DJ Barry Hammond

I agree with all you have said and was making similar points last night. There’s been no evidence of game plans against opponents threats or perceived weaknesses, it’s always been here’s our formation, here’s our players and here’s a loose idea for pattern of play that requires one of our full backs to be 50 yards further forward than the rest of the defence. I also don’t get why Cooper and Ruud were at pains to state how poor the squad was; you have to be building the players up, challenging them to meet this level. I also think Ruud missed a trick with Monga - he could have chucked him a debut with a message to the other 10 “let’s make sure this is a special day for him to remember” sort of thing. Mean, yes, from the clips I’ve seen of him and Evans, I do question whether they’re physically ready for the step to this level - but to be frank, the squad needs a positive catalyst towards change. There’s also an argument this could have been done with Alves prior to his loan.

How did I miss that 😂 That has to be the headline on the back of the Merc tomorrow!

It’s ridiculous, because I wouldn’t say these players are exactly working hard either. The Spurs game at the start of the season - they worked their socks off to stay in the game and got the reward for that - but I can’t imagine our high intensity sprints over the season are anywhere near where they need to be if we’re to overcome a skill deficit. And our setup - it’s all about how “we want to play” even though that’s not exactly successful in itself. I’ve yet to see Ruud or Cooper deploy a system that’s targeted a key aspect from the opposition’s attacking play in order to combat that threat OR on the flip side, target an area of weakness in the opposition’s defence. And using formation ‘rotations’ the way we are, when you’re defensively suspect and don’t command the ball for long periods - is suicide. We end up altering our shape and wonder why we’re all over the shop on turnovers. For me, getting a tune out of this squad requires two obvious things - a basic shape and defensive / attacking plans and picking players that will run hard.

He’s got to go hasn’t he, it’s completely rudderless. Mean, how you could start that same 11 minus one enforced change in the same bloody awful shape that we’ve been doing all season long under both managers. I can’t comprehend how people who have lived professional football for 30-40 years can’t see obvious problems in front of them and not even try to change something to correct them.

What was the second half like for those that bothered? Any sign of improvement?

I’m kind of disappointed that 4th didn’t stand because it was a perfect encapsulation of our season.

The more I see that goal, the more I’m impressed with it. The skill and vision with the assist was sublime - and then the finish, deliberately hit into the ground. Yeah we were shit before those bits - but boy was that some quality play by Brentford after it.

That was awful - get a bollocking awful.

Mmmmm… couple of good runs forward, but might have given away a penalty and a bit of loose play gave Brentford a chance on the counter.

TWO SHOTS!

Bloody hell Ruud, do you even bother to watch the previous games back? I have no idea how Ruud can watch the action either live or on tape and consider that Ayew’s ‘zero interest’ body language is in anyway good for the team.

Meanwhile Elon’s having a quiet day, calling astronauts retarded… and weilding a chainsaw at CPAC - a perfectly normal thing to do! There were also some interesting tweets from Grimes pleading for Elon to get in touch about a medical matter for one of his children - that have since disappeared!

I note they’re openly talking about Trump running for a third term at this CPAC conference. Bannon and Trump both floating it… be in no doubt, changing the constitution and removing the two term limit is definitely on the agenda.

Having worked for Royal Mail - I’m not surprised at the reports of management being abject in this case. It is one of the worst run organisations I’ve ever been a part of - which is a shame because I did quite like the job itself (before they started messing about with how to do it).

He’s made enough enemies over the course of just this month that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone goes for ultimate retribution.

There’s no way he says much now, given he’s in Washington next week. I think what will be more interesting however, is what Farage says / does. These series of outbursts are far from useful for him as a ‘close friend’ of Trump. And not only does it weaken him by association, this gives Starmer a great opportunity to prove statesman like on the international stage.

I’m not sure this is true about Vance or indeed Rubio - who have both said scathing things about both Russia and Trump on record. And this is perhaps the most worrying thing about this situation at the moment - there are a lot of people that should and do know better within Trump’s own administration that are not only not calling this stuff out - they’re actively propagating it.

It looks to me that Trump sees a benefit in partnering with Russia economically and politically. Ukraine clearly has an abundance of mineable assets which Trump wants the US to be a primary party to. I assume he sees he can get that via one of two ways - through the disgraceful agreement he tried to push on Zelenskyy or by backing Putin and allowing a timeline where Russia can defacto take over Ukraine via a puppet leader… hence the insistence on elections. That the later action helps him to put two fingers up to the EU in the process makes that action all the more attractive no doubt. Perhaps this is all about project Mars and securing the material and know how for it before that asteroid hits earth! I also assume Trump tower Moscow is on the cards.

That was a big chance for Ndidi at the end there!

Hmmmm… has anyone else’s stream switched to a random US drama?

This is playing out like a typical early kickoff.

Basically implying it was a poor effort! 😂

Yes… but I can’t see any detailed defensive plan other than do what we normally do. You’d have thought there might have been some instructions with regards to Odegard, but I fail to see it at the moment.

Towsend - “Ndidi catches that sweetly” Immediate replay - off the shin! 😂

I think the biggest irony is that the situation in Europe can be charted back to American military action overseas; when it was happy to be seen as the world’s police because it granted them overwhelming power in the process.