I was hoping against hope we would turn up today.

Happy with the point, considering the chaos of the last few days.

And how poor we have been at times over the the last month or so.

Decent second half performance. Credit to the interim for changing things around at half time. Not sure how Neto managed to keep on all 90. A good point won in the end, one which the group should draw positives from.

12 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Why do we pronounce his name " EsteVAL" ??

Or am I hard of hearing , eh? huh ? what ?

In Portuguese his name is pronounced EsteVAO (more like VAUM) -- Suppose his name means big Esteves or something eh.

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

So why is he punished but not the other 10 players that were equally as bad if not worse? Neto gets to stay on no matter how sh*t he is. I'm sure Estevao would have been much more impactful in the 2nd half had he been allowed to stay on and one of the other were subbed off for once.

Disagree. Neto played like sh*t on the technical side of the game, but was still very much active and combative doing what his team demanded -- have multiple important interceptions to his name. Again, you are simply focusing on the attacking output and I disagree that's the only angle to consider.
Reminder that we only tied the game because we were down by a goal.

Estevao wasn't simply poor, he was not doing the basics; he looked lost at times going for the press all alone or not moving to receive the pass back from palmer -- he stayed behind a city player forcing Palmer's error.

I think it's totally normal for a 18yo to feel a game like this one and IMO he did. I'm not in a hurry with him and think it's unrealistic to expect him to be a key player for us this season.
He might have been more impactful coming from the bench once players were a bit tired in the second half. I think Garnacho was deservedly not used because of his Mudryk'esque defending in the other match--a bit of a "do better" and perhaps some drills around it (he's 21yo).

Edited January 4Jan 4 by acaeus

23 minutes ago, BewareoftheDrog said:

Hoping this new guy will be able to pick his best players for every game instead of rotating. We need a strong consistent spine like the Cech Terry Lampard Drogba set up.

Interestingly the City fans are suggesting that they didn’t win today because Pep refuses to rotate and their belief is that in the modern era you have to rest players.

To be fair football even in the last 15 years is faster and more technical than the days of Terry et al.

January will take a massive toll on clubs no player at any club will be able to play 10 games in 31 days.

17 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

Best Delap has played for us. Gusto, Enzo, Santos all playing well. Badiashile is still absolute dog sh*t.

You must have missed it but Badiashile kept us in the game with his block of a Foden pass to a wide open Haaland. The whole defence, which was widely lambasted before the start, deserves some credit for limiting City to just 3 shots on target.

Edited January 4Jan 4 by mojo

16 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

When has relying on Neto's performance to improve ever worked in the past? He's bang average. Constantly subbing out the young player when the older and more experienced players are playing as bad or worse is just cowardice.

I would have had this opinion in past games absolutely, but I just think because of the circumstances where we are basically managerless we needed the experienced players on the pitch.

51 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

It's an awful league this season, we should be up there challenging

Aye we should be. But when your idea of strengthening us signing Gittens, Garnacho and delap...

45 minutes ago, Munkunku said:

It’s only your fault when things go wrong obviously.

Well we did not win so didn't it go wrong?

Personally, I don't see anything about today's result that changes anything. A good point in normal circumstances, but our circumstances are very different. Nothing changes, we still have these pricks in charge and we are about to bring in yet another one of their yes men, hipster coaches. This was also still a very Maresca like performance. sh*te in the first half, changes get made at the start of the 2nd and there is a bit of improvement.

If the fans mood has suddenly done a 180 after a point against City, then it will show that the past 4 days has just been performative.

Edited January 4Jan 4 by Scott Harris

43 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Even more than that as per Sofascore LOL

0.41 for the one that Donnarumma saved, and 0.71 for the goal !

Stats eh !

So a tap in from 2 yards out with the keeper stranded is a goal just 7 times out of ten? He did his best to miss it, though.

Correction. One yard out.

Edited January 4Jan 4 by Backbiter

Going forward I’d like to see Caciedo and Santos together and only Enzo playing further forward or not in their position team. Not shoe horning him in the side because up above say so

1 minute ago, Backbiter said:

So a tap in from 2 yards out with the keeper stranded is a goal just 7 times out of ten? He did his best to miss it, though.

He was there in the final minutes of the match making a run to the second post which put himself in a position to score. I thought he had a strong game esp considering the opposition.

