He's a defender having to play in midfield. The other options were bring on junior asprin and move dallas. Or bring on bate. The lack of midfielders is down to Bielsa and rads.
Think I watched a different game to most last night. Fantastic fighting spirit, loved the old school tackling, what a performance from ayling. 11 points from 15 keeping us 5 ahead of a piss poor Everton outfit. We have improved substantially with our managerial change, Everton have not. We are where we are not because of current form but because oof everything that went on in first two thirds of the season
It was a nervous watch at times. Entertaining though. The ref did let a lot of stuff go which was good. I thought some of our passing was terrible and Philips looked off the pace second half, but that's understandable due to his lack of match fitness. I'm still not sure about Greenwood, but the manager likes him and I thought Joffy should have come on at the start of the second half. That's only my opinion and not from any coaching experience. But like Eire said, I couldn't fault our fighting spirit and the way we harrassed them when they had the ball. I can't see us getting anything from our next three games, but you never know. So hopefully either Everton or Burnley slip up because I certainly don't want to go to Brentford looking for a win.
I think the bloke on Sky pointed out, to remain up you’re probably going to need more than the 35 points average, he felt 38 should do it, 39 would be better. We need a win and a draw from somewhere so logically you’d feel 4 points from the last two games
All I’d say is I watched the last two Everton games and they’re definitely improving. They have an away game at Watford followed by two home games to Brentford and Palace. They’ve easily got 5 more points in them but turn one of the draws to a win and it’s a problem for us. I can’t see them losing twice to Villa either, it’s all too close for comfort, for me it’s the uneasy feeling of playing three top four teams next and expecting nil points. It’s like the rest have a free run at us and I hate relying on others to slip up
I'm not saying we had other options. I know we are too light in midfield, it's been the main problem all season. My point was that I thought Koch was truly dreadful last night. Infidel disagreed. I put my points forward why I thought he was poor. I'm asking @Infidel if he thought Koch was good and why. He might have seen something I didn't which is fair enough. On another note. The fighting spirit on show from the lads last night was fantastic and that can go a long long way in a relegation battle. I can't fault any of them for effort and commitment. I get frustrated watching simple 5 yard passes going astray when we are in promising situations. It's happened all season and is the cause of our situation. Rodrigo passed the ball more to Zaha last night than any other Palace player. Its frustrating. If just a couple more stick at the right time we can break and create chances ourselves instead of crossing our fingers and hoping for a draw.
Lampard has taken 12 points out of his last 36. Can someone explain why you believe he’s going to magically double that rate because the vast majority of Everton fans on Twitter after Sunday don’t
2 or 3 more points needed imo. I just find it hard to believe that both Everton AND Burnley will win EVERY one of their winnable games. Its not impossible but its unlikely. It would be very Leedsy to go down with a record number of points though.
They were shocking at Liverpool. Time wasting starting in first half. Slated by their own fans for their tactics. The word embarrassing was used numerous times
I wouldn’t be surprised by any result for them at Watford. Their away form is shocking. It’s their home form that’s a concern. You’d expect them to have a good chance of getting something in the palace Villa and Brentford games
Absolutely I think Jesse went their tactically for a draw or even pinch a win, something totally alien to the previous management team, so hats off to him. We will not be going down because we will now adapt, to the opposition, we will in all likelihood loose to city, but it won't be a drubbing, i am predicting a great game but 2-1 city.
Morning all. I think the 16 days off didn't help us at all. The defence have got some pelters on here but they were up against a very good Palace attack. Zaha (****er) was running Ayling ragged, Eze was pissing the midfield, he was class and very tough to handle, Mateta was a big lump and very mobile so tough to control and then you had Gallagher in his ballet shoes falling on his arse every time he got near the box, and then Olise came on! They were a fkn good side and we earned a point. No matter what you think about it, we've been much better with Coops back in defence. Philips didn't have the influence that we expect but he did have the composure we need in the middle. I don't know how well Greenwood played because he just got on with it. We weren't worse when he came on so he must have done ok. I still think Joffy is trying to do too much and he drops way too deep. He needs to hassle the CBs. We're now difficult to beat which is exactly what we need going in to the next 3 games. The next 3 games won't be pretty but we just need to dig out points. I'd take 2 points from them now.
Exactly and got a far worse one to their previous one. That's the view of a sizeable part of their fans on twitter, not just my view.
I'm getting ready to post my blog shortly and it was a surprise to see the body language from the players at the end of the game when I've looked at my photos. They look deflated which after putting a battling performance in wasn't what I expected to see. Maybe too close to the bottom of the table for comfort?
Weird wasn’t it the fans at the stadium were ecstatic with the draw and celebrated the result. The players not so much.
Definitely. Maybe in the background things aren't so rosy? That would be a big concern for me especially as I've just seen the argument with Klich and Marsch on the touchline at the start of the second half which doesn't bode well for me sadly.
