mike23

A really frustrating watch. The first half was really poor and we couldn't really have any complaints about going in a goal down. The second half was a lot better, but for all the pressure it didn't seem like we created much at all. Every final pass seemed to be overhit. Trent's been great recently but his radar in particular seemed to be really off today. It seemed like we put a thousand crossed straight into their keeper's hands. Villa were well organized, everything seemed to drop their way in and around the box, and they were allowed to time waste to their heart's content all afternoon. Every big decision seemed to go their way. The penalty seemed soft and Mings could have easily been shown a red for that challenge on Gakpo. I found a stream with a great picture but no sound so I have no idea why the goal was disallowed or why the ref had to go to the monitor to make the decision if it was offside.  I'd have fancied us to go on and win it had it stood but it just seemed like 1 of those days. The ref was utter shite in general and even without the big decisions it felt like 1 of those death by 1000 cuts games when he seemed to blow his whistle every time one of their players went down. 

At least we got an equalizer and even better Bobby got it. When 10 minutes went up on the board it felt like it was all set up to give him and Milner a fitting send off with a late winner, but for all the huffing and puffing in those final minutes it never really looked like coming.

Top 4 is all but gone then. It probably would have been anyway with the way other results have gone since Thursday. Maybe winning our last 9 games would have counterproductive in convincing people at the club that major changes aren't needed after all. We need to have a great summer in the transfer market to avoid a repeat of this shitshow of a season. 

Frustrating watch so far. Lots of overhit through balls and overhit crosses straight into their keeper's hands. I really thought the missed penalty would lift us but instead we just carried on sleepwalking through the game until they scored. Mings should be off. I look forward to there being as much media coverage about this injustice as there was when Jota escaped a red card against Spurs the other week.

8 minutes ago, aws said:

Brighton have been relegation standard. Who decided that this bunch of defenders have the ability to play it out? 
 

Edit - just delete the words “ it out” from the above. 

That pass from the goalkeeper to a defender in the box who had a man on him has got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever seen on a football pitch.

Beginning to dislike Brighton. Bad enough to produce such a shit performance the other week against Everton, but to do it again a week later when we needed a helping hand from them is just taking the piss now. No reason whatsoever to be leaving out some of their best players at this stage of the season. At the very least they should have been able to make this a really tough game for Newcastle, but instead Newcastle are just strolling to one of their easiest wins of the season. 

8 minutes ago, bizzle10 said:

its that  bournemouth game why we will fall short

It felt like that Bournemouth game really impacted on the games after it as well. It just completely sucked away all the momentum from the United win and the mini run of improved results before that. No surprise we lost at City - getting anything there is tough even when we're good - but 2 points from the Chelsea and Arsenal games just weren't enough. The performance at Chelsea was absolutely dreadful, too - especially when you look at all their other recent games. It seemed to take Xhaka kicking off with Trent to finally prevent our players from just sleepwalking through the rest of the season. 

I think we're just going to fall a bit short even if we win the last 3 games. Newcastle just had too much of a lead and United's run-in is too easy. Swap Newcastle's and United's remaining fixtures and there might have been a real chance. As mediocre as United are, they've been good at home and in beating the bad teams this year. 

Fair play to Everton for their last 2 performances. No idea where they've come from as they barely looked to have a goal in them before that. It also must have been a major prematch confidence boost watching that shambolic Leicester display at Fulham earlier. No chance they're going down now. The other teams down there are looking so bad that I was starting to think 1 win might do it for them anyway. I didn't expect it to come today though. Maybe we can go through all this again next season. The hope is that with all their financial problems they remain as perennial strugglers and eventually run out of luck.

Brighton just didn't look prepared for this game at all. Maybe all the fixtures have caught up with them or maybe it was sheer complacency after all the plaudits they've been receiving. I can only hope that they're so embarrassed after this today that they're extra fired up against Newcastle next week as we really need a favour from them in that game. 

