Luton town in the big time

[That Fat Centre Half]

Thought we were excellent today, always going to have ride your luck a little bit in these games and we did a story missed a couple of presentable chances, but we earned that bit of luck with our work rate and effort.

Thought Barkley was absolutely superb and pulled the strings really well, showed that bit of composure to start off the counter which we scored from. Any other midfield player we have I’m pretty sure just hammers that away.

Yes a little disappointing at the late goal but it didn’t feel like one of those late draws that feel like a defeat.

 

[oakroader]

JUST ANOTHER 34 POINTS TO GO....THEN WE'RE SAFE...

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Frustrated United for much of the game yesterday and in it to the end. For that we can again be proud. Kabore and Barkley stepping up and Clark back for some minutes also positives. The Ryan Giles situation continues to be weird, not even first choice sub when Doughty went off injured. 5m quid for a bench warmer so far.

The Morris header the only real chance we had and for sure again we rode our luck at times, Kaminski looking a quality pick up making some good saves and that’s somewhat the gameplan, keep it tight and hope one of the few chances we create goes in. Worked against Liverpool to an extent.

 

[Super_horns]

Well you are out of the bottom 3 now !

Everton will probably take that punishment though.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

The footage they have released is pretty jaw dropping to be honest and makes me a little surprised something like this hasn't happened before. The communication between all involved is absolutely terrible, multiple people talking at once, no clarification or read back going on. Basically what absolutely NOT to do when communicating in a time critical situation.

Clear radio communications is, and has been, a solved problem in industries like aviation for literally decades. Even in sports like cricket and rugby the communications are incredibly proscriptive to provide clarity. These guys have wrapped themselves up in the language like "check complete" without having a good comms process in place like professionals. Shambles.

Finally looking toward industry on these things it seems. A

Airline pilots enlisted to help Premier League officials - The Times

British Airways pilots have been enlisted to help improve the communication of Premier League officials during VAR reviews, The Times reported, after Liverpool wrongly had a goal disallowed earlier this season due to a blunder.

www.reuters.com

Crew Resource management is so so important and what the VAR/Ref are doing is very similar to the communication style used by aviation. Should have been thought of long ago

 

[Super_horns]

Doesn’t matter what they do as it’s not going to stop subjectivity in the decision making which is whole crux of VAR.

People aren’t going to agree with decisions regardless of how well or poorly they operate it.

Having said that clear lines of communication might help avoid basic errors and give the officials more confidence in each other .

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Fantastic win. Barkley is just absolute class apart, so much calmness and control when he has the ball.

Felt very like the Burnley game where we get a goal only to have an absolute worldy go in against us. Showed great great character to deal with that and come back and win. To do it without Nakamba too.

Really need to have a right footer back at RWB. Was obvious all afternoon that we were imbalanced due to that and with Osho at LCB it was a bit odd looking and we struggled to build. Having said that game felt quite even and for me Barkley was the best player on the park (until Olise popped up from nowhere!)

 

[oakroader]

cheers to manchestdoor yanited
every bit of help is appreciated

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Didn’t get to the game today, so cannot comment on that but we are really in the sticky stuff with the injuries after today’s game. Think we probably have 1 fit centre half after the game today and injuries to Doughty, Nakmaba to deal with too. It would be a struggle at the best of times let alone losing our best players. With the fixtures we have coming up, could get extremely messy for us I fear.

Very strange that with Doughty out he’s still not picked Giles to start. Even when Lockyer went off forcing another reshuffle the answer was to bring a forward on to play wingback. Speaks volumes as to how he’s thought of. Interesting what happens in January.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Big big trouble for us tomorrow I fear. Probably going to be playing fullback/wingbacks at centre half no Nakamba still either. Doughty seems touch and go. Not ideal when playing top of the league Arsenal.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Decided I don’t like football very much actually

 

[oakroader]

had an idea that there'd be a lot of goals in this game...didn't reckon we'd contribute so many...
any hoot...bring on the man city galacticos...they must be bricking it...

