Kid in the Riot

Observant onlookers may have noticed that Callum Doyle was starting for S'land tonight on loan from Man City, and that LJ was sat next to Brian Marwood (Man City's Global DoF) at Newcastle U on Sunday. Yet we didn't get any Man City players on loan or otherwise while LJ was here. Wonder why that was....

He's been linked with Barca and Real, and heralded as the best player to ever set foot in Hale End, so little surprise. He's got a big future and what a way to start his senior career. Fair enough, was listening on the wireless and they didn't make that clear. My point regards Pepe v COD remains though. We don't generally get in behind teams, so wouldn't help us v Sunderland at all.

Might be easy for £72m Pepe, probably not so much for Callum O'Dowda. They aren't playing full backs anyway btw - they're playing a back three with wing-backs.

Yep, massive club are Sunderland. Despite the crap you read on social media LJ is currently very popular on Wearside. Doing a good job, but of course ultimately needs to deliver promotion.

Agree, and I heard Aggers say the same too. He also opined that recently Broad & Anderson have become more worried about conceding runs than getting wickets.

I think Root is trying to assert some authority with the bowlers, as they aren't doing as they're told imo. It's not like he wasn't critical of the batting. That's clearly the main concern, though you could argue our batsman are also seriously lacking in practice/experience in Aussie conditions (certainly the openers where the main problem lies). And that's the thing with Broad and Anderson - they should know how to bowl in these conditions, given their experience. Notwithstanding this, the whole squad is being hung out to dry by the ECB who haven't given Root and the Test side the support it has needed for years, with white ball cricket prioritised instead. You reap what you sow.

Bowling the right length would help though, and Anderson and Broad have been guilty of this for a couple of years now. Both wield too much power in the national team. Legends they may be, but they have too much influence for me. Particularly Jimmy who has basically been told "you'll always get in the team until you decide to retire". Shouldn't be down to the player.

Where does that optimism come from?! Very sure we'll be under different ownership by then, so it'll be an interesting next few years one way or another.

Lacks proper power too though? Still slaps a little. 114-112 on one scorecard is a joke with the knockdowns

What a round!

Thought the same. Real quick. Del looks sluggish already. Parker can finish this soon I think.

Proper rib breaker! Cullen didn't deal with Sadjo at all well. He could've not taken the fight tbf to him as Sadjo was such a late replacement, based on that maybe he shouldn't have!

I believe Parker when he says he's going to be more aggressive this time, especially given the shape he's in and with an extra 10lbs of knock out power. Plus being in camp with Fury and Andy Lee. Could see a Parker win in the middle rounds, or he'll win on points.

Aware of that, but it's nowhere near at the required level yet and the government has not invested in this area strongly enough imo. Antivirals could help in significantly reducing hospitalisations, which in turn could help reduce restrictions such as covid passports.

Don't know. There are things in medicine that appear to defy logic though. For example, antibiotics designed to treat infections, often help cure viruses. Regards the booster and omicron, it may be because the booster helps suppress the symptoms of covid, and ultimately both delta, Omicron, and indeed all covid variant symptoms are pretty similar I.e. continuous cough, fever, muscle aches etc Edit: regarding my first point, as antibiotics can't kill viruses, one thing the government should be investing/researching a lot more is antivirals to treat covid.

Yep, don't know the specific answer you're looking for. All I know is that the initial "real world" studies have thus far shown the booster to give much better immunity against Omicron. Must admit, I had assumed it was purely for the reason that most people that have had the booster will have obviously only had it in the last few months, and so have better immunity purely because they have received the shot more recently. Those that had their second shot in say, March, will clearly have much reduced protection from covid now. If there is a more technical reason though then @Dr Balls may know!

I don't see much hysteria, no. I see the CMO and other senior medical officials simply warning that there is a strong chance that with no measures put in place the NHS will likely be significantly overwhelmed this winter, with many people dying, including one's that could have otherwise been avoided. If you are just relying on personal experience then there's a good chance you have a very narrow view of the situation. January is traditionally one of the busiest months for hospitals as it is, and we have a new - vaccine resistant (first two jabs) - variant of covid going through the population faster than previous ones. Doesn't take a genius to work out there should be a level of concern as to what is happening, or what might be about to happen. Evidence is still pointing to it being milder, and the most recent paper I saw is suggesting it doesn't attack the lungs as aggressively. Hopefully good news, but there's still enough reasons to be cautious.

Interesting hearing Ryan Lowe, PNE manager, saying last night that pretty strong rumours doing the rounds in footballing circles that a lot of teams are postponing games not just due to covid, but because they have wider injury problems in their squads. Effectively using covid as an excuse to buy themselves time to get players back from injury.

An excess death count of circa 148k people in a little over 18 months. Is that the "hysteria" that you are referring to?

On NOW

@Harry showing up at the turnstiles tomorrow to show his covid pass

Notably he was described as "former Leicester City player Andy King", which goes to prove the high regard we are held in the echelons of English, nay world, football.

Not permanently, just because the owners have covid. Great little place to eat though

As per title. On shortly previewing weekend games. Would imagine he'll talk a bit about City/covid situation