ClaphamFox

Bellingham to be banned for the game? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cyj4n9d9yjno

It has to be tactical. There's no other explanation. Southgate believes that our best chance lies in a cautious approach that is aimed primarily at not conceding and which relies on one of his favoured players to conjure up a moment of magic, hence his unwillingness to change things when we're clearly struggling. In the end it worked last night, but it's unlikely we'll be that fortunate again against Switzerland.

Out of curiosity, why do you think it will be at 3pm?

*insert hilarious joke about fax machines*

Don't waste your breath. It's one of those things that some people just believe and there's no amount of evidence you can bring to the table that will stop them from believing it. Not dissimilar to the widely-held view that newly-promoted teams can't play passing football in the PL because it didn't work for Burnley...

Ivan Toney put the Slovakia defenders off by saying, “I bet you we score in a minute…”

The team will apparently be the same as Tuesday but with Mainoo instead of Gallagher. Foden only left the squad for a day and was back on Thursday night. It’s a shame Palmer won’t be starting as we looked a lot better after he came on against Slovenia, but we’ll likely see him at some point in the second half - hopefully not when we’re 1-0 down facing an ultra-low block and desperate for inspiration…

No AFCON next season.

Disagree. I think Foden has looked much sharper than any of the other attacking four - not exactly a high bar to clear I know, but still…. I’d replace Saka with Palmer, play Foden at number 10 and have Gordon on the left, but Southgate won’t do that. The only change to the starting 11 will be Mainoo for Gallagher.

Alternatively, he knows full well that Southgate has no plans to play him there and is backing his manager’s decision up. You can be sure that if Southgate was planning to use him there, he’d be saying, “I’ve played there before and am happy to play wherever I’m needed” or words to that effect. He was just publicly endorsing Southgate’s decision - I’m not sure that’s evidence of ‘something rotten’ in the squad.

Despite it being a knock-out game, I think Slovakia will defend deep and try to frustrate us, so the challenge won’t be much different to the one we faced in the group stage. Hopefully Southgate has a better solution up his sleeve.

If we avoid breaching PSR for the 2021-24 period and the PL tried to punish us anyway, I'd imagine our lawyers might have one or two things to say...

I struggle to see him as a regular starter at Chelsea. But unlike Drinkwater, I suspect KDH would probably end up leaving and reestablishing himself elsewhere rather than disappearing into obscurity.

I'm guessing 'no'.

One of the more depressing aspects of all this has been the willingness of so many of our own fans to happily swallow and regurgitate the lurid -15 points stories as if they have any basis in reality. And not just on the facebook fan sites (where you'd expect it), but on here too. Incredible.

I think on balance I’d still rather have an anachronistic symbolic head of state with our democracy beneath it than the US presidential system. I accept others may see it differently. Either way, it’s looking like Biden’s very obvious cognitive decline may be about to hand the world another Trump presidency. If only this could have been predicted months ago when there was time to do something about it….

It was absolutely the right thing to do. Not spending money and remaining in the Championship would have left us in a far worse position.

We’re not going to lose on Sunday.

International tournaments are often won by teams that don’t impress at all in the group stage. Don’t be surprised if this one is won by a team that has been completely underwhelming so far.

Foden is flying back to Germany tonight ao he can play on Sunday.

Source?

He is apparently available for Sunday.

What would the third charge be for?

Depends on who you believe.

Barnes did not want to leave but was told to by the club.