Bruges v Aston Villa PMT.

[simon ward 50]

On this occasion word fail me!

[Chris Smith]

We've not been sussed out. We keep gifting the simplest of opportunities to the opposition. Last night, Spurs, Palace. If you're easy to score against, you will lose.

That’s exactly it, we are making basic errors and getting punished for them. You just cannot legislate for the type of brain freeze Tyrone suffered last night.

[Ads]

The volume of fighting amongst ourselves last night was higher than usual. Put it down to the strong ale.

[simon ward 50]

The volume of fighting amongst ourselves last night was higher than usual. Put it down to the strong ale.

Surely that doesn't explain the performance on the pitch?

[martin o`who??]

Stupid, inexcusable and unnecesary. A player of his experience should know better. I just worry that an incident like that could derail team spirit.
Basically a class A fuck up.

[The Edge]

I just cannot think of a reason for Mings to do that.

I still cannot fathom why he wasn’t sent off.
If it was a pen, then it was a deliberate hand ball.

Because he stood to gain no advantage from it.

[Hookeysmith]

I just cannot see how we have collectively turned to shit all of a sudden.

McGinn has looked lost.
Konsa relies too much on pretending he is fouled after fucking up something simple. I think refs are cottoning on to it.
Torres - the best passing CF in Europe suddenly looks like an amatuer level player
Watkins has turned into Heskey without the ability to hold the ball - really shocking from him.
Duran is believing his hype
Bailey - i think has been abducted and NZogbia put in his place.
Rogers now thinks he can walk past all the opposition so holds it too long and loses it.
The offside traps were like swiss clocks not they look as disjointed as a dogs hind leg

This is not a reaction to last night but the last 3-4 games.

We are so poor we could just go and shock everyone on Sat with a win - more likely we will get battered and the media will be all over it

[The Edge]

That was truly awful, only matched by the performance of the referee who on top of the bizarre penalty decision made countless poor calls.
Maatsen seems to be getting the better ratings but I thought he was truly abject and I actually thought Bailey was a little better than he has been, certainly didn’t give it away as much. Kamara was just about the best player but tired badly. Everyone's was shocking, particularly Watkins, Maatsen and Rogers

What bizarre decision was that exactly? Clear handball and just lucky not to be sent off.
As regards Bailey, most players would be able to play a 5 yard backwards pass.

It looked clear cut but did you watch the link someone posted earlier? An Arsenal player did the exact same thing in a CL match and no penalty was given.

[Bully2345]

It looked clear cut but did you watch the link someone posted earlier? An Arsenal player did the exact same thing in a CL match and no penalty was given.

And it should have been given. The referee in that game took a call that wasn't based on laws of the game but on not wanting to give a penalty for silliness, in essence.

Mings was silly. He shouldn't pick the ball up when it's in play. Penalty

[amfy]

Is ‘An Arsenal player did exactly the same thing….’  going to become the new ‘Why didn’t Barry take the penalty?’

[Beard82]

I just cannot think of a reason for Mings to do that.

I still cannot fathom why he wasn’t sent off.
If it was a pen, then it was a deliberate hand ball.

Because he stood to gain no advantage from it.

But if it hits a players hand in the area its a pen, is that delibrate?

[Sexual Ealing]

Is ‘An Arsenal player did exactly the same thing….’  going to become the new ‘Why didn’t Barry take the penalty?’

It's especially silly from a 'big club bias' angle, given that Arsenal were playing Bayern, a much bigger club.

[Chico Hamilton III]

The volume of fighting amongst ourselves last night was higher than usual. Put it down to the strong ale.

Some of our mates were on 22% strength lager in one of the bars before the game. Saft

[kippaxvilla2]

The opposition have stopped engaging with us during tippy tappy.  We are then forced out.  We then don't handle any press well, we make mistakes, we put ourselves under pressure and inevitably chances and goals are created against us.  I do hope there is a plan b.  During the Spurs game for example, with Watkins and Rogers pace, why no direct outballs from the back?  Seemed really odd.  We have to change it up.  At least we are only 17 points from safety.

[Risso]

I just cannot think of a reason for Mings to do that.

I still cannot fathom why he wasn’t sent off.
If it was a pen, then it was a deliberate hand ball.

Because he stood to gain no advantage from it.

But if it hits a players hand in the area its a pen, is that delibrate?

As I posted in the Mings thread, what he did wasn't a cautionable offence. It's only a yellow card for handball in the box if it stops a good goal scoring opportunity. And there's no way you can class picking up a pass from his own goalie with no opposition players anywhere near as a good goal scoring opportunity. The ref got everything absolutely spot on in that sorry episode.