4 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

What you have against Xavi? Curious. 

Just his experience mainly, a couple of seasons at a team in Qatar then going to Barca due to his past there as a player rather than merit as a manager and now he's being pushed out already. 

Poch is an absolute wuss if he doesn't sort out this penalty thing and discipline the players. We are enough of a laughing stock already... don't really need this sh*t.

Imagine the tabloids talking about this instead of the brilliance of Palmer.

Credit where it’s due. Probably the first match in a long time we controlled from start to finish. 
 

Hopefully this continues and we see much better game management in the semi-final this weekend in comparison to the league cup final. 

Fair play man that was a top notch performance from top to bottom

3 big games to come. Arsenal Villa Tottenham. 

I'll take 4 points from those 3. 6 points and I think we're back in Europe. 

Take 9 and I genuinely think 5th place is possible with champs league. Not that we'd show that level of consistency 🤣

I think a performance like that was coming because you can’t keep creating chances and keep missing them. Eventually someone was going to get spanked, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened again.

Edited April 15, 20242 yr by El regreso

13 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

3 big games to come. Arsenal Villa Tottenham. 

I'll take 4 points from those 3. 6 points and I think we're back in Europe. 

Take 9 and I genuinely think 5th place is possible with champs league. Not that we'd show that level of consistency 🤣

Even if we went on a winning run and clawed back Spurs, I don't think 5th would be good enough for Champs League. As it stands the poor performances of English clubs in Europe this year means we are likely to only get 4 spots. That could change if West Ham and Arsenal manage to turn things around against Bayern/Bayer though.

Well done to Poch on an excellent victory with attacking football.

55 minutes ago, Girish said:

Poch is an absolute wuss if he doesn't sort out this penalty thing and discipline the players. We are enough of a laughing stock already... don't really need this sh*t.

Imagine the tabloids talking about this instead of the brilliance of Palmer.

Palmer said in his post match interview that the argueing was over the top. I think it shows that either Poch hasn't made it clear that Palmer takes penalties or Jackson and Noni don't respect him. 

2 minutes ago, Andy North said:

Palmer said in his post match interview that the argueing was over the top. I think it shows that either Poch hasn't made it clear that Palmer takes penalties or Jackson and Noni don't respect him. 

Listen to his interview now he’s absolutely not taking it he’s just said Cole is the taker and he’s not accepting it happening again else players will be out!!

Happy he’s come out and made it absolutely clear no ambiguity anymore.

Poch just said in the post match interview that he's said to the players that's the last time he wants to see something like that penalty fiasco. Should have put his foot down after Leicester but I'm happy he's come out and said it.

But anyway as much as it'll get talked about in the media it shouldn't distract us from the performance, Everton were toss but we took our chances which was great to see.

11 minutes ago, El regreso said:

Listen to his interview now he’s absolutely not taking it he’s just said Cole is the taker and he’s not accepting it happening again else players will be out!!

Happy he’s come out and made it absolutely clear no ambiguity anymore.

Jacksons discipline has been a joke all season. He dives a lot aswell. 

I'm sure he would be a better player if he could channel that energy into his performance. 

Having said that I think he's having a good debut season. 

Just now, Andy North said:

Jacksons discipline has been a joke all season. He dives a lot aswell. 

I'm sure he would be a better player if he could channel that energy into his performance. 

Having said that I think he's having a good debut season. 

Agreed. I think he was on 9 yellows going into this game and i think over half of those were for dissent earlier in the season.

 

Maybe Poch finally worked on something during the 7 days break, and for once the half time chat didn't do much damage😎 Anyway, good to see him enjoying the night, need a few more of good performances like this ( easier said than done)

45 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Even if we went on a winning run and clawed back Spurs, I don't think 5th would be good enough for Champs League. As it stands the poor performances of English clubs in Europe this year means we are likely to only get 4 spots. That could change if West Ham and Arsenal manage to turn things around against Bayern/Bayer though.

Arsenal still beat Bayern I reckon. City will end up probably winning the thing again which will do enough. 

Europa is progress. I stand by that. 

I’ve waited to see this football, and his passion and anger at Jackson and Noni!!

44 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

 

Just saw his interview, kudos for giving a really clear message this time around. We need strong leadership in this young group, and today we finally saw some of that from him

Edited April 15, 20242 yr by AndyDowsleftflank

I reckon a lot of them thought he was nice guy manager and he still is but now they know he can also out his foot down.

2 hours ago, bisright1 said:

Arsenal still beat Bayern I reckon. City will end up probably winning the thing again which will do enough. 

It might be enough if West Ham manage to get past Bayer Leverkusen. Although after the first leg I'd agree Arsenal seem to be in much better shape even with the away leg to come.

I know there are plenty who are not Poch fans. But worth pointing out that we have accrued more points in the last 15 games than all teams but the top 3. And we are not far off 2 of them either:

City - 39 points

Liverpool - 33

Arsenal - 32

Chelsea - 28

That is certainly progress compared with the first part of this season, let alone last season.

8 games unbeaten in the PL, and our overall form has picked up in the 2nd half of the season.

In the 1st half of the season we picked up 25 points (from 19 games), and since then we've already picked up 22 points (from 12 games).

Very frustrating we dropped points against Burnley and Sheffield United. Could have been 51 points with game/s in hand and sitting in 6th spot.

Edited April 16, 20242 yr by Jezz

3 hours ago, forbzy said:

I know there are plenty who are not Poch fans. But worth pointing out that we have accrued more points in the last 15 games than all teams but the top 3. And we are not far off 2 of them either:

City - 39 points

Liverpool - 33

Arsenal - 32

Chelsea - 28

That is certainly progress compared with the first part of this season, let alone last season.

You are right that the landscape is changing somewhat, looking back from here. It also makes it all the more frustrating when looking at the points dropped, the spurned clear goalscoring chances and some of the hapless defensive displays.

We've been saying it all season. A better and more consistent presence up top, a settled solid CB, and a more disciplined defensive screen and we probably would be in the CL places. Do that and this apparent kamikaze business model from Clearlake starts having oxygen to breathe as more revenue keeps us in line for PSR and allows these kids to gel.

The issue of course is that we have been in this positive mindset a number of times this season only for Poch to make a complete hash of the very next game to bring reality flooding back in again.

Edited April 16, 20242 yr by WhiteWall

This season is not about the table but building as a side. However we are going to finish 6-13th pretty much guaranteed. 6th would bring us Europe and some European money but not significantly. For experience it would be good but it would mean we travel to weird countries and are gassed on the following weekend. 

Would love to beat MU and WHU in the table but if we don't it is okay. Midtable scrapple is a bit little to our stature as a club in the big picture.