The Fish

Would any of the current first team get in the the best 11 under Mike Ashley's reign? A first team squad? (Mitrovic aside, obvs)

If some fire and brimstone-type can bully some performances out of them they should improve enough to stay in the 2nd flight, their defending under Grayson has been so poor that a return to the mean should see them survive imo. Not because they're a good Championship side, just that there are enough teams who're even worse. All that said, that they're even in the relegation conversation is fucking hilarious.

He got on a rant about bacon sheds and conspiracies

Aye, I think there's a good portion who thought that just because we did well in the pub league, have Rafa BEnitez in charge and had a decent start we're suddenly a midtable Premier League side again. Look at who we started against Bournemouth man, a few players who haven't cut it in the Premier League, a raft of inexperienced young lads, and don't forget Stoke's surplus striker. I'll be delighted if at the end of the season we're where we are now*. *unless we're suddenly flooded with Oil Money.

Perhaps that's why I'm more confident of them avoiding relegation; I'm expecting the next manager to sort out their defence. Get the wrong guy and they're definitely fucked.

I've no idea how it could be worked out, but I'd be curious to see how much the UK economy has missed out on because of tax evasion by the rich. A nice bar column showing the rich tax dodging cunts vs the rest of us.

Thanks again for getting me back to the house safely. I'm not 100% sure I would have managed it on my own.

Trickle down economics at work.

Is Disco Daveyboy Moyes confirmed? That's a thoroughly uninspiring appointment if so.

FFS! climb out their hoops man!

Partly because of the amount of shite in that league and partly because I think that team is underperforming. If they can bring in a manager that gets them to tighten up at the back I think they'll survive.

They'll stay up I reckon, but not comfortably.

I think our improvement was more down to Merino than Diame. Diame is slower, loses possession more and offers little if anything more in attack. Trouble with shifting Shelvey further forward is you neuter his ability to rapidly turn defence into attack with his searching 40yd balls. We simply haven't got the kind of #10 that Benitez wants at the club. I suggested Ritchie in that role, but like you say we don't have someone of his standard to play on the right. Square pegs and all that. Don't get me wrong, I don't think #10 is Perez's best position, and even in his best position he's not great. He's just the best choice, for the system that's been working for us. And that's because Ashley didn't let Benitez spend as much as he should have. Should we spend in January I'd expect improvements to be made across the squad, but the #10 role will surely be a priority.

Do you regret that time you walked past a pile of washing and didn't get a good nose full of gusset?

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Obvious one, but I regret dicking about at high school and Uni. Could have left a good Uni with a good degree in something I cared about. Regret not going to a better school when I was small. Passed the entrance exam thingy, but chose to stay in the village school instead. Dumbass. I regret jumping off off a fence when I was a teenager and fucking my ankle up. It's so weak now, that the kinds of exercise I enjoyed (football/basketball etc.) are fraught with the risks of spraining/knocking it again. I'm similar to CT though, if I'd gone straight to Uni from school I wouldn't have met a lot of really good friends, I may not have ended up in london, and so on. The ankle thing is different though.

I can only imagine it getting worse for them on that score.

Hard to get a decent metric on "applying pressure", but Perez consistently is among the players with the highest number of tackles for us. He he gets a decent number of touches and passes for us and while this is less a defence of Perez and more a defence of the system, he's the best we've got to fulfill that role; that of a harassing pest who can also be a bit of a threat going forward. Certainly better than Diame. Also, his passes and overall contribution were, stymied by Diame's poor performance. Diame just doesn't seem to win, keep or use the ball half as well as the other 3 CMs. His touch is heavy, his decisions are often wrong, and always slow to come to him. Tbh if we had a better #10, the role of the #10 would likely change. We'd be better on the ball, better at controlling the tempo of the game and get more out of our wide men.

I know Diame was a passenger in the game, but I don't think playing 2 in midfield with Hayden would have seen us wrest more control of the centre. Perez puts pressure on their CBs and CMs and were we to play with 2 up front, the gap between the forwards and the midfield would increase the amount of long balls we'd rely upon. I don't think the wingers were restricted in attack, and even were we to play 4-4-2 they'd need to have shouldered the same defensive responsibility they do in a 4-2-3-1, perhaps even more. We put in 16 crosses, but most of them were shite. I think the tactics were right, but we were undone by a combination of a momentary lapse in concentration at the back, the opposition's specific qualities, a poor selection choice (Diame) and wasteful play by the wide men. 4-4-2 repeatedly gets unravelled by 4-2-3-1 as the midfield gets swamped, the wide men rarely get 1-on-1 and the two strikers get starved of possession. Meanwhile the team playing 4-2-3-1 can overload the midfield, the #10 finds holes and channels or pulls CMs and CBs out of position. With the squad we've available I get why we play it.

Think people are happy to criticise Rafa when he gets it wrong, but I can't believe the amount of moaning I'm seeing on twitter. We're a newly promoted side that's spent bugger all compared to most teams in the league. We were without one of our better players in the centre and for justifiable reasons Benitez prefers Joselu to Gayle or Mitrovic. Personally, I would have played Hayden ahead of Diame as the latter doesn't really do anything better than Hayden imo. That aside, we played the way we did because; a) Rafa is a pragmatic tactician, 2) he only has a certain caliber of player available, iii) Burnley are a resolute defensive team. If Benitez had more strength in his squad, and more depth, he may have set us up differently, even then I think the tactics we employed would have won us that game. As it stands, we are 9th in the league after 10 games, we've a good home record a good defensive record and we're getting more out of the players we have than I expected. Last night was a game that could have gone either way, it was very finely balanced and it was one lapse in concentration at the back that did for us. Most clubs will find Burnley a tough nut to crack at Turf Moor, and all but the best would be happy with a point. You say don't start Diame or Perez (and ignoring your assertion Perez doesn't contribute defensively for a minute), so who would you start instead? What system do you think would have got a better result?

Can they split the incident? Like the ref saw Deeney hold Allen, but as he didn't see the gouging he could be punished for that separately?

This time last year, we were top of the league, 10 wins, +19 GD and 30pts They're 2nd bottom, 1 win, -10GD and 9pts. Oh a lovely coincidence, they've 9 from 14 this season, we've 14 from 9.

You could understand if it was some League 1 side's poky old corrugated-iron shed, with open corners and a factory car park out back, but this was (up until recently) a Premier League ground.

England u17s have come back from 2-0 down to lead Spain 3-2 in the U17 World Cup Final.

Look at the amount of litter on the pitch man. Do they not have bins?