nyblue23

They just parked the bus and Bournemouth’s attack couldn’t figure it out. They won with 18% possession. I’d like to think our front line has a bit more creativity about them than Bournemouth’s.

Ouch.

Watching the end of that match, it looked like Bournemouth was about 20 times better - they just couldn’t finish. I’ll take the risk even though it would hurt even more.

Wild. 5th tier. Good story for them, but we got pretty lucky with this draw. Bournemouth had about 20 opportunities to score in the last 10 minutes and just couldn’t get it done.

I’ve been one of his bigger critics but if he can get back to playing like he did yesterday with regularity, happy to have him in the team.

Can't remember the last time I saw us string together that many passes, especially when most of them were forward.

It was never about the players' ability (excluding Rondon, Delph, and now, sadly, Coleman). It was about their attitude and their confidence. Those two things you can coach, and I am similarly excited.

One thing that has to be said is that if anyone still had doubts before today that Rafa needed to go (or that he never should have been hired) those should be long gone.

We look a lot more assured on the ball for the most part. As I mentioned before, we're not just trying to play direct balls up the field and hope for the best, but making strong runs forward. Most are petering out in the end, but at least we look a bit threatening until the final third. The three CBs have looked about as good as I've ever seen in a back 5 for us. The fullbacks, on the other hand, look pretty awful. Myko playing safe but putting some players in some awkward positions and giving the ball a way a few times carelessly in the final third. Hope he gets some confidence because he's all we've got there now that Godfrey looks to be out for a while.

2,500.

Get in Mina!

Probably too kind to call Mykolenko a mixed bag at this point. Still not writing him off, but haven’t seen him do anything particularly well at this point and he just looks extremely nervous out there.

Holgate looks a lot better for what it’s worth.

Yeah couldn’t put any weight on it walking off. Seemed more like a knee injury to me but hamstring would obviously be a bit less serious (though also not great given how long those tend to nag).

Hate to see that from Godfrey. Off injured… looks like an ACL/MCL.

Looks like he’s told players not to be afraid on he ball and to make runs forward. “Enjoy the ball.” We’re not just hoofing it forward like we were under Benitez which is encouraging.

No not calling for his head and wouldn’t be calling him a failure. Won’t be his fault if he can’t get them, but we really need results right now given the rest of our schedule so just emphasizing how important these matches are. Really hoping for the new manager boost. And yup, but our next three are all winnable league games.

God I hope it doesn't take 4 games. We need to pick up at least 5 points from the first three league games, probably more like 6-7. Those three are against Newcastle, Leeds, and Southampton. After that, we have a 9 game stretch including matches against City, Tottenham, West Ham, Man U, Liverpool, and Chelsea.

He better go straight into our coaching staff when he’s done playing.

Got it. Was thrown off by the line about this being the age group to be shopping in, but yeah. Trending downward in age definitely a good thing.

Did Barkley ever score 37 goals over 3 PL seasons?

https://www.si.com/soccer/manchestercity/news/manchester-city-tracked-everton-full-back-vitaliy-mykolenko-for-a-while-prior-to-premier-league-transfer Is Moshiri feeding Sports Illustrated false info to make himself look better?

I wouldn’t mind him warming the bench for the U-23s with Rondon, to be honest.

While your point is taken and I agree for the most part, Gylfi was 27 when we got him, Tosun was 26. Meanwhile, Barry was 32. Most importantly, none of these guys seem like massive overspends for what we have the potential to get from them.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k477OphzLQA While he’s definitely not the playmaking No. 10 we’ve all been hoping for since God knows when, two things get me excited about this video of his 50 PL goals: 1. He actually knows how to time and adjust his runs, something that no one else on our squad is capable of doing consistently (how many times do we see DCL whiff at balls because he was a millisecond too late?). 2. He reacts to the ball better than anyone else on our squad. I never realized how like Kane he is in that respect; so many of these goals are just him predicting exactly where the ball will ricochet and tapping it home.