Chris2K

Forwards in particular have been a massive issue, and, with the exception of Chiesa who is seemingly permanently injured, shows how winning Euro 2020 was almost entirely down to our defence. Immobile is still considered the main striker but he has never been able to replicate his club scoring form in internationals. Retegui has Italian grandparents (and at least has a more Italian sounding name than Jorginho), there were suggestions he hadn't set foot in Italy before arriving for this international period's training camp but I doubt that's true. He scored, so that's something I guess, and when Scamacca is your nearest competition he should be around for a while. Gnonto was impressive, but I fear his style of play is always going to better suited as an impact sub than playing 90 minutes.

We're made up of Donnarumma, and a mix of players past their prime or completely unproven, with a decent striker nowhere in sight. I'm just happy we played this well in the second half.

Yeah, England fans would never do anything like that. I'm not sure what thread is best to use, but from an Italian perspective this referee has been very good in the second half. I also have no idea why Jack Grealish is considered to be so good.

There's very little to like about this current Italian side. Even our kit is the wrong shade of blue. Happy that Harry has the record now though.

Episode 4 was superb, highlighted of course by:

As part of yesterday's Alonso post I initially wrote there were rumours that she was responsible for the recent VFX issues because of her instigating a toxic "with us or against us" policy where VFX studios got blackballed for not meeting Marvel's expectations of both quality at unreasonable turnaround, and the lengths that they go to to prevent leaks. But I had no sources, so I deleted it. Anyway, here's a source. It seems to be stirring up a strange mix of people accusing her of being the sole person responsible for Marvel's issues, to people saying that she's being scapegoated for being an LGBTQ+ woman in the movie industry. As with all things in 2023 the concept of a middle ground is seemingly not an option.

Victoria Alonso has left Marvel Studios, she has been Kevin Fiege's right hand woman since 2012 after being on the team before even the first Iron Man film in 2006, and her departure is more than a little surprising.

I'm doing an AI only Universe mode, but trying to move some of the sliders to make them more entertaining matches. Unfortunately Damian Priest just beat Omos in 2 minutes after one finisher with Omos only on yellow body damage, so maybe I've overpowered finishers a bit. I've also chucked all the unlocked legends into a WCW show, so look forward to Hulk Hogan vs. Doink the Clown in an arena near you.

Everyone seems to agree that both penalties were a bit overboard, the starting position one because it didn't get him any advantage (and all the drivers are saying they can't see far enough out of the cockpit to judge properly), and that there was an agreement in place about what constitutes "working on the car" which is why the second penalty got removed. Hopefully they can sort this out before Australia because these rules seem way too open to interpretation right now.

Alonso loses his podium after getting an additional 10 seconds for the team touching the car before the five second penalty was over (most likely putting the rear jack in). Russell goes P3 instead. No excuse whatsoever for Aston Martin considering Ocon got the same penalty last week for Alpine.

I'm assuming Red Bull were on the phone about Alonso before the lights had even gone out. God knows what possible advantage he could get from being even further off the racing line. At least he got to lead a few laps.

Absolutely not. It's refreshing to see someone in the club itself say it, even if his motives were likely to get his departure accelerated.

It would feel more interesting if we all didn't know Max will still win from 15th.

Far more bizarre... Roy Hodgson considered an option to replace Vieira at Palace.

Taskmaster renewed for 6(!) new seasons, and an 8 part Junior version.

Huh. I'm not sure how that gun gets from his house to Colorado without going on the team plane, or into the team locker room. Also that 8 games is back-dated, so he can play again next Monday. This doesn't feel like much of a punishment.

Erling Haaland. Good grief. He is the fifth highest scorer in the 2022/23 Champions League in this one game alone.

I made a late decision to pre-order the deluxe version, not sure where I'll find £85 lying around, but everything I'd seen about the game so far was impressive enough for me to splash out. I foolishly thought I could download 71GB in 2 hours, in fact I only got to 20GB, so I'm sat here watching a CPU v CPU Roman vs. Brock match until I go to bed. It looks so good on PS5, and the match has been pretty entertaining too. (Roman won after kicking out of an F5, Brock kicked out of a Spear, Roman hit a second Spear to win. Genuinely exciting.)

Be very, very thankful this isn't AC2 and you haven't started collecting feathers. ... It's not AC2, and you haven't started collecting feathers, have you?

I think that was Harry's first penalty since the World Cup. Very glad he scored it.

Assuming they traded up to get a QB, trading away their top receiver to get it seems, at best, misguided.

Happy for Nando, but the midfield are going to have to carry the entertainment for this season. I'm going to predict Max winning 20 this year.

Ferrari gonna Ferrari. That Alonso overtake was worth staying watching for.

I can't remember the last time I gave up on a race halfway through, but this may be doing enough to justify it.

I have no idea how either Alonso or Stroll don't have major damage after that. Different year, same Stroll.