Loving that the genius owners think Chalobah starting over Cleverly makes any difference to any premier league game. Both shot. Both deadwood.
If Otamendi and Stones start and De Bruyne and Sterling don't, then I think we may actually have a chance of only losing 5-1.
It will never happen, but what is the time for a super-energetic unknown quantity if not now, eh?! Pedro on the wing dovetailing with Welbeck and Sarr. They'd genuinely have to actually keep the possibility of us breaking in their minds, which is something they can happily discard for the 90 if Deeney is the one taking the field. If not an incredibly green teenager, then Pussetto at least; Nigel's reign of terror is over, and with it his hateful, bullying vendetta against Pussetto just for daring to be from the country that invaded British sovereign territory in 1982 (Nigel's hatred is mildly irrational and works along the same logical framework as the No Homer's Club, which explained his slavish devotion to Pereyra). Honestly, imagine we actually win the ball in defence, don't just immediately hook-hoof it aimlessly somewhere up the pitch but god knows where to come straight back at us, and our whole attack actually sets off towards the opposition's box, arrriving at roughly the same time. That sight alone would be worthy of celebrating as vehemently as a goal, and if it happens I'll be waving my yellow flag non-stop.
TEAM SYSTEM: - NINE AT THE BACK AND SARR UP FRONT ON HIS OWN. TACTICS: - PARK THE BUS AND HOOF LONG BALLS INTO CITY'S HALF FOR SARR TO CHASE. PREDICTION: - HOPEFULLY WE GET A BLANK SHEET AND SARR OUT SPRINTS THE CITY DEFENCE TO SCORE A BREAKAWAY GOAL FOR A 1-0 WIN YES I DID SEE THAT FLOCK OF PIGS FLYING PAST, BUT WE CAN LIVE HOPE WE CAN DO THIS GUYS 1-0 TO THE GOLDEN BOYS
I had brief moment of hope when I considered De Bruyne might end up being rested. Then, I remembered he started on the bench in the cup final.
Apparently we had scouts at this game. We have signed 78 of these promising youngsters and they have been sprinkled around the lower Spanish and Italian leagues. On Giraldi's spreadsheet, 7 of them are due to be the backbone of our first 11 in 2037. #pozzomodel.
We should make the team sit down and watch their victory over Liverpool. and tell them to do the same again. It was an almost perfect performance. We did nothing spectacular in that game, nothing of worldie quality, nothing exceptional. All we did was remained concentrated and disciplined, we did the fundamentals well, with some closing down, with a little enterprise going forward. When you do those things, you create a little uncertainty in the opposition heads, a few mistakes, and a little luck. We did nothing in that game that we can't do again tonight and we can certainly avoid a mauling, or may even sneak a point or three.
I need both De Bruyne ad Sterling to start, I put them both into my fantasy league this week and triple captained De Bruyne
We need a 2 goal lead, minimum, so when De Bruyne and Stirling come on we may still nick a point. Hughes needs to be on it with set pieces, Dawson needs to be on it with his heading. This is the perfect scenario. Dawson is our biggest goal threat tonight.
Didn't score in either of the Mullins/Stack games before Pearson took over (0-2, 0-0). Fair chance we won't in these either but one 0-0 could be enough to make them legends.
Dear Pip Here's the team for tonight: Trautmann Book Barton Then Send Him Off Lee Bell Summerbee Busby Subs: Kinkladze,EI Adio,Liam and Noel Gallagher.
I had a dream last night that we'd get off to a blistering start for a change and be 2 or 3 up in the first 25 mins, then we were grimly hanging on as they slowly chipped away at our lead. I'm not sure how the dream was going to finish as I woke up, but I assume we still conceded about 8 in the end. I've decided to watch it later as well. It's like the religious penance monks used to do when they hit themselves with knotted rope until their skin fell off.
I had a dream last week, Nigel Pearson was sitting in a press conference with piles of cash in front of him. No lie.
Massive game tonight - will be nervous as hell. Let’s hope the Arsenal win it by 4 or 5 to compensate for the other match on TV tonight
Throughout all of this charade of these behind closed doors games I have found myself singing 'For America' by Jackson Browne. If you substitute 'Watford' for 'America' it fits well. Then again as Randy Newman said 'no one gives a **** but Jackson Browne. May the gods preserve us.
Yep - for all that I felt Pearson was far from perfect and didn't make the right subs, his options were crap. We've a couple of unproven youngsters and a bunch of confirmed duds (Cleverley, Chalobah, Gray, Cathcart) as options, aside from the regular starters. Our squad is packed full of people who you would never want anywhere near the team. Not really sure how often you need to shuffle that deck to come up with anything other than turds.
Be hilarious if we actually won this, then Villa win their last two games and we lose to Arsenal to get relegated. Sorry Miles.
Fingers crossed they start Stones and Otamendi. Based on the Bournemouth game we then need to press the **** out of those two and Ederson. They were virtually horizontal passing it around between themselves against Bournemouth.
And then Pearson walks into the after match press conference, tells us all it was a plan between himself, Troy and Giraldi to gee up the team, then drops the mic and walks off. Edit - not the still going down part.
I have to say that there is something I really like about Hayden Mullins. Yes we may get torn a new one this eve, but I suspect that his calm and assured nature may already have started to rub off on the team. I liked his point about the importance of organisation as well. I like him and whatever happens in these next 2 games, I hope he stays at the club, whether as a permanent head coach or as a first team coach.
What a season. This is no disrespect to Mullins and Stack, who are fine coaches in their own right, but the board has put us in a position where our Premier League lives depend on a couple of rookie coaches getting results against two of the best teams in England. How the f&ck have they allowed this to happen? Gross incompetence in my book. The timing of sacking Pearson has really got a lot of fans questioning the club, probably seriously, for the first time. Still nothing is said by anyone high up to reassure. Regardless of how we do in the final two games, I think there will be a backlash from this from fans. You can sense it on social media, phone-ins etc. There is a lot of anger directed to the owner/chairman right now. The easy ride for the owners will probably come to an end, unless they change some of the things they do. There does now seem to be a disconnect. Once you lose the fans, it's game over for any club owner. I hope they're wise enough to recognise there has been a bit of a sea change, and they do something positive to get fans back onside.
