Danny

2 hours ago, Stan said:

Toney's arm goes across keepers face. Shit that keepers get over protected to the point that no challenge can be made but it is a foul. 

Should definitely have had a penalty for keeper jumping over Toney just before Ajer scored though. 

And a couple for the holding in the area, quite blatantly. 

Ill watch it again when im less angry lol, but it looked like the keeper was barely impeded and a 50/50 coming together.

Its happened a lot recently, Liverpool, West Ham and now Burnley.

1 minute ago, Stan said:

I didn't say that! It sounded like he missed a few chances, hence saying he had a stinker. No bait intended. 

Came across that he wasn’t focusing on the games he has now. But fair.

It’s just a difficult point of the season, 8 months out, relatively little support going forward, down to ten men in a team that’s missing 7 starters from the starting eleven. His goal record has been good since coming back.

The international break couldn’t come at a better time. Mbeumo should be ready to start on the otherside of it and maybe, just maybe we might see some key players return from injury.

32 minutes ago, Stan said:

So what's the bait

 

The comment about him not trying Stanley

42 minutes ago, Stan said:

He's clearly leaving in summer isn't he? 

Yes?

Referee has fucked us over. That’s 2-2 and the silly cunts wont even go to VAR. Their keeper has jumped and flapped for a ball, missed it, and then jumped into Toney as much as Toney jumped to him. No foul. Wankers.

5 minutes ago, Stan said:

Sounds like Toney has had a stinker @Danny.

Eyes on a move away in summer already... 

Expect better bait from you Stan

I’ve never really hated any player we’ve signed under Benham, but I smelt it from the beginning with Reguillon. Playing him is like giving a blindman keys to the bus down Oxford Street.

Captain dogshit at it again @Storts

I hope to god Atletico shithouse their way to the final.

2 hours ago, Michael said:

Sterling is a top player, but for me, what has always let him down is his finishing ability. He's not the best finisher and I think that being able to take your chances at a huge competition like the European Championships is crucial. 

He didn’t need to be a goalscorer to have a massive impact for England, his running on and off the ball was integral to how we played. But he scored 3 goals at the Euros which is a good record for most players

5 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Ben Shapiro.  You have to be fucking kidding me. Every time I think it can't get any dumber, he pulls another youtube video out of his ass. 

Who’s gunna buy the houses Ben, fucking Aquaman?

9 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

Subtle as ever Tim Sherwood .

I thought Cole Palmer handled that really well.

 

Tim Sherwood, Paul Merson, in the same bracket of pundits where you wonder how theyve got a job

It's a shame that Raheem Sterling's England career seems to be coming to an end. He was a stand-out player in all of the youth sides he played in, someone who genuinely excited you to watch. Went on to have two massive tournaments for England in 2018 and 2020 (2021) where he was our second best attacking player at both tournaments. Completely integral to how Southgate had England playing and he managed to step-up in a time where we lacked options on the wing. Those two tournaments have arguably been the best I've experienced in my lifetime for England, Sterling was integral to all of that. He will definitely go down as an England legend and I hope he can move on from Chelsea and re-ignite the final stages of his career as he is still a quality player.

44 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

It feels like with the additional fixtures and interupted season breaks for international tournaments that having several registered players injured at the same time will be a common occurance for most clubs.

The last two seasons our injuries have been okay, we've had them, but not to an unmanageable level. This season is just crazy.

6 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

Everton and Brentford will be fine. Everton will probably circle the plug hole another season but I wouldn't be surprised if Brentford alter there transfer strategy and find a way to become more succesful next season even without Toney.

If we go down we only have ourselves to blame. Our starting XI is good enough to finish in the top half, but the gap between them and the rest of the team is pretty staggering. Without Eze, Olise, Doucoure and Guehi we have been putting out a team that would struggle to make the playoffs in The Championship. Imagine telling somebody a year ago we would sell Zaha and not replace him. There's no way Luton deserve to finish below us.

I'm personally beyond caring what happens. I don't like the owners, I don't like vocal portions of our fan base, and the players I do like are going to be part of a wasted era in our history as we had in 1995.

Who knows how we improve next season, you can never really tell with our ownership. But I would say the main thing we would focus on is having strength in depth and probably adding more pace to the squad. Kevin Schade has been injured for 6 months and counting, Henry the whole season, Hickey 5 months and counting, Dasilva the whole season, Mbeumo three months, Ben Mee most of the season, Damsgaard 3 months, Lewis-Potter about 2 months, Ajer a month, new january signing Yunus Emre Konak instantly out till the Summer and then of course Toney's suspension and Wissa, Frank and Ghoddos' AFCON/ASIA Cup.

