FoxyLeon

No excuses. I don't want to hear the same people who argued that last night's game was tough because it was against another team 'fighting for their lives', argue that we get a poor result here because there is 'No pressure' on Fulham. There was huge pressure on Everton last night, and they ran all over us, against another side who is supposed to be fighting for their lives. We should be going there, running all over them, and winning comfortably. But I'm already resigned to the drop, it's what we deserve, as we're no better than Southampton, I'd argue we're even worse than them.

I expect to see us having 25+ shots and dominating them like Everton did to us tonight. Zero excuses, these have nothing to play for. But we all know that's not gonna happen. We will be timid, offer nothing going forward, concede cheap goals and have no fight.

The defence? Was that the defence that had to defend 1 vs 2 all game because Barnes wouldn't track runners or show for the ball? Soyuncu was colossus once again, Faes wasn't far behind. But when Iwobi/Coleman are 2 vs 1 against Thomas all first half because Barnes has no fight, that's the issue. Maddison and Barnes offered nothing all night, far less than Iwobi and McNeil at both ends of the pitch. They're being digged out because they were a disgrace, especially Barnes, a performance of a coward. Harvey isn't fit for the fight at all, compare to Daka's workrate, it's a huge difference.

I fully understand why Southgate doesn't trust Maddison. Bloke is nowhere to be seen in big games and when someone needs to stand up and take responsibility. He and Barnes have been abysmal tonight, embarrassing, I want them both gone in the summer.

Kasper was our Roy Keane.

JJ gets an awful amount of rave reviews when he is out. He's had about a spell of four weeks where he played very well, but besides that makes a mistake more often than not, every game, that leads to a goal. He's our weakest and most inconsistent full back.

This improvement under Ten Haag is a bit of a stretch, Man United still looks miles off.

This Everton and Newcastle game is huge in two respects. By the time we play Liverpool and Newcastle, Top 4 could be already sorted. Also means that we want a Man Utd win tonight to shut the door on Liverpool even more.

I'm not going to criticize Frank, but you are aware than Smith was the man who was at Brentford before Frank and put a lot of the building blocks in place right? Their methods of coaching/scouting were in place under Smith, the emergence of Watkins and turning him from a CM to a CF was under Smith....He then left because of the huge job at Villa. Where he turned Grealish from a flashy and ineffective player, to arguably the best player in the league at progressing the ball up the pitch. He made some impressive signings that would have been welcomed here like Buendia and Bailey, sure some were not so successful, but his record was far better than Rodgers and we'd be in a better place now with their signings over ours. From what I've seen so far, Smith for me could be the man for us whether we stay up or go down. He proved at Villa he could bring them up, and we'd be as big of favourites in that league as they were. Whilst he also proved he could put some good building blocks in place for them, Emery actually uses far more of his signings than Gerrard's. If not then Potter has to be the option, as unlike Frank, for me, Potter is the one who completely took Brighton on levels. The difference between them under Hughton and under Potter is enormous, and De Zerbi has had an exceptional platform to work from. Any criticism from the Chelsea job is just crazy, it was an impossible job. Let's be honest, he was Todd's fall guy, and was sacked to take the attention away from his awful running of the Club.

All these fancy flicks on the half way line aren't no good if they're not creating chances. His set piece delivery was atrocious again, so many opportunities he had to put balls in and they were never threatening. Iheanacho looked far better at 10 in the few minute he played there.

Souttar looks completely lost, let's not try and pretend otherwise. He can't defend 1v1 and gets horribly exposed, he also has the worst positioning of any defender i've seen play for us since being back in the Premier League. Missing chances isn't the issue, it's giving at least a goal every game that is, and a severe lack of 1v1 defending that means we can't play progressively. Look at the difference Soyuncu + Faes have made. Both can defend 1v1, and more importantly are willing to. When I said Souttar appeared to be 'quiet' others laughed, yet Soyuncu and Faes are proving my point. It isn't about shouting at others, it's about having the character to put your stamp on the game. With Soyuncu's willingness to engage high, and Faes's willingness to break forward, it highlights Souttar's flaws, as the big man generally just stands stranded in no mans land, not capable of one or the other, or at the very least appearing too scared to do so.

