coachpotato

That Oliver has come out now and admitted his shortcomings in not sending Pickford off is, I feel, somewhat suspicious. Normally these things are kept muted. He wouldn’t have said this without the PGMOL knowing or perhaps even condoning it surely? I can’t help feeling the timing, with us playing United next, is too convenient. Perhaps I’m looking too much into it, but it’ll be interesting to see how the decisions go on Sunday, I won’t be holding my breath about who gets any contentious decisions though.

Are any of them any good at all? Riley has got them all at previously untapped levels of singing from the same song sheet shite.

Whatever City are doing to sort these draws out it’s certainly working, even Crouchie couldn’t stitch them up.

They haven’t had a penalty in their last 2 games. Nailed on against us. At least one. Depending on the referee, I suspect it might be Atkinson or Friend.

So, when you have the ball you are all attackers, when you don’t you’re all defenders.

The game against Arsenal in 89, we still applauded them though. Mourinho shushing us, condescending prick. Europa League final second half in 2016. Could go as far back as the Inter Milan game in May 65, bent ref cost us an appearance in the European Cup Final.

Shouldn’t forget their first team bummed our kids when we were becoming World Champions, we need to settle that 0-5 with interest.

Have a shot, score a goal. Who’d have thought it!

We should start shooting at every opportunity.

Oh how we laughed when the kids beat Everton. 45 minutes to show something like what we can do. Jesus.

Fucking shitshow and a half.

Southampton have put a lot of effort into that half and so I can see them tailing off before the end of the game. Problem is whether we can take advantage of that, or end up as we have recently, with loads of possession and chances, but not putting them away. And we can’t afford to concede a second either.

Set up for a sending off here if we’re not careful.

Since the Palace game we haven’t looked as though we could finish a bag of crisps, never mind an attacking move.

Amen to this.

He played the right way, his united team were great going forwards, he never disrespected us that I can remember unlike other united managers since. Another character gone sadly. RIP

Failed to beat 4 of the bottom 6 according to the commentator. Strikes me that we’re going to see a lot more of this kind of draw from teams who can put a lot of effort into defending deep because they’re shite at attacking. Not like we didn't create opportunities, we did, but too many poor passes when it mattered, not shooting enough and missing some excellent chances gets you a point and not three whether you think you deserve them or not.

This lack of taking a shot when its on is ridiculous. These fuckers are going to nick one here if we’re not careful.

We need a competent, mainly injury free, centre back in January. If we get one, he (and I’m ruling out a female CB at this stage) would become second choice immediately because of being mainly injury free. If Edwards/Klopp have someone in mind for next summer, then they should bring forwards the bid and, within reason, pay a premium to get the chosen one early to give us the maximum chance to keep our title. Not doing so, or at least trying, is taking the kind of gamble I wouldn’t associate with us usually, but after what happened in the summer, I’m not holding my breath.

At least they are figures that can start to answer what I was trying to say in the original post. One thing though, do they include penalties? I suspect they do, so I’d like to see the same applied without penalties, which should be scored anyway by anyone who can strike a ball properly.

This is my point really, we are brilliant in so many ways with the front three attacking in a more open game, probably the best in the world, yet when teams deliberately sit back we don’t seem to anticipate chances and are caught on our heels or snatching at them. Some very good points made to my original post thanks, not least that we don’t take enough shots on outside the box either. As to my figures being wrong, I’ve watched enough football to say that there are strikers who only need a couple of chances a game to convert at least one into a goal. In some games we can do that, however, there are many more games where we create far more chances than goals taken. I accept however that we usually get the points when it matters, yesterday we didn’t and that’s happened more times this season already than I was hoping to see.

Probably get negged to fuck for this but here goes. The nearest thing we have to a proper striker is Jota. Salah, Firmino and Mane are forwards, class forwards at that, but the three of them miss too many chances to be called strikers in the same way that the likes of Aguero, Vardy or Henry are called strikers. Class strikers take one goal in two chances or one in three chances average. I bow to anyone that can show our three are in that category. I know they’ve scored shitloads of goals between them and we’re Champions, but it still irks me at the wasted chances we see, fuck me, we’d have been so far away from everyone else if the conversion rate was better. “ Puts on tin hat”

Another two points dropped against dross. Not for the first time, we struggled against a packed defence and didn’t really hurt them. There’s no way we can produce Palace level performances every week, and anyone as old as I am won’t be surprised that this was so different in both the level of finishing and the result, seen it happen so many times in the past, but it still rankles that Allerdici can set up a team so negatively and still get away with a point. Thiago may have been the one to unlock their blanket defence more often than the once when Mane scored. Jota might have anticipated a chance or two more than the three out there and finished them better had he been there. But neither of them were fit and so the point is moot. Matip has now got to be replaced in January, it was bad enough we took a chance on not signing another centre back in the summer when Lovren went, but to not sign one now we have the three that were left behind injured would be inviting City, United, Chelsea or even worse, Everton to help themselves to a title that really should be ours, and before you all start laughing about Everton, remember Leicester were being laughed at around this time in the season when they eventually won it. It’s wide open unless we grab it by the scruff of the neck and shake the others off, and performances like today are exactly why we shouldn’t take anything for granted. I bet Klopp isn’t.

Would love to be wrong, but regardless of the injuries, Keita has looked too lightweight for the PL whenever he’s played, sure there have been flashes of class, but that’s not what we paid for. Don’t see us recouping the money we paid out, but if he goes back to Germany as part ex for someone we might want, a centre back maybe, then we should cut our losses. He’s a PL and CL medal winner, so he’s not had a totally wasted time in England.

If there had been VAR that would have been a penalty to United.