Hobsons Choice

OK, so I've watched now up to the middle of the 4th episode, and while I still think there is a lot to admire about Beckham, his responses to the affair thing were pretty disappointing. I would have had more respect for his handling of the situation if he'd said- 'look, it happened, I'm not proud of it, I know I hurt my Wife, it's no excuse but I was lonely in Madrid, it was a massive mistake, everyone makes mistakes but I've learned from it'. As it was it seems his actual persecution after the Argentina sending off seems to have lead to a persecution complex. I get that it's how he's always dealt with setbacks and adversity. Us vs them. It was drilled into him at Man U by Fergie who used it as his main management style. In some situations though, you have to hold your hands up and say that maybe I am the one who got it wrong this time. I am to blame. And make it right. Maybe he has, but the documentary seems to indicate otherwise. The isolation caused by the move to Spain seems to have exacerbated it. I wonder what would have happened if he'd have moved to another English club. Guess we'll never know. At the end of the day he's like all of us, a flawed individual. Human. We're conditioned to idol worship, and maybe the big takeaway is that we should stop treating stars like they are infallible.

Yeah just seen that episode, and it was shocking. Imagine someone hanging an effigy of one of the players now, it just wouldn't be tolerated, quite rightly. Then the media were interviewing the guy who did it on prime TV. And the threats to kidnap his newborn son. Some absolute head wobblers in this world. Also Glenn Hoddle came across as an utter ba****d. Threw him under the bus. Terrible management and just a low down thing to do.

Haha, maybe I should have proof read that before I posted.

Just found out about this. Nice one Ollie!! I must admit I've been guilty of overlooking his ability in the past. Every time I have doubted him he's crammed it down my throat, and I'm so glad he has. He's Villa.

Yeah Donk wasn't great in fairness. I think I'd struggle to get past Youri as second worst though. Digne was quiet but defensively decent. Jhon was also quite quiet, and couldn't really handle the press, but him and Zani were outnumbered up front in the first half so that was always a big ask. Lenglet, Konsa, Emi, Bailey, Bertie, Ollie and Zani were decent. Mcginn, Cash, Doug, were our best performers.

I'm not trying to be facetious here, but I would be curious to see who you thought our worst performer(s) was/were.

Anyone else catch his little bit of potty mouth after we scored last night? My Spanish is non existent, but I used to work with a Mexican who taught me the bad words, haha. I distinctly saw him mouth the word 'Puta', which means.....well look it up. Haha. Unai goes rogue!!! He's off the f***ing chain.

I don't think metatarsal injuries cause any long term issues, aside from loss of development time. I could be wrong, and if there are any Docs on here, by all means put me right, but I don't think so.

Cash set up the goal. Bertie played a 5 yard overlap pass to Cash. It was hardly a Zidane. Anyway, he was OK. Not epoch shattering, but decent when he came on.

He did, but pass completion was under/around 80%, which when you are making 101 passes in a game is not great. Dougs, for comparison was 92%.

Think you are right. Young GK and RB with high potential who are happy to play second fiddle for a season or so, but who can do a job, and a CM who is at or around first team level who is comfortable on the ball with great distribution. I think the CM and RB need some pace too, as we are lacking a bit in that department, especially given our high line.

Good opportunity to kick on and improve our away form here. Good opposition to be playing next I reckon, but their tails will be up after the Man City win, so we can't expect to turn up and batter them.

I don't want to go in too hard on him, and i'm by no means writing him off, but you are right about the physical side. Not only shrugged off the ball a lot, but his stats show no tackles made at all during the entire match last night. He did look better in the second half though when Dougie came on and he could push a bit higher. If a couple of the attempted through balls had come off (none of which did) during that time, we'd have a different look at him today, i'm sure.

I think we'd all be giving him more time to settle and more leeway if he hadn't played billy big bollox in the media.

Yeah I thought he was OK, but certainly not great. He made some decent runs but his pass completion was in the mid 70s, by far the lowest of any of our players (excluding Bertie who was only on for around 10 minutes.

One of the best on the pitch last night. Made them very uncomfortable on the right side and his assist was only one of about 5 or 6 good crosses that on another day may have found a finish.

He did, but it was not really a defence splitting pass or anything. Iirc it was like a 5 yard pass. Anyway I don't want to be negative about Bertie, I love the guy.

Laursen was a vintage Aston Martin DB5

I dunno about squad depth, but we definitely need some depth in our vehicle euphemisms. I'm fed up of Rolls Royces. He's a Bugatti Chiron of a centre half.

Fair point.

Yeah might be. Might also be a bit of a confidence or match sharpness thing.

He looks much better on the left to me. If we do that regularly playing Cash on the right helps.

Do you think he's lost a yard of pace? Might be me but he seems less explosive than I remember him.

Not sure if it's a fitness thing but he always seems much better early in games, and fades out. When he's on it though he looks tremendous. He's gonna score our goal of the season though, guaranteed.

Didn't think he made a massive impact tonight, but to be fair he didn't have long. Seemed decent enough though.