We’re quite good again aren’t we - just shows how rewarding backing your manager can be! Faes is some player - it’s a shame we’ll never have been able to see him partner Fofana as that could have been superb. Fair play to Amartey too for really sorting himself out.
I think Faes has been the catalyst for our turnaround. We were scoring goals before he came but defending like idiots. I was more than frustrated with Rodgers during the start of the season, and he was certainly culpable for our situation as he sets out our tactics, even last night at 0-0 Soumare nearly gifted them a goal with our playing out from the back, it would have been a different story if Iwobi hadn’t missed that sitter. But now our defending at corners has considerably improved, possibly down to our new set piece coach, Rodgers is seen in a different light, and rightly so, I’m more than happy with him, funny how fickle we can be. Regarding Maddison, we need to offer him a wage reflecting how he is performing on the pitch, he’s worth £200k a week now, but we’d have to put in a release clause around £100m so as to not make him feel chained to the club, we’d have to be realistic if Man City or any other apex team came in for him. We must be regretting having people like Perez, Vestegaard and Bertrand on the wage bill now, on inflated wages, refusing to leave. We could use their wage to reward Maddison. 3 points next week at West Ham before the World Cup, and I’ll be full of optimism for the rest of the season.
Best all-round team performance for some time. Complete domination all over the pitch even though we did try our best to shoot ourselves in the foot with some sloppy play at times. The decision to persevere with Danny Ward is paying off. Nice to see our keeper helping out positively to clear away balls into the danger area. No doubt much of his improvement is down to the confidence of having Wout Faes in front of him and organising the defence. What a great find he has been. Great to see Tielemans back to his best and looking like he's enjoying his football. Him and Maddison were absolutely outstanding, and that crossfield ball from KDH to Barnes was as good as anything De Bruyne could conjure up. The only place we lacked quality was in the striker department. Daka had some good openings but snatched at every one too early. He and Vardy are too similar. Neither can dominate defenders in the air, and neither is showing the composure and skill to bring the ball down to feet, turn and dribble past defenders. Iheanacho can do all those things but lacks the pace. Is there no precocious young talent in the academy?
Great team performance, but could have been so different if they hadn't missed a sitter after 5 mins. I agree we were lacking up top, but Daka needs a run of games. He plays 1, then is swapped for Vardy before being recalled again. Give him 5 or 6 consecutive games and hopefully his sharpness will be there. If Madders doesn't get on that plane to the World Cup then it is down to Southgate having personal problems with him. On a footballing point of view, he should be sitting next to the pilot!! Hopefully we can persuade Youri to stay until the end of the season, and who knows, offer him a new lucrative contract and whilst their at it give one to Madders too.
How do we feel about the Maddison for England clamour that’s going on at the moment? Personally I’d be more than happy for him to stay behind and have a breather before the season continues. I’m sure he sees it differently though. Southgate hasn’t said anything encouraging regarding Maddison which leads me to think he won’t pick him. Might be a good thing in the end as I don’t see us setting the world alight with his ‘safe ball’ approach.
He certainly deserves the call in my opinion. At the same time, I agree with you - I don't think southgate will pick him. For some reason, I have zero excitement for the world cup this time, maybe if Maddison does go, it will get me onboard
Talk about mixed emotions. Delighted for Maddison that he is in and now hopefully he will get game time and show what he can do. Not sure if it improves or hinders the likelihood of him staying with us. On the flip side the news for JJ is just awful. Just starting to show what he could do and now gone for the season again. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for th young man.
Agreed! It's been made clear Tielemans is off at the end of his contract, not so much talk on Maddison - does anyone expect him to sign a new contract?
Delighted for Maddison. A well deserved call up. Mystifying it's not happened sooner given his stats over the last year. I was convinced he'd not get the call. Let's hope he actually sees minutes on the pitch. I feared it would be an additional reason to leave. At the opposite end of the spectrum, absolutely gutted for JJ. The poor lad isn't getting many breaks. Hope the operation went well. Need to continue our form and get 3 points tomorrow.
A potentially difficult away game today, another clean sheet - Ward has the joint highest clean sheets in the league now. That's insane after our start to the season. 3 points and we move up to 12th. Maddison has been on light training due to a sore knee this week, so his substitution was precautionary. Thought Thomas did well, good interception for the second goal. Barnes seriously covered some ground to score that. Lovely pass from Perez too. We were quite disjointed after Maddison went off but did regain composure second half. As ever West Ham were physical but we dealt with it better than we have previously. Strong defensively again. Another good win for our confidence. It's a shame we've a break just as our momentum was on the up. Did not expect 9 points, 3 clean sheets and 8 goals scored from those 3 away games. I may deserve a slice of humble pie. Credit where due, Brendan has knuckled down and sorted out performances and results.
New defensive set piece coach? ... can't argue with how much better we have been ... plus Wout is already (and rightly so) a cult hero ...
Another confident performance, well deserved win and yet another clean sheet. Shame we couldn't have put the game to bed earlier with that penalty. Youri should have asked the ref if he could move the ball back 15 yards; he doesn't do 12 yard tap ins.
I know it's early and the games are a few weeks away, but I have put the next 3 rounds of fixtures in the prediction league. With a lot of fixtures close together, I have given everyone a chance to predict in plenty of time.
Good thinking, thank you. They are easy to miss at that time of year. Plenty to consider like injuries and who will have tired bodies after the world cup.
What a nice normal level headed statement by young maddison at the england press conference today. seems like a breath of fresh air
