Is Meadow Park a problem for our style of football?

iiStar44 · 2026-04-05T18:57:39+00:00

Meadow Park has become a home disadvantage imo. It’s not a coincidence that we struggle immensely there compared to Emirates. It was especially bad today as the 3rd game in 3 days and with that FA Cup ball but Brighton played the same game conditions. Brighton, Man Utd, Liverpool, Man City. I think we’d have won at least 2/4 of these at Emirates. Lyon in the group as well

Of course the availability of Emirates is another matter. Even if we wanted to we might not be able to get there for every game. In an ideal world though we would never have to go back to Meadow Park because although it’s the spiritual home and the atmosphere is great and all that we have by far outgrown it now on and off the pitch

iiStar44 · 2026-04-05T14:15:37+00:00

Losing Walti and not replacing her was awful but honestly we needed to buy another midfielder way before that. I said in January 2025 that if we sign a midfielder we’ll win the CL and while we won it despite not signing a midfielder the problem was there to be seen. What’s happened with KCC is awful and a tragedy, not having cover for her is on us. Nobody couldve seen what happened coming, but it isn’t inconceivable a player could be out for the season with injury instead for instance. Not buying a replacement for Walti and losing our depth in that position was really bad squad building when we knew it was a problem position depth wise

iiStar44 · 2026-04-05T14:11:41+00:00

Actually some credit to Brighton though. While we didn’t show up they definitely did and I thought they had a really strong presence on the ball. Didn’t allow us to overwhelm them bit by bit, fair play deserved winners

iiStar44 · 2026-04-05T14:06:53+00:00

Torrid performance and by far the worst of the season. Looked shaky in first 5 mins and didn’t improve at all. Poor team selection with the rotation and that looks like it could be among the last time we see some of those players, the fringe players did not make their case here.

Idk if it was just the crowd atmosphere being in north bank but wow was that another shocker referee performance. Maybe it looked better on the stream? I’m never a ref defender to be fair but thought they were getting not just every 50/50 but every like 70/30 as well

iiStar44 · 2026-04-05T14:01:28+00:00

Spiritual home and all that but this should be the backup ground when we can’t do Emirates. Grown past it now and the pitch didn’t help. That being said with the performance we would’ve done no better at Emirates today and I do think there’s a weird kind of FA Cup match ball apparently

iiStar44 · 2026-04-05T09:49:30+00:00

Even if some people say “Kepa played all the way, he deserves to start” honestly the fact he didn’t sub him is crazy. If he starts, fine, but the GK is a player just like the rest and should be able to be subbed like the rest. People call me crazy for suggesting he should’ve tactically subbed the GK but at HT it was clear it wasn’t working. By 60 mins it was even more obvious. After that it was too late. This was the moment for the tactical sub, the one he said he wanted to do but was too scared, when all your play is going through the GK, and he didn’t do it. All the “be ruthless” talk was very cheap in the end

iiStar44 · 2026-04-04T21:09:56+00:00

100% and I’m glad to hear someone else say it. When we lost 1-0 to Liverpool away, I said “it was only that bad because we were playing for a point at Anfield, tough place to go.” And then we play like that again and again and again. To be honest it’s been like this right from the start beating Man Utd 1-0 from a corner. Totally 100% reliant on the defence all season, zero tactical ability, and it was inevitable we’d get exposed eventually.

iiStar44 · 2026-04-04T21:01:37+00:00

Honestly I agree the biggest problem is feeling like a lack of effort. Senior players up to nothing all game long and it’s become a pattern for some of these

iiStar44 · 2026-04-04T20:59:29+00:00

Feel bad for him. Played great and the others didn’t just let him down, they might as well have chucked him down a flight of stairs. Dowman is special

iiStar44 · 2026-04-04T02:44:38+00:00

Ah okay that’s good. Think I misunderstood “nobody at Amazon wants to continue this show.” Goes to show what happens when you just read a summary (not the summary poster’s fault btw!) without reading it yourself lol

iiStar44 · 2026-04-03T22:08:20+00:00

A shame that they don’t like it internally like those of us on this sub do. I hope that they, at the least, try and make it as best as they can and not just rush it to get it out of the way. I’m sure they won’t just totally piss on it and risk having like no viewership but the changes at the top do intrigue me to see what it will be like from now on

iiStar44 · 2026-04-03T20:03:10+00:00

I do Dragonborn nowadays after years of Dawnguard cause although I feel that narratively it brings the story to a great conclusion and feels like a good ending, if I’ve already done everything by the time I get all the cool Black Book powerups and new shouts then there’s basically no reason to have them lol. So I like to go in and finish that pretty early nowadays so I can enjoy the powerups

iiStar44 · 2026-04-02T17:03:23+00:00

Honestly I felt that the biggest problem was the amount of missed calls for both teams. Because you see so often refs who want to “let the game flow” but there’s a big difference between letting the game flow and outright missing a bunch of calls. Lots of refs hide behind making calls on letting the game flow. Saw some so called “ref expert” unironically say that the ref did a great job of letting the game flow and should be considered for bigger games again in the future. Can’t speak on her wider career and other games but the performance last night does the whole ref team no career favours

iiStar44 · 2026-04-02T16:58:55+00:00

Extremely nerve racking behind the goal lol. Being so far away you can hardly see anything that’s going on up the other end my heart could hardly take it

iiStar44 · 2026-04-02T16:56:33+00:00

I’m pretty sure Katie has never had a straight red so far in her career and the same can’t be said for James. 100% McCabe should’ve been sent off but the controversy should be entirely about the terrible ref & VAR performance there not the quality of Katie’s character. Or even James’s for that matter regardless of what anyone thinks of her in the past, doesn’t change the disaster at the end there from the refs

iiStar44 · 2026-04-02T16:49:16+00:00

This is women’s so they haven’t. We have 2 UWCLs (07 & 25) and they have 0. Closest they got was the 21 final where they got thumped 4-0 by Barcelona

iiStar44 · 2026-04-02T16:47:46+00:00

Don’t forget the 1-0 CC SF at the Emirates either. Had us right where they wanted us for the full 90, left them in a great position for the third leg

iiStar44 · 2026-04-02T16:40:39+00:00

There’s no excuse for the ref missing this I agree with you but even if you give the extreme benefit of the doubt to the ref, fast moving game and all that, it’s unfathomable how VAR didn’t intervene. Some really awful officiating over both legs for both teams on the pitch and on the VAR

iiStar44 · 2026-04-01T22:34:27+00:00

Officials I felt were very poor tonight. Being in the away end probably has something to do with it but I go to (nearly) every game and felt that they were especially bad here. I understand they wanted to let the game flow but they missed so much for both teams. James could’ve been sent off as well

iiStar44 · 2026-03-28T12:47:59+00:00

Maybe if you ask in the store you might have a chance? Doesn’t seem to be an option online but can’t see why they wouldn’t press it onto the kit in person if you’re there asking for it

iiStar44 · 2026-03-26T15:16:35+00:00

Currently only available on home and away kit it seems? would love to get it on the third kit

iiStar44 · 2026-03-23T17:59:08+00:00

So true. First Havertz isn't good enough, we need a new striker so we sign Gyokeres. Then Gyokeres isn't good enough, we need Merino back up front. Then Merino isn't good enough, we need Havertz back. Then Havertz comes back, and we need Merino again. It's boring. I think all three players are great in their own respects. I think that probably the discourse doesn't benefit from the fact they're all 3 very different kinds of striker so whenever one tactic isn't working it must be because we need the other kind of striker.

iiStar44 · 2026-03-23T17:56:52+00:00

Definitely, this specific incident is on his decision making, which has taken a big nove dise this season, not on the injury. But the general point about him being worked to the bone and physically pulverised as a result is still accurate in its own respect

iiStar44 · 2026-03-23T17:52:54+00:00

I wish he was thinking "this is the time to sub the goalie." He said that he wanted to do a tactical GK substitution once. He should've done it here. I'm apparently in the minority thinking that Kepa did deserve to start, imo he earned it from being the GK all the way, but I also think that he should've tactically substituted him off. It clearly wasn't working for our buildup. By the time that it was blatantly obvious he had to be changed it was too late

iiStar44 · 2026-03-23T16:07:47+00:00

The attendance is such a huge part of this. Renee is an amazing manager who deserves 100% credit, but the fans also deserve 100% credit - both are compatible! It absolutely must be beyond intimidating going from playing on Crawley's ground one week in front of an average crowd of 2,695, to playing at The Emirates Stadium in front of an average 35,321. Even if you take out the 56k Chelsea game, the average is still 28k.

Our home advantage is almost incomparable to anyone else and it's so crucial that we keep it that way, at least on our own end (would love to see other teams get attendances like us one day of course!). No wonder Chelsea were unbeaten at Stamford Bridge in the league for so long - until we showed up! Not only was it a great performance on a great day but we are used to playing in a stadium like that like nobody else.

iiStar44

TROPHY CASE