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They were probably smelling each other’s farts telling each other how great they all are. Football referees can learn a lot of lessons from rugby referees. They might not get all the calls correct, but there’s a clear, rational decision making process and they’re not so reliant on VAR to make...

This. Something that is underrated about Simms is that he’s great at defending set pieces too. We’d took off EMC, Torp, Eccles, MVE and Simms for Allen, Sheaf, BTA, Lati and Haji. We lost a lot of height and probably shouldn’t be that surprised we conceded a set piece.

It tells me he’s not a good referee. I can’t get my head around it because if Stoke’s keeper doesn’t stick his leg out, EMC has an open goal to score. What is his criteria for a penalty?! So for all the people quoting xG in the assessment of the game, things like EMC being fouled and their...

Was the referee yesterday from the Prem? If so, it explains a lot because they’re so reliant on VAR to make any difficult decisions on their behalf.

That’s right and it puzzled me tbh. In fairness, BTA joined the box as a second striker whenever he could. For Thomas’ winner, Haji forces their defender into a poor clearance which BTA probably doesn’t force so the plan worked out eventually. They’re being very cautious with Sheaf too which...

Anyone know how many we’ve sold? I’m assuming I’ll be good for 12pm.

The calculation was probably that there was 42 minutes left of the game and they didn’t plan to play Haji for that long as part of his rehab.

It was a flat 3 with Eccles being the most advanced in the defensive shape where he would join the line with Simms to make a 4-4-2 shape. Lampard was complimentary of the midfield (including Eccles) in his post-match comments. If Torp can hit form, there’s a compelling case to play a 4-3-3...

Simms deserves credit for Torp’s first goal. Firstly, Torp’s man completely loses him, but the nearest defender to him was marking Simms and when their defender sees the danger, Simms blocks him off. It was probably the difference between Torp having an uncontested header versus a contested one.

If you mean beating defenders in the air from the hold ball, probably not because the refereeing clearly favours the defender. The way we play, the striker doesn’t get much of the ball in the buildup play and he’s just expected to get in the box which he does well and has scored quite a few...

I don’t think it was worthy of a penalty and a red card because of the double jeopardy law. When Lampard said ‘it’s a foul anywhere else on the pitch’, it’s a fair comment to make and in my mind, a clear penalty. The most egregious thing was missing the offside for their 2nd goal because that...

I’m about WW and scaling the stairs after a heavy leg day at the gym had my legs like jelly! 😂 It’s also quite slippy when it’s wet and cold so I’m surprised there hasn’t been anyone who’s fell over near me.

Gyokeres is a unicorn player and we are unlikely to find a player better than him in a lifetime. Simms’ overall goal scoring record speaks for itself and he does a very thankless task of holding the ball up and being a general nuisance. Granted, it’s only been a short sample, but Haji hasn’t...

Burnley is a small town, population of around 96k. They won’t really get much more than 25k really.

Although there’s a lot of empty seats during this barren spell of theirs. We don’t even sell out our season tickets and stadium utilisation is 83%. Talk of expansion is silly when attendances of 7-12k are within recent memory.

Even if we lost all 3 matches, which I don’t think we will, we’re still odds on to finish in the playoffs. We've got more favourable run in than all the teams around us barring Blackburn whose form is patchy. A win v Derby and Sunderland and you’d back us to get 2-4 points v Sheff U and Burnley.

Anyone interested in a tactical read, this Twitter thread is good:

You’re Wright because he’s only really played LW regularly since joining us. He has scored most of his goals playing as a striker in 2 man partnership with us rather than as a lone striker here. The way we’re playing atm, Haji will make the most of his attributes picking the ball up and running...

Against Derby and/or Sunderland, I’d like to see Sakamoto-Simms-Wright. I’m assuming EMC is injured, but even if he’s fit and well, Sakamoto has played so well in the last 2 games he absolutely deserves to keep his spot. It’s his shirt to lose.

He’ll go on the wing eventually, Simms has added a lot of value with his hold up play and physicality against defenders. Wright’s most impactful moment yesterday was when he picked up the ball and ran at defenders down the left flank. Wright did put pressure on the defender which led to a poor...