rubble-rouser

The Bayern non-goal is a dreadful decision

Yep. They seem to be jinxed generally (see 2013) but more so against them

It’s been the rule for 20-odd years. No way they change it because it just means more goals this way. It’s definitely unfair on the defenders for doing their job, but resetting the rule in a way that doesn’t mean that a goal every 2-3 games doesn’t get chalked off for someone 20 metres wide of the goal being offside from the second phase of a corner is harder than it seems. ‘Active’ and ‘phases’ are tough to police.

6 weeks ago we’d have thought endo, Konate and Bradley went a long way to answering all those questions

This implies that they haven’t even won a pre-season tournament in 15 years oh and the Sun City thing - getting round the SA apartheid boycott for the fascist Pretoria regime

Mental

Still no replay of the disallowed goal

Get with the agenda.

This report basically sums up my feelings. I’m glad someone else has called out Konate because he’s been dogshit since ha came back and we’ve been worse as a team with him in it. The last 3 weeks have felt like the end of the 1996-1997 season. People look back now and take the piss out of the likes of Harkness, Babb, Ruddock and Scales, but at the start of April 1997 they looked like they might be league champions. I have a horrible feeling that people might look back on Szobo, Endo, Elliott & Nunez in the same way. Obviously I hope I’m wrong, and they got our belief up, but FFS. (For the avoidance of doubt, I am still traumatised by 96/97)

Downward spiral though. We beat them in the cup, we don’t fuck up in the league; we don’t draw there in the league, we don’t lose to palace (and probably go through in Europe too)

Spurs, City and Arsenal. Awful. Boil it down to the city pen and we’re way clear of everyone. But we still blew it.

Only against City

I knew he hadn’t been the chippy. FFS

It’s a lack of leadership on the pitch. I’m not absolving Virgil but he has led on the pitch at time this year. Since Trent got injured and Mo went to Afcon/got injured we’ve been without that real start quality, the thing that makes you believe and gets you over the line. For a couple of months the collective spirit allied with Virgil willing things to happen (league cup, Forest away etc) made up for it, then Macca carried us for a few weeks. Since then, and despite having several international captains on the pitch, Virgil and Macca have dipped (having played almost every game) and talismanic players like Mo and Trent are feeling their way back to form. 2017-2022 we had 3 or 4 players you could utterly bank on in big moments to drag us out of the fire. We have a really able squad, but Mane > Diaz, Bobby > Nunez and only Jota beats his direct competitor (Divock). Diaz and Nunez are really good players in a team that’s playing with confidence, but neither of them looks remotely like ever being the main man. They thrive off Mo being a constant threat and play in the space he makes available. If he can’t do that anymore because he doesn’t trust his body or his legs have totally gone, they’re just not going to step up consistently. They’ll do it occasionally, but 4 years ago if Mo didn’t score Bobby did, if Bobby didn’t score, Mane did - etc etc. Being philosophical, it shows how hard it is to win things consistently, unless you’re an oil state who has hired a renowned drug cheat to mange you and paid for all the refs. Just dispiriting to be riding high in March and knocked down in April, as Sinatra didn’t say.

But only since we stopped winning all our games and that trophy.