse than whoever our opponent is, whether that is Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool or Blackpool, Bristol City. On that basis, I expect to look the worse team since Derby 09 next week.

It could, Burnley seem to have been playing ok for ages but are only now seeing (a few) results.

We get 2 points back later today, go to Sheffield and get a good win, then a party draw against Chelsea and all is right with the world.

Or

Murrilo and Nico are buggered, Chris Wood is sidelined with depression and Origi overseas the worst end to a season since series 16 of The Simpsons.

There was plenty of “Gary Neville/Jamie Carragher, what a wanker, what a wanker” and it seemed like the Citeh fans were more than happy to join in. Sound wasn’t turned down but it wasn’t referred to on Sky. Guardian MBM did make reference to it.

5 Live said after their first goal Pep ran over to the bench and hugged one of the coaches (the set piece guy) who had put the word out to target the area that was a Neco short.

Pep listens to his set piece coach.

Most obvious instruction ever.
Shame Nuno didn’t see it like that.

Is our set piece coach allowed on the bench/in the ground?

This is pretty much where I'm at.

Even taking a more positive view, I can see it being full of chances both ways. I think we'll create chances but don't have much faith we'll take them. The Undead do seem to have goals in them and with our set-piece fallibility I expect we'll need to score at least 2 to win.

Incredibly annoying that, as it was obvious Neco wasn't going to be able to carry on, we weren't sharp enough to get Montiel on before the corner. Although there's a chance they'd still have scored and we'd be bemoaning the disruption and thinking we should have left the players already on the pitch to cope. What was unforgivable was kicking off with 10 men - if they'd scored a second then it would have been a disgrace. Clearly Murillo should have come off a little earlier but he often looks like he's struggling and still finishes games.

For all the many positives Murillo brings, I still wouldn't have an issue starting Niakhate and Boly. I just can't shake the feeling that Murillo's peccadilloes are rather matching the team's weaknesses.

Boly, for the few games he's fit, is, by some distance, our best defender and should be an automatic selection.

I like Boly, but he's pretty terrifying with the ball at his feet. We'd miss murillo massively for his passing, that everyone is now taking for granted.