Watching Festa v Boro, Ayling has had Ndidi in his pocket first half, he crunched him in a tackle, never went round him asking if he was ok, Luke Luke Luke go on crock the fkr
Leicester next few fixtures.... Leeds (a) QPR (h) Sunderland (a) Hull (a) Southampton (h) Bristol City (a)
Kalvin Phillips just sent off for West Ham. I wonder if, in hindsight, he regrets leaving Leeds. There's probably a few million reasons he thinks it was the right move but football wise.....
Agent Ayling and Agent Greenwood doing their thing for Boro. Great win for Ipswich. They're not out of it yet. If we beat Leicester on Friday, we would be 6 pts behind them.
Brendan Aaronson scored an 86th minute winner for Union Berlin this afternoon. Their form has picked up a bit of late and they're now 9 points clear of the relegation zone.
And Southampton could be only 5 behind Leicester. Not forgetting Ipswich who would aslo likely be only 6 behind as well.
More proof today that football fans are indeed idiots with the critisicm of Farke earlier in the season now looking ridiculous. This is why Farke picks the team and then decides what role each player will perform and not anyone else. Archie Gray as a right back - doing amazingly well and down to Farke. Gnonto on the right and scoring goals for fun - down to Farke again as most said he had to play on the left. Meslier - clear No 1 and yet some wanted Klaesson promoted over him. Bamford - crucially brought back into the team by Farke when many said he was finished. Piroe - struggles as a nine for exactly the reasons Farke outlined in detail earlier in the season.
The other huge decision that Farke called correctly was leaving Cooper out and getting Gruev into the team. Cooper intially deputised for the injured Struijk in the defeat at WBA and then the comfortable home win against Birmingham on New Years Day. The easy thing to do therefore would have been to keep club captain Cooper in the team and give Ampedu a rest in the FA Cup at Peterborough, Farke however saw it differently and we've been unstoppable ever since.
Who said Gnonto had to play on the left? I don't recall that being a thing on here. I'd prefer to praise Klaesson for his performances as a third choice keeper coming in and saving the day. Meslier wasn't missed in the slightest when Klaesson deputised. Credit to him. You say that Bamford isn't finished? Where was he the last two games? What % games has he missed through injury the last 3 years? He has done well in January but there's no point being a good striker if your constantly unavailable. Piroe doesn't struggle as a 9. He was fine today. Best finisher at the club. He is a different type of 9 to Paddy. On the whole striker issue. Farke clearly refused to discuss Georginio playing as a 10 earlier this season saying that he knew what he was doing. This was in reply to calls from supporters, the press (and certain posters on here) to move him deeper. Fast forward a few weeks and after a few poor performances and he finally sees sense and moves Georginio deeper. This coincides a run of 8 straight league wins and progress in the cup. Farke has done a good job. I like him alot but let's not rewrite history trying to pretend he's been flawless. Let's not take anything away from the likes of Klaesson and Piroe who have contributed to our league position.
This i agree with. He has handled Gruev perfectly. Realised after Stoke that he wasn't ready, was patient with it and is now rewarded for it. Great management. He's also realised Cooper was a possible weak link.
Rutter is a better player than Piroe both as a nine and a ten which is why Piroe was benched as soon as Paddy starting firing again. The same will happen again as soon as Bamford regains fitness and Farke is correct as Piroe isn't as effective in that role as all of us could clearly see today. Lots of posters on here were demanding that Klaesson should keep his place and that's a fact. It was also mentioned frequently that all Gnonto's good play last season was on the left and he wasn't as well suited to playing on the right. Not my fault if you've not happened to read or pick up on those comments. The general consensus though was that as Summerville is nominally our left side attacker that Gnonto couldn't expect to get in ahead of him.
Rutter is a better player than Piroe, nobody said otherwise. Thats coming from inside your own head, nowt to do with any of us. However, Rutter can't play 9 and 10 at the same time. I think it's clear that Rutter influences the game more when played deeper than when he is the focal point. That's why there was a bit of fuss switching Piroe to 9 and Rutter to 10. The reason Piroe was the obvious player to play at 9 was that Paddy wasn't anywhere near fit enough to start and he looked way off the pace when he did appear at that point. Given the standard of Klaessons performances in the absence of Darlow and Meslier, I don't think it's beyond reason to suggest that he did nothing wrong, the team were winning, so should retain his place. Meslier has come back in and done okay but there's nothing to suggest Klaesson would have let us down either. I genuinely don't recall there being any fuss on Gnonto playing on the other wing. I suppose if you look at it from a logical point then he probably would prefer the left hand side so he can cut inside a bit easier but I don't recall anyone saying he couldn't play on the right at all. That might be another argument you had with yourself? You been on the wine since lunchtime?
Since his ban Meslier has done way more that just ok don't you think ? However It's clear you don't rate him so maybe not worth answering that question. On to Piroe and if you can't see he doesn't suit our style of play when he's a nine then there not much anyone can do as it's blindingly obvious to most. Not Piroe's fault as he can't be something he's not and maybe with hindsight we signed the wrong player. Still happy to have him as he's a valuable part of the squad and we desperately needed another central attacking player for this season.
Meslier has done OK. The defence doesn't leak too many shots at him so he has a quiet time of it. Thats something to add to the discussion on Klaesson as that applies to his time between the sticks too. Thought Meslier was good today with some dangerous corners landing in his 6 yard box. His distribution was good too. That doesn't mean we should forget his shaky moments though. Back to Piroe. His style doesn't exactly fit with how we play so let's address that one. Farke signed him. Your original post that started this was that fans were ridiculous for criticism of Farke. Piroe was 16 million. I'll reiterate that Piroe wasn't bad today, his build up play was good on a few occasions, very intelligent. His pass to Rutter for the 2nd goal was perfectly timed and weighted. He scored last game playing 9 too. He's started two games as a 9 and scored 1 and assisted 1 winning by 4 goals at Swansea and 2 goals at Plymouth within 4 days. I don't know what else you expect of him?
One goal conceded in eight matches and we’re discussing a change of keeper only on this forum surely. Any wonder docs having a rest