Fairly similar to the Fulham game. Not great but we deserved the win. We didn't create that much but there were still big chances missed from Nunez and Gakpo (twice) that could have made things a lot easier. Other than the disallowed goal Brentford didn't create much. We did a good job defending set pieces against them.

The ref was utter shit. Soft freekick after soft freekick for 90 minutes. And you just have to laugh that he booked Alisson for timewasting after the amount of shite some keepers have constantly got away with this season.

Wasn't great but another win to keep our run going. It was infuriating how we just kept giving the ball away in the final minutes. Players trying fancy flicks and very low percentage shots instead of just keeping possession and eating up more time. Almost paid the price right at the end for it as well. It always feels like we have to give teams one more chance in the final few minutes when we're defending single goal leads. One of those games that will very quickly be forgotten.

Much more enjoyable game than I was expecting. Plenty of effort from both teams but an embarrassing lack of quality at times - which I guess is why they're both down there to begin with. We keep thinking Leicester are better than they are because we're still thinking of them as the team from the last few seasons, but any team who are only above the drop zone on goal difference with 4 games to go are bound to have serious deficiencies. Vardy showed flashes of his old quality but it was clear that he's a player well past his best now. A case of what might have been with Maddison blowing the chance to probably put the game beyond Everton from the spot; on the other hand, however, Everton may well have won but for a string of top class saves from Iversen. Surely Brighton and City are too good to drop points against Everton, so we need some of the other teams to pull away from them during those fixtures. I think Everton will beat Bournemouth on the final day so that fixture at Wolves might be what determines whether or not they stay up. 

27 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Well, there's your problem!

 

Dani van den Heuvel doesn't appear to have a solid physical form. I'd still give him a go over Meslier.

Just been watching highlights of today's other games on YouTube. How many mistakes does Meslier have to make before Leeds drop him? It must feel like starting every game a goal down with him in goal as he seems to inevitably be at fault for at least 1 goal every single game. His confidence must be absolutely shot to bits by now. Even if the backup keeper isn't great it's hard to imagine they could do a worse job.

Navas was terrible for Both Brentford goals yesterday as well and seems to have looked pretty iffy in general for them since he arrived. Stupid Everton enabling goalkeepers. 

Not really sure whether to be happy or annoyed after that. It was a game that probably mirrored how my thoughts keep fluctuating on our prospects for next season. We made the great start and I'm thinking just a few additions and we'll comfortably at least be back in the top 4 next year. Then we go from that to looking all over the place and I'm back on the half this team look finished train.

At least it was funny how we won it. Such a Spursy way to lose a game. Any other team apart from maybe Everton and Jota puts that late chance the other side of the post. Poor Richarlison celebrates  his equalizer like an absolute twat and then suffers instant karma.

It doesn't excuse our performance, but Tierney was an absolute disgrace again. He gave the penalty but that was literally the only thing he did give us in the whole game. Constantly not giving blatant fouls from Spurs players and blowing up for perfectly good challenges from our players. Refs take the piss on a weekly basis in refusing to give Mo anything, but actually penalizing Mo for that late incident was alleviating the piss taking to a whole new level. Spurs got the freekick that led to their equalizer straight after that. Had it finished 3-3 it would have been all on Tierney. Klopp needs to call out that performance today because that ref should never be allowed near one of our games ever again, although we were all saying that last season too.

8 minutes ago, Torvald Utne said:

Bein assessing the handball at the end, couldn't really say as they didn't have a decent angle.....coote assessed and dismissed within 4 seconds

I've yet to see any replays of it, but I always find player reactions quite telling. It wasn't just some half-assed appeal from Virgil like you usually get for handball shouts. He was absolutely adamant it should be a penalty. Yet they looked at it for about 2 seconds if that. This is my biggest issue with VAR. Every minute detail of some incidents are looked at  and it takes forever, and then other similar ones are just dismissed instantly. 