His mistakes today were actually due to being over eager. The one where he got caught under the ball for example, he was just desperate to get there first and start progressing us forward. I'm sure will disagree, but he's our best progressive passer of the ball. I get the impression that his 'A Game' is levels above the rest of our midfield.

No idea why people thought a player with a poor record in a poor Ukrainian league would be good enough.

The standard of coaching is much improved, it's arguably more frustrating now that we're missing the final ball so often, when before we were just completely crap. But he has to start getting his team selections right, rather than relying on the subs. A much recognized improvement, but in three games we've not got going until we've made subs after half time.

Wrong team selection. The Tielemans/Barnes/Maddison combination didn't work under Rodgers because they're all too passive in the press, no idea why he dropped Daka after he was so raw and dangerous against Wolves. Don't get all the BT Sport hype around Maddison, too many fancy flicks and not enough end product, especially with the set pieces.

The smart approach for Leeds would be to allow us to have the ball, but I can't see Elland Road accepting that. We've got to get our final ball much better than against Wolves.

Foden is this generations English 'rare generational talent' that isn't actually that good. But being in the Man City setup can make relatively average players look very good, Sterling being another great example. Foden isn't even as good as Mahrez, but of course because he's English he gets extreme hype, even compared to say Kane, who actually is a 'rare generational talent' in the English game, as Shearer was.

Football can be a cruel game. But Brighton punished for loyalty unfortunately, the Brighton Albrighton has needed to be replaced by them for a long time, despite having a rare good season.

Typical Brighton, a decent number 9 away from a Top 4 side. Honestly think Kane would get Brighton higher up the table than he does Spurs.

Refs only have themselves to blame for being so weak. Bruno Fernandes should have got two yellows already for constant complaining, yet the ref keeps pandering to him and explaining his decisions.

Teams with nothing to play for are the best to play. If we can't do it, it's our own fault. It helped us massively in our great escape season.

In an ideal world, by the time we play Newcastle, Liverpool and West Ham, the geordies will have secured top 4, the scousers will have failed to get top 4 and the Irons will have secured safety.

Interesting to hear Smith say that he wanted more aggression from the players to get the fans involved. It certainly helped us massively after 2-1. But we've got to experience the reverse in the week, Elland Road will no doubt be well up for it, it's going to be a huge test of our character. Hopefully our big characters like Faes/Cags/Kristiansen keep their head and get us a positive result.

CHARACTER....It's a meme thrown around with regards to Rodgers, but the truth is, he doesn't have a clue what he means. To him, a 'Great Character' was someone who blindingly followed him and his delusions, perhaps, dare I suggest, because of their inadequacies and lack of ability - take Joe Allen at Liverpool for example. Soyuncu is an individual who has real 'character' in abundance. The bloke has been mistreated by the Club, has an open invitation to join Atletico Madrid, and still, despite that, he played with the enthusiasm and desire that no fan in the crowd could match.

It simply comes back to good coaching again. Brighton have just had 3 away games in a row, and they've dominated all 3, with Pascal Gros being a holding midfielder alongside Caicedo, whilst having two slow CBs, usually being Dunk and Webster, also Veltman at RB isn't quick either. There has been times over the past couple of seasons where they have even used Lallana as a deep holding player, this idea that we need a pure holding number 6, like Ndidi of a few years ago, is not accurate. Tielemans/KDH/Praet/Maddison....There should be games, especially at home, where we capable of coaching at a high enough level to play with two of these four as holding players. There's no reason Maddison is incapable of being coached to play with a similar role to Lallana/Gros, where they essentially play as a secondary holding player, linking play with a number 10. There's no reason, with good coaching, why we can't have lined up with something like this.....(Especially against Bournemouth for example) Iversen Ricardo Soyuncu Faes Kristiansen Tielemans Maddison Tete Iheanacho Barnes Daka I'm not convinced Maddison's best position is as a number 10, as he would get on the ball more often deeper, and he lacks the legs to press from the front, meaning our press is so often disjointed and KDH when playing deeper has pushed higher and left our shape a real mess. Barnes has never been coached well enough with regards to counter pressing either, and it's why as a team we're possibly the worst in the league at preventing chances against us, and the worst at creating chances ourselves.