What has been made very clear is thar without Henry, Schade, Mbeumo and Dasilva we have no pace and no direct attack. Lewis-Potter and Wissa can be thrown into that too, but Wissa is a very much a number 9 and Lewis-Potter has suffered so many injuries since joining it's difficult to get consistency from him. At mostly full strength, without Toney, and of course taking into the occasional injuries you may suffer in a 1-2 month period, we have a team that could easily fight for midtable and try to slip in for the Conference League spot should anyone above have a bad season and the Premier League get awarded an extra Champions League spot. That was my hope this season, and honestly until around early December we looked good for that. We had performed really well, were taking results and just had a couple of games where freak incidents gave points away for us. But with the consistency we built the team was going in the right direction. What has become unmanagable almost is the scale of injuries that we have suffered and the pace of the team completely shattered. We can sit back deep, defend well and then hit teams directly with Mbuemo, Dasilva and Schade on the pitch. Then you have Wissa who is still pacy and was scoring goals, you have Lewis-Potter who can grow into the wing position. But since losing the pace we have largely played a back 5 with no wingers. Improvement next season has to be in making sure even when we lose players, we still have pace across the squad. And then of course it's just trying to improve the first eleven with good signings.

1 hour ago, Stan said:

And Bayern. 

Bit hit and miss no? They have an easily more talented team but their season hasn't been great.

Posted in the wrong topic, but great to see Raya proving why he is night and day ahead of Ramsdale and #3 in the league.

Personally I like Porto’s style. I thought they were aggressive, made life difficult for Arsenal and created a great spectacle. Just like boxing styles make fights, I want to see sides like Porto and Atleti go up against your Arsenal’s, City’s etc.

Arsenal done well to go through but I think they’ll struggle against City, Inter or Real.

Been saying Raya is the best keeper in the league away from Allison and Ederson. Just superb.

19 minutes ago, Stan said:

A-league had it alright for a while. 

 

But which league Stan

Is there a league thats actually got VAR spot on since its introduction? Or close to?

I feel like the Hawkeye nature of it was great, specifically call an offside, especially the automatic offsides. But dont take the piss with everything else 

We have just come out of a run of games that has included Spurs, Man City x2, Liverpool and Arsenal and it went as badly as you'd expect it to. Still without 6 of our starting eleven, still without any degree of pace going forward which is why we've looked so bad in attack against the teams we've just played. The plus side is that we should have Bryan Mbeumo back for the United game, at least that's what we're hoping for. If we get him back then it's a game changer as we can actually hit teams on the counter.

We now get to play Burnley, United, Brighton, Villa, Sheffield United, Luton Town, Everton, Fulham, Bournemouth and Newcastle.

A couple of games we should expect to win there, looking specifically at Burnley, Sheffield United and Fulham.

Then you have sides like Luton and Everton who should technically be winnable but it'll be difficult to take a result away at Goodison Park and Kenilworth Road.

Then you have the rest, Brighton, United, Villa, Bournemouth and Newcastle. Teams who have performed well for periods this season but ultimately they can be up and down.

I think 15 points is salvageable out of that, hopefully we can get players like Schade, Hickey, Pinnock and Mbeumo back into the team and I think the closer we get to full strength the more likely we are to put in a good run of performances towards the end to veer away from what is the current bottom 3 and then Nottingham Forest.

2 minutes ago, Stan said:

100% a penalty.

Fair enough if a ref misses it because their one angle could/may be obscured by other players.

But VAR officials shouldn't be missing it. They get the benefit of all other angles. There's even contact high on the leg after the initial chest/torso contact.

No doubt PGMOL/Howard Webb on that Sky programme will try and defend it though. There's literally no reason to not give a penalty (barring $$$$)

What makes it worse is that the ref was stood directly in front of it lol

14 hours ago, Reluctant Striker said:

Heard Unai's post match comments in BBC interview. Unlike so many more successful & less successful managers : No moaning about the audacity of having a mid week European match. No moaning about McGinn only being a yellow. Also chose to subtly ignore the inaccurate analysis Spurs had controlled the 1st half. Just a basic & humble admission it becomes difficult at 0-2 & down to 10 men. For better or worse, it's because of this management style Villa surely have, if nothing else, a more well grounded & calm squad of players than many have.

Have to disagree with your last comment. There was a point this season where you were thrown into the title race by most pundits and the pressure of that culminated in 3 of your first 11 massively losing their heads against us, and since that game your results have dropped off considerably. I think you prefer being the underdogs and I think Emery’s style leans towards that, but not sure it’s because you’re more grounded.

In fact I’ve just seen McGinn’s red and that is even more headloss

What's everyone think about the VAR call? Can't lie I'm at a loss as to how studs down someone's chest/belly isn't a foul. Probably a yellow card anywhere else on the pitch

Probably important to remember that any new coach will want to bring their own players in who know their style inside out. Liverpool will probably sign about 5 players in the Summer that should fit the new style. Then on top of that you still have Allison, VVD, Trent and Salah who are all clearly world class (though may not all stay…). And then you have players like Robertson, Quansah, Mac Allister, Szobslai and Jota who either have it in them to play at that level or already have done so.

Probably also good to remember that Klopp himself said Liverpool were ahead of schedule and didnt expect to be fighting for the title.