I can't LL, had this cough and **** for weeks. Got rid of the bronchitis only for a relapse. Hoping this set of pills will work this time.
Hate to say this but Roofe would have stuck a couple of those chances away. Bamford misses too many and is far too powder-puff in front of goal. Can't fault his work rate though. No point in saying Swansea were lucky. Classic away performance.
Just a thought I have not seen the highlights yet but what disturbes me is the fact that we have played 3 home games and only won one are other teams setting their stall out to make it difficult to score against them defending in depth .What we need surely is a rethink on how we can overcome this I am sure Bielsa will be thinking what needs to be done
I'm a bit stunned at some of the match assessments, but I guess not surprised. I'm more in agreement with the guys I'm pretty sure were at the match. Not a criticism of those who weren't, but as you'll be aware, you only get a narrow view of the game - i.e. wherever the ball goes. There were a number of reasons for what happened today & I'm surprised that some of them weren't mentioned, as they most certainly shaped the match. * The ref: Appalling. No, I mean really appalling. I'm not suggesting for a moment that he was biased. Just inept. In the first half he was a joke. How he interpreted much of our play as fouls, I'll never know. He was suckered by Swansea time after time. More on that later. Take a look at Cooper hitting the bar. Turn your attention to Bamford. Not only did the defender have his arms around him, but he jumped early, so that he landed on Bamford's back (arms still around him!) when Bamford was due to jump. No intention of going for the ball - a simple, well-planned foul that he somehow got away with. If the ref didn't see it, he should have. Also failed to notice Phillips being assaulted twice. No red card. No yellow, and not even a foul! Not sure if you would have heard the ironic cheering on the telly when we were awarded an occasional foul. You wouldn't have heard it very often - more likely to have heard the violent abuse for the blindingly obvious fouls on us, and the ridiculous awards to them for the most minor infractions - if they actually occurred. I say this because there was a rule of thumb apparent - if a Swansea player fell down, then it must have been a foul. The fact that most were dives or exaggerations of contact was never even suspected by him! * Swansea cheating. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on the ref, as it certainly looked like Swansea had spent a lot of time on the training pitch focussing on diving and any other form of cheating they could think of. It wasn't even just one culprit - there were quite a few at it, which makes me suspect that it was prearranged. The consensus was that they were akin to Subbuteo figures that blew over in the slightest wind. Their #22, whoever he is, was an absolute disgrace. Spent more time on his arse feigning injury before sprinting off when the inevitable foul was given. The most laughable was in the first half. Alioski, all 6 stone of him, ran past their hulking #5. I could see no contact, but the #5 went down as though Alioski had driven a sword through his heart. Now the funny thing is that he was stationary, and Alioski was screaming past him. If there was the slightest contact, the laws of physics would have Alioski flying through the air, or flattened. Neither happened. He continued on his way. Yet the ref made the most improbable decision. This happened time & time again. Then there were the substitutions. Remember this new rule about leaving the pitch by the shortest route? Well Leeds did, and I would hope that Swansea & the ref did. But Swansea pointedly chose the slowest routes every time, as part of their time-wasting campaign. Did the ref object? Nope - he even escorted one of their players from the penalty box to the halfway line. Probably arranging their shower activities. * Timewasting. Right from the start, Swansea were playing for time. I was absolutely stunned. Here we had a team renowned for playing good football, & sharing top spot with us. You'd surely expect them to get stuck in. But no, every opportunity to waste time was employed. Goalie changing sides for kicks, going down like they've been shot & staying there overly long for the smallest infraction, rolling about clutching various bits of their bodies before sprinting away clearly pain & injury free, and standing over our (occasional) free kicks, even in our half, in order to prevent us taking a swift free kick. I could go on, but I've forgotten what else I was going to rant about as I fell asleep whilst typing (alcohol may have been involved). I've read back though, & won't change a word. Got some more though ..... As for us, I thoroughly enjoyed the match. And I don't apologise for it. I'd rather be entertained & lose than win with sleep-inducing Pullis-type football. And I was entertained! Yup, we missed a barrowload of chances, BUT we created them! We've probably created more chances in Bielsa's time than we have in all out Championship & L1 time put together. And I mean that! OK, we're not scoring the goals, but that's going to happen when you press 20 players into the penalty box. You're always going to get a low percentage of conversions due to blocks, deflections etc. Surely logic dictates that? But we only control our players, not the opposition's. They're perfectly entitled to pack their box to stop us scoring - and it works! Not so much us failing as them succeeding. We score more from transitional play, but in order to get transition, you have to be attacked first! And not a lot of teams do at ER. Have to mention the left wing play. It didn't work as well as it has done with Alioski & Harrison. ONe reason the camera might not have picked up was that their hulk of a #22 - the guy with the balance problem - was pushed right up most of the time on their right touchline. Alioski was forced to stay back, so Harrison was more isolated than usual. To balance this, I have to say that whilst that fact admonishes Harrison to a certain extent, his crossing was possibly his poorest for quite some time - and he's had some stinker in the past, btw! But when Alioski did get up, it was great to watch them play off each other. Subs. I honestly believe that the subs backfired on us. We were all over the place. Up to that point I thought that Klich had been very quiet. I soon realised both he & Bamford were sorely missed! Again, it's the off the ball work that makes the difference. Eddie is a goalscorer & he has pace. End of. Very little, if any useful off-ball work. He relies on a ball into space. Put it to his feet with his back to a CB & he's useless. Bamford does more hold-up & chasing down - by the bucket-load. Pablo had a quiet day & I was surprised he didn't get subbed. As the guy beside me said "Ah, but all it takes in one bit of his magic". I'm still waiting. Have been for quite some time. He hasn't got the same work-rate as Klich. Dribbles to nowhere & shots down the goalie's throat is what we got instead. People say he hasn't got the legs now to be a winger, and it may be true, but believe me, he's better on the wing! You couldn't have said that 2 or 3 years ago. Sadly now true. #10 he is not. Costa did ok. Not brilliant imo. I'm sure that both he & Eddie will get better, & perhaps this international break will help them catch up on Bielsaball. It was so obvious at times that they returned to instinct rather than the pattern of play that their team-mates expected. They even got in the way on occasion. Soon their instinctive play will be Bielsaball. It isn't yet, and to me it is fairly obvious why they're still subs. And possibly might be for a while. So, for me the subs didn't work this time. It disrupted our pattern of play. Hopefully we'll have learned something from it. Right, off to bed now for a few hours.
I’ve been very quiet because I didn't see the game so can’t really comment. Disappointing result, but as OLOF says, 3 points dropped and we move on, the consensus seems to be that we deserved the win and we just have to trust the manager to sort the last 10%.
Forgotten about it, it's you still going on about your biggest win in ten years.You won't be the last ****ty no fans club we lose to this season,but you all think it's the cup final,at the season end when you finish mid table, at least you will be able to say you won your cup final ay.
Were anyone's bets interrupted yesterday on BET365? Were you about to cash out or change you bets when their system messed up? You need to complain Their official response is: We are very sorry Sir, senior Management have advised that there is nothing we can do. Your response should then be: Please give me the details for your ombudsman as I WISH TO ESCALATE THIS MATTER. Their response: No need for that Sir, I'm sure we can come to some arrangement, I'll get my Manager to give you a call!!!
Cash out option disappeared completely for me. Luckily it didn't affect me but it could've been costly as I use cash out a lot.
Not really you seem to have an air of smugness not matched by your history ( certainly not your recent thats for sure ) you're bigger than us of that there's no doubt but footballing terms nah jog on .You're really not that important to be considered worthy of the accolade "biggest win" Like a lot of Clubs have I seem to be conversing with the local dimwit , try to remove the lemon from your gob and have a nice day
Shall look you up when you're mid table, see if you've lost your Gobyness or see if you're still going on about your cup final win.
