The Doctor

investigated for what? it's two clear cut yellows for kicking the ball away and a trip

Ward suspended for Derby on Monday then

anyone saying we need a season down here needs to remind themselves just how many former premier league teams are now also rans in this division tbqh - Leeds took nearly 20 years and a spell in league one to get back having fallen like we have. Forest took 23 years, Coventry are looking like ending a 24 year absence. West Brom, Stoke were both sustained regulars in the 2010s and look nowhere near a promotion competitor. Middlesbrough had 23 years and a European final under their belt when they were relegated in 2010 and have had only one season up there since then. History doesn't matter, the longer you're out of the top flight the harder getting back up there is, and our finances cannot handle being out for several years. Yes this squad are not capable of cutting it in the top flight, but frankly neither was Sunderland's last season - it's far easier to build a squad that can if you're already up there.

really gonna have to do business in January

renew his contract tbqh

metaphors used to be subtle.

Tbf, much as I dislike Kang for the red bull-esque rebranding she does to clubs she buys, she knows how to build a club up. There's huge potential to grow the WSL after the last few years of the Lionesses, and LCL are capable of taking advantage of that if they have a good strategy behind them. The reason it's the few big clubs (Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City) that consistently makes up the top end of the division isn't because of an insurmountable gap like in the PL, it's because they're the ones who actually put the funding into it. Like fully, we could have not signed Bertrand and Ayew for the men's team, put their wages into the women's team budget for the last 5 years and we'd be right up there - there's not huge money yet (we only hit the first £1m player in the WSL this summer with Liv Smith going to arsenal)

from a technical ability side of things we definitely have 22 players capable of being top 6 in this division. In terms of giving a shit and being capable of playing as a team - that's the job of a manager, to get his players playing coherently and leaving everything on the pitch

this calendar year, not this season. This season it's Soton, Sheff Utd, QPR. 3 times in 6 matches is truly pathetic though

Plonker but you're following his lead. That's true captain material

find myself asking far too frequently if we'd have been any worse off keeping RvN, and that even being a question is enough to say he should be sent packing. the only defence is that his replacement would almost certainly be Martin and even then I think he might be better than this is

keeping Bazunu as far away from your own goal as possible is pretty sensible tbf

but bringing people into play involves releasing the ball and not playing for the free kick every time, and that is something Ayew does far too often - dribble it a bit, look for contact and go down for the free kick. Meaning he really doesn't bring people into play as much as he should

The rest of it is though. Like, if the president was someone like Obama or even Dubya, does FIFA do this ridiculous peace prize? of course not. Because they're not such extreme narcissists as to demand such a thing - very obvious that he demanded it because he's still got a chip on his shoulder about not winning a nobel peace prize. This level of fawning towards him just makes FIFA look pathetic.

Not even that, just play sensible possession build up - the passes go wide to the full backs not into the defensive midfielder.

JANINA!

stupid, going nowhere

genuinely wish commentators would actually research stuff before the game. Mouchons debut season (no? she was here last season but was very disrupted by injury) and earlier claiming the point at west ham was our 5th of the season, then later talking about draws v villa, everton and west ham. Just feels unprofessional to be getting such basic things wrong

had to play the throughball there, 2 v 1

the scruffiest goal you'll ever see

think the problem then was that he's not much of a winger, particularly when none of our full backs have the athleticism to support the winger. Playing in the 10 though he's pretty damn good.

Hermansen made that exact same mistake 3 times last time we were down here... kind of have to accept the way we play drawing teams on will have that happen sometimes

been very good since Winks was dropped. Poor start to the season pairing with Soumare and Winks but clear that him and JJ compliment each other well

like a budget Kenny McLean

I am. the incident occurs specifically because of the tactics and so that has to be considered as well. And to be clear, I don't think this is specifically Martis tactic, it's something we've been doing for a couple of years because someone right up the club structure has an outsized influence on tactics because that someone is obsessed with Man City and thinks we can do that too, but the facts remain that this style of goal kick is a tactical choice and so that has to shoulder the blame as much, if not more, than any of the individuals involved. If it was an individual error you could prevent it with different individuals, that we conceded at least 3 like that last time in this division with a different keeper shows that's not the case. Passes out like that invite problems like this one, and they form part of our tactics