WallisFrizz

I can well believe that he ranks high out of defenders errors leading to shots. We know this is part of his game. I still like him. He’s still one of the first name on the team sheet for me and I think we’ll miss him on Sunday. His positive attributes far outweigh the negatives for me and I think since Gerrard has come in he has been one of the outstanding defenders in the league outside of Thiago Silva, VVD, etc who we would never get in a million years.

That said, I don’t see Hause and Tuanzebe as our future so I think the next couple of windows are a good opportunity to find a Mings successor, not for the immediate term but will be able to develop over a season or so like Konsa did.

10 minutes ago, Pissflaps said:

Well yes of course because that would mean he is actually achieving what we have paid him to do?

I think the point possibly being made is that our strikers aren’t converting his chances which is out of his control.

1 hour ago, tonyh29 said:

On Instagram he follows loads of women with fake tans and trout pouts , a few footballers and Arsenal and Juventus 

nothing Villa related that I can see 

 

edit - actually scrolling a bit further he also follows Villa and Liverpool , but don’t think we can read much into it 

He also follows Arsenal and Newcastle. Weirdly also Juventus but not Bologna. Bored football fans always read too much into social media tho.

18 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

Bertie, AEG and Trez who used to chip in with surprising goals are now all sitting on the bench. Our starters may be better all-round players, but a certain surprise element is missing from our game without these players.

It was us who were most surprised when they scored

17 hours ago, Don_Simon said:

No one has been brilliant this season. Horrendous preseason, losing Jack, Copa America, injuries, illness, complete change of coaching staff and new manager. If you were to bin off everyone who has ben off form there would be no-one left. Even Martinez hasn't been up to last season's standards. 

Given the above events, Watkins has been fine, as @stevo985 said. 

McGinn, Ramsey, Cash and Luiz have all improved on last season in my opinion.

Man U going to let the entire league down in this fixture…the one time we wanted them to win…

9 minutes ago, AvonVillain said:

What an odd sense of humour! Looks concerning to me, perhaps the behaviour of someone who feels out of place, even.

I think you’d feel less concerned if you watched it from a different angle and saw his face was delighted. No idea whether it was but I think best not to over analyse a reaction to an own goal when he’s seemed over the moon with every other goal we’ve scored.

38 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

Thought Ramsey was absolutely superb yesterday.

Defensively suspect as other's have mentioned... but he's now physically ready for the PL and he can hold his own in a challenge.

However going forward he can pick a ball up and carry it forward for the team. It's something that Grealish used to do for us, and it's exactly what we missed whenever he was missing with injury. His composure on the ball is brilliant, and he was key to some of the link up play yesterday.

I don’t think he was absolutely superb in his performance, plenty of room for improvement in fact, but he’s doing incredibly well for a 20 year old against one of the top teams in world football and consistently in one of the toughest leagues.

2 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Is it just something I've invented in my head, or do the criteria for suspension change in January so you need more yellows before you get a suspension?

If that's the case, McGinn might have Covided himself out of suspension danger.

 

It’s after 19 games I think rather than a specific date so still got another game to avoid a booking.

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I worried during Smith's time this season and now Gerrard's first set of games where the creativity is going to come from.  Bailey has been injured, same with Traore and Buendia hasnt got up to speed.  It's hard to see where that creativity is going to come from at the moment.  Our xG under both managers is showing how little we are creating enough good chances to win games or have a chance of winning games even if we miss a couple of chances.  Our final third on the pitch this season I worry about.

It was really nice to see Traore back, he’s a tricky f**ker.

13 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

Is this the first time ollie and ings have started together under Gerrard? I still have faith in them working out a partnership 

I think we’ll see an improvement.

4 minutes ago, AVFCGB said:

Tapped up!!!  Arsenal bound, if they  cough up £60-70 million!!!

It wouldn’t surprise me but the money will be a sticking point.

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

If it is that Jack made him look good then we have a bigger problem.

