The Winged Shadow

Never knew Time Out was even a thing until today . Feel for Matthews...

I'm with you. I've been mostly happy with how they have done business. It's easy to forget the stadium spending and training ground improvements. Let's not forget the covid losses. Klopp has been very clear that we spend what we earn. I am not sure why it is okay to expect owners to pony up extra cash. The team should spend what they earn and I feel like Liverpool do that. Feels like you run things like FSG, you get complaints about not spending enough. Then you get sugar daddy owners, and people hate that too. There is no escaping criticism. But totally understandable with last years disappointment. I still don't get the complaints about the midfield gap from last year. Ox, Naby, Hendo, Milner, Fabinho, Thiago, backup of Jones/Elliot, then all the younger kids. How many midfielders do you need? I understand the issue of injury prone players, and last year the worst did come to pass and everyone was injured at the same time, but I don't think they could afford to have more midfielders when the forward line clearly needed more attention and they sorted that out. I expect this season will be midfield rebuild, and next season probably focused on improving the last line. I am a bit surprised at the large Caicedo bid to be honest. Not sure if he is that good. And I am worried how that will impact the next couple of transfer window as this bid will probably dry up the funds. Letting Fab and Hendo go without a more reasonably priced option is worrying. Personally would've preferred if they kept at least one of those two and not be so damn desperate. But from quality perspective, all three signings were very good. And maybe the Fab and Hendo transfer fee will offset the bid. Hopefully it won't take too long for the midfield to gel, a bit worried about such a massive change. But it can't be worse than last year....hopefully!

Yeah, Australia are done if it doesn't rain. Things finally clicked for England batting lineup and they are miles ahead. Australia's batting has been on a decline since the first match, no one really looks solid. They all get starts but no one looks like like they will put up a big score. Even Marnus, who plays a lot of balls. No one looks bad necessarily (except perhaps Warner), but I don't have a lot of faith in their ability to put up 400+. On the positive side, 2-2 would be a more accurate reflection on the competitiveness of the series. The 2-0 was flattering Australia quite a bit.

Australia is bowling some proper rubbish for the field they have set up. Bowling at the stumps but the field isn't set up for that. Fraustrating to watch.

Yeah, Bairstow's keeping has been awful. Very noticeable this series. Leg injury kinda explains it, wasn't aware of that one. Cummins is over reliant on pace bowling. His utilization of spin bowling leaves a lot to be desired. Even with Lyon, never felt that he quite trusted him as a main threat.

Good match in the end. Lots of ups and down. But Australia didn't bat well enough nor field well enough to win. The young England batters would gain a lot of confidence from this match, they did well that second innings and carried it home (without relying too much on Root/Stokes).

Maybe a bit too late to turn to Murphy. But on the other hand it seems like he does trust him (rather than other way around, if he never bowled). Having said that, probably a worthy gamble considering pace bowling was handled with ease and if England try to do dumb things, this could end up working. Either way, this looks pretty much done.

I think England can chase this down. Only one of them need to pop and this team definitely has a couple of big hitters. 300+ would've felt a little safer, but 224 seems well within reach. I'd say advantage England mainly because of Bazball tactics (despite all its criticism lately). I'd given pretty low chance to old England.

Was fielding always this bad? or feels worse because its Ashes? Also, I thought Archer was injured or something?

Hard to take this Spirit of Cricket bullshit seriously after New Zealand got robbed at the world cup. Spirit of Cricket died that day if it was ever alive in the first place.

All the dumb pull shot+catches at the boundary from the tail kind of ended up justifying the tactics (to a degree). Specially if you know that they are gonna try to take it on. But yeah, very weird to see so many bumpers. I thought it was just set up for the yorker or maybe even the new ball (get them used to bouncers and then change it up with the new ball), but that never came. Really good match. Both games have been excellent and it could've gone either way. Fielding standards have dropped for both sides though, which is a shame.

Bless this cursed thread

They are slowly chipping away. Getting nervous....

Wow, Starc got done dirty there. That catch looked clean, i think his fingers were underneath it but the angle/grass made it look like he was dragging it on the ground. Considering how long his fingers are and how wrapped around the ball it was, i thought it was really clean and under control. After Smith's catch stood, this decision is baffling.

All good Jeor, hope you and the fam recover swiftly! Same to your grandma Pax, sounds like a rough time.