The Carabao Cup Thread | Page 57 | Vital Football

The Carabao Cup Thread

El Ghazi deserves stick (privately) because he should have won it for us but he kept fannying about - but in that sentence it means he put in a reasonable albeit not perfect performance so he doesn't deserve stick for his effort.

Most shots, joint most on target, joint most key passes, fourth most touches & 80% passing accuracy.

Score the goal or get the brace and people would've been raving about his performance.

:wack:

Totally irrelevant to the thread but on the subject of Twatter, a good few months ago I did an article that slightly laid into a player....some utter no mark replied agreeing and went far further in language than I could when kiddies could be reading - and then tagged in said player.

I deleted my original Tweet out of disgust and no doubt lost out on views in the process.

I can have an opinion, I'm not going to shit through a players letterbox because I think I'm superior.

Agreed Mike, I’m not one for booing players or going on their twitter accounts to berate them, I expect our manager to do all that on our behalf, unfortunately on Thursday night in that second half there was no evidence that he did 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks and this isn't subjective - the team he decided to put out, presumably of his own free will, clearly cost us that game and we've gained nothing from it unless he wasn't being truthful about the cup being important to us then it's a different matter and he got it bang on!

Agreed, I’d rather him say, we want to keep the whole squad fit for the premier league, it’s vital we remain in this league and push on from last year, so I’m going to play the kids, like Liverpool did against us last season, or maybe they just can’t perform in a stadium and feel less stress playing on on a park In Bristol
 
In short:
Worrying...
...performance. And DS didn't see it coming.
...DS didn't/couldn't affect it during the game.
...DS thinks our squad is complete.

But DS has form of thinking a thin squad is enough (cough last season) and we might get lucky this time. Next year if we stay up we will gain more depth. I suspect we don't have much more money to spend. He has made improvements in all areas (Keeper, Defence, Midfield and up front).
 
I, like everyone else on here I imagine, has given a bit of stick to a Villa player whilst at Villa Park. I've never booed a Villa player as I believe its counter productive but I've shouted the odd thing, nothing personal or anything simply letting out frustration at an inept bit of play or whatever.

However if I saw that same player on the street the next day I wouldn't dream of going up and insulting them. They are not at work and as far as I'm concerned being a footballer does not mean you should have to deal with people coming up and giving you shit. If I had gone up to El Ghazi or Lansbury or Hause on the street and said some of the vile shit that they were getting bombarded with on twitter I'd fully expect to get chinned. Rightly so as well.

Yet because these guys have a social media account, one they probably opened as teenagers that apparently means they are fair game for all kinds of abuse. On the pitch its simply part of the job. Every player since the game began has copped abuse from the stands at some point. On the streets you'd be a ****** to do it but you'd have to face the consequences if whoever you're abusing decided they didn't like it. On the Internet though these idiots can throw shit behind an avatar. Very brave. I'm sure there are people who think that being a footballer means you should just take shit endlessly off the fans but for me the people who have done this are cowardly dickheads and nothing more.
 
Footballers want to raise their profile by being on these sites but wow what a price they pay for it. I would only ever speak to someone to praise/thank them - and haven't done that on socials.

Me and my dad spoke to Cyril Regis in the car park of Boldmere golf course once.
:bow::bow:
 
Taking stick or exposing yourself to moronic comments are two different things.

Not sure many on here would take such abuse from others if they were watched at work. I don’t blame them for removing themselves. Football is a confidence game, why destroy your own players? Constructive criticism is one thing, pure abuse is another.

Some may think that being paid millions per year for really not doing anything at all was abuse - that's the issue, it goes both ways.

BTW - I'll happily take that millions for doing nothing job and everyone can have a proper go at me for doing it - no problem.
 
In short:
Worrying...
...performance. And DS didn't see it coming.
...DS didn't/couldn't affect it during the game.
...DS thinks our squad is complete.

But DS has form of thinking a thin squad is enough (cough last season) and we might get lucky this time. Next year if we stay up we will gain more depth. I suspect we don't have much more money to spend. He has made improvements in all areas (Keeper, Defence, Midfield and up front).

I think what he thinks and what he says are bound to be two completely different things - he's gotta talk his/PS's book in public but he's not stupid, he knows some of these players are never capable of doing anything at this level.

He'll likely get one more round of c£100m buying, yes but it'll almost certainly be the last one if we're not top half after that.

Squad churn is inevitable and costly both in terms of money and time and at least some of it can't be helped but a line will be drawn within the next 12 months for sure IMO.
 
I didn't even know Barrow were back in the league. I've actually been to Barrow in Furness on one of my Dad's excursions when we went to the lake district about 50 years ago. I have a vague memory of sitting on some concrete dock looking out to sea