maqroll

At the end of the day, what is required is a collective leap of faith, from NSWE on down to VillaTalk. Gerrard gets the summer and until at least January. If he's failed, then the owners will need to make some hard decisions on his fate, as well as Lange and Purslow. Until then, we may as well not wring our hands too much because there is **** all any of us can do about it. We've got a very busy and exciting summer ahead if us, let's enjoy it. The stepping into the unknown is half the fun, in my opinion. Our trajectory is positive.

100%. The summer recruitment was a carnival of reactive, desperate amateurishness. Alarm bells rang for me then and they still jingle a bit now.

Boston in a tailspin

I voted Lukaku because of his want away antics earlier in the season and the fact that he just never even plays. Catastrophic signing that kneecapped their entire season. Grealish at least made a passable contribution.

Outer Range was good through 4 episodes, but it went right off the rails in 5 and 6. Two more left. I'll watch just to see how it resolves. Really good acting but the story got ponderous. It's a really strange show.

Jason Bateman has been acting since he was a little kid. I never paid much attention to him. Just thought he was a serviceable actor in mediocre productions. He's really become an exceptional actor.

Keep battling, Villans. Start small. Small victories add up. Keep things moving.

Japanese soldiers fighting in Europe! They don't look very tough but I suppose looks can be deceiving. Banzai!

Who ya got?

Normally I'd prefer Leeds to go down rather than Everton, but I'm rooting for Marsch to keep them up.

What a result for Everton. Pickford immense when he needed to be. Great drama now at both ends of the table for the run up.

Naomi Judd, the country music singer. Suicide.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool all owned by Americans who have mostly demonstrated an ignorance and/or contempt for the pyramid system and traditions of English football. Super League is off the table for now, but they'll do everything they can to get some facsimile of it down the road. I hope Edens doesn't try something similar when we get to that level.

I was wavering a little, but I think we need to sign him, if only to attract the players we want this summer. The thwarting of Buendia is a big concern, but I think once Coutinho is signed, it'll be easier for Gerrard to rotate him out of the starting 11 to accommodate Buendia.

It does kind of feel like he doesn't have the gumption required to succeed in this league. He's obviously a committed professional player, he won a move to the best league in the world. But he is a bit ponderous with the ball and doesn't do much of anything without the ball. Could potentially be useful off the bench to run at defenders, but he can't stay off the treatment table. And 30m is a heavy price tag for a substitute. The injury seemed innocuous and I'm not sure he's got the mentality to fight through little knocks. I wanted him to just torch the league and be a big star player for us. Looking unlikely at this rate. Should probably look to move him on.

He'll be a great bench option for the next couple of years, but we need technically more advanced players in midfield to start games for us to be able to take points off West Ham and Wolves. We have to keep fine tuning the squad.

Yep, first half he was off the pace and sloppy in his passing. Eager to see more of him, but I think a loan move is best for all parties.

I kept my little assassins indoors all winter, but they've been going out for the last few weeks. It's great to watch them sprint around the yard, climb trees, ambush each other, eat grass, roll around on the gravel, sniff every inch of everything, bask in the sun and close their eyes and enjoy the breeze. It was a long winter.

A good time to snap their win streak. No predictions other than Buendia won't start.

Wow, Burnley owner has been totally vindicated. Everton totally ****.

And today of all days would have been the day to give Emi a start. Poor form from Gerrard.

If Gerrard is determined to not find a way to play both together, he should rotate them the rest of this season. We are not going down. But we just might really piss off our record signing if he doesn't get the chance to start a few of these remaining games. Gerrard is stubborn and I don't like what I'm seeing in his rigidity.

Pretty murky stuff on the whole, first half in particular. Bailey is Traore 2.0. There is clearly a serviceable player there, but he appears to be a bit dainty. We need battlers. Not sure if he's cut out for the rough and tumble Premier League. His injury almost looked exaggerated. Buendia is a live wire, and fun to watch. I want to have fun watching him. Important two points, another clean sheet, both strikers with goals. But the overall performance level would have been exploited by better sides.

All in all, a pretty murky performance so far. It's hard to know what style we play if any, week to week. What is our identity? The game is calling out for Buendia to inject some fire into the belly. The manager has other ideas. Obviously glad to be up a goal, but against better opposition we'd probably be losing this.