Fierce_LiNk

It worries me the kind of mistakes that were made tonight. Mourinho is referring to the mistakes as "childish" and he's absolutely right. They're the kind of errors you've forgive children for making (or maybe not!), not millionaire, professional footballers. It's careless. Surely certain characteristics are ingrained into attack-minded players, hitting the target being one of them. It's another thing I don't get. Attackers who don't or can't finish. I don't really care how good somebody looks with the ball, football is about scoring goals. I can't blame City for the lack of competition. They're being professional and are taking their chances, and they will be deserved champions as a result of it. It's up to all of the other teams to compete and to play catch-up. From a United perspective, we don't even come close when it comes to composure, being clinical with our chances and keeping the ball.

We have so many players that just seem to lack footballing intelligence. Lukaku should have finished the night with three assists as Martial, Lingard and Mkhi all missed sitters. Poor finishing and decision making when it came to attacking play. We had a counter attack at the end of the game and the ball came to Rashford. Lukaku was busting his gut to get into space and Rashford doesn't play the pass. He then waits, holds onto the ball, waits some more and then passes it to Lukaku anyway, much later than he wanted it, and he's offside anyway by now! Just fucking stupid. Criminal performance. Should have battered them by four, five or even six goals. Instead, we drew 2-2. Also, not a fan of when managers take off players who have scored and are playing well during the last 15/20 minutes of a game. What is all that about? Surely if you've worked hard to get into a winning position, you don't take your best players off and change it. It just seems utterly stupid to me and I don't understand why managers do this. Mata was flying today and Lingard was playing well - bar the miss. All of this talk about game management is too hyped up. This won't be the last time this happens this season. We'll end up finishing third and be out of all competitions by February.

I'll be happy if this turns out to be true, as I almost bought Deus Ex the other day.

Man, I would have hit the roof had that been United playing tonight. Awfuuuuul defending from both sides. It just became a farce at the end with Liverpool's third goal. I'm not sure who has come off worse. Liverpool because they let a two-nil goal slip, or Arsenal because they managed to get into a winning position from being 2-0 down, but then threw it away by conceding again. Plus, they were at home.

Anybody watching Arsenal vs. Liverpool? It's brilliant. The game is literally "fuck defending" and there have been six goals, so far.

How is everyone getting on? I've been using Memrise a lot over the past week and am enjoying it. Long term plan is to mix that up with DuoLingo. My Dutch vocabulary is getting noticeably better and I'm pleased with the results that I've been seeing here. Italian has fallen completely by the wayside, so I'll need to get back on that when we get back to the UK as we have a trip to Italy planned for around Easter time.

It's quite simple really. There are just lots of other games to play, as well. Plus, the games from last year that a lot are still ploughing through. I'd say it's quite easy for games to get brushed aside or to become a part of a crowd.

I can't be too critical myself about the Japanese lifestyle because, due to my job, my hours are quite demanding and I often have to go home and carry on working, and on weekends, too. So, I can "get it" because I can see how easily work and home life can crossover easily and how it can be thoroughly draining. I can only imagine that this is amplified when it's applied to many more people or entire industries, let alone the country in general, where it's expected that you have to work long and demanding hours. It's a subject that I find interesting. We often have children that come to our school from China and Japan and their work ethic is just unreal. The expectations that the people put themselves under (or are forced to by their families) is just insane, really. I wonder if it's too ingrained in their culture for there to be a change, especially as we are living in a world where you have to be competitive to get ahead. As with that, there will continue to be a ripple effect and I guess one of those ripples is the decline of console sales due to the lack of free time. It's something I never thought I'd see when I was younger.

Yeah, I've read about the busy lifestyle/work culture that exists there and it does fascinate me. Not sure how that sort of lifestyle can be sustainable for the long term and the country must be rife with mental health issues.

We've done our whole Christmas meal and present giving already, as we're in Belgium visiting @Eenuh's family. This was one of the presents that I was given. I'm looking forward to utterly neglecting it until I get through the games that I was given last Christmas and when I decide to play something that isn't Overwatch.

Sad to see the decline of home consoles in Japan. I just wonder how the landscape of gaming is going to look within 10 years globally, but particularly with Japan.

Terrible performance from United tonight. Bristol City were well up for it and beat us to virtually every single ball or tackle in the game. We didn't compete. I couldn't work out if we were trying to play a back three or back four tonight and we looked all over the place in the last 15 minutes and for spells of the first half. You can't just blag your way into winning matches because "we're Man Utd" and these players are "superstars". There's no real resilience, confidence or determination in many of these players. The better team won tonight, and I hope they go on to win it.

I've just got back from seeing this. I'll need a second viewing to allow me to appreciate the film a bit more and to fully digest it all. My first impressions are that I am quite underwhelmed and that I felt it was a bit disappointing in many places. There were certain things that I liked, but ultimately a lot of energy was "wasted" in certain areas. The more I think about it, the more disappointed I feel. Definitely need a second viewing, but I'm in no rush to see it again. Just wondering whether this current conveyor belt of Star Wars films is hindering the series somewhat. This could have been better with a bit of tidying up and better editing. A bit more time in the oven and a few cuts to certain scenes here and there. Maybe.

Lovely bit of consistent refereeing on display today at the Etihad. If Pogba's challenge was a red card, then both Kane and Alli should have been dismissed today for tackles which, imo, were both worse than the one was sent off for. Both only received yellow cards. The lack of consistency across refereeing and across matches is what pisses me off. Both players will be available for the next lot of fixtures when they should be banned!

This is the definition of first world problems. Oh nooooo, how am I going to do ALL of these awesome sidequests? Oh shiiiit, there are two expansions that are just as big/large as most regular videogames. How am I going to find the time to do it alllll? I'm probably going to do another run through of this during the summer. Such a brilliant game. My favourite of all time.

I wasn't hugely confident going into that game and I feel roughly about the same now as I did beforehand. It's hard to see where City are going to drop points now and they're playing the best all-round football in the country, at the moment. Can't argue with the score line. But, what's clear to me is that our midfield needs more creativity to be able to compete with the likes of City. Pogba would've made a difference today, but it's dangerous to base an entire midfield around one person. We need more creativity in there to be able to get the ball to the strikers and to retain possession to enable us to build up attacks. City, at the moment, can break up attacks, retain the ball and build up the play better than United can, which is what is going to be the difference at the end of the season. In these sorts of games, you get punished for silly mistakes and you get punished for not taking your chances. Both happened today. We didn't get completely turned over and, on another day, we could potentially have taken a point as 1-2 is still only a difference of 1 goal. So, that's something. Still don't agree with how we approach the bigger games.

If Herrera was in good form, then I think we could get away with a draw. But, he's playing like absolute dogshit this season. We only really have Matic in there to act as a shield. He's the Reinhardt of our team. We'll struggle to get the ball off them. Herrera of last season and Matic would be the ball winners in midfield and then we would be able to counter. But, it's too much for Matic to do on his own. Fully expect it to be a struggle. Not fully convinced Pogba's red was a red. The more I watch it at full speed and in slow-mo, the more I question where/how exactly he's expected to plant his foot on the ground when the defender is essentially putting his leg on the spot where the foot would land naturally. He hasn't applied downward pressure for it to be a stamp. At the speed of the game, he would had to have lunged over the defender to plant his foot, which just isn't realistic. It's a tough one. It doesn't look pretty, but Bellerin has made it very awkward for Pogba to go anywhere.

Amazing game against Arsenal. Definitely the best game that I've seen this season. We could easily have lost this 3-1 instead of winning it. De Gea is the best keeper on the planet. Arsenal started off way too slow and didn't start playing until they were