Elston Gunnn

Gordon’s contract doesn’t expire until summer ‘25. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53981857

You’re probably exactly right, though it’s a bit of a chicken-egg thing. Teams know they can press us because they know we’re a lousy passing team.

Beyond the obvious difference in emotion and energy, another obvious difference is that Leeds’ passing is crisp and accurate, while ours is tentative and often off-target. We’ve been a lousy passing team for the last 3 seasons, sometimes embarrassingly so. Just basic passing.

Lousy defense by Llorente, but lovely idea that worked by Iwobi.

It is interesting. I liked this point the most: “Maupay’s main game strength though might be his pressing. The man does simply not know when to stop running.”

Under the rubric of “least bad choice” (among a plethora of nothing but bad choices), maybe Lampard should use Keane up top as a sub for an exhausted Rondón on 60 minutes. I’ve no idea whether I’m being serious or not. Right now, we’re a shambles.

3-4-2-1, more or less?

I like everything Btay says above. This will be the 2d of 5 matches in 15 days, the last of which will be Liverpool. Has to be lots and lots of rotation. If we can’t beat a middling League 1 team with rested (so-called) PL players, not much we can say. Yes, a loss would be devastating, but lots of rotation is still the sensible choice, least bad option.

Already, on the eve of just our 3d match, we got too many injuries. And tomorrow is the first of 4 matches in just 11 days, 5 in 15. Blecchhh. Surely have to see some rotation for Fleetwood Town next week (Allan, Keane, Davies, Coleman, Vinagre, others?). Dele tomorrow?

Now you got me worried. I thought he was saying, "I'm gonna be here in September, but nothing's literally assured, but people want to speculate about everything, especially bad news, and more especially about Everton." So I thought he was generally saying, "F-off, all you vultures." Without calling them "vultures," which isn't the Everton way. Except maybe on TT.

The headline here is more controversial than what Lampard says, overall. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62608362

Tarkowski and Iwobi looked good all match long. Looks a promising season for our 2 young wingbacks. Doucouré all over the place, for good and bad. Gordon trying to do too, too much. McNeil out of position, or something?

Mina out for a month?

Yet another missed call by Pawson, nearly all going Chelsea’s way.

Softest foul, i.e., not a foul.

Soft pen, but Doucouré messed up.

Another awful call from Pawson, not a foul.

Yellow, pulled his shirt, obvious to see.

Ah, I thought Mina, guess I’m wrong.

Mina at fault, ghastly back pass.

Set piece defense still iffy.

Maybe 3-5-2? Not sure which of McNeil, Gray, Gordon would be the 2? I didn’t see any of the preseason, so don’t know how Lampard has used Doucouré. But as he’s presumably partnered with Iwobi in CM, I hope Doucouré always stays back, Iwobi goes forward (if we ever have the ball......).

Can “sicknote” mean either of 2 things: a person who’s injured a lot or one who uses any minor nick to lay out? Does either connotation apply to DCL?

Nope [there’s a joke there], you’re not alone; and we’re not alone, either. The amount of time and space in the cosmos is literally unimaginable, except in the limited sense of (just barely) mathematically imaginable by brilliant cosmologists and astrophysicists. The photos from the Webb telescope, with presumably many more to come for years, will both fool us into thinking we can comprehend the amount of time and space out there while simultaneously showing us (literally) that out there is unimaginable. Given that the amount of time and space out there is literally unimaginable, it’s also inconceivable that we’re the only life-form in the cosmos. It’s inconceivable that there are not thousands or millions or billions of life-forms out there. And recent UFO investigations suggest that we’ve been visited by beings who are somewhere between 50 and 1000 years ahead of us technologically. Whoa.

Yeah, VAR saved Liverpool there, I guess based on whether the Liverpool defender deliberately kicked the ball. Sorry to say, Liverpool have been dominant, yet RM came to life pretty dramatically in the last 6-8 minutes of the half. Don’t know what really happened at the gates to delay the match over 30 minutes, but it looked dangerous out there.