Iskaral Pust

Good to hear this has started strongly. I’ll wait until after our Spring Break vacation to start watching so that I won’t feel like I’m waiting for eps to drop.

France’s WC hangover is incredible. But for two controversial refereeing decisions in their favor, they’d have three defeats and would be competing with Wales for the wooden spoon.

I’m not sure if that’s tongue in cheek but I don’t think Boehly should jump into a manger change considering his chaotic squad building. Liverpool, Bayern, Barcelona and probably United will all have managerial vacancies this summer. There’s going to be a lot of competition for talent, offering different competitive situations and different political environments. Liverpool is less of a pressure cooker than the others and you inherit a strong squad but it’s difficult to follow Klopp. Plus financial doping by City is a big obstacle for anyone taking over at a top PL club. Bayern looks like the easiest job but with enough background politics to sour it. Chelsea’s FFP problems and no CL means the manager has to mostly accept the squad as it is for a while and work on tactics and cohesion — Pochettino is fine for that.

Incredible grit from Liverpool to win that in ET after having a midweek game and only half a squad. But that’s another long term injury to a MF player. Gravenberch is on crutches already. Edit: Endo on crutches too after the match.

Salah and Nunez both had muscle strains after the Brentford match. This was widely reported. Not long term injuries like Jota (MCL), Jones (high ankle sprain) or Alisson (hamstring tear), but enough to miss at least the next match as a precaution. Jota’s impact injury meant that Salah played a lot more minutes than planned on his first game back from a hamstring tear, and Nunez has played a lot of minutes with a lot of sprints — his profile looks like Szoboszlai’s. The tone of the updates all week makes it sound risky to start them in a final that could got into ET. If they were just being rested, they would have been on the bench against Luton instead of bringing on 18yr old Danns for his debut — who, in fairness, showed a few nice touches in his ten minutes.

It’s not just Keenan missing at fullback. O’Brien and Hanson would probably be second and third string for the position but for injuries. Frawley has played the position just a few times for Leinster. It’s definitely the thin spot of the XV; otherwise a strong line-up. I haven’t yet come to grips with England’s selection process to shape their attacking play. The variations at 10 over the past year alone point leave me wondering how they’re preparing players for different attacking styles/philosophies. I’m guessing the Calcutta Cup will be a good spectacle regardless.

I finished the season but didn’t love it. Better than S2 but I have to wonder why I keep watching TD hoping that the S1 magic will repeat. They told the story they wanted and shrugged off the many plot holes. The core was resolving the oppressor-oppressed tension and processing spiritually the unresolved griefs/traumas. The narrative required that the mystery had to conclude with the colonial, capitalist, male bad being called to justice by the indigenous, spiritual, female good. It completely fits that there weren’t individual perpetrators, but rather a group action crime and a group action justice. “Virtue-noir” is a decent name for it. I wonder how this era of art will be viewed in the future. Aside from the theme, the tone of claustrophobic horror continued and peaked with physical claustrophobia as they squeezed through the ice tunnels. I don’t enjoy horror tension. S1’s gothic philosophizing feels slow on rewatch now (perhaps knowing the ending is an anticlimax) but it struck a better tone.

There has been a huge shift by Liverpool to being a second-half team this season. A few years ago we would blitz teams for the first ~20 minutes and score at least one goal, then we could reduce intensity, manage the game, and eventually score another on a counterattack. Now we struggle to score early and often concede first. But our half-time tactical adaptations have generally been a good response to the latest variety of parked bus, and we seem to exhaust our opponents as the game wears on. Plus our attacking subs have generally done well against tiring defenders. Klopp’s in-game management seems really important this year, and much different from when he was criticized for making subs too late. It’s definitely an effective system so far and we’re having a high scoring season despite Nunez and Diaz having very low conversion %.

That Brentford match was one of the most expensive three points I can recall: Jones, Jota, Alisson (in pre-match training), Salah and Nunez all injured. The one lesson Klopp has never learned is when and how to create space for players to rest.

