In the league it goes on.
Looking back on last nights game I’m glad that we came away just losing by one goal. Early on Ali made a great reaction save he then made a real cock-up in the second half by trying to dribble the ball in the box and they really should have scored. VAR then came to the rescue with a very marginal offside so all in all to lose by one goal wasn’t too bad.
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It’s much longer in the league. 12 games (and if he didn’t fail to score against Fulham it would be a 12 game scoring streak).
Forest and Palace are the only teams to not suffer a goal/assist from Salah in the league this season, and Bournemouth and Fulham the only teams to not concede against him.
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To be honest I hate the EFL cup I wanted us to go out in the quarters as what happened last night was very predictable tired players, unmotivated players and more injuries to weaken our last push for the league. This is my opinion only but I call it the jinx cup as we fail to win the league for years after winning it. I want us to win the second leg only to show that they did not beat us yesterday. The historical announcement was a farce, I would have preferred an announcement to tell everyone why the goal scorer was allowed to stay on the pitch after an avoiding what should have been a certain second yellow card.
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I found it embarrassingly cringeworthy but at the same time I understand why this measure is being introduced…any little redemption they can roll out for the shambles we call referees. Kulusevski kicking the back of Jones’s calf not even reviewed.
Fans will always be conflicted with cup competitions, how serious we should take them, where they lie on the priority ladder…especially in seasons where we’ve been nowhere near the league. Same debates every season, the only way everyone will stop caring about it is if they simple axe the whole thing or change it so it only involves EFL clubs.
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Did anyone else worry when van Dijk was shown stepping on Solanke’s calf?
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Maybe they should keep it but leave the premier league out of it? The French got rid of it as it was not worth the expense nor the bother.
No.
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Neither a stamp or rake with his studs, no excessive force. So i wasn’t worried. That said, can’t trust these refs
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so how long is suspension? Comes back to my earlier question, can i get guys like @Alright_Now_Legend and @cynicaloldgit suspended as well for like the next two matches? They have not been very nice to me.
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I beg to differ; I think our midfield could use another versatile player with the quality of Macca or Ryan. Either one of those gets injured and we will be in trouble, and no, Jones cannot play either one’s role as effectively as they do.
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Speaking of Jones, he’s one of those that’s a bit off the boil at the moment.
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Who is?
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I am losing confidence in his long-term role. He is up and down, but the mean doesn’t really seem to be the level a club competing at the highest level needs. It is in there somewhere, but he needs to find consistency. The only time I noticed him yesterday was when he was taking too long on the ball.
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Only saw the game until the 65th minute, then I fell asleep… 
In the grand scheme of things, the negative result isn’t the end of the world, and can still be overturned at Anfield.
On the other hand, it shows a trend. We look quite lame right now. Some players look stale, and that’s no wonder with all the matches heaping up. We were always going to hit a difficult spell at some point in the season, and I think that we are starting to get into it now. Hopefully Slot and co. will be able to identify the problems and address them as quickly as possible, in order to not derail this brilliant start of season!
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touche…
I think that’s his own reluctance in using players beyond the chosen few showing. Oddly enough though I’ve seen that we had a 3+ xG against United, so it seems that once again it’s just poor finishing letting us down. I’m not too fussed about that for this reason. I think more judicious management of the squad would help us freshen up.
And that said, I’m not sure what trend there is.
Interesting that Alexander-Arnold, Jones and Quansah are the new whipping boys.
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A trend of having long flat periods in a game, where we can’t impose ourselves on the opposition and can’t thus play our usual game. That must have to do with fatigue. Mental or physical, I don’t know.
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Quansah, Bradley, Tsimi, Jota all started. Fringe might be the wrong way to describe them, but they are all lower than tier 1 players who are expected to start every game and, for a variety of reasons, have not played much recently. We have another rotation opportunity on the weekend where Im sure some of the regulars who played last night will get a break if possible and so the consideration was in how to best navigate this pair of cup games resulting in a 10 day spell of not playing a league game. You would want every regular who isnt carrying a knock to get at least 30 minutes in at least one of these games to prevent them going stale. This is clearly the more important of the two games and justified a more regular line up and I expect we’ll see additional changes on the weekend.
My only real quibble is I’d liked to have seen Harvey used earlier, but expect him to start on Saturday.
It appears he didnt even think it was a foul. Ange’s explanation that in that situation the rules say you cannot come back and book the player is bollocks. There is a consideration for that if the foul is purely an attempt to stop a promising play and the ref plays advantage. But that does not apply for a second booking - refs are instructed to prioritize the second yellow and stop the game. But also, the calls for this being a yellow are for it being a bad tackle and there is no consideration for the refs of waiving that if you play on. However, it turns out, amazingly, that the ref thinks the lad played the ball based on the fact he didnt signal advantage and seemed to point to the ball as an indication of what he saw 
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