Dr. Gonzo

Synagogue in San Diego shot up yesterday

I don't think that's that unpopular of an opinion. I don't agree with it (Alan Shearer existed) - but I've heard the argument made plenty of times, and there's lots you can point to that support that argument.

Yeah, how on earth are Chelsea not in a transitional season? In any case, even if Chelsea trying to completely change the way they play on the pitch to a more attacking style after over a decade of primarily conservative football was somehow not a rebuild of Chelsea... does it make sense to sack Sarri if the transfer ban is upheld? Maybe if you bring in someone with a track record of pushing young players into the first team, since you won’t have any new signings. In any case, Chelsea are going to be in transition at very least until they can sign players. But it’ll likely take more than one transfer window to bring in the right players. If I were a Chelsea fan I’d be obsessed with news re: that appeal and hoping the transfer ban is overturned. That’s far more important for the club’s long term future than whatever happens this season (though obviously you want to do as well as you can). Sarri’s style at Napoli was great, but that Napoli were better built for attacking football that he inherited at Chelsea. At Chelsea I think it’s a solid group of quality players, but the established creative players there are Hazard (world class), Pedro (used to be world class but looks passed it this season, which pushes more responsibility for creativity to Hazard), and Willian (who isn’t even that creative). I suppose Marcos Alonso too, but he’s not balanced enough as a fullback to do well in a proper Sarri system because while he’s great going forward he’s shit going backward. So that’s the vast majority of the side’s creativity coming from one world class player, who’s likely about to leave. If the ban’s upheld and Hazard leaves, I think a Sarri or no Sarri, Chelsea are in for a painful season.

I feel bad for CHO, that’s a really awful injury.

Sterling suggested that if fans are racist, their club should get a 9 point deduction and have to play 3 matches behind closed doors. The problem with that idea is it makes me want to buy a Man City shirt and sneak into the Etihad so I can unfurl a racist banner in that City blue and win us the title. So I’m not sure that actually does anything to prevent racism

I wish I was as good at guitar as Alexi Laiho is:

That was a good episode because of all the tension that was built.

Yeah but there's something to be said about having a good keeper behind a defense, the keeper isn't just an important player because they keep goals out, they're generally a leader and organiser of the defense (in fact, I'd argue we've struggled when we've had keepers that are only good shot stoppers at worse clubs but don't have those leadership qualities once they make the step up to us). I think even a good defense is likely to concede goals when they've got someone they don't trust to not make mistakes behind them - and even if a mistake happens, a good keeper has the trust of his defense that a one off mistake is just a one off mistake. I agree it's a reflection of the defensive unit. But Pickford's a big part of that defensive unit, despite having made some high profile errors this season he's obviously still been a good player for Everton. I've heard some whoppers (my Evertonian cousin, for one) say some shite about how Pickford should have been dropped for a spell this season and how maybe being the England keeper has gotten to him mentally. And that's just ridiculous. Yes, he's under more scrutiny now because he's the England keeper. That's what happens when you're the England keeper, unfortunately. But he can't be dropped at the first sign of struggle under this pressure, and I think he's done well this season to bounce back from moments of hotheadedness and strange errors - those stats don't indicate that he's suddenly a poor keeper. They indicate he's a good keeper that's had a few shit moments this season - which happens to players sometimes, things aren't always smooth sailing. Especially when you're at a club that's under going a transitional season after a few seasons of botched transitional seasons. He's never going to learn to deal with the pressure if he doesn't get a chance to deal with the pressure. So it's a good thing for Pickford and Everton that Silva isn't an idiot like my cousin. It's a transitional season, there's going to be poor moments, but there's still plenty to be positive about with Everton. Likewise it's good for Everton that Silva seems to have weathered the storm after Everton's loss of form compared to earlier in the season, where he was looking like he was under real pressure because his side in transition wasn't immediately great. Those early calls for him to get sacked were mental and the last thing Everton need right now is instability.