Delap was the one who completely missed the cross -- glad he did tho.

A good second half and in the end I think a deserved equalizer. The subs made a difference, especially Santos I thought. Well done to McFarlane for keeping up our solid record under caretaker bosses.

1 hour ago, The Rising Sun said:

We're gunner score Inna minute

Score Inna minute

Etc

Waiting for the lottery numbers now :)

9 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Personally, I don't see anything about today's result that changes anything. A good point in normal circumstances, but our circumstances are very different. Nothing changes, we still have these pricks in charge and we are about to bring in yet another one of their yes men, hipster coaches. This was also still a very Maresca like performance. sh*te in the first half, changes get made in at the start of the 2nd and there is a bit of improvement.

If the fans mood has suddenly done a 180 after a point against City, then it will show that the past 4 days has just been performative.

13 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Well we did not win so didn't it go wrong?

Thanks to Maresca we now stand at didn’t lose & players were played correctly in their actual positions.

7 minutes ago, Richard P said:

Going forward I’d like to see Caciedo and Santos together and only Enzo playing further forward or not in their position team. Not shoe horning him in the side because up above say so

The original plan was, quite clearly, Enzo ahead of Caicedo and Lavia. Had Lavia not had these issues we would have had one of the best midfield trios about.

Can Santos step up and be the third man? Hopefully, seems a really nice kid with a great work ethic.

One thing we have Known for a long time. Caicedo cannot do it on his own every game, and an Enzo and Caicedo double pivot cannot win you a title.

2 minutes ago, Munkunku said:

Thanks to Maresca we now stand at didn’t lose & players were played correctly in their actual positions.

James, Acheampong, Gusto and Enzo did not start in theirs

Crazy stuff from the interim manager. Fancy putting on a striker and a midfielder to try and get a result. He won’t last long at this club!

4 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

The original plan was, quite clearly, Enzo ahead of Caicedo and Lavia. Had Lavia not had these issues we would have had one of the best midfield trios about.

Can Santos step up and be the third man? Hopefully, seems a really nice kid with a great work ethic.

One thing we have Known for a long time. Caicedo cannot do it on his own every game, and an Enzo and Caicedo double pivot cannot win you a title.

Yeah Lavia is such a shame, but so far he simply hasn't really played for us.

I think that's true (Enzo + Caicedo pivot), but only in certain matches against strong opposition and/or away from home. Reckon it also depends on who the wingers and CAM are, which goes into my point regarding Neto: Neto would be less necessary with Caicedo + Santos/Lavia + Enzo in the middle, for ex -- just different ways to accomplish the necessary team balance.

It's a long season, and managers say that they often need to make structural changes mid-season to mix things up. I think we are just short in overall team quality to challenge for anything meaningful regardless of manager.

I was just watching Arsenal yesterday and they are strong everywhere :/.

Edited January 4Jan 4 by acaeus

27 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

So a tap in from 2 yards out with the keeper stranded is a goal just 7 times out of ten? He did his best to miss it, though.

Correction. One yard out.

I'd guess the xG calculation makes allowance for where the chance is relative to the goal posts, and probably assumes a keeper is in the right place ?

We still manged to under perform our xg and miss two big chances.

Nice one Neto.

Deserved point after a spirited second half display.

City looked to be playing within themselves and should have been more than one up so they must be kicking themselves but we defended well and largely frustrated them.

Was scratching my head when Acheampong got subbed as thought he was our best defender and did wonder if Maresca was still calling the shots. Shortly after we all over the place with Hato looking shaky and Trev hitting a dreadful ball across his own box and I thought the second City goal was bound to come. But thankfully we recovered and everyone played well after that, with Santos refreshingly playing the ball forward at every opportunity. He has to play more.

Palmer nowhere near his best but thankfully others upped their game, although not sure why Neto stayed on and Estevao was subbed early, unless he had a niggle?

Now lets beat Fulham...............................

33 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

James, Acheampong, Gusto and Enzo did not start in theirs

Yes but that was obviously a XI set by the boardroom, they couldn’t stop him subbing in the right players.

1 hour ago, yaz said:

I think that if we had scored earlier City would have gone up a couple of gears and beat us easy. They got complacent and were punished.

Sounds like a comment that should be directed at us for most of the season