11 minutes ago, Trumo said:

I thought we were very good tonight. Sure West Ham had their moments, but their spells were brief flashes in an otherwise dominant away display. We looked sharper when there was a second ball to be won, and we put together attacks with much more cohesion than we've seen in other away displays this season. We had to come from behind. AND we did it while wearing that awful away kit! Nice finish by Cody and a bullet of a header from Big Bird. The game reminded me of our league run-in last season.

 

Saying all that, I think our worst spell of the match was after Darwin and Milly came on. The composure of the first 80 minutes gave way to giving West Ham a chance to build up a head of steam and get up the pitch. Though we had Thiago on already, we didn't keep the ball. An attack consisting of a rusty Lucho, Mo on one of his off nights and Darwin looking like a player who relies on instinct over game intelligence, wasn't going to help us keep the ball in their half of the pitch.

 

I have to mention the officials. On the whole I thought they had a good game too. Kavanagh the ref wasn't fussy so the game had a flow to it rather than being stop-start. The non-penalty call was spot on as Thiago's arm was moving exactly as you'd expect when your body is falling to ground. That the ball connected with it in that moment, after coming off his own foot, meant there was nothing intentional whatsoever. Won't stop Moyes having a moan though. The only thing that annoyed me was that once West Ham went behind, they were stealing 10 yards off every throw-in and the officials didn't do anything. There was also a free kick conceded by Fab about 10 yards inside the West Ham half late on that was allowed to be taken about 5 yards inside OUR half! 

 

A win is a win though. Let's keep up the momentum.

It was ridiculous how far from the foul they were allowed to take that freekick. And the cheeky bugger still rolled it forward a couple of extra yards right at the end when the ref wasn't looking. 

When I was looking at the relegation thread on GOT the other night most of them seemed to have decided Forest wouldn't win another game all season and weren't a problem. Oh dear. 

It was a bit of a mixed bag tonight with our performance very good in some periods of the game and rather messy in others, but the good seemed to outweigh the bad. It was one of the better away performances of the season (admittedly the bar hasn't exactly been set too high on that front), and it was nice to see us show a bit of resilience after going behind away from home for a change. Having said that, we got a bit of luck for a change with them having a 2nd goal disallowed for a very marginal offside and had it counted we'd probably all be in foul moods right now as I doubt we'd have turned it around from there. 

Trent, Gakpo, and Matip were all decent. Henderson, Mo and Nunez not so much.

It's still probably far too late for a top 4 run but all we can do is keep winning and see what happens. We have a run of home games coming up so we just need to keep going and put some pressure on the teams above. 

Normally I'd be feeling pretty good about coming back from 2 goals down to get a draw, but I just felt frustrated that we hadn't won by the final whistle. The draw does nothing for us and I'm too fed up with this season to care how it impacts on the title race any more. The end of the first half and most of the second half were pretty decent, but it just left me wondering where that sort of effort has been for much of the season or indeed for the first 30 odd minutes today. The missed chances really did my head in as well and terrible finishing has just been one of many issues this season. Robertson, Salah, Henderson, and Nunez all missed big chances and I have no idea how the ball didn't end up in the net during that late goalmouth scramble. And that's before we even get to Mo not even hitting the target with another penalty. We did well to keep going and get a point after that, but I'd have been confident that we'd have gone on to win it had he made it 2-2 from the spot with loads of time left. Arsenal were really creaking at that point. I felt we could have had 2 penalties at the end for fouls on Mo, but it was probably too much to expect 2 penalties in 1 game and we'd have probably missed the spot kick anyway. 