Yeah I can’t think of another error that Alisson’s made leading to a goal other than the one against Leicester, it must be the former like you say. Or my memory is completely failing me. I’m going to be honest though, while I love giving Pickford stick, he’s obviously a good keeper and one of the better players at Everton. I just knew it was a negative stat he’s high in, low hanging fruit

Ooooh now do most errors leading to a goal.

I think with EA it's only a matter of time until a good developer is ruined. Them and ActivisionBlizzard are the two worst publishers that almost always seem to kill what they get their hands on. And Cuphead's animation is so ridiculously good. It's a great game. I played it a while ago, it was really cheap when it first launched on the Xbox. It's basically a game of mostly old school boss fights - but I fucking love it despite how tough it is and I thought it'd be more of a platformer than it is, but was pleasantly surprised. Quality little game. I'm surprised Microsoft agreed to let it go to the Switch prior to the Xbox Live/GamePass coming to the Switch - which is when Cuphead will be on my switch (not gonna pay for the damn thing twice lol). I do hope the Microsoft-Nintendo collaboration leads to more.

I enjoyed Cuphead, but I found it super hard

I'm not that surprised tbh - Titanfall 2 did DLC in a way that I found most acceptable. People could pay for cosmetics (that were unlockable through gameplay) and that was a big surprise to people because it was an EA game. The head of Respawn is now on the Board of Directors at EA (*edit* I actually looked into this and I don't think that's true anymore so never mind), so I think he can do quite a bit to maintain the reputation of his development team - which I think is one of the best reputations in the industry right now. And part of that is the goodwill they've built with fans of the game through transparency with their microtransactions. Even with Apex Legends, which I loved but then got incredibly bored of because Battle Royale games are burning me the fuck out, I would never pay some of the prices they put for their silly cosmetic microtransactions - but that's a free game and the only microtransactions are cosmetic. That's a far cry from Dice's Battlefront 2 being pay to win. Like I said before, I'll continue to trust Respawn, like I did with Dice and BioWare up until they betrayed my trust. I'm sure it'll happen sooner or later, but hopefully Respawn can maintain it's excellent consumer friendly reputation for as long as possible.

That substitution in a nutshell

Why do ligers always look obese?

I don't even think it's just the goading environment that football is - I play Rocket League on the xbox and I get called a nigger all the time on there by people I assume are just idiot children. I don't know if racism is on the rise in young people, or if a segment of the population are just racist and the internet has emboldened people into thinking open racism is alright. But I do think social media and the internet have played a big part in, at very least, amplifying the racist views in our society... if not actively spreading racism.

Primary Character: Robb Stark Secondary Character: Jeor Mormont Tertiary Character: Daenerys Targaryan

It’s been so unbelievably great lately

I probably will have the chance to send my kids to Eton tbh, life’s been surprisingly good to me. I think there’s better places for my kid to get an education though. I also think that an expensive school doesn’t necessarily make for an educated student.

I think City being kinda shite that year was more helpful than your kit tbh. I know City is basically a PR project for the UAE... but it’s miserably failed on me, I fucking hate the UAE now because of them. The world should go green so Citeh go back to being shite.

At least we’re not getting Puma kits they’re fucking shite

I don’t like him because he’s a disingenuous little liar who doesn’t have much substance behind his debates but the media doesn’t like to call him out because he went to Eton and Oxford. He recently called out another toff born into wealth about the lower standard his public school was. The crux of that debate is essentially “my daddy was richer than yours.” I think Rees-Mogg is great for those who feel the need to have a toff lord over them though.

Apparently Nike wants to be our next shirt sponsor. I wouldn't have any complaints, other than the fact that they're the most boring kit manufacturer and all of their fucking kits are template bullshite and I don't want that.

He also worked on the 2 original Fallout games as well as Fallout New Vegas. The man is a legend. That's great news though - it's one of the best (imo) publishers in recent years with a legendary writer for some incredible games.