I was looking at macallister in the summer on 8 days off and thinking he'd absolutely blow up by now. We need to get the squad rotating more with players returning from injury. First though we have to get through to the time they are back. The only positions imo we have competition in are rb and lw. The rest stand head and shoulders over the options Alisson Trent/bradley konate vvd Robertson Gravenberch macallister Salah Szoboszlai diaz/gakpo Jota. Gomez is only adequate at cb Jones is very mixed. Some times he's great Others he runs around blindly or indulges himself. Nunez is nunez. The rest are either not available, not in slots plans or just not up to being first choice at a top club. We will be OK. If we can carry through long enough to see off the arsenal and city surges. The domestic cups are a distraction I don't want as a consolidation this time but will take one. The cl is great but if we go deep we earn money but won't win it as we are and will balls up the league.
It's a legitimate concern but not one I would have after that game. Aside from the result, the biggest positive I can take from that game was the amount of game management we were able to get away with.
crap game but we won .. Slot needs to start trusting the rest of the squad and pray for early returns for the walking wounded and the Italian who just doesn't want to be here by the looks of it The one thing which was guaranteed from Nunez was he would give 100% and even that seems to have gone from his game.
3 more points. Although qualification isn't mathematically certain, in all practical ways it is. All I can take from this match is that although Kelleher is a good keeper Ali shows he's a class above.
I think it is almost impossible for us to not finish top 8 now just because it involved 2-9 to win every game left and I think some play each other so can’t all take max points.
First half was a great watch. Second half was boring. Three pints and a clean sheet will do though. Next...
I had a quick look, and I think in all there are still 9 teams who can get over 18 pts, but I'm too idle to see how many have to play one another. To all intents and purposes I think we're fairly safe.
We need to acknowledge though that being able to put the deck chairs out now in the CL until next Spring is ****ing huge. I'd have bitten your hand off just to be in the top 8 and avoid the play-offs; this is frigging terrific. I'm rigid, I tell you. I'd still put the second team out to face Soton in the LC next week - only if we get to the semis is it worth bothering about. But that postponing of the derby may not be the end of the world at all. All is good.
but will Slot lay up? He strikes me as someone who wants to win everything - the team for the LC game will tell a lot.
I tend to agree that there is a big drop off outside our first team bar one or two slots and when we switch out more than one player, it shows (see Newcastle game) we’ll be running in treacle soon. I might be wrong and hope I am. Are there any stats to show numbers of players used over all comps?
Yeah you have villa have to play Monaco so both of those can’t catch us. Same with inter playing Monaco. So that knocks out 2 of those which I think means we can’t be caught but will be confirmed after next round really as table will look much clearer.
It's quite simple. Gravenberch 100% of minutes in the cl. The Newcastle gsme was the first one he was subbed in so you could say 98% of minutes in the league. He is already on 1,777 minutes for the season at cm when we are not even itno thr festive calendar proper. Even if he just played in the league only for the rest of the season that's another 2160 mins so he would be getting right up there. For context rodri topped out in 22/23 on 4479 mins Same for salah 1793 mins as you add in 2 league cup games. If you want to really be an elite squad 3000mins is topping out players imo (is actually 34 games not 50 or 60
Happy with the win of course, but I was a bit perplexed by that performance last night - I don't remember us trying to get round the outside more than a couple of times and we were struggling yet again against a low block from a disciplined defence. Trent started wandering about in midfield again and even Robbo kept drifting inside most of the time. Well organised in defence, Girona were also quick to break and we could have been caught out a number of times.
I hate saying it but Endo just feels like a wasted squad slot at this point. Under another manager he could play a useful role, but under Slot, there's homegrown players that can play his current role - or lack of a role.
Imo we have seen the good and bad of our squad over the period. Nunez tries his best. He never shirks but he is woeful at the job he is paid to do at this point. Forwards who can't finish are no use. Jones has had great moments, world class moment and long period of indulgence and worse moments where he's just gone off doing anything but his role. He is not the left winger so why does he go out there. Endo is clearly not wanted nor rated by slot. Morton has wasted a year of his career 8n our u21s when he could be making himself a lower half orem role if he gets the right chance. He will be lucky to get a side looking for promotion in the championship now. Quansah is struggling to get any game time at all which is now hampering his development. Cheisa either has a sniffle, a boo boo or whatever other excuse the club puts out to not use him. Time will tell there but I half expect to hear a deal has been done already and we are just keeping him.out of action. Jota is hardly ever fit which is his main issue. Tsimikas is made look OK by robbo being on the slide. He really isn't very good at all. We have got by with 4 forwards as a result. We have got by with 2 cms and one 10 with jones as cover so far. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. We have got by at lb but now have an injury and could have none if robbo breaks down with the weight of games. But we have also seen Bradley, gomez, kelleher, gakpo and at times jones being very good options for us. The team is OK. You could improve on it (lb and at 9, maybe 6) but the bench is so mixed we are always going to depend on the first 12 despite the big squad numbers. Lb is a must RW is a must, it's not doak. Striker is a must Another cm to compete with macallister and grsvenberch imo is a must. Now that'd make the squad really really good.