The Doctor

I mean, did you not watch Saturday? carranzas link up play looked neat while Ayew put in a performance that made Elvis Hammond look like a balon d'or winner in comparison

Didn't realise it was that bad, but does make sense tbh, that was a period where we lost KDH for a while and had a general midfield injury crisis - without any other threats, it was easy to double up on him and Abdul (and this is why the Skippmare/Winks axis is a problem for us still, not one of them can make line breaking runs). He does also have a general problem with just not being the sort who takes the bull by the horns and drags you through a game.

if you'd completely ignored last season perhaps. He's comfortably good enough to be a top six winger in this division, proven to not be good enough in the prem. It means that we'd want to replace him if we go up but he's evidently good enough for where we want to be this season

quite a few positives to take out of that, just need to fix how goal shy we are

that was the chance, had to get over that.

genuinely hate the arrogance around Chelsea. Like we've defended really well but no it's "oh they're taking it easy to win the CL". Can't wait for them to lose in the semi final as usual.

What a save that was. Playing pretty well, goal aside. Just negligible creative threat.

Spectacularly bad defending

he's very much the worst aspects of football in that he's more interested in winning soft fouls than playing football. Now, that works in the prem but we've already seen champ referees aren't as soft. Not to mention there's no value in that when no-one in this squad can take a half decent set piece

but Ayew isn't doing that because no defender is stupid enough to follow the striker out to the strikers own right back position, doesn't have enough movement to pull people about and quite crucially, will not offload the ball once he's drawn those defenders in. Like, I will fully admit I hate Ayew, and part of that is not his fault but what he represents - a complete waste of money and a summer appeasing a jumped up PE teacher with a pensioner fetish, who's recruitment philosophy starts and ends with "could he do it on a cold night in Stoke". That said, both the teams you've named had absurdly fluid attacks, same with Liverpool with Firmino. Yes, your striker does not necessarily need to be the primary source of goals, but where you are playing a false 9 there needs to be that fluidity, that quick interchange to get the 8s, the AM or the wingers bombing in. Ayew actively prevents that, playing like he's paid by the touch. It is not a coincidence that our attack has looked better when Daka is on the pitch, and it's not because he's a bagsman supreme, but because he actually does create that fluidity and space for the rest to work. Ayew actively hinders our attack even trying to play as a false 9.

also better for this team. Like it's not a coincidence that our attack has generally been more coherent with him on the pitch. Not necessarily for his threat but because he's prepared to run and stretch defenders, and crucially doesn't think he's a full back or winger at times. Our biggest strength is in the wingers, and teams will double up on them quite frequently - a striker who likes to drift out into their spaces is a net negative for us, a striker who likes to pull defenders away from them is a benefit.

his reverse through ball second half to Ayew was outrageous, striker who can move quicker than Captain Tom Moore and that would have been a stunning assist.

there's bad patches, then there's losing nearly a quarter of your games. We didn't win it as easily as is being suggested.

need someone to take up the mantle of bullying those two specific fans in the Birmingham Road end now Vardys gone.

Not officially City women related (although was highly rumoured he'd be taking over in a couple of months), but Matt Beard has passed away: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/sep/20/matt-beard-former-manager-of-liverpool-women-dies-aged-47

Last season was something of an outlier in that regard though. Early doors sure but currently 5-8 teams are on course to hit around the 70 goal mark and historically speaking a team with our current attacking output and defensive output, sustained over a season, would just sneak into the play-offs. As you say, small sample size and if we'd scored today, our current output sustained over a season would be around a third place finish, but its really our attack that is dragging us down

Well yes, but you're ignoring that to get the results you need to score goals. Like, Burnley are an absurd outlier. In the last 10 seasons (not scraping more data than that for the sake of a point), the average goals scored by promoted teams is 77, rising to 80 for those promoted automatically, while goals conceded is 41, dropping to 38 for those promoted automatically - Burnley are at basically half that of the closest defences (Leeds last season and Watford 20/21, both with 30 conceded). In terms of our defence, at 5 conceded in 6 games we're par for 38 conceded in a season, which is fine, perfectly respectable, but it's not Burnley levels of absurd, and only 8 teams have gone up in the last decade scoring less than 70 (6 through play-offs), only 3 less than 60, all through the playoffs. We're currently at a rate of 61. We desperately need to score more goals. Edit: Since I've got nothing better to do on a saturday night apparently, I ran prediction intervals on the 10 seasons worth of data. Expected position for a team scoring 61 goals is 11.32, in the interval 10.73 - 11.91 with 95% probability - so, a thoroughly midtable return that would get you 11th or 12th.. For a team conceding 38, 3.85, in the interval 2.78 - 4.92 with 95% probability (so, 3rd to 5th, good play-off return). Our defence is looking good for a promotion challenge, our attack is nowhere near what you would want for a promotion challenge.

he was crap today, I genuinely don't understand how anyone can say otherwise. Fluid system or not, your striker should never be at the full back position when your wingers are trying to stretch past a man. His lazy ambling also proper pisses me off, on more than one occasion the throughball was tried to him and intercepted, then we turned possession over with a good high press and he was just stood offside making very little effort to get back, just taking an attacker out of the game. Not to mention that he is a big part of the reason why our attack looks so toothless - if you are playing a false 9 type, then they need to be quick on the ball, to draw it in and get it out to the wingers asap. This bloke does the exact opposite to the point that you'd honestly start to wonder if he has bonuses for number of touches in a game.

constantly singing about how they don't have English lessons in their schools. Like interbred is cross species stuff lads

they also only conceded 16. We're at a third of that after 6 games. You don't go up scoring so few unless you have a defence locked up tighter than fort knox.

When he's on it he rinses defenders at this level but just clear his head isn't there. Needs good management by Martí to pull him back out of it

kneejerk here meaning disagreeing with you? James looked absolutely fine, he absolutely hadn't been out of the game for 10-15 minutes before coming off like you're suggesting

he really wasn't, he was still putting in a lot more hard yards than the donkey besmirching the 9 shirt

Genuinely not seen a performance worse than Ayew in a long time. Just an all time stinker of falling over the ball, going missing and killing attacks. Carranza had some really good looking linkup play, all 1 touch stuff. Got to start over Ayew next week. Shout out to Monga absolutely assassinating their winger, turned him inside out like 6 times then sat him down, outrageous for a 16 year old

Not convinced. He talks a good game but he's not got a single first half right and his subs today were also either wrong or too late, was obvious from 55 minutes that the donkey and Mavididi had to come off for an actual striker and Monga, takes too long to bring on Monga and then brings James off instead.