Patches O Houlihan

Get In!

Lets hope the Danes can fix it for Ipswich to get pumped at home 🤞

Beders has had an illness recently. Saving him the last few minutes with the game assured seems a reasonable call

KWP has been an absolute rockstar playing out of defence under severe pressure today. So brave, usually beats two, then pass to Smallbone and then a lovely wafted pass forwards. Loving our play today

He has been better I agree.

I'm in France and couldn't get my stream to work, until I turned on a VPN for the UK; then it worked fine. 😉

Great result for us 😄

Clearly there was a concern at the departure of so many double-barrelled players in the summer. Is signing JOBW a statement of intent?!

Does Charly have any handy mates back home who might fancy a loan? 🧐

This description I can completely believe. But that isn't how you first described it: "I saw Don Roper after he had come back from Arsenal hit a flat volley from the halfway line that went in under the diving goalkeeper and was hit so hard it hit the iron stanchion at the back of the net and came back out under the still airborn goalkeeper." If you had written the accurate description instead of a load of bollocks, then perhaps you wouldn't have felt the need to be such a condescending twat. I passed the aptitude tests to be a commercial pilot - just not the medical.

Love this 😁

I only got a B at ‘A’ level applied maths, but I suspect the physical laws of projectiles wouldn’t allow this, unless the volley was struck at more than 7ft height.

If you want to believe that modern nutrition and training can dramatically improve a keeper’s reflexes to match the extra power and bend the ball is being hit with then you’re welcome to but I don’t. To take motor racing for comparison: > The cars are faster, brake better, and grip better >The drivers are fitter, stronger and eat better, and they’ve learned to drive using downforce. > Do I believe that Max Verstappen’s reflexes are significantly quicker than those of Jim Clark? No I don’t.

https://www.myfootballfacts.com/premier-league/all-time-premier-league/premier_league_goal_statistics/ PL stats - because the game didn’t exist before 1992 😉 Early mid nineties ~2.6 goals/game average across the season. Last few years ~2.8 goals/game. That’s 7% more goals scored. I was expecting to prove myself wrong!

The ball design, and the design of the boots has changed though. Think of the swerve that JWP could create - Bobby Charlton was not doing that. Material science and technique improvements. You could also argue that improvements in nutrition, fitness and coaching mean the ball is being hit harder/faster/with less back lift - requiring quicker reflexes. Now I’m prepared to agree that maybe a few stand out players historically were delivering similar, but I would say the median top league striker is a far more potent goal scorer now than thirty years ago, never mind sixty years ago.

One benefit of having Jack on the pitch is we have 3 really good headers of the ball: So better to defend set pieces (a likely scoring avenue for Norwich). But also better to attack corners, which we are likely to have loads of. Hopefully KWP can learn to be effective in a more advanced position if we are going to continue playing this set up.

So perhaps unsurprising that he's not in a hurry to meet Rishi - not "too cool to talk to the prime minister" more on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

RM did publicly give the defence a rocket for having passed to Baz too many times in the last 10 minutes of the match - speaking to Adam Blackmore (BBC) Here's the link to Convict's table I'm sure Whitey will be unsurprised to learn that Baz is 5th from last at PSxG+/-

Or maybe he's a bleeding heart lefty like everyone from Brighton?! This forum often has a lot of support for Her Majesties opposition* It really does feel like there is nothing Russ could do or say to win over some fan's support - even setting an all time record for games unbeaten would likely not be enough. (*still can't get used to Chas running the show now)

Lets hope we are 4 wins into an insane run of 10 consecutive wins 😉

I agree with this I think the risk of upsetting the excellent squad dynamic is huge. We’d want to be confident of our youth fall back options in defence - how close is Larios & CBs? I’d be gutted if KWP left. I don’t think he will. Can see us getting a central striker, as Arma will still play, Che may be off, LND is long term injured, so the team might see it as a reasonable move. Plus Mara may go out on loan - but then he might also kick on in the next few games…

Because of the Liverpool goals, the training goals we saw on the club website, and the fact he holds the record for fastest player at the recent World Cup. In the Championship this should equal prolific, and yet somehow it hasn’t… yet. Looking forward to him coming back and crossing to more confident & trusting teammates - would be a shame if he moved on before we had seen the best of him.

Isn’t that SAA? He was tearing up matches for the last 30 mins at the start of the season. He’s not playing right now because Arma plays better from the sides rather than centrally, and we have an embarrassment of riches at left wing.

You do realise that play can look slow and ponderous on occasion because players in forward positions aren’t free to receive the ball? One or two of our advanced players being a few yards away from ideal, or the opposition placed perfectly - or blocking the view of the ball player can all lead to recycling. It is not always purely down to tactics. And yes we have all got frustrated when breakaways have been unnecessarily slowed down; but at least some of those were down to a lack of individual player confidence in the moment - a trait alluded to endlessly by RM. We see less of it now because confidence and trust has built within the team.

I'm going to open a can of worms and mention xG now in the hope that the feel good factor post Swansea will keep me out of trouble! This xG table is entertaining reading It will adjust according to the various headings if you click them. We are bossing it, and yet we are still 'relatively' under scoring the number of chances we are creating - which means there is still room for improvement even after 16 games unbeaten (11 wins, 5 draws I think?) Plymouth yet to win away, must be fearful of a visit to Fortress St Marys - however we ended their impressive run of home wins, so let's hope they don't return the favour. Saints 3-1 COYRs