Last year 11 was enough to qualify for the play offs and 16 to get a bye. I think the former was a bit lower than the simulations predicted and 16 was higher. All in all it puts us in a pretty good place - 4 points almost certain to get us a bye and even 3 leaves it as possible.
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Yeah. Addressing the slide we’ve been on is really important, but I don’t know what this means for the future to have got some improved results playing the way we have. The reality is you dont get better at something new by dropping it and temporarily reverting to some other approach. A golfer who tweaked their swing to get more consistency but is initially incapable of hitting fairway off the tee may get some temporary improvement by reverting back to the old swing, but then what? Houllier had a philosophy of wanting to develop a winning mentality before evolving to play better attacking football and it fell apart because we were suddenly trying to do different things than the initial success had been built on and doing with different players.
Nothing I’ve seen last night or in the good bits of the previous 3 games says much to me about what this team needs to look like to get back to league winning form. And the struggles Slot had with this group from the beginning of the season doesnt give much reason to think he’s got a path from this to that either.
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I guess what I saw yesterday was two things:
- We fell on the right side of a result that could have gone the other way
- There were signs that Isak is starting to gel
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yeah, i missed those signs…
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He put on more of a shift and there were signs (maybe I’m seeing things) but he was looking to make his runs with a bit better appreciation of who had the bal and in the context of the the phase of play. Again, was my impression so maybe I was completely seeing something that no one else saw.. time will tell.
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i again wasnt impressed.
if he was better/more involved, then i can accept that, but for 120 million pound, and being at the club since september, there should be a lot more.
the same reason i defend Wirtz is the reason i question Isak.
I guess every diva is different. Diaz hit the ground running but Bobby took his time to come to the boil. There’s time.
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I think Isak isnt the sort of forward who naturally hustles the way Wirz does, and the lack of fitness/ pre season and coaching probably makes that look worse.
I think he will be brilliant for us once it all clicks. I’m just not sure he should be given priority when starting right now (although i understand why he might be)
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The penalty is a tad soft but the rules does says it is a foul to do shirt pulling. Whether how much shirt pulling is too much, is very subjective…
Bit soft yes, but if it was anywhere else on the pitch not many would complain if it was given as a foul. If you don’t want to give away penalties for shirt pulling there is a simple way to avoid it, don’t pull players shirts.
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yeah i dont get the big made up drama…
the bloke got a fist full of Wirtzs shirt…its a penalty.
i dont get why its different in the PL and Europe…and why noones questioning that statement.
another case of the rules being so stupid no one wants to challenge them because you feel like you must be missing the point.
played football all my life and never has it been not in the rules that a shirt pull is a foul. simple.
should be more of it.
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Best thing was the corner near the end where Ali came out and took control by catching the cross.
I did think it was a concious decision because on the corner where we conceded the 3rd goal against Leeds, he started to come and then went back, if he had continued to come it would have prevented their goal, so that catch was great to see.
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Any shirt pulling is too much, it is a deliberate action and easily stopped if the authorities so desire
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Then how would Arsenal score from corners?
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To be fair to Bobby, Rodgers didn’t have a clue what to do with him.
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With Bobby, Rodgers had no idea how to utilise him, but Jurgen knew, he just needed to get Sadio and Mo to complete the plan.
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I am a bit confused here as for me shirt pulling like that is a yellow card offense. How can it then be seen as a soft penalty?
Blatant ‘cheating’ that can be dangerous. Not only that but it prevents a player from playing the ball and scoring a possible goal.
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It’s really one of those things where the refs’ interpretation of the law is so nuanced as to be nonsensical. So, you can pull a shirt, but only for a couple of seconds. Each referee has their own idea of how many seconds and they certainly aren’t going to tell anybody, so it’s a guessing game, like handball, injury time, dissent and a whole lot more.
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