Magic Lamps

I was not referring to spuds in particular but hoping that they would go out in a group with OM, SGE and Sporting was futile having them play in CL as well is obv better for us compared to them not having midweek games at all Maybe it would be best if all other English teams went to the EL but we can’t have it our way all the time .

It's good for us tho. May they stay in the meat grinder as long as possible.

He is a good player currently in the form of his life but I doubt he will be able to play with the same freedom here even with GP as coach. Also this might very well just be a purple patch. If he is the calibre of player we are going for in the future, I will be deeply disappointed. He adds nothing new except hitting the target atm (a skill which rapidly deteriorates in every attacker who joins us) and solves none of our problems in offense.

He is the exact type of player zakaria is but slower. There is absolutely no point in exchanging the too if there apparently is no room for either

Dzeko with the 2nd. Barca going down 😋

Yes! He has had a great run of games, seems to have cut out the clumsy mistakes from his game and is overall commanding with his athleticism. Hopefully he becomes our new Rüdiger, our defense relies so much on the pace of their defenders. Even his passing was on point today. Most importantly, he is the only one who can really play next to Thiago in a back 4 without us being exposed at every counter like with K2 or Azpi there.

We played ok, a couple of really sexy moves but we were our own worst enemies again with our wastefulness and lack of defensive resoluteness. With a mindset like this we will struggle in the really big games every time. Today was the same inconsequential, half assed negligence we saw vs Manure just with a far worse opponent. Salzburg were one of the worst teams we would face over the course of the season so beating them is hardly some feat. 40 games unbeaten at home means fk all when you look at the terrible group they had in the cl last year and the semi pros they play against in Austrian league. Defeating them is like defeating some relegation fodder team in PL. can be an unnerving affair but it should be expected. So I am satisfied we grinded our a result but not ecstatic. We learned nothing new today. The real challenge was Saturday and the team failed miserably. The next real challenge will be those last 3 games before the wc break.

We are almost 100% to win the group now too

I can. We have been like this for 5 years now just getting worse and worse, utterly predictable

It’s Salzburg we could play 0-0-10 with the kit man in goal and still waste 10 clear chances

Aubameyang is exactly the player I had expected we signed. Years past it

Cucurella at fault for not being close enough to his man terrible defending

…

Our worst chance conversion display yet? Terrible finishing all over the pitch. Great saves by Kohn but also absolute gifts from us. They will score from their first chance ridiculous. We should Hammer this pub team

Sterling and Pulisic as wingbacks, useless cucu at lcb again… I ain’t even mad anymore it’s just 5 more years of these wacky formations

But we do not exactly instill fear either . We tend do really poorly against teams who play with intensity be it pressing us high or sitting back deep defending doggedly. We seldom blow teams off the pitch like we used to. In contrast, teams see City rolling in with Haaland and they are shitting themselves, City win before a ball is kicked. When they see Sterling , Cucu, K2 slouching around, they very much fancy their chances.

Red Bull founder Mateschitz just died. RB Leipzig may get defunded and be more willing to sell their key players given his only son and heir is not too keen on football. With a bit of luck the whole RB empire crumbles. Mateschitz's son Mark will most likely inhert those 49% of Red Bull. Another 49% are owned by a company called TC Agro which will try to wrestle control from Mark. The RB franchises are solid enough financially so the impact will not be that big and imeediate probably.

I thought he was rather unlucky, he did not quite get enough power behind the push but the problem was that he had to jump a little backwards so it was hard to push it past the post from that angle. Overall he did well today again, was decent with his feet under pressure and made two very good and three routine saves with which he would have struggled 2 years ago. Let's just hope he keeps his confidence. He might be right but Howard is the one to talk. i remember clear as day in 2011 he jumped for a late back post header by chicharito and clumsily ended up hitting the net way before the ball did.

btw rewatched extensive highlights and while ManUre had more big chances with antony and rashford missing guilt edged ones, we should have had another penalty. Casemiro bodychecked Sterling right after he attempted that intercepted bass to Auba in the box. Clear pen for me as he hits him on the knee as well. Honestly, i was shocked when we got that Jorginho penalty. After maguire's chokehold vs Azpi i never blieved we would ever get a big decision against them again. Also where did the 6mins come from? One goal? that was the moment I was sure we would concede late. Another (albeit anyway terrible) match compleltey ruined by a professional match fixer with a whistle.

GP is obviously not better than TT but they are both good coaches, would not blame either for the situation we are in. Rahter, it's the squad that is just hopeless. As I said during the match and many here agreed afterwards, our recuritment is terrible. We have wasted close to a bn on absolute shit players like Cucurella, Lukaku, Sterling, Ziyech etc . Until we actually have a recuritment strategy with a competent DoF in place, we should just not splash out huge sums and then wonder where it went wrong. Broja once more did 10x more than Auba in a fraction of the minutes, Mount outshone Sterling, Trev is maturing into one of the best cbs in the league when Cucurella ran around like a headless chicken again. Jorginho and Azpi while good servants to the club are finished. We should only buy players that identify 100% with the club. Obviously most of our acquisitions just come in to collect a paycheck and do as much as necessary not to violate their contracts but nothing more. we have gone the Barca route of luring players here who are not fit for the team nor the club with fat paychecks and hoping for the best, no clear strategy of how to integrate and play them. Now we pay the price. manUre have the same strategy btw and they looked like shit today as well too albeit slightly more creative than we did, blind chicken and stuff.

at no point in time i was confident we could have carried that over the line, they were always gonna score as soon as those 6mins popped up 1-1 for the umpteenth time in this fixture. good result given our shambolic performance tho. defending was actually alright today apart from those final minutes. terrible coordination there.

he always has been a big game choker

It's true. And we can not really afford one in our system as long as we have to carry Jorginho around. We only have room for one luxury player and we somehow decided for that being Jorginho and stuck with that for 5 years idk why. Jude Bellingham would be perfect. He just completely tore apart stutgart for BVB without breaking a sweat.

TT won the CL with that same lot of shit. It all comes down to motivation and mentality. apparently since we know the league can not be won, this squad has just begun cruising in most league matches only pulling it together for the occasional big CL tie. We need to source more players from the academy. I can live with finishing outside the top 4 as long as we have a bunch of lads who bleed blue and give their all for the club. It seems the more expensive our signings are the more they suck... Sterling, Cucu, Lukaku, Koulibaly, Kai, Timo the list goes on... can't remember a big money signing that has actually constantly delivered for ages now apart from maybe Chilly and Kova if you can count them as big money. The players who are delivering or at least showing they care are Mount, broja, RJ, Trev. Not always pure quality from them but they do give their all.

the amount of ignored tactical fouls by manure is just ridiculous. getting shafted by refs game after game