I was just bemused by all the fawning in commentary over Arsenal during the match as well. They were gifted 2 goals by our usual pitiful defending (and an absolutely massive slice of luck for the first goal in how it deflected straight into Martinelli's path), and then other than the odd nice passage of play didn't do much else for the rest of the game. They're the only team this season to rival Newcastle for the sheer level of utter shithouse behaviour as well. From very early on their players were constantly going down to breakup momentum. It was pathetic how the commentators were laughing about it as well and trying to make out there was something clever about it. Timewasting and feigning injuries seems to have really escalated this season and is really starting to ruin some matches. Maybe they won't find it so funny when no one wants to subscribe to their channels any more because funnily enough most people don't watch football to see grown men constantly rolling around holding their heads when there's nothing wrong with them.

For all the raving on Sky about how this Arsenal is the greatest ever and have been playing us off the park, we'd be at least level by now if our finishing wasn't so utter shit. Robertson, Salah and Henderson all failing to hit the target with really good chances. Henderson must lean back every time he hits a shot because they invariably end up closer to row Z than the goal. 

9 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

 

Us losing to Real Madrid in Kiev is still their best result this century. It must have absolutely destroyed them after we knocked Barca out and went and won it the following year. It would be worth going back through that Liverpool thread on GOT to see the posts from the night we beat Barca 4 nil just to laugh. 

I remember reading their thread for that game the day after. Was wonderful entertainment. Loads of cockiness at the beginning with most of the posters predicting Barcelona would win the second leg as well. And then they proceeded through each of the 5 stages of grief as the match unfolded. Most of them had decided that Messi had always been a complete fraud of a player by the end of the game as well. 

I really thought Leicester would have comfortably got out of trouble eventually, but it's starting to reach a point where you wonder where their next win is coming from. Everton fans might have possibly preferred a draw between Leeds and Forest tonight but otherwise it was a good night for them. 

Grim. First half was poor but at least we had odd spells where it looked like we were getting something going. Second half we couldn't even manage that. Chelsea's woeful finishing at least ensured we didn't lose again. Everyone just looks like they're going through the motions now and have checked out for the season. I'm not sure if they ever actually checked in this year. 

Even before Moura's sending off Spurs were absolutely awful after the penalty. Just grimly hanging on, unable to put 3 passes together, and seemingly intent on doing mad shit at the back to keep the crowd in it. And we're below them in the table. At least in the covid season you could at least say that the teams in the top 4 race were half decent. Leicester played some nice stuff until it fell apart for them at the end and Chelsea went on to win the Champions league. This year we can't even compete against a still dogshit United, a completely gutless Spurs team, and a Newcastle team full of midtable cloggers. 

Barring a points deduction I really can't see Everton going down either. They look miles better under Dyche. The lack of ability of some of their players was still laughable at times tonight. There were several occasions in the first half where Everton players just booted it straight into teammates stood about a yard in front of them when attempting passes. I'm not sure I've ever seen that happen at this level before. That being said, they're now playing with passion and belief and that will be enough to get them over the line. They'd have 100 percent lost both tonight and at Chelsea under Lampard. As soon as they'd gone a goal down that would have been it. Instead they're picking up points they don't really have any right to pick up. 

Real Madrid game all over again. Encouraging first half where the players actually looked like they gave a fuck. Then they just don't show up for the second half. Start the half by conceding a goal so amateurish that you don't know how it can even happen at this level, and then just no response whatsoever because this team can no longer handle any adversity whatsoever. As soon as things aren't going in their way in games they just give up. We knew they were beaten. They knew they were beaten. City knew they were beaten. 

That's genuinely got to be one of the most braindead pieces of defending I've ever seen at this level. 

9 minutes ago, manwiththestick said:

The footballing gods just do not like us. This season almost evey other game not featuring us go the way we don't want them to, team and player form shot to bits injuries and every flipping week all over the pitch.

 

Even when we were the best team we have ever been, surpassing all records set for league point totals the gods are laughing into their sleeves as they throw a Man City into the mix.

 

Fed up doesn't cover it.

And just to rub it in further,  Arsenal are probably going to win the league with a points total well below 2 runners up totals we set because a Manchester City team that wouldn't slip up for months at a time when we were up against them suddenly can't go 2 weeks without dropping points.