McCreadie

Well it isn’t working so far... can’t get my head around the corner thing. It’s basic schoolboy stuff, easy to sort out. Why have they not at least fixed this much?

I’m sure others have mentioned it, but my God that kit is really horrible. What were Nike even thinking suggesting it, let alone us approving it? Abysmal.

Two stupid defensive mistakes that you can’t legislate for. Normally they won’t happen. Another horrendous abomination defending a corner that simply defies belief, given the weakness we showed in that regard last season. I don’t understand how this still has not been rectified.

This is exactly what is happening and I have it on reasonable authority that some are quite miffed. Frank just needs to be very careful to get rid of enough of the right ones.

I imagine the German FA dont want a media circus diverting the focus of their squad from their crucial Nations League fixtures... So probably will not want any announcement of anything while they are concentrating on that.

I take on board what others have said about Azpi, but if we are looking for someone to marshall the defence into some semblance of competence on the pitch, it will be a bit weird if that someone is Silva and Azpi is captain... I think Azpi has been a great player for us and will continue to be, but he got the captaincy by default and we need much stronger leadership on the pitch.

I think he has one year left. Weird choice, as I am not sure that PSG will be paying their 3rd goalkeeper all that much more than we are paying our 3rd goalkeeper. Surely it would have been better for him to go anywhere he was going to actually get a game, even as second choice...

Bulka must be quietly kicking himself. Left us to be 3rd choice at PSG. Has played one (meaningless) game.

It wasnt actually immediately obvious... I too have to cede somewhat to your specific experience of the position, but my opinion is that his footwork is all wrong and if he does the right thing with his feet, (at the right time) he saves it.

To be fair, the discussion was about "no keeper saves that" and my point, whether you agree or not, was that most PL keepers do. Because speed of decision making and footwork. I made no comment on the rebound into his face, or whether Ziyech even meant it as a shot.

"I'm sorry. That was just a noise"

A lot of EPL keepers save that. I am sure others must have made these points at the time, so forgive any repetition. The ball is clearly going high from the moment it is struck. At that point he is only needing to defend a 4 yard by 6ft area (the back half of the goal). His starting position is fine. He takes an age to react - he only moves once the ball is nearly crossing into the 6 yard box. Then, when he does, he takes a step forwards before his customary 2 or 3 pidgeon steps backwards. Those diddy steps give him no platform to make a proper jump from and, as a result, he does not manage to get his hand even above the level of the crossbar. The players reactions say it all. Most of them turn away. Kovacic is raging. Mount is shaking his head. Azpi cannot believe it.

Right. When’s the first pre-season friendly then?

We were awful. Frank had a terrible daY and needs to pull his finger out if he still wants to be here at Xmas.

We were rubbish aprt from the 1st 20 mins. Arsenal were also rubbish. The referee was clearly cheating. Very annoyed that we have conspired to not rise above the crap that was laid out for us. Mental strength is a real problem in this team. I’d be considering starting from scratch with the CBs.apart from Tomori, who did himself a lot of favours today.