12 hours ago, bluedave said:

I agree, I saw people saying "you don't raise your foot that high" in the matchday thread, but that means that every single bicycle kick should be disallowed, which is stupid. He did not foul the Benfica player, so should not be punished. The referee was conned.

In the Monaco v. Man City game tonight, Man City gave away a penalty when one of their players did a similar high kick and did catch Eric Dier in the head. No yellow card in that case.

18 minutes ago, forbzy said:

In the Monaco v. Man City game tonight, Man City gave away a penalty when one of their players did a similar high kick and did catch Eric Dier in the head. No yellow card in that case.

It all depend on the ref but I am not sure why there is discussion about that yellow, it is very dangerous to raise your foot that high for the opp.

Falls under the radar because for some reason our fans are obsessed with players that underperform. Not as bad as other fan bases use to destroy their players, but still the likes of Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto should get more plaudits.

Joao Pedro is such an inteligent footballer. The way he uses he body and the feints he does are all the marks of a high IQ player. Superb signing. And he is only 24 years old. Will surely go down the Drogba and Diego Costa route of Chelsea legends.

He has been a massive drop off compare to Jackson.

Think its safe to say he's a number 10 not a lead the line type striker. looks far more comfortable with a 9 running channels ahead of him. Not sold on him yet but he's rated and its a long season so hoping he can score five or six between now and Xmas.

(PS, he's already doing better than Jackson this season who hasnt hit a barn door in German league)

Overall premier league goals we are looking good however we seem to be spreading it around perhaps due to injuries and formation. Enzo 3 Caicedo 3 JPedro 2 Neto 2 etc probably just as well as i dont think we will see Palmer 15 and Jackson(obviously) 10 this year. When Palmer and Delap are back i can see us ending the season with maybe 5 players with less than 10 Premier league goals apiece. A bit odd.

Im hoping JPedro can go on a hot streak and bang a load in.

Edited October 21, 2025Oct 21 by OTL

Joao ‘Nkunku’ Pedro.

He definitely isn’t a 9, Palmer plays the 10 (when fit).

Unfortunately the way things are shaping up, when we have a fully fit squad, he doesn’t make the XI. I think he’s a really talented player as well, just more recruitment without looking at the overall squad.

I'd play him LF personally.

Joao Pedro is not a no.9 like Haaland is a no.9 - but he could be a no.9 like Aguero was a no.9 or Thiery Henry was a no.9. So if we must have a traditional no.9. then maybe we should keep looking - in the meantime he is a better no.9 than the previous one we had and he is currently our best option and he has actually played well and scored goals.

4 hours ago, The Boehly Babes said:

Joao ‘Nkunku’ Pedro.

He definitely isn’t a 9, Palmer plays the 10 (when fit).

Unfortunately the way things are shaping up, when we have a fully fit squad, he doesn’t make the XI. I think he’s a really talented player as well, just more recruitment without looking at the overall squad.

I actually think Palmer compliments Pedro's play immensely and when Palmer is not available it takes Pedro's combination play away from him, majority of our wide players are speed merchants and Enzo is more of an 8 than a 10 and this hinders Pedro when he plays as the Striker.

I think Pedro as a false 9 and Palmer in the 10 is our best combination up top when everyone is fit.

2 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

I think Pedro as a false 9 and Palmer in the 10 is our best combination up top when everyone is fit.

I'd like to see Pedro LW/LF, Palmer in the #10, and Estevao RW, with either Delap or Guiu at CF.

I think that is the solution to getting all our best attacking players on the pitch at the same time and in areas that suit them well.

Any time our opposition see any of that lot on the bench they're going to be pretty happy about it.

28 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I'd like to see Pedro LW/LF, Palmer in the #10, and Estevao RW, with either Delap or Guiu at CF.

I think that is the solution to getting all our best attacking players on the pitch at the same time and in areas that suit them well.

Any time our opposition see any of that lot on the bench they're going to be pretty happy about it.

That would certainly be our best attacking option but I do have a soft spot for players like Neto (and Willian in the past) where they offer us pace, intensity and defensive cover.

6 hours ago, Bob stark said:

He has been a massive drop off compare to Jackson.

His Club World Cup performances were better than anything we ever saw from Jackson.

I always find it funny how people forget how much a player stinks out a place once they have left. By the time Jackson left, fans had become sick of the sight of him. His ego, selfishness, petulance at being dropped by getting sent off, it reached a boiling point by the end of the CWC and it was best for all when he left.

On 19/10/2025 at 03:56, petre ispirescu said:

Falls under the radar because for some reason our fans are obsessed with players that underperform. Not as bad as other fan bases use to destroy their players, but still the likes of Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto should get more plaudits.

Joao Pedro is such an inteligent footballer. The way he uses he body and the feints he does are all the marks of a high IQ player. Superb signing. And he is only 24 years old. Will surely go down the Drogba and Diego Costa route of Chelsea legends.

I disagree with a lot of this.

I agree that I think he’s been a good signing, but we once again paid too much. Realistically probably a £40M player. Diego Costa isn’t a club legend imo (more cult hero?) and J. Pedro won’t get close to Drogba status. I’m not really sure what body feints have to do with high IQ either, Ben Arfa was one of the best at them but I certainly wouldn’t have wanted him at the club.

The less I speak about Neto the better.

He had a great CWC.

This season though am not seeing an improvement on nkunku so far.

15 hours ago, axman2526 said:

He had a great CWC.

This season though am not seeing an improvement on nkunku so far.

Perhaps because everybody at the CWC was away from the regular season set-up, JP being on a high from his big transfer was able to do very well. Now everything is back to the normal routine, and now he needs to adjust to the new club like all new players have to. Plus he's coached by Fraudo, who's brilliant at playing players out of position and generally having disfunctional gameplans.

Being a mild and patient person, I give him more time.

Edited October 25, 2025Oct 25 by Valerie

19 hours ago, axman2526 said:

He had a great CWC.

This season though am not seeing an improvement on nkunku so far.

In my books, he still has a long way to drop to get to Nkunku levels, especially in the laziness department. He hasn’t set the world on fire but I don’t think he’s the worst. Having said that, I’d like to see Buenanotte behind Guiu for a couple of games (give Pedro competition), and I hate being a team that develops Brighton’s players.

20 hours ago, axman2526 said:

He had a great CWC.

This season though am not seeing an improvement on nkunku so far.

At least he's available.

On 30/06/2025 at 20:50, GarnachoCheese said:

Who's he starting over? Does he improve our starting XI? Does he even make our starting XI?

It's just another quite average player that we've paid double what they're worth for.

If Palmer is fit he doesn't make our starting XI.

Another Neto-esque signing paying double the price for a player from a mid/lower table club that won't help us challenge.

Good nkunku impression today

been piss poor for a long time now.

Shot shy all of a sudden. Clearly needs a top striker to play off

4 hours ago, Andy2461 said:

Shot shy all of a sudden. Clearly needs a top striker to play off

If we had a top striker we wouldn’t need him, would we?

20 hours ago, Jangz said:

been piss poor for a long time now.

Who hasn't?

Estevao and Caicedo seem to be our only players that consistently play at a good level.

On 21/10/2025 at 22:19, Imran_CFC said:

I think Pedro as a false 9 and Palmer in the 10 is our best combination up top when everyone is fit.

You are making it too complicated

Somebody need to play as a 9, if the st doesn't want to play as 9. You need somebody to do it, it can be 10,winger, dm, gk lb, cb doesn't matter.