Ollie’s good but not a natural finisher so he benefited from having one of the best creative players in the league setting him up repeatedly. He tailed off when Jack was injured too. However, he has loads of assets will be fine. It’s not like his goals have dried up completely.

Today was the first game in a while where I thought how much I miss Jack. He would have  created a magic moment during our dominant periods definitely.

4 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Jack might have been a major deflection from this, and helped some look better than they actually we're as well?

Even at Ollie's best, he's always had flaws.

100%. I’ve just said it in the match thread, Jack was brilliant for Ollie. That’s not to say I think he’s rubbish but maybe we overrated him slightly. Still a big fan though. 

Is he going to be suspended aswell as Mings next game? Losing track of peoples yellow card count.

4 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Not sure what's going on with him. 

Yes it maybe an excuse when Ings is on the pitch but what is the excuse when Ollie is on his own up front this season and still does the same. 

Something is wrong with him this season.

He clearly misses a certain £100 mil player who would get the ball into the box and create an absolute ton of chances for him. JG and Ollie were great together a lot of the time. I’m not sure we’d have taken to Ollie as much without Jack to create for him.

6 minutes ago, Beastmix said:

No issue with either pen, but the refereeing was generally poor today. Gave us next to nothing in the middle of the park.

Our passing in the 2nd half was diabolical. We still struggle against teams with a high press - a hang over issue from the previous regime for Gerrard and co to work on.

Thought the ref was fine to be fair. Didn’t agree with everything but I thought he gave plenty of decisions to us, just no pens, although we didn’t deserve one.

Can’t blame the ref and Chelsea were not incredible, this one is on us. And Lukaku.

5 minutes ago, sne said:

Obviously they have a stronger squad but Chelsea also have a bunch of players missing. Just as unfair to them to play the game.

They are mainly over their outbreak. Their predicted team is v strong.

33 minutes ago, TheFirstMan said:

McGinn's got the Rona, apparently...

Again??!! Is it not the 3rd time this year? That is spectacular bad luck if true.

So who is managing us this evening then? Beale or McAllister? Did the players even have a training session as planned yesterday?

Quick look at Chelsea forum, they’re confident they’ll be able to put out a strong team and are expecting to win, although to be fair are giving us some credit as a threat. 

Douglas Luiz seems to be self isolating, no Nakamba, Sanson may or may not have returned from Covid and injury-certainly a big ask to expect him to play 90 against the Champions of Europe. Ditto Ings.

Martinez, Buendia, Cash and Targett seem to be Covid free. No idea about Mings, Konsa, Ramsey, McGinn, Watkins, Young. Think El Ghazi had it over a week ago, expect we’ll see a fair bit of him over the next few days.

I absolutely cannot predict how the next couple of games are going to go but I don’t expect anything from this one. Leeds however…given how rubbish they’ve been recently, I’ll be annoyed if we don’t get something from that.

3 hours ago, Czarnikjak said:

Not a pretty reading, less than half of what Leicester are getting...we will never catch-up the big 6.,.that ship has sailed...bridges drawned etc

 

 

We knew this thought didn’t we- re never catching up those established at the top. Sometimes it does make you wonder what the point is. I actually think that Champions League teams should not be eligible for the League Cup but let it remain as a route into the Europa…a genuine chance at progression for the Other 14. 
Re the sponsorship, we need to be getting better out of our next deal. Everton getting 3mil a year more than us out of Cazoo isn’t great.

16 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

Weird one. If they were that scared and they also had symptoms, why did they get in the car to drive to the club in the first place.

Stay at home my guy and don't take anybody else out with you!

I was really confused by that aswell. Odd situation.

I’ve bought my 10 year old tickets to the United home game in Jan for part of his Christmas present…no point in giving them to him is there if I’m going to have to tell him he can’t go a few days later. Better buy him something else and if we can go, it’s a bonus.

29 minutes ago, Nigel said:

Good job we are not playing a team with a ridiculous squad......

Exactly, Chelsea wanted to postpone the game because they were forced to name Barkley in their squad who was a first teamer for us last season.