 

[Super_horns]

Decided I don’t like football very much actually

All that effort for nothing .

So heartbreaking I suspect .

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Yeah pretty gutting, keep thinking about those last few minutes and how we could have gone about it differently but ultimately we pushed top of the Premier League to the absolute last kick of the game. Really proud of the players giving it their absolute all. At home we can push teams all the way and have shown that in games against the top sides so far.

Some really great positives from it too, none more so than Ross Barkley who for my money gave one of the very best midfield performances ive seen from a Luton player. Hes absolutely outstanding and wouldnt have looked out of place in the Arsenal side.

 

[Caitlyn]

All that effort for nothing .

So heartbreaking I suspect .

Being honest, we had lost that game before a ball was kicked (according to the media and pundits) and odds on for a tonking so the performance was brilliant and the result imaterial in some maccabre sense?

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Another tough one to take. Almost be easier losing by 4 or 5 than to push these sides close only to fall down at the last.

Players are working tremendously hard and can be proud but the manner of some of the goals a bit annoying, I know it’s hard to be switched on for 90+ mins against these sides but just a little less sloppy and we’d have taken some amazing and unexpected points in the last 2. The winner today was handed to Grealish really.

Massive game against Bournemouth next week, got to get ourselves up for that like we were up for these last 2.

 

[oakroader]

Best wishes to our skipper tom Lockyer who had a cardiac arrest today…
Our prayers are with you and your loved ones

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Terrible afternoon. Credit all the medical staff. They were over to him so so quickly. Seeing Rob in that state at the end nearly broke me.

Praying Tom is ok. The fact this is his second incident is extremely concerning.

 

[Super_horns]

Best wishes to our skipper tom Lockyer who had a cardiac arrest today…
Our prayers are with you and your loved ones

Definitely.

Sure all in football will concur .

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Feel so proud of everyone at the club. Emotions of the day aside (and they were hard to put aside) we were absolutely outstanding and fully deserving of the win. The team has got everything you want to see in a side you support, aggressive, whole hearted, effort in spades with a sprinkling of real quality.

 

[Super_horns]

Well done on the win and support shown !

 

[Super_horns]

Good late point for you.

Deserved I think despite the controversy about the equaliser .

Was probably 50:50 but usually keepers get fouls for the slightest of touches.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

We played quite well but final quality was lacking. Doughty had one of his worst games in a very long time for us and with Ogbene being an exciting player with extremely inconsistent end product we never made our dominance in those wide areas count.

Barkley continues to be a class apart, he’s so so important to us now.

We were lucky with the goal for sure. Trafford was looking for that all day but it’s probably a foul all things considered.

 

[Super_horns]

Wow !

What a start and first half .

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Well that was insane. Just absolutely battered them all night, don’t think Brighton knew what had hit them.

Really strange set up by De Zerbi to play to hate our press and then try and back your forwards to win one v one versus our very athletic centre halves. Both are literally our strengths and he ran straight toward them. So pleased for Elijah too, he’s been absolutely top class.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

One of the best games I’ve seen in person. In awe of this team to be honest, disappointed to have been 4-2 up and only got a point but would have been delighted to get it beforehand.

 

[Super_horns]

One of the best games I’ve seen in person. In awe of this team to be honest, disappointed to have been 4-2 up and only got a point but would have been delighted to get it beforehand.

One of those strange games where you have mixed feelings I guess .

Ross Barkley has been outstanding for you .

 

[Enchantress]

playing well now

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Absolutely enormous game today. Win and we look in a good position to stay up especially as other fixtures for those around us look very tough.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Really poor performance for such an important game. Never really got going, thought Sheffield United really got it spot on tactically, smothered our midfield and Barkley couldn’t have the influence on the game we need him too.

Having said that we did get in good areas, lost count of how many crosses we had but delivery was so poor.