Ipswich playing like SSC is coaching them. Sit back and soak up wave after wave of pressure, then hit on the break.
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Delap is terrific, looks like an absolute bargain for the 22M or whatever he cost.
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Brighton equalizer is good for us if this score stands. Ipswich beating Chelsea is also good for us. Shame about Newcastle but at least that's funny.
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2nd for the start of the new year. You’d have taken it.
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Pretty good night for us, barring the Utd shit show. Villa and Brighton taking points off each other and Ipswich beating Chelsea.
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Well the ipswich victory is great because realistically we can dump Wolves back in the bottom 3 next Monday if the suffock softies get another result at the weekend.
I must admit, the one team that we have to fear catching us is Newcastle who look miles ahead of Manc You who are absolute gash. What a terrible team.
Chelsea look like they are crashing at the right time. Nice that Villa and Brighton couldn't get a victory either.
Not a bad day today as we will finish the year second. Spicy!!!!
Chicago: Happy as Larry.
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It’s quite something that a relegation candidate beating a top 4 candidate is unambiguously good for us.
I’m very much still in the ‘top 10 would be amazing’ camp. But we’re in the European shake up on merit and if we can keep trucking as we face the challenge of playing everyone again with an elevated status, we’re in with a shout. Of the sides below us, Citeh and Arsenal have been patchy but are waaaay better than us with deeper squads and top-tier quality. We shouldn’t be ‘best of the rest’, but it’s not out of the question that we will be.
Our defence is for real, and we have a selection of attacking weapons that allow us to threaten, score, and win in different ways. And a manager who seems to know exactly how to deploy that effectively. We haven’t been lucky, but we haven’t been unlucky either. Choo fucking Choo.
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We’ve been relatively fortunate with injuries so far. Unlikely that holds for the rest of the season and our back ups, in attacking areas particularly, are downgrades.
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Don’t disagree but I take comfort in when losing Danillo and Sangare early on this season, Yates and Dominguez have stepped up and shown performances/consistency that I wasn’t sure they had in them.
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Anderson, who was an unknown quantity at the start of the season, has filled the gap left by Danillo - I’ve seen a fair amount of Sosa, Jota and Awoniyi and they wouldn’t be adequate replacements for CHO, Elanga and Wood and Christ knows who’d be coming off the bench to sub for them.
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So we can now see the value of established 'ship performers, versus those who are not?
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Yes. Buy Erikson and Casemiro, quick!
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I was assuming some sort of common sense/eye test might be involved.
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Agreed. We have been fairly lucky with injuries more generally, but shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we started the season with Danilo and Sangare as first-choice central midfielders. We'd lost both within the first few weeks of the season.
Lesser sides would have felt that much more than we seem to have done.
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Largely this is a pattern of play thing. The rules, and the narrative, are to ever more encouraging 'attractive' front foot football. Which of course favours the clubs with access to better players, through bigger budgets. Those teams that buck the modern trend, and prioritise solidity and shape (wet hams under moyes, Evergone under Dyche) can punch above their weight and achieve success. We have the lowest possession stats in the league, totteningham have scored more than anyone else. The simple truth about football is that stopping people scoring against you, is more important than having the ball and scoring yourself. Which big clubs don't like, because it's a leveller. Hence persuading fans, and clubs, that their teams need to 'have a go'. So that they can be properly put in their place.
If you actually like football, and what it means...the ability to compete and bloody the nose of more established teams, you might well find a joy in this. If you want to support the major brands and get with the programme, you will constantly whine about wanting 'a better style of play'. I want to see my team blend the attributes at their disposal to maximise the returns of the points on offer. I do not have some idiotic notion about attributing value to embracing the higher forms of spanish dancing, while getting battered.
YMMV.
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Two match ban for Cunha, so he won’t play against us.
