12 Feb 2026 08:14:49
Ed001 what did you think about last nights performance ed. I thought same as for a long time out press still looked so disjointed instead of the team pressing most of the time it just seems one or if we are lucky two players what obviously makes it easy for team to get out.
I do think that the good point in this Ed that this is coaching thing and hopefully we somehow make champions league next season and as Carra Fields and Robbo have stuck by that Alonso will be here next season and we get this sorted.
I know it's not a nice thing to say but I hope we go out of the fa cup Ed as I don't think we are winning it with the way we are playing and the rest we can get without the games will hopefully help us try to push for top 4/ 5.
{Ed001's Note - it was a win and that is good but the performance was not good. Luckily Sunderland looked knackered and struggled to produce anything, so we were able to get control of the game and won with ease really.}
12 Feb 2026 08:49:35
Yeah it feels like we are limping to the end of the season. Just hope that a few of our players can find so form and carry us to the top 4/ 5. Because failure to make champions league next season Ed am sure will have a massive effect especially if we end up with Thursday night football.
{Ed001's Note - we should easily make UCL places, Slot is making hard work of it though.}
12 Feb 2026 08:52:24
We can win the FA Cup, and the longer we stay in it people will see more of the youth like they've wanted.
12 Feb 2026 08:56:08
I'm glad you said that Ed001, I've been reading the Discussion and Match post pages this morning and wondering if I watched a different game. I thought Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Gakpo, Salah and Ekitike were embarrassing to be quite honest. To such an extent I felt sorry for Wirtz as he seemed the only player in our front 6 capable of trapping a football and playing an accurate pass. Even Jones and Chiesa did more in about 15 minutes than Gakpo and Ekitike did all game. No idea why Morrison wasn't put on for Salah because the frequency that Mo was giving up possession would've cost us the game on another day. If he really didn't want to trust a kid I'd have even put Chiesa RW and stuck Kerkez on at LW. I know he'll walk away with an assist but my god Salah was a liability on that pitch last night.
What I would say is I think our defence was superb. I was a bit worried about Endo and Robbo as full backs but they both showed a lot of heart and character to come in from the cold and play really well. Gomez was also very good when he came on. Virgil and Konate though were absolutely impeccable and I cannot fault their performances at all. Brobbey is a real handful as well and they matched his physicality blow for blow.
12 Feb 2026 09:24:20
VVD got the MOTM but i thought it should have gone to Wirtz or Robbo.
{Ed001's Note - certainly shouldn't have gone to Virgil, he wasn't even the best of the central defenders yesterday.}
12 Feb 2026 09:43:12
When you look at the next 8 games for us, Mancs, and Chelski, there could hopefully be some daylight between us in our favour. The Mancs have a difficult run, in particular. Here's hoping! I don't think that bloke will be getting his haircut anytime soon.
12 Feb 2026 09:43:12
When you look at the next 8 games for us, Mancs, and Chelski, there could hopefully be some daylight between us in our favour. The Mancs have a difficult run, in particular. Here's hoping! I don't think that bloke will be getting his haircut anytime soon.
Post Deleted (see Eds Note below)
12 Feb 2026 10:30:01
Yeah, I thought Wirtz was our best player last night. VVV only got man of the match because he scored, seems a lazy choice by the pundits. I thought Sunderland made things easy for us last night and ceded control of the game.
I would love to see Chiesa start some games over Gakpo and see how that changes the dynamic in the forward line. I think it was a good win, but we made it harder for ourselves than it needed to be.
12 Feb 2026 10:55:35
Certainly not a perfect performance, but we put a shift in and got a win on a cold Wednesday night in the North East. Positives - 3 points in a difficult game, took the opportunity to close the gap on Chelsea and United, Ibou played really well, Mo ran his socks off all game, Wirtz is so good to watch, and Alisson seemed to lead from the back after that dodgy performance vs City. Salah's pretty good at taking corners, it seems. Only took a decade to find that out. And, whisper it quietly, we might be getting slightly more competent at set pieces.
Negatives - poor Endo. Wish him the best in his recovery. Ekitike was knackered again by 70 mins! When he skipped past Ballard in the second half, it was almost like he regretted it as his legs decided, no thanks. And yet, we waited too long to change him. Macca, though slightly better overall, was still looking for free kicks and gave the ball away too often in the closing 15 mins. Gravenberch was just terrible. How is Curtis not getting in ahead of him at the moment? Gakpo, like Macca, slightly better than the previous game, but still pretty awful.
12 Feb 2026 11:42:41
FlyPelicanFly, I saw the Endo injury, and I winced, the same way I did with Bradley. As someone who suffered a very serious knee injury many years ago (with no soul around me) and still suffer its effects till this day, you start to recognize these things. It looked really bad. Hope he recovers well.
12 Feb 2026 13:48:14
Florian, "the longer we stay in the FA Cup, the more we will see youth play" literally makes no sense, and it's typically the other way around. The further you go in a competition, the more the senior players are introduced to cement your chance of winning.
12 Feb 2026 15:58:09
Not us, Frode, we'd have a better chance with Trey and Rio playing.