I finally got to watch the Ireland vs Italy game. Not a great spectacle because Ireland were disjointed in their play with so many changes. They scored six tries while comfortably smothering any attacking play by Italy but it rarely felt like a free-flowing or exciting contest. It’s good to see more depth in the squad. Crowley was very good as the #10 playmaker, although his kicking for points was very poor. McCarthy and Baird both showed great speed and energy for their size, with Ireland’s changed pack looking mobile and fast. Lowe and Keenan were both in very good form (let’s hope Keenan recovers from that injury quickly), and Nash did well alongside them. And I thought we got a good showing from McCloskey and Henshaw at center considering how strong Aki and Ringrose typically are as a pair. Lineouts were really solid, with mauls generating some of the tries. Scrums were iffy again. Nothing went right for Larmour in his brief sub appearance but there was a lot of ropey play at that stage as some subs were third or fourth string while others were JVDF and JGP. Italy must feel dispirited after being much more competitive against England. Hopefully they’ll have more competitive matches ahead. They aren’t indulging in the madcap risks of last year, they just didn’t have quite enough quality to breach a very diligent Irish defense, while the scores against them gradually mounted. Watching Ireland score from 5-10m lineouts made me think again that England should have tried the same a week prior rather than kicking for points.

Odin’s Betrayal by Donovan Cook is the opening book in a series of Viking historical fiction, with the central character born in Francia/Germnay to a Viking father abandoned there during a raid. The prose and characterization felt sophomoric — bland and tropey. I won’t read further. The Boyfriend by Thomas Perry is a crime fiction about an ex-cop PI in California on the track of a serial killer who’s using his girlfriend victims as a series of temporary covers for his work as an assassin around the country. Far-fetched plot but an OK read. An Elegant Defense by Matt Richtel is a non-fiction about the human immune system. It’s an interesting topic and well researched but, like too many non-fictions, it’s torturously over-extended to book length. Would have been a good long-form article instead.

Got Trouble by Dave Dobson is, I guess, a sci-if thriller novel, whose rating in GoodReads seems inflated by a large % of ARCs. The protagonist is a woman struggling through life at the very bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, when she is suddenly thrust into a sci-fi crime plot, with a helpful college professor sidekick to explain to her what’s happening as it unfolds. I wouldn’t recommend. Stigmata by Colin Falconer is historical fiction set in 13th century France at the time of the Cathar Crusade. This is my second experience with this author who has been heavily promoted on Amazon, after enjoying his Silk Road novel — for which I posted a quick review in one of these threads. I didn’t much enjoy this one. It doubled down on the weak points of the other novel: it’s primarily an interpersonal/romance melodrama set against the backdrop of an interesting historical period, and spends much more focus on the dime-a-dozen character drama than the history. If you care more about Scarlet O’Hara than the American Civil War then you might enjoy this author but I’m not inclined to read any further. Son Of Mercia by M.J. Porter is historical fiction set in 9th century England as Saxon and Danish kingdoms maneuver and compete. The style is a disappointment: almost every chapter is an internal monologue as a POV engages in and reflects upon a conversation with another king or warband leader as they try to persuade allies and gather military support. It just goes on and on like this. I thought it was a poor choice of narrative structure.

I forgot to respond to this good engagement on The Heart Of Darkness. It’s a good point that an influential new structure or style should be a classic even if it’s subsequently executed better. But the bolded part appears to have a very long history in literature, going back to The Odyssey, The Epic Of Gilgamesh, and many prehistoric myths where geographical symbolism of the wilderness/forest, sea, underworld, desert, etc mirrored or was a metaphor for the mental or spiritual journey of the protagonist. It’s pretty central to the entire hero’s journey too.

This is the kind of cut-throat politicking and strategy we expect from F1, whether true or not. Since driver salaries are not part of the F1 budget cap, I wondered if the big teams would try to reassert their financial advantage through driver super-teams, running the risk that it helps win the WCC while potentially splitting the points and losing the WDC. The ideal second driver, from the POV of a title-chasing first driver, is Merc-era Bottas. Checo made some positive contribution as the Ministry Of Defense in Verstappen’s first WDC title but has been a non-factor since. Max could use a better partner but not too much better.

Yes, it looked a penalty. As did the fouls on Jota and Diaz not given. The ref allowed a lot of heavy contact all game; the “let the game flow” attitude rewards clogging over skill.

And now Jones and Jota subbed off early with further injuries. Jota’s looked potentially very bad.

Remember when Arsenal were struggling to score goals?

Szoboszlai is really missed in MF. I think MacAllister, Szoboszlai and Jones is the strongest MF by some distance (assuming Thiago is out of contention), but we’ve had very few games where we’ve been able to start with them. Elliot did well as a sub again, and has been more impactful as a sub rather than starter all season. A pity to see TAA withdrawn — both he and Szoboszlai were rushed back too soon. With Gomez out with flu and Bradley on compassionate leave, TAA was rushed back despite finally having two very capable deputies in the squad — after years of no depth at his position.

In other news, lots of injuries, one suspension (Konate) and now now flu too have decimated Liverpool’s squad for today.

Such a pity about Thiago. As everyone has said, this was the predictable risk and it has gone worse than the 50:50 betting line. But he was a joy to watch on the pitch. I hope he can recover enough to play on, whether for us or elsewhere. Incredible player.

Lots of changes for Ireland. I don’t think that’s complacency about Italy, rather some development for a wider pool of players. In the WC we had the core players play far too many minutes and reached the QF looking fatigued. It should be a good match, and the Italians may see an opportunity against a rotated Ireland and come out swinging.

I’ve watched Italy vs England now too (during my home gym sessions). England should feel pretty good. Despite (or because of) a lot of selection changes, their possession play was much sharper and more coherent. Their ruck speed was much faster, they were fit and fast enough to sustain possession and territory pressure for long periods, and they didn’t lose faith or fall apart when their progress stalled. Perhaps their biggest failing in attack was taking points from too many penalties rather than chasing the try. I fully expect this England team to improve as they go on and build more familiarity and perhaps some belief. (Side note: Mitchell’s try looked like a completed tackle, so with that plus a missed easy penalty by Italy, the result could have gone the other way despite England comfortably dominating possession and territory) OTOH Italy scored three good tries where they exploited a key line break. And that was without Capuozzo, and Cannone went off injured quite early. I think Italy are improving each year but England need to question why they could score three tries without their (arguably) two best players. England’s defensive shape looked suspect once the ball was moved quickly from inside to wing. And, yes, Italy scored their last try in garbage time but they also had a good threatening period for several minutes before that, and then generated that last attack immediately after England had them on the ropes in their own 22. Italy gave France big problems in their home opener last year. There’s limited predictive power to this one match. Based on what I saw, I’m a lot more worried about the challenge of playing England in Twickenham after they’ve found some more rhythm than an improving Italy with Capuozzo and Cannone added.

I’m still watching and will finish the season. Ep4 felt too much like horror for my enjoyment though. The claustrophobia of the darkness, the snowbound small town, the economic tension (the poisonous mine is what keeps the town alive), mental health problems, and the fraught relationships is the tone they want to convey, and it works. And horror seems to be the natural genre for such claustrophobia, although I don’t enjoy it. There is a detective investigating a crime but the thread is messy and overwhelmed by the horror elements and committing so much to the tone.

Great to hear this is good so far. I’ll turn back on my AppleTV subscription to binge it when complete.

Really disappointing performance and result. We’ve struggled against Arsenal this season even if we snatched a win in the cup tie. We had too many players missing today for a top-of-table clash like this but also didn’t get great performances from the players on the field. What’s galling is that the weakest points were predictable: Gakpo has been ghosting in and out of games as a starter and doesn’t offer the threat of Nunez (who gave the Arsenal CBs a lot of problems in the prior game), Gravenberch looks soft and inconsistent against any strong opponent and is only ready for weaker opponents at this point, Trent is good against parked bus opponents but a liability against an opponent with real attacking intent (and Martinelli has had his number in the past), and VVD has been getting too casual again lately. Only Alisson’s performance could not have been predicted. Once you have that many weak points, the whole team gets dragged down because the collective coordination of the system is gone.