The Fish

Have to assume that a few were put off by thought of associating with both Sports Direct and a club with no ambition beyond survival?

No, Longstaff and Joe (Linton or Willock) couldn't play as a double pivot.

Yeah, you lot suck

We've still got Clark, Hayden, Hendrick on our books too. So who's that? Clark Darlow Dubravka Dummett Fraser Gillespie Hayden Hendrick Krafth Lascelles Lewis Manquillo Shelvey Not a lot there where you could expect to get any serious money for. Dubravka and Fraser? Maybe? More important to get those phat wages off the books

Genuinely don't think about their possible success or failures away from this messageboard (or talking to sunderland mates). My imaginings about the League Cup are solely what it would mean for NUFC, the players and me. I haven't thought about what Newcastle lifting the League cup would mean to Sunderland. I guess it would further increase the gap between the two clubs and accelerate our progress towards European competition and further domestic honours as our successes attract more, higher quality players and more, higher value commercial deals. And that would make them frustrated, it would attract more fans from areas where it's traditionally been a split between the two clubs?

I'd agree with that, certainly in ASM's case. But I do think we need to ship out some of the players who can't get us to where we need to be, players who have been in or around our first team; Shelvey, Dubravka*, Darlow, Lascelles, etc. *I know we can't sell him this window.

I get moaned at for typing out tomes of text, I get moaned at for using brevity. Seems to me like people like to moan.

We're box office!

Call it whatever you want, but bear in mind it was you lot telling me I shouldn't call it what I want. And don't get pissy when the term you're using doesn't quite get across the concept I'm talking about. "Low block" "I think you mean sitting deep" "It's two banks of four" "This is change for change's sake" "IT'S THAT FUCKING CLOUD AGAIN!!!"

Toonpack, Alex, Tom, Paddocklad would like this post if they didn't distrust modern things

If you infer that I think you or anyone else is thick from me explaining when asked to explain, I guess I'm sorry for my part in that. I'm happy to explain the terms I use, fucking hell it should be clear by now that I'm delighted at any opportunity to bang on about anything. I don't have a problem with someone asking "What's that?" I have a problem with, what I infer as wilful ignorance that follows my explanation. When I say low block I don't do it to make out like "I know something other people don't know, aren't I clever". I use it because it's a term that's used for the thing I'm trying to describe. Because of the reaction on here I don't use Mezzala, or Inverted Winger or any of the terms brought to popularity by Football Manager. I know it's provocative and it's easier to just type out a dozen more words to explain what I mean. I thought, of all things, Low Block was the least controversial.

Cavalcade of crusty cunts came after how many pages of shit? No, I don't care that you're old. I care when the explanation after the "eh?" is met with derision and abuse. I get a lot of shit on here and honestly, that's fine and I enjoy the attention, but you can't clutch your pearls when I give some shit back.

Couldn't they just give me a fucking cake?

Declan Rice would be an amazing fit for us.

No, I'm not. If someone had said "We've got to get through two banks of four" I wouldn't have blinked and the last 4 pages of this thread would have been Jacob Murphy memes. I say Low Block and everyone loses their minds. I said "Low block", then people were incredulous and derisory about it. I defended it and myself. Nobody's been able to explain why else people would push back on simple shit like 'low block' or whatever.

If they ever get back up it'll be "Just our luck, the Premier League has been shit for ages, the minute we're back every other team is having a purple patch. Obviously raising their performances for their FA Cup final, the Sunderland games. Throwing their games against Newcastle as well because it's a conspiracy. Obviously the referees are corrupt against us as well, clearly in the Saudi pocket."

Gonna take a leaf out of your book and apologise. This cavalcade of crusty cunts have me on the defensive. What's a low block? It's this Eurgh I don't wannnna leeaaarn

Makes you yearn for a clearly defined term for a larger concept... doesn't it?

To be fair, I just used the term, it was Tom and then others who threw a geriatric fit because it wasn't the same term used 40yrs ago or whatever.

No, neither is wrong, but for those who watch just for the action to tell the people who look for arcs, meanings and whatever that they're doing it wrong is galling. Look, it's fine if someone calls it defensive, I don't think it's particular specific but whatever, I do mind if someone says I'm wrong for calling it a Low Block.

I refer you to striker v false 9. One is a vague umbrella term, the other has specificity. If you took a moment to learn, it makes it explicit.

Pretty condescending there Rayvin. I'm not less informed because I don't cling to the remnants of outdated language. I use some of the language the experts use, because they're using straightforward terms to describe larger concepts.

Getting into them isn't pressing the opponent within seconds of losing the ball. Allardyce's team, Stoke's teams would 'get into them' but they're not gegenpressing are they? As Strawb says, it's not reinventing the wheel, it's just using language to better describe things. I guess what I don't understand, and I mean this genuinely, I don't understand why it bothers anybody? I used to say I watched a match online, now I stream it. I used to text people, now I message them. I used to search on the internet, now I google it. Haaland, Vardy, Aguero and Salah would all have been called strikers, now they'd be called Striker, poacher, False 9, and wide forward. ASM and Almiron would be called wingers. Bruno and Joelinton would both be called centre mids, but they're not the same are they? So, given all that, why not use a term or phrase that better explains what they do? Genuinely, why?

Beasant wasn't described at the time as a sweeper keeper. He was a goal keeper. But someone who never saw him play would hear that position's name and expect him to behave like every other goal keeper. It's not that the role didn't exist, just that it wasn't defined. No, it's not, it's simply evolving the terms. Just like the terms have evolved for music, for film, for everything. You can stand pushing back against the tide if you want, but it's both pointless and pointlessly ornery. There was no simple term for pressing in packs within the short timeframe after your team has lost possession. Now there is; Gegenpressing and everyone knows what that means. There was no simple description of a striker who dropped deeper into the half spaces between defence and midfield and yet was still the tip of the spear in attack, now there is; false 9. The sake for this change is clarity, it's accuracy, it's accessibility.