DaveT

That’s what I expect. Bobby Clark is a massive talent but I fear this game will be way too physical for him. Prove me wrong, Bobby! Elliott will end up in midfield because he can influence the game far more from there, whereas he tends to be isolated in the Mo position.

Today will be 4 for Tierney. Taylor and Kavanagh also on 4 (so, 12 out of28 games for those 3). Madley also on 4. Hooper and Oliver are on 3. Pawson, Atwell, Brookes, Robinson and Bramall all on 1. Bankes, Coote, England, Gillett, Harrington, Jones and Scott all on zero. Make of that what you will. Tierney has also been on VAR at least 3 times, including for the ridiculous Mac Allister red card.

Arry Wilson

Yeah, rather be in the 6th round of the FA cup than the next round of the Youth cup, but we could have gone all the way with our strongest team. Even Doak would have been eligible for this (he’s injured anyway of course). Can you imagine that forward line - Doak, Danns & Koumas…

These accounts will include the wages of Henderson, Firmino, Fabinho, Keita, Ox etc. Their replacements will be on a lot less. We’re still carrying Thiago’s costs unfortunately.

In a normal world, a normal organisation would avoid this scenario if only for the sake of appearances. But Webb, and Riley before him, have the attitude of ‘we’re PGMOL, we do what we want’. There’s zero accountability.

Sure, not having a pop at you, just the hint of a narrative in the media that they were weakened, when the reality is that most of their starting line up have featured in several of their recent games…. and that they’ve been shaking things up regularly because they’re on a losing streak.

Totally agree about Gakpo. I like what he can bring to the party, he just doesn't do it enoughg and doesn't impose himself on games. The number of Southampton changes is a bit meaningless (if the implication is that they had a weakened team) - looking back on their last 4-5 games (most of which they lost), apart from the goalie, most of the team that started last night have also started at least a couple of their recent games. Another brilliant night after a somewhat scary start.

Peter Bankes is a confessed Everton supporter. Guess how many times he’s reffed Everton or Liverpool? Correct - zero. (Which is as it should be).

Guess who reffed City on Tuesday? That’s right, Anthony Taylor

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2024/02/explained-why-man-united-winner-stood-but-virgil-van-dijk-offside-goal-didnt/ Not seen any footage myself, but this feels like another of those contortionist tricks, trying to rationalise away yet another glaring inconsistency….. involving the same ref, days apart. ‘Dropping zone’, wtf?!

Their starting 11 last night cost near £500m. Luton’s net spend over the last 2 years has been around £20m. Haaland probably gets paid more than all the Luton team put together. Bravo, P€p.

Good point. It would be such a shame if the Youth Cup run came to an end because of a depleted team. I expect Danns , Koumas and Neyoni to all be involved tonight and therefore miss tomorrow’s match …. which will be a tough game as Leeds beat our kids 4-1 earlier in the season. Much of this is down to zero protection from referees, with three seniors injured in the last couple of weeks alone through clumsy or shithouse challenges by opponents.

Add Luke Chambers to the mix as well. Not sure what’s going on at Bayern. An ageing team in need of a rebuild/refresh looking at Robbo, not getting any younger, to replace much younger speedster Davies? Eric Dier, ffs?!

I thought he was really shaky defensively initially but he’s grown into it and has been really good on the ball. Officials have been really shit since I’ve been watching.

I see City took their own ref with them.

Yeah, Dundee isn't it?

Loved reading that! In fact I can't get enough stuff on this match, it was fucking epic. I even listened to Talkshite on the way home on Monday (broke the return journey by staying over with relies in Oxford). They were mostly ok, but also came out with the same shite about Chelsea's ending average age..... not mentioning the guys who came on were Nkunku (26, 10 full international caps), Mudryk (23, 16 caps), Chalobah (24 150+ 1st team appearances for various clubs) and Madueke (21, 18 England u21 caps). We brought on Bobby Clarke,19, never started a league game, Danns, 18, only other first team appearance - came on in 89th minute vs Luton)..... plus McConnell, Quansah. I didn't get to see any replays until I got home and watched it back....and ended up shouting at Kavanagh all over again - what a cunt of a performance. Their first yellow for a foul was in the 119th Minute, and the yellows count was 5-2 in their favour - utterly scandalous. The Caicedo 'tackle' was so late I missed it - I was shouting for the foul on Gakpo when Fernandez went through his ankle to get the ball - one of many free kicks we didn't get. I loved our defending - proper defending, lads like Bradley, Konate and Endo who actually enjoy the defensive side of things..... unlike Trent for whom it seems like a chore,unless he's got a grump on,or even Virgil of last season with his half-hearted attempts to block shots. The captain was fucking immense here - as he has been all season. On and off the pitch it was a real show of defiance in the face of adversity - the injuries, the shithousery from the opposition, the awful refereeing. Fantastic performance from everybody. It's right up there with my favourite finals.

That's 5 out of the last 9 league matches where Tierney (3) or Taylor (2) have been ref. And Tierney was also on VAR at Bournemouth when they should have had a red card. Must admit, Tierney could have been a lot worse in the Chelsea 4-1 game. Webb is definitely running scared, though.

Great stuff. Disagree about Pochetino - his Spurs team were one of the worst for shithousing - diving, tactical fouling. One season, IIRC, Kane Lamella and Delle Ali were something like three out of the top 5 foulers - not counting the ones they got away with. Totally agree about Xabi - he'd be on a hiding to nothing going to Bayern, that team is looking in need of a major re-build but they'd still be demanding instant success. Still can't believe they've got Eric fucking Dire lining up for them.

‘And to stop Liverpool having 13 shots on target or stop Darwin hitting the woodwork 4 times’….. Is maybe what he should have said

I made some comments on this topic in the Brentford thread and Barry W made a similar, well reasoned and plausible case as you. As you say, some are clear tactical fouls and valid free kicks. Many however are genuine attempts to win the ball back, but often it appears that a lower threshold is applied to other teams than us in terms of what is allowed. As you say, we’re not the only team to adopt the high press but we get penalised for it more often. You only have to look at some of the free kicks not given to us at Arsenal and Brentford versus those given against to identify some glaring inconsistencies. The stats also confirm that our foul count goes up according to who is referee. Taylor can be relied on to give 50% more free kicks against us than are given on average by all other refs.

The soft (or plain wrong yellow - see Jota, Konate, plenty of others) followed by a subsequent, valid, yellow is increasingly distorting results and is becoming a big issue. Blame the player all you like but that’s simplistic and avoids the real problem which is that the awarding of yellows is probably the most random, subjective, inconsistent thing in football right now. Great write up, btw.

Incredibly he neglected to call that cunt Kompany a cunt!

Luton haven’t yet acquired the PL skill of wrestling opponents to the ground without conceding a penalty.