Magic Lamps

And you are both correct. Actually Tammy in Italy reminds me a lot of Lukaku in Italy. Bc of the slow football down there, quick players like Rom and Tammy look like athletic beasts down there and get away with their technical limitations a lot more. That's not to say neither could not or will not improve there but not being that young at the date of moving to Italy, ppl who expected drastic improvement from Rom probably are disappointed now. The same will be true for Abraham should he return one day

Lol true but Jesus is far better... It is crazy to see that West Spam have the same number of points as City now.... You would really say Pep has underachieved this season. apart from beating us deservedly they have only sporadically convinced. They also were completely unable to break down buses numerous times. Also lost CS vs Leicester. Hopefully his magic is slowly ceasing like it was at Barcelona

Good point. But in a 3atb system do we even need a real no.6? we saw how kovacic and RLc worked well together, will one of them occasionally dropping deep. i would not mind rice as jorginho successor tbh. I think he has the potential to become far better than jorginho, but not for 100m. Jorginho still has a few more years left in the tank I would wager, so maybe W'hams stubbornness plays in our favour and keeps suitors away until we actually need Rice. Also I thought our primary prospect for jorginho succession would be Gilmour...

tbf that goal vs city was so Lampard with that late run. Actually Lampard scored an almost identical goal for NYC just a few years back and obviously countless similar ones for us. From built, movement and style of play Conor is actually more similar to Lamps than Mount who was dubbed his successor countless times before. By far been Palace's best player this season. Might well be ready next year. The thing is we are loaded in midfield. Who is gonna make way for him? Maybe just gonna take Saul's place and we very slowly phase out Kante and Jorginho over the next few years

They can right forget about getting 100m for him. With how many qualiy cms we have right now as well as gilmour and gallagher coming through the ranks along with the re-emergence of RLC, central midfield is the last position we need an addition. Actually we are pretty much set. We should be looking to get a replacement for Thiago Silva and maybe see if an quality upgrade of Ziyech in the winger/am is available somewhere. Maybe identify mid-term successors for Azpi, Jorginho and Alonso but no immediate need for action.

We still struggle vs parked buses but we seem to be more adept at wearing them down eventually. Also our individual qualtiy seems to have improved a bit in the younger player taking more responsibility. The wingbacks are hugely important for TT's system and the main reason why we get away with not having effective, prolific attackers. The offensive players create space for the wingbacks to get into shooting positions or force set pieces for heading opps. Both seem to be frequent patterns for us these days. Havertz and ziyech were their frustrating selves but they kept Newcastle busy till they finally cracked. As long as we can keep this up, creating chances in the channels and having surefiring defenders coming inside, we might get by. Question remains if we really can replicate this vs higher quality opposition.

Delighted for the lad. Was one of the first to jump aboard the Reece James hypetrain during his time at Wigan and never looked back... Such well rounded player. Good pysical attributes, Astute on the ball, humble attitude, not afraid to take responsibility. Does not surprise me one bit he now gets the plaudits he deserves. Both goals amazingly well taken. Wingbacks are crucial for our offensive system and he fuliflls that role maybe even better than Hakimi (who is doing fine himself) does atm for PSG.

What an amazing weekend result wise. Long time since it has been this satisfying. Massive 3 points lead. Even marriner giving laporte that red was not something i was expecting... We have been coping well with all the absentees, relentlessly wearing down our opposition whilst mancity and pool flaws exposed... gallagher running the show against our rivals whilst not being able to play vs us... all falling into place. Pray it continues this way.

The Saudis are yet to reintroduce beheadings to Newcastle but surely will do so soon

I usually don't watch too many Bayern games. Surely came as a surprise. But we should not read too much into this. It was basically the perfect storm for Bayern. Everything Gladbach tried came off. Opened scoring after a minute after a Davies mistake and were 3-0 up before BAyern even started playing. Most of their goals very clean, true hits. Apparently Bayern were so pissed, they tried to storm into the gladbach dressing room afterwards looking to start a brawl lol. Entitled pusses. Accidents like this happen to every great team, their dominance is not under threat. Still nice to see them lose their shits about this in absolute despair. Again only the golden pineapple for Bayern this season.

Fa cup third round can be against an opponent from the same division? I thought they had modified the draw so that can’t happen…

sure, why not lewandowski with his only title the golden pineapple league.

Vertical means fuck all when defending a corner or cross. the ball swerves, players move around and the defender only has time for a little hop. If the attacker is this much taller he can just stand there and nick it In if the cross is good. You need optimal preparation and run up to exploit your full vert like in a dunk. No chance of this in game for defenders cos they are always the ones to react

The shot turned pass went straight through his legs, so naturally you would blame the keeper as well. Our left side was terrible all game defensively tho... Sarr Alonso Saul and Barkley should never play together in this constellation again.

On a different note, Kepa really redeemed himself once more for his error during the game with some miraculous saves, including two good penalty stops. He really is becoming better and better at it.

For Saul, despite a decent performance, its more than number than the quality of chances. None of them was guilt-edged on isolation but when you get this many as a pro, you should take one Kai and Ross should have scored more, I agree. Also no two opinions on the left side of doom Sarr, Alonso, Barkley. No wonder they attacked over that side very time. Sarris by far our worst CB, which is not a problem cos the rest are so good, but Alonso offers 0 protection which makes Sarr look even worse whilst Barkley can't defend so will make Alonso look even worse when failing to track back. I hope TT has learned from this.

Saul shoots like we did in youth footy when the coach forbade us to use anything but the inside of the foot to practice to not toe poke it all the time. put your damn foot through it ffs

how many chances is saul gonna waste today ffs. two free headers one free shot

ridiculous free kick for long falling over his own feet mason with a pass for the corner flag wtf really low quality game. probably gonna go to pens again

and Chilly for Barkley wtf Ross has been pants as usual tho

Mase is coming on for us, walcott and long for them

He really is not. He had his purple patch were he scored 1 goal, had a few nice games which by his standards just means not being 10kmh slower than every other player on the pitch and not looking completely out of his depth. Chilwell has come back and despite not playing at his best immediately shown us what we were missing. Alonso is all round extremely limited and realy should not be playing for this club.

just keep getting corners, we always have a free header and forser despite being one of the tallest players in the league does not care to come out and catch one

Che Adams looks like he is wearing one of those Russian fur heads with that ridiculous haircut

better attacking play from us now. why not in the first half ffs? I don't rate this cup but i also hate how indifferent our showings are in it.