SWLondon Saint

Pretty sure Alonso usually uses 1 FB / CB in his 3CBs at Leverkusen. You could see at times in the 1st half yesterday we were doing exactly what most modern 3CB teams do which is effectively go to 4 at the back when in possession.

As was said, could literally be anything but if he has kids my money would be on the norovirus. Been through school and pretty much all families like 🔥💩.

Yep, injured, was mentioned in the presser before match I think

You'll see the goals so will summarise the rest. 1st half - mostly pretty even. We look like a sane football team again which is good. The tracking back is much better this week from all players. THB is having a mare, can't seem to pass it properly and not looking great at the back either. A couple of times our press traps them in their defensive third which is nice too. 2nd half - they come out fired up after the break and we're a bit under the cosh, but they don't manage to create any great chances. Delap is just bossing Bednarek. Later in the half Bree seems to end up on him (dunno if the players or manager made the change) and does an excellent job. Scrappy game in the most part not helped by subs. However the last 20 minutes or so they created absolutely sweet FA which is nice for a change. - Wellington was impressive, solid technically, not afraid to take a man on or cross and worked hard getting up and down the left. He didn't look tired until he cramped up suddenly after a great defensive header but not surprising given the awkward overlap with the Brazilian season and his lack of games. -Gronbaek had some nice touches but nothing quite decisive. Clearly a good technical player and also forward thinking / will have a go. Also had a good moment tracking back at some point. - No idea what's up with THB but he wasn't at the races today and then injured himself somehow.

If Rohl had come in when Juric did, there's an extremely high chance he'd have just lost exactly the same 6 games and everyone would now be calling for his head and a new manager next season. The players were just broken by the end of the Spurs game, it was obvious to anyone watching. I said around then I thought it'd be better to have a caretaker till the end of the season as there was a high chance it would be a total shitshow given the low morale and quality of the squad.

The squad can be bad and it can still be VAR's fault, two things aren't mutually exclusive. The pen was a disgrace.

How the hell can var not even look at that Joelinton foul, it's so one sided it's not even a joke.

Complete bollocks var decision, they clearly had no clue the number of times they watched it from 15 angles.

Well, I work in an industry which hires a lot on commission / the agency type model and I'd agree with this 100%. The agencies don't want people to stay in one job / one place and are always 'encouraging' job changes as that's when they get paid. However I do get it in the context of that first big contract for players - as at that level it basically gives you 'f*** off' amounts of money which means if you manage it well you won't have to work again.

Shouldn't really matter that much tbh as Juric's style is man-marking based so at least 1 or 2 or the CBs will often push into 'midfield' to pursue their man. On the ball you can see the CB on the side with possession also often goes forward to support the attack.

Sugawara's confidence is shot and that'll have affected his first touch. He's made several goal-conceding errors this season so he's probably second guessing himself all the time which is a sure way to guarantee even more mistakes. I also think he needs more time to settle as the Dutch league is much less physical. We better hope he improves anyway as no-one's buying him after this season so we're stuck with him! Archer I feel similar about re: confidence, he's clearly an intuitive / playing on the shoulder run and hit it kind of striker, so I think he's just gotten lost this season under RM and needs to get it out of his system. He's also still young and could improve a lot. I expect us to keep him next season and he'll score a ton in the Champ as he has before. Come on, his goal against Arsenal was superb and showed what he can do.

Agree completely, though he 100% won't be with us in the Champ. Even at a Lavia type price he'd be an absolute bargain for a top club as he's been battle tested in the worst possible environment and he's never given up, never shirked the hard yards, they know exactly what they'll get from him and he's still young and could improve more. And he seems to be really tough and not injury prone too.

The thing about Smallbone I really don't get is he just seems to always be ambling around, even when someone's gone past him and he should be busting a gut to get back. When he and Ramsdale managed to give the ball away, I just have no idea what he was thinking - he was marking space the whole time and so Joe Allen gets a free hit on goal from inside the box. I get you have to split the difference to stop the pass being too easy too early, but when he's about to shoot from that close , you have to just throw yourself surely?

The play by Swansea leading to that free kick for us just looked too familiar.... 😅

If that was the routine, it's hard to believe everyone at the club was on board with it? Sounds like absolute amateur hour. Did no-one call him out on this bullshit? Or were those the players who never got to play or even make the bench? 🤯