Polarboy

The thing I find most amusing about this is that a lot of Liverpool fans like to see the club as having a socialist tradition, that still lives on albeit compromised by the realities of having to compete in the Premier League. If those same fans aren't fuming about what their owners are attempting to do by affectively pulling up the ladder behind them, then their principles weren't worth very much were they.

I haven't seen enough of him dropping deep for Villa to make a proper assessment, so I'll take your word for it. As for the game England were pretty fortunate with the deflection and Belgium seemingly taking the foot of the gas a bit in the second half. Although I might be being a bit unfair in terms of putting Belgium's relatively poor second half mostly down to them instead of England fighting their way back into it. Not sure how those two opposing things balanced out exactly.

Grealish is nowhere near a centre mid though. Number ten or out wide are his positions. He doesn't have the discipline or physical presence to play in centre mid. Again that's the main problem with the squad, too many attacking mids and wingers, not enough Henderson's, or playmakers, and defensive mids of the same level of quality as Henderson.

You could definitely play a much less cautious team, but again I'm unconvinced you have enough in centre mid to stitch it all together even if you did. As the old cliche states it's all won in midfield.

Who else do you have in centre mid who's at the same level of quality of Henderson? And again even with five at the back and two defensive centre mids it was backs to the wall at times. Maybe attack would be a better form a defence, but I don't think you have a strong enough team from back to front to play like that, at least with who's currently on the pitch.

No need for Rice and Henderson? Belgium have overrun England for large parts of the first half. Without that extra cover you would have been completely steam-rolled. I do agree that Grealish should be starting over Mount though. The biggest weakness in this England team is it's lack of top class options in centre midfield, closely followed by the situation at centre back. It's completely lop sided with the options you have on the wing, attacking midfield, and to a certain extent up front.

Out of 4,200 fans 97% said they won't be paying the 15 quid for the Manure match from a poll on twitter by NUFC Blog. Those 3% clearly have more money than sense.

It's ridiculous that anyone in a position of power for a club is then allowed to take a position such as Parry did with the EFL. The problem is that there's no end to the corruption in football. The more you dig the more you find.

England have decent players, but an absolute muppet in Southgate as coach. I'd be very surprised if any of the young players in the squad respect his authority. All that stuff with Foden and Greenwood seems to support that notion. They likely think who's this big nosed twat to be telling me anything. Although I suppose young rich players not taking authority seriously is a big problem for the vast majority of managers.

I agree with Mark Douglas in that Parry's position should hopefully be untenable now. If indeed Liverpool and Manure had a big hand in his appointment, it seems he's tried to pay back their help in all too obvious ways. Parry clearly hasn't got too much going on between the ears, and he clearly hasn't read Machiavelli, the Art of War etc. The most annoying thing about this is that Parry will likely be the fall guy without Manure and Liverpool getting much blow back. Actually to be more accurate the most annoying outcome would be for them to be able shove everything through, and just wear all the bad PR like the shameless cunts that they are. With what the Premier League have said about it that seems very unlikely thankfully. The funny thing is that this plan sounds exactly like something Masters would be for, but he's obviously at least slightly more intelligent than Parry in that he knows the plan was too transparent, and that the PL can't afford much more negative publicity.

Am I missing something, or is it actually popular opinion that Joelinton has looked like a good player in the last few games. I keep seeing articles saying he's much improved and currently one of our best performing players. As far as I'm concerned the only reason he looks marginally better in his withdrawn number 10, or out wide role, is because he's no longer in a position to balls up as many clear chances. Maybe my bias has prevented me from seeing the improvement.

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Not sure I'm all that pleased that the barrister that's supposed to be working on the clubs behalf is playing silly beggar's on social media. That is unless this all really adds up to a concrete break through. Even then it seems like a less than serious thing to do for a reportedly elite barrister. Edit. Not that I'm trying to piss in anybodies cornflakes, it just seems like a weird thing to do regardless of the circumstances. I'm as desperate for the club to be sold as anyone.

People like Ferdinand should apply the same standard to any premier league club, at least, in terms of what a clubs ambition should be. Leicester have shown what a bit of ambition, the ridiculous money premier league teams get now, and proper management and decision making from all the people in charge of running a club can do. As for Evra he has a dramatic way of speaking, not helped by speaking in a second language. I don't think you have to take everything he says literally. I mean would you rather Chris Sutton and Robbie Savage putting you to sleep?

Pundits and whoever else on TV, but especially sports pundits, shouldn't have to constantly put their thoughts and feelings through the prism of Covid. You can actually be upset about your club without diminishing the seriousness of what's happening, and have two thoughts in your head at the same time. It's actually light relief to see someone get so worked up about something other than the aforementioned. If only the majority of players playing today were so passionate about winning and losing. At least it seems to be the case, from the outside looking in, that the players from Evra's era and earlier took their jobs a lot more seriously and had better attitudes.

Wilson up top with ASM, Almiron and Fraser behind him in a three should be more than enough to give any team outside of the top six major problems. The problem is how they'll be utilised by Bruce over the course of a season.

100% Bruce is only playing Joelinton over Almiron because Bruce prefers "big lads" up top so we hoof the ball up. Although I suppose it's also likely that Ashley is like, hey I've supposedly hoyed 40m on this donkey, you better play him.

With regard to how we're playing I thought we were flattered massively by the West Ham result because of how decent the goals were despite the overall atrocious attacking stats, and the fact that the 'ammers were shite. From there it seemed we were going to slowly go down hill given some of the shite we've seen since. Tonight's match I think showed us that if we can keep ASM and Wilson fit we should be OK in terms of avoiding the bottom three. Wilson knows where to run and can finish, and ASM can have anyone on toast. Add to that the fact that West Brom and Fulham look shite, and Sheff Utd and Burnley are looking dodgy, so there's possibly at least three teams worse than us. Of course Brewster might lift Sheffield Utd a bit given putting the ball in the net was looking to be a major problem for them this season.

Bruce's decision to restore ASM to the team was apparently inspired according to Martin Tyler. He's our best fucking player you plum, it doesn't take Marcello Lippi to make that call.

I meant Ramsdale, I swear

Fuck, you're right. Don't know where I got that from. Talking out of my arse in fairness.

Harsh to judge Pope on one game, but if you were to take today in isolation, and Pickford in general for the last six months/year, England are pretty fucked for keepers. Henderson on current form is probably the best bet, but he's only getting on in cup matches for Manure. Matt Ryan I suppose hasn't dropped any major clangers yet, at least that I can recall.

Goalkeepers dropping easy balls appears to be catching

We've actually played alright in that first half. Having said that Burnley have been shite and we've only had two shots on target.

Anyone know if Lamptey going off was tactical or an injury? Maybe there hasn't been any word on it, but commentators usually try to find out.