CanaryChris

Relax. They are men not machines. All teams go through this. At the moment we are still picking up points, unlike Bournemouth. The onus is on Farke to find solutions. Shake up the team and get them playing well again. Which he has every other time we have hit a wall.

Tottenham have literally binned parrott. Poor lad.

Stroud couldn't have properly seen the challenge otherwise if he thought it was a second yellow he would have stopped play not given advantage as a player would be on the park affecting play that he otherwise shouldn't be. It makes the decision all the more baffling.

That Aarons had a poor game on the right speaks volumes. Give the new guy an uninterrupted run of games before any judgement is passed.

When we play Swansea next Saturday we will have played every team currently in the top 10 at their place. Both Swansea and Brentford have 5 such matches to contend with. We are where we are because of our consistency. We keep finding ways to pick up points. We'll be fine.

So the Ipswich model of running a club then. I'm sure Evans and Lambert would love to see more of your musings, being such an informed supporter. They would take great comfort in knowing there is at least one dunderhead who agrees with what they are doing.

Emi is easily frustrated. His tenacity turns when things aren't going his way. He was a targeted man by Boro and they executed Warnock's "tactic" to perfection. Really the fault is with Farke. He should've known how they game was panning out. Emi was on a yellow for what...nearly 30 mins of playing time? Farke should have made tactical and personnel changes well before that and given the tide of the game and Emi walking a tightrope he should have been replaced. That said the second yellow was harsh given the circumstances. Stroud couldn't have seen the collision otherwise he would have stopped play too send Emi off. So he must have relied on his assistant who really wasn't in the best position to see that in the middle of the park.

Only one worthy of a 10 was Jackson. Solid effort from him for 80 mins. Holy was a 2. What was he thinking being competent in goal. All others an 8 from me.

Sorenson, for the commitment and fine work he has put into a position he had never played deserves plaudits. But (yeah that was telegraphed), to say he has done brilliantly for a left back I am not so sure. He definitely has done brilliantly for a square peg, but Sarr showed how easily he can be beaten time and again against Watford. Reality is we need Quintilla back asap. Watford was probably too soon and in the last couple of games we had a 19 year old keeper, so probably not a great game to introduce him, and a question mark over Krul who had only just returned to fitness himself. I guess farke just didn't think these were suitable conditions to risk Xavi. As mentioned the cup tie will tell us more as will any transfer activity in the next few weeks.

4 clean sheets in a row for Krul.

@shefcanary thank you for your measured response much appreciated. I cannot speak to what happened after the event was dispersed (or what was available at the event) and I did not mean to come across as impugning daughters word. I can appreciate that the backpacking community may be less informed. I hope your daughter is still enjoying her time here. If she hasn't been to SA she should come on down when borders reopen. We have some of the best wines in the world here in the Barossa Valley and Mclaren Vale.

@Six Pack sensible approach.

@shefcanary having read your other post about how your daughter thought they were doing the right thing: hospitality events indeed could be 300 limited but required a venue with a covid safety plan appropriate social distancing measures and people on hand to monitor and enforce these measures ( called covid marshals in SA not sure about NSW). This party did not conform to this and as such they were not entitled to just randomly descend on a public space. They were in the wrong. There is ample communication from our government and tourism operators so ignorance is no defence. Forgive me if I come across as overbearing but I do feel very strongly about this and while our country is relatively covid free out right flouting of our rules to keep it that way by tourists really sets me off.

I can only go on what was reported, but the premier of NSW and their chief health officer condemned this on nation television. So not too sure about that. I can firmly say that NO private gathering of 300 people has been allowed in Sydney since the oubreak began in mid December and in fact their NYE fireworks display was for TV audiences only because they are not allowed to congregate in groups larger than 10. We have and continue to put in stringent lockdown of millions of people at a time. Restricting the freedom to move is what kills this virus. We have a population of around 25 million, thankfully spread out which does make control easier with hard borders between states. But it does come at a cost, a heavy one, but that cost isn't lives. Bronte beach was in a public restriction zone, not lockdown so my bad I misremembered, but as your own BBC reports, pretty much everything else I said was spot on. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55471235 As for your statement of entitlement, excuse me but it may be that attitude enabling Covid to spread so freely in some countries.

Yeah. There was a huge backpacker party in Sydney. Not sure it was only brits but there was general anger about this because it was an area supposed to be in lockdown. Fortunately for me Sydney is some 850 miles from where I am in Adelaide.

Feel very sorry for Byram. He was fantastic up till his injury early last year. I do hope recovers to feature at some point this season.

It is the impression I get over here about how many other Western governments have been approaching this pandemic. Many of us here shake our heads when we see mass protests regarding "freedom" and "civil rights". We have been lucky in the sense that as an island we have a greater control of our borders, but our government has generally acted swiftly in order to control this thing. In November our state went into full lockdown (It only lasted several days in the end but was slated to be at least a week if not more) because they could not trace the source of just one infection. Nobody here batted an eyelid. We all just took it as necessary. Melbourne had it far worse just before. They faffed around a bit too long and there was real concern that it could explode there with cases reaching 400 a day. It seems small compared to what you guys face but those case numbers triggered a 6 week full lockdown and total isolation of Victoria from the rest of the country for two months. It was only when they had zeroed their cases for 14 days we all opened boarders with them. This is why we have low rates and a game going ahead with 4 players testing positive seems unthinkable. Side note: Sydney has an untraced cluster of about a dozen cases and overall has about 38 cases. This is enough to seriously consider cancelling an international test match due to play there in a weeks time. No players have it, it's the risk to them getting it and spreading the virus to other states.

What does it say to Barden, who has been our number 2 for the last 6 weeks that as soon as McGovern is injured we sign another old keeper? Don't we have a number of goal keeping prospects, like Mair? I say we throw our support behind the lad. As has already been mentioned it hasn't done us much harm in the past relying on our youth when injuries have impacted the squad.

Surely to goodness sense prevails here and the match is called off. Here in Australia we have very low case numbers. The reason for this is strict control. Case numbers of 20 plus trigger boarder closures and area lockdown. It's the only way to keep this awful disease at bay. Three to four players in a 25 man squad is a huge 12-16% known infection rate. I gotta say it does baffle me the number of people on here advocating the game goes ahead, but I guess I don't know what it is truly like living through this pandemic as we have been extremely fortunate here. God's speed to all those affected by this and may they all recover quickly.

So...along came Norwich and thrashed em!

Totally agree.

"Linesman takes pity on our club-footed defence and disallows a goal that was too high quality to exist in the Championship" #goodcall

Think Arsenal are looking at Isco, so I the Buendia link may be tenuous. At least I hope so... I would like to see us change up the formation a bit against Barnsley. I think we have become a bit predictable in our build up and am thinking perhaps trying a 4-4-2 diamond, with Hugill and Pukki up top, Buendia in behind and Cantwell and Rupp on the wings. The back 5 remain the same (perhaps Gibson in for Zimm). This would provide two avenues for attack - the big lump up field for our "old fashioned striker" and the more technical approach we are used to seeing. Not saying this is a formation to use for say, Swansea away or anything, but against a more limited opposition like Barnsley at Carrow Road, is it worth thinking along these sort of lines?

Not at all worried. As has been mentioned previously, we have played the majority of the top half of the table at their home grounds. Bournemouth, Watford, Swansea, have not. Every team has a little bump like this - in fact if I am not mistaken, in our title winning year we lost one and drew one around the Christmas break, then put in a great shift against Birmingham. If we can replicate that - no worries 🙂

Thought he looked composed and unperturbed by the situation. Would be happy to see him for the 90 minutes against Barnsley should McGovern not recover.