CUJimmy

I stuck with X as long as I could because I think it’s healthy to get a range of views but I finally gave up on it this week. If you believe it is representative then Reform would have walked the UK election and Trump would have got 90% of the vote in the US. I set up an account on Threads a while ago but my feed is blocked up with stories of dates that have gone wrong and people not wanting to swap seats on aeroplanes. There is little serious discussion and hardly any Sport. I will give BlueSky a try this weekend.

Sadly that does not seem to be a priority

If the club wants to minimise resistance then it will be option 3 as most of us in that area stand anyway including the singing section. Personally I’m all in favour; having something to lean on will give me a few more years standing to watch my football before the blanket and flask come out 🤣.

We have played on no. 2, it’s a cracking course and a real challenge especially if the wind blows. As you say, less than half the price of no. 1 and on exactly the same piece of land. No. 3 is on the other side of the road and quite different.

Sky were showing the Ref Watch clip about the non sending-off as part of the piece on Coote yesterday. Seemed like they were trying to suggest a link.

They tried it once and there was uproar. Had to change it back after a couple of months iirc. When I was a kid it was on well after my bedtime but if I heard the theme music I was allowed to come downstairs.

According to Dermot, Coote said no foul and if he had blown the whistle you can guarantee the Liverpool fans would have been complaining that he should have played advantage. If I understand the laws correctly, if he did play advantage he can go back and book the defender but does not issue a straight red under those circumstances. Checking the laws just now. If a player denies an obvious goal scoring opportunity that would be a red card and the attacking side takes a quick free kick then the referee issues a yellow at the next break in play. If it were for breaking up a promising attack then no card is issued. I seem to remember an incident earlier this season when one of our defenders did that (Faes iirc), the opposition scored and there was confusion about the lack of a card.

Whether you like him or not he is excellent at bringing the best out of the expert panel and his rapport with Shearer and Ricards in particular makes it great viewing in my opinion. Combine this with the credibility he has as someone who has played the game at the highest level and there is nobody who can be a direct replacement. The BBC needs to decide if they want an experienced, confident presenter (Chappers being the obvious example) who relies on guests for the expert input or someone who has played at the top level but needs to hone their presenting skills. If they go for the latter it will take time as it did with Linekar.

On paper Rodgers’ squad was too good to go down but the game isn’t played on paper. We had a terrible start as we know but before the World Cup looked to have turned a corner. When the season resumed we reverted to being terrible but the board, and a lot of fans, managed to convince themselves it would turn back round again and by the time they came to their senses it was too late. Whatever some people might like to think this group of players is not a mid-table squad. Even well coached we would always be hovering around the bottom 6/7 so the aim is to be in the top half of that mini-league. We need a manager with a track record of success at doing that, given his time at Forest the board thought Cooper was the man but he clearly isn’t so needs to go now. Much as we would all like to see free flowing football that is not going to happen this season. To stay up we need someone in who can coach this group of players to be hard to beat, basic job descriptions that everyone understands (see Fuchs, Huth, Morgan, Simpson), be a bit cynical and nasty when necessary etc etc. Stay up first then look to rebuild from there but it will be a slow process.

Man Utd could well go strong in this. Given their start it’s probably their best chance of a trophy and European football next season.

Most of the board have an accountancy/business background so from that perspective a point a game is fine. Don’t get me wrong, we need a balance of experience otherwise we get stuffed by PSR and rightly so but we need people at the head of the organisation that really understand the game on the pitch as well. Rudkin has a football background but it’s not at a high enough level so he is easily swayed by the likes of Rodgers into believing what he is told. How many of the squad now have the ear of Top/Susan etc? In the past Kasper, Wes, Vards, Kingy etc who knew things weren’t right could intervene before it was too late. Who can do that now? Vards? Yes. Winks? Maybe but does he have a dog in the fight? After that I am struggling. Player power can be dangerous but at the moment the manager tells the DoF everything is fine, he repeats that to the board and nothing changes as we found out 2 seasons ago. The first priority for me is a DoF with the knowledge and experience to hold the manager to account. That is why I didn’t like the idea of Potter wanting to bring his own person in. So Cooper out, absolutely but until Rudkin goes as well we are not going to progress.

The main thing last night showed me was that Cooper is incapable of thinking on his feet during the game. We surprised them (and us) with Ricardo playing as an inverted full-back so with Ndidi pushing up and Buenanotte playing as an 8/10 (the KDH role) it was a near to Enzoball as we could get with the available players. It took him the first half to work it out but when they came out after the break they had adapted and we were as toothless as I have seen us all season. He had already put 3 players on Fatawu and Buenanotte from the start which must have left a man over somewhere else. The obvious get out for this is to shift the ball quickly through Pereira/Winks/Ndidi but we just kept on going down the rabbit hole on the right. Their goals were individual errors rather than tactical ones that were can’t really lay at Cooper’s door but the lack of flexibility going forward we absolutely can.

I still say the safest way is just to hit it as hard as you can. I’m much more relaxed when Vards just puts his laces through it.

The only useful stats on this are VAR overturns that are later determined to be wrong and the number of times VAR should have got involved but didn’t. On all other occasions it is just doing its job. (Personally I’d still stick it in the bin though)

Almost on topic we have just got back from a fortnight in South Africa. A week at Krugar National Park where we saw all the wildlife you could imagine: lions, elephants, rhino, giraffes, zebra, leopards, cheetahs etc. Some a bit close for comfort if I am honest! We then had a week on the coast near Durban, we had an apartment right on the beach from where we regularly saw pods of dolphins and even saw a humpback whale breach. Flights via Cairo were under £500 each and when you get there everything is ridiculously cheap. A great steak in a restaurant is £8-10 and plenty of other options around £6-7.

I agree with this. Not really a city person so the Grand Canyon plus nearby Bryce and Zion are all spectacular. If you fly into Phoenix there is a place called Sedona a couple of hours north that is also stunning. Flying home out of Vegas works well from a driving point of view. Another option is Yellowstone which is so much more than a few water spouts and easily has enough to be see for a fortnight.

I’m probably going to jinx them now but Arsenal are doing how to do ‘backs to the wall defending’. Pretty much restricting Man City to shots from the edge of the area. Levels of concentration required are ridiculous.

I’m not sure he did much wrong to be honest; we should give Mads credit for an outstanding save.

I guess if someone fails a retest 3 times then they probably do need more training, the roads and driving have changed a lot since they last took a test. Having said all of that though, as someone who drives 2k miles a week regularly I see that the standard of driving in this country is patchy to say the least so maybe there is an argument for everyone having a short retest every time they renew their licence (every 10 years?). The cost would probably be prohibitive though and if drivers had to pay then a good number wouldn’t bother. It’s not a problem unique to this country though as anyone who has driven in France, Spain, Italy or especially the US will know.

He doesn’t appear to have any since he came. Most managers spend any time they have out of the game working on a footballing philosophy and come back fresh and invigorated - desperate to try out new things. The way he describes giving players responsibility sounds more like a 1980’s PE teacher throwing the ball onto the pitch and saying “have a kick about lads”, while he has a fag on the touchline.

When he took over at Forest they were heading fast towards Division 1 but he got them promoted instead and kept them in the Prem despite a batshít crazy owner. Most of the Forest fans I know are very grateful for everything he did for them but recognised that it was time to move on because he had run out of ideas.

Sorry yes, I wasn’t clear. There was loads of spray and water on the road, flashing hazards made it so much harder to see.

Still shouldn’t have hazards on at 30 mph when that is the same speed as everything else

It’s impossible to be certain but I struggle to believe we wouldn’t have got at least a point from one of those two matches which would have been enough.

Driving home up the A46 in the storm last night after the match. One idiot doing 30 mph with hazard warning lights on. Not only making it much harder to see the road but giving the impression that traffic is moving more slowly than it actually is so potentially causing over-breaking. Hazards are for when you are stationary or near stationary.