Magic Lamps

Enzo with an enzo finish

Ofc. We play a Team unable to score from Open Play so we habe to give them a pen . Typical sadly sanchez and fofana are the Players who Clan cost u tight Games what a goal from moises.

That’s why I always hated Felix as a player. All show no substance, chokes whenever it matters

Game over. We look like we could play 4hrs and not score here. Familiar finishing problems but at least we have been able to carve them open again and again

If Felix simply hammers that it’s a goal. I hate how he always has to look cool. Just put your foot through it btw as erratic as big Rob is, Jorgensen is worse

Terrible defensive play but with this lineup Enzo was asking for it. Those players are good enough for incompetence league fodder but not decent Pl level opposition . This midfield has never played together like this, KDH on the wing is a mess and the defenders+gk are simply not good enough at this level

Was just about to comment the same. Why can we never catch them at their low? They always raise their game vs us and make it super awkward. Now with ten hag gone I can’t see them still be the total pushovers they were for the last few months. they clearly have the quality to hit us on the break. Would love to hammer them again after 7 years of mostly disappointing results but will take a nervy win any day. Last seasons performance at OT was one of the biggest let downs of the season so can hardly be any worse now

Good question. He has definitely improved and we have to give him some credit that he basically was our sole holding mid for a season where we had poor overall defensive organisation. He has stopped most of these absolute brainfarts leading to goals by now which was why my assessment back then was so scathing. I still think we massively overpaid and he will never be a player worth 115m but he at least looks adequate now the team is finding its feet. So, I would not say he has proved me wrong yet but at least he is going int he right direction. There are still a few DMs I‘d have over him out there, but with the squad we have he clearly has his place in the starting lineup

Damn what a nail biter. I thought our game management was ok in the end but the ref made it incredibly hard, always penalising nkunku whenever a Newcastle donkey tripped over his own feet . Also var made all 3 big calls against us so quite pleased we still proved our resilience

I like how Vardrid are finally treated by their own medicine with the time wasting. Also finally a ref who isn’t intimidated goal back Rüdiger

Plunging rj right into the cold after playing like 4 times in 10 months was a gamble that backfired as his lack of sharpness directly caused that goal. But we don’t know how veiga would have handled salah… as noted before a big point was on the table but pool showed up and when they do, esp at anfield, it’s gonna be hard. they are just a better oiled machine with more big game experience. Back in the last league cup final, simply having VVD and Konate was enough for them to beat us despite having almost all their starters missing . Shows what a difference leadership, winning mentality and experience make.

FT. 1 point dropped but we were never gonna win. One more tough fixture behind us tho

There it was. Veiga should score. Don’t expect us to get another chance here

That instant conceding deflated us . No momentum whatsoever. Neto has been quite poor, they did well taking palmer out of the game and the remaining attackers are not really able to conjure up much by themselves. Probably the last season where Liverpool are just too strong for us at home.

Thank fk PL is back. But with spuds … ugh Brighton Newcastle probably the most interesting match today

Would be a tragedy to lose Nkunku over someone like Jackson. Let’s just hope he accepts that joker role

0 hate feelings here. Puli always had the talent and the character to succeed in a top league just not the body to do so in PL. he had plenty of chances but never developed consistency here due to his injuries, Serie A suits him much better, I am happy for him, he deserves his success. Comparing him to Mudryk is obv almost an insult but to Madueke is more interesting. Pulisic is clearly more technical and overall the smarter player. But Madueke is almost never injured, quite robust and powerful for a winger so I have no doubt he will have a decent PL career despite having no where near the talent of Pulisic. sure we could have had better wingers than Mudryk/madueke to replace Pulisic. but with this squad, it’s dozen talented attackers and glaring lack of ability at CB and GK I will not be complaining about our selection of wingers.

I don’t quite get how Cucu ended up booked after he got cynically tripped. Surely not for that Tiny Bodycheck before. I do think Tosin and veiga are more than adequate replacements tho

Unfortunately exactly the game that was expected. We will always struggle at the small pitch at home vs deep buses. We need a plan B which is why I hate having no big striker. One of those crosses goes to a Giroud or drogba type and we win this

One of those days.Last season we would have lost this for sure. We had the chances to win this but was not meant to be. Palmer didn’t have his shooting boots on, maybe a bit early to call him best player in the world

Their Defence is not too bad. I expect them to park the bus so not really the day for a high scoring win but you never know. Need an early goal. this is the kind of banana skin game we regularly lost last season

On the bright side, at least our scouts did well and might be right again. Samu and Duran really were not obvious picks last summer also there is no guarantee their purple patches will last. needlessly buying Felix and Kelly man and not even getting either samu or Duran… that was simply bad business just to have that pure profit, doing villa/atleti a solid but not even getting a player we could actually use

Duran is something. Huge defensive display from him as well today. The variety of finishes in his locker takes him above some other CF targets of ours. Credit to shields or whoever who made the call, too bad we couldn’t pull it off in hinsight but tbh we don’t look too shabby with Jackson and Nkunku atm

It’s always Bayern with their intolerable amount of luck (Bayerndusel in German). Second only to Real Vardrid

All of our attacking players apart from mudryk are on an insane technical level and all of them have decent pace. While I would say we had overall better starting front 3/4 before (think Drogba,Lampard, Robben + Ballack/sheva/jcole) I am not sure we ever had such great depth in terms of wingers and AMs. Mazacar+KDB,Salah comes close on paper but they weren’t all in their prime yet. football has evolved. Most of our previous great teams played more vertical or with more crosses and long shots, so central players were key. All of our PL winning teams had dominant midfields. We see this a lot less today with the focus on exploiting space in the channels, getting in behind and quick interplay in front of the box. Also there is a clear slow but steady upwards trend in goals scored (last PL season and last WC again set new records) . I think this is bc of both evolution of tactics but also mentality and quality of players. Defenders and goalkeepers are a lot worse at actual defending and shot stopping nowadays but are asked to take more risks as well. central/defensive and CFs are asked to do more donkey work and less attacking but also need more tactical awareness. Wingers/Ams and fullbacks are asked a lot more offensively but also enjoy more freedom. our current team fits modern football perfectly. They need this last bit of quality, maturity, grit and champions mentality to become really great.