LondonBristolian

I know various people - including some on these boards - who work as doctors and nurses in hospitals. I think I'll listen to them on whether hospitals are currently being over-run, rather than someone on the internet who has no idea what is happening in hospitals but feels the need to pretend otherwise. Most people with underlying health conditions - diabetics included - don't get hospitalised if they get the flu. Especially as the flu jab massively drops the side effects. But, even without vaccination, flu doesn't hospitalise anywhere the numbers that COVID does. If you don't know something, admit you don't know it. Making inaccurate statements that you hope to be true is very easy for everyone else to see through. You're welcome to your opinion on all this but please don't invent facts.

Nicking this off Twitter but it's also an anagram of Erotic Almond so I'm not really sure what your point is...

You’re the one who is preaching here. Preaching and speculating about everyone else’s motives. If you chose to quietly not show prove, I might believe you aren’t scared. The fact you need to bleat on about it and try to convince everyone else too reeks of insecurity. You’re anxious, scared and desperate for like minded people to reassure you that you are doing the right thing. That much is obvious to anyone reading your posts So stop projecting and accusing others of feeling the fear you feel yourself. You fool nobody. I don’t really think you even fool yourself.

Not just the Jewish Community, either. The Nazis exterminated disabled people too. Huge numbers of disabled people died during the pandemic and @Harrymocks and insults them by turning a vaccine that could have saved their lives into a symbol of a movement that wanted to kill them. And not only that. Many of the older people at risk from the virus - and many who have died from it - are from the last vestiges of that incredible generation who fought the Nazis with courage the likes of @Harryand the rest of us in our generation can only dream of. Yet Harry chooses to disrespect them by turning a vaccine that has helped save some (and could have saved more if introduced earlier) into a symbol of all they fought against. What a shameful lack of taste, dignity and respect.

Not sure why you think someone who is being considerate to others is being any less brave than someone who won’t take a needle in their arm due to a microscopic possibility of side effects but each to their own. For what it’s worth, you come across as someone who is a bit scared yourself.

Depends whether or not you are talking about the Johnson who waffles a lot, continually changes strategy and continually throws members of his team under the bus…

From the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/epidemiological-update-omicron-data-8-december Don't forget the UK isn't in the EU. It's just that I've not seen any data on severity in the UK whereas this shows that - where any data is available - all cases are asymptomatic or mild. Obviously it's a small sample and the number of severe cases will be higher as cases rise BUT 337 mild or asymptomatic cases from the first 337 is going some and - if the data holds and it turns out less than one in 337 cases are serious - that would have to mean either the vaccines are holding up or something else is going right.

So much easier for Rovers. Most socially distanced place in Bristol.

I saw earlier data showing there are 331 cases of known Omicron in the EU, with no known hospitalisations as of yesterday. There are presumably an unknown number of further cases where someone is either asymptomatic, refused to be tested or has not been identified as having Omicron. It's way too early to say that means Omicron is milder, or that it won't cause hospitalisations in the future. However it also surely suggests the vaccines are doing something? Agree it is an ill-thought out policy but an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The likelihood is vaccines have an impact. We just don't know how much yet.

Indeed. This is going to be one of these interesting ones. It may be he struggles and proves to be not quite ready for this level or it may be that this another Moyes/Dyche/Wilder/Dean Smith/Howe situations where a manager we might at one point of thought of as too much of an untested gamble ends up being someone we later wish we'd appointed when we had the chance.

I disagree with you on one point, which is that I think the more accurate sentence would be “neither are consistently regular Championship quality defenders”. Both have shown they can meet the standard required but both have struggled to do it game after game or even consistently across 90 minutes. If either one of them reached a point where they could be relied on to concentrate for 90 minutes and regularly produce their best, they would be phenomenal players for us. But without that, they will always struggle at this level.

I think defensive midfield or in a back three. I really think Vyner has got a bit more quality than some on this thread suggest and I would love him to succeed but the fact I don’t really trust him in a back two probably shows I share the concerns people have about him…

The bottom three are really starting to cut adrift at the moment. Way too early in the season to say anything for certain but none of them look that well placed to drag other teams into it at the moment...

Yep - at least for tonight, we've stopped being rubbish and can start to speculate about a promotion push instead!

As someone who could not make it today, you have no idea how much this emoji terrified me...

Definitely agree with that. I don't find Martin as frustrating as you do but I totally agree that it is a big worry how reliant we are on him.

I wondered if you could elucidate a bit on your view of Martin as a player? I can't help feeling you're sitting on the fence.

I’m really regretting not buying a lottery ticket…

Squad is pretty diminished but I am predicting starts for Atkinson and Semenyo with Weimann starting in midfield and Benarous making way along with Baker.

I think the major factor is clubs who buy in January tend to spend a fair amount of money in January - especially in the current climate - buy what they need right now rather than spend on potential. The big six might splurge a few million on a promising talent but I don’t see Man City, Liverpool or Chelsea moving for Massengo, Scott or Benarous at this point. Beyond that, I don’t think any club in the championship or outside the premier league top six is going to be putting money in January towards potential so I think you are right. We are not likely to receive an offer worth considering for Massengo or any other young player in January. If players leave, I suspect it would be players like Dasilva, Wells and Palmer and we may well need to take a loss on them AND cover some of their wages to get the bulk of their wages off the wage bill.

I suspect attitude and fitness largely come together. The level of fitness needed for today’s game takes a level of discipline and commitment that you need a certain attitude to do. It’s not an attitude I have, for sure!

Also I love the idea that clubs are going to be queuing up to pay a fee for a player under contract with massive questions marks over his injury record. I can only assume @frenchredplans to transfer list him, click the “add a manager” button to take over some unsuspecting premier league club, blow the club’s entire £15 million transfer budget on Williams, loan a couple of players to us whilst he is at it and then click the “resign from club” button the second the deal is done. Unfortunately that tactic is way more effective on Football Manager than it is in real life…

I don't want to be pessimistic but, in the games Williams has managed for us, he has probably proven to be our key player. It's no coincidence that we looked better against Blackburn and Stoke than we did in the games where Williams was missing before or at Sheffield United. Keeping our heads above water until January now looks a tougher ask.

Fair point - sorry!

Problem is - nice as it would be for this thread not to descend into political debate - it is really difficult to separate the issue of COVID and the issue of how the pandemic is managed by the governments of different countries. I've no idea what I think we should be doing at the moment, mind. I think there's a fair chance that the concerns over Omicron are going to prove to be more dramatic than the reality. Both the vaccines and previous infections are likely to provide some degree of protection. It's like the variant has been in the country for a few weeks and hospital admissions are moving in the right direction and there doesn't seem to be any suggestion this variant is more serious. At the same time, assuming it is all overblown is a Hell of a gamble that - if wrong - means people die. I get why Germany have done this but it doesn't necessarily mean I think we should do the same but I could be completely wrong and Germany could be right. I do think we should be being cautious until we know more - I'd have no problem with doing a lateral flow test before games and wearing a mask at any point where I wasn't eating or drinking - but I don't know whether I think cautious extends to stripping back attendances and not doing things.