saintwbu

I like Redmond, and always back him. But there’s no doubt about it Saturday was one of his worst performances for us, he missed the ball or put it straight out of play on multiple occasions. I don’t think it’s unfair to point that out, he looked really out of sorts. Hopefully it was just a tough game to get into and the conditions didn’t help. Djenepo starts for me, he’s a live wire and unpredictable, and can do the defensive work too.

Lemina brilliant for them yesterday but obviously can’t play against us so that’s good. Andersen out and has been one of their improvements in defence. Got to win this really to avoid looking like we’ve had a bit of a slump.

Shame they couldn’t have done that against Liverpool wasn’t it. I wouldn’t mind Spurs winning the league, but at the same time I really don’t want him to.

I fully expected him to start today to try and help him get up to speed and find his rhythm again. The only thing that surprised me was him not coming off against Sheffield United at 3-0 up. Was very surprised he played the full 90 that day.

Ref was fucking horrible - to be expected against a big side but still as annoying every time.

The return of the Premier League saw ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the shirts, in the stands, on Sky’s broadcasting of the matches. The knee was supposed to be for the first game back. After a few weeks, the Premier League were getting uncomfortable questions about supporting the political movement, I think some clubs even issued statements distancing themselves? The Premier League denied they were supporting BLM. However, the next week, all that branding had gone, somewhat coincidentally I think we’d all agree. The protests throughout the summer were largely anti-police, anti-conservative and anti-establishment. From my experience, a large proportion of people who attended were there more because they were anti-government than because they were searching for genuine improvements in society around equal treatment. To then see that carried over into football is what I think has caused a divide on this topic. As mentioned, other pro-equality movements that the Premier League have engaged with have had no backlash at all. But most of those didn’t involve police being attacked, national monuments being defaced or elements of society being told they must be racist because they don’t do this or don’t do that, when plainly it’s not the case. Unfortunately, despite the far left shouting the loudest most of the time, most of this country are not anti-conservative, are not horribly ashamed of our history and do not hate the police. Taking the knee carries that association, and always will, rightly or wrongly. I think if the stadiums were full the dissent would be much more clear.

Not really, they’re only 3 points adrift and just took a point off City, having nearly taken points off United and Spurs and were also 3-0 up against Chelsea earlier in the season before blowing it. Gallagher, Diangana, Pereira and Grant are all good players and they have a very good goalkeeper in Johnstone. I really don’t think it’s that big of a job, I think Bilic would’ve still had a decent chance of keeping them up too - we’re only 12/13 games in!

WBA will take a lot more points off teams if they do go with Big Sam. So i’m glad we’ve already played them once and got the win. They may come in handy for us throughout the season though.

As mentioned i’d like to see a mix of new guys and first team. Salisu, Diallo definitely to start, then ideally N’Lundulu and Tella too as they seem to be regulars on the bench. But I wouldn’t want a whole second choice 11 as we’ve got a really good opportunity to win this cup.

Would add even more joy to this already fantastic season so far if we see the emergence of Tella and N’Lundulu in this team. Both look really promising, and bring attributes that suit our game, so fingers crossed for them both.

Because for us he was expected to take on some responsibility in terms of attacking - if you watch him for Spurs he doesn’t have to. Win the ball, give it to N’Dombele/Kane/Son. When he is in possession he’s normally not being pressed because they’re playing inferior teams who are wary of conceding, therefore more time and space to find your pass. He’s playing a totally different game - Spurs were desperate for a player who could do that job, we needed a player who could pass in tight spaces and move forward. It’s worked for both, KWP has been fantastic for us.

Anyone catch his extremely smug post-match interview they showed on MOTD? Kept saying teams all want to beat the ‘number one team’. Glad I don’t have to listen to those interviews for us anymore.

I read earlier Feb 2016 was the last time United, City, Chelsea and Liverpool didn’t win in one weekend. Think that’s the year Leicester won the league...

Fulham staying up would be good for us too because of the Lemina deal - he was good tonight, he is a good player no doubt about it, shame we didn’t see enough of it.

I said exactly this watching the game haha - he’s a huge upgrade in every single way

I think he’s been good the last few games, sacrificed some attacking intent to help Bertrand nullify the three best players he’s had to mark - Saint Maximim, Traore and Lamptey. He wasn’t quite as good against Brighton but he looked to me like he couldn’t get a grip on the surface, which isn’t ideal for a player who twists and turns so much. I’d hope Ralph would release him to attack more against a side like Sheffield United with no obvious danger man.

I’d start the same team as the Brighton game, leave Ings and Redmond on the bench again for if needed. Ings can start against Arsenal and City with no worries that way.

Just watched the highlights again and hadn’t realised that it’s actually KWP that drops the ball off to Vestergaard in our own half, and ends up on the end of the pass winning a penalty. What a one-two that is! God how we’ve missed having a good attacking fullback on that side in recent years.

I’ve never rated Lingard but I would actually take him here at the moment. If there’s one system he could be useful in it would be ours. He’s busy, relatively quick, energetic. Technical ability is relatively secondary when it comes to playing in our system, and he still does have some of that too. Not sure Ralph would fancy him though.

I do wonder if this would be a good game to bring in Diallo. I appreciate you don’t change a winning team etc, but we really need to know if he (and Salisu, but maybe not quite ready to start) can deputise if needed. Not many better games than against a team that haven’t won a game all season and don’t score goals. Suspensions to our CM two are inevitable, would be great to have a replacement with 90 mins already under his belt.

Their pitch was absolutely terrible by the way, all our players looked off balance and finding it hard to twist and turn, I really don’t think that helped. Armstrong and Djenepo both like to twist in and out and looked hampered by it.

Vestergaard was absolutely awesome

What a bench 😍

Lots of people overestimating Brighton. They remind me of us under Pellegrino but with better individuals. Pretty passing and nice to watch at times, completely toothless. The media love saying what a great job Potter is doing and how they always play so well, but they don’t win games. However, I am nervous and not confident of winning this, but only because of us not because of them.

If there are people out here that genuinely think all professional footballers are taking a knee because they think of it as a productive and effective way to end racial discrimination, they are delusional. I don’t know of a single footballer in the English leagues who hasn’t gone along with it, yet I know of several who have been accused or found guilty of racial abuse during their career. They are taking the knee because it’s the easy way and the alternative is complete vilification in the press and on social media. I guarantee probably 50% at least don’t consider it to have any meaning whatsoever and realise it’s completely performative. Opposition was always going to happen when the fans came back, if we had full capacity i’d expect it in almost every ground in the country in some form. I expect soon we’ll see an amicable ‘we’ve made our point’ type statement from the FA or players union or whatever, and that it’ll be put to bed so they can pursue more impactive change going forward.