OTF

My god look where TOT was there, worse than useless.

"It's a bump, it's a contact sport" we don't even get a replay of it and they've scored. FFS

Now we'll be having the fannying fuckwits down even more than earlier in the game. Interested to see when Howe makes a change, and what it is. You would think potentially Miggy and Murphy.

Useless prick.

Called it.

I was thinking the same thing. He was terrible is his last game, but have to say he had overall been not too bad prior to that given our defense.

You love to see it from Krafth, not pleased having both him and his doppelganger on yellows though.

Forget the price tag and his history. He's only been managed by the fat waste of space during his time in England. If you're only judging him on his performances since Howe arrived he's been one of our best players and our hardest working.

Shearer giving Dermott Gallacher a right going over regarding the Schar penalty that should have been given.

It was the quickest look ever, cath words, the lot of them.

Just covered a massive amount of ground keeping the pressing going then, great effort. Overall I'm happy with our effort, need to string some passes together, but we're at least putting a bit of pressure on them. Defensively Schar has been good and it's very nice to have Dubravka back.

What's the bet Wilson gets carded before the defender who has been draped over him all game?

Last season that's a penalty there, honestly he plainly dropped his arm to the ground to stop the ball going beyond him.

The Oil Twank

Commentary still trying to stick up for Bruce - when talking about how little possession we've had they said "it's in Benitez and Bruce territory". Benitez' last game managing us was two and a half years ago.

Old habits die hard, we started with more of a press but in the last couple of minutes some of our passive watch and retreat tactics are coming to the fore.

Glad Wilson botched up at the end there as he was offside.

Guessing he's gone for a more mobile defensive unit.... and TOT right SMB?

Peers? Pfft, more like underlings! Do you even know who Steffan is? Ludwycht? Gustav? Dec?

Agreed, granted that full speed was pretty slow, but he showed commitment and discipline unlike anything seen from him under Bruce.

Luckily it was positioned on an island.

Agreed, but at the same time enough was done in this game to win and we didn't, the damage Bruce and Ashley have done runs deep and January is close enough to be on everyone's mind but far enough that we can't wait until then to start returning points. We know the reality that we were a relegation standard team last season that got incredibly lucky with some bullshit results that put us into a comfortable enough position that the pressure was off. It could just be me being hyper critical of us, but many of the other teams in the lower half of the table seem to individually and collectively have the tactical nous on the pitch that we lack. Maybe it's just that our defense is so fragile that I feel that way. It's going to be an interesting run into January.

At his core he's still a prick, but you could tell in those 20/80 potential challenges that would have seen him pickup fouls/cards previously he made the decision to stay out and positionally mark instead. He'll never be good at breaking up play but if he can at least show restraint and discipline then his other attributes should keep him in the team.

Just finished watching as I was camping in Sydney Harbour over the weekend, exciting match to watch but we have to shore up our defense post haste if we're going to accrue the required points to stay up. Working hard for goals only to concede through errors or poor reading of the play is criminal at this level. For that reason Dubravka has to come into the side next start. Our back line is still a worry particularly with Ritchie and Murphy playing the wing back roles, they're not defensivley minded and putting in an honest shift just is not enough if you're on the wrong side of your mqn or not communicating with your central defense. I feel like we'll need consistency in our defense but our middling rabble of players don't lend themselves to automatic selection as they all have their weak points. Overall though it was a very positive step toward a future of actually playing football instead of passively watching it, our players should improve their vision, passing and forst touch with this style of play and it's clearly more entertaining. Spare the defensive frailties scoring three goals at home should have been enough to win. As others have said credit to Joelinton a wondeful first half, ran out of legs at the end but kept battling. That goal from ASM was special, wonderful technique and confidence to cleanly hit that cross with his right foot, and good involvement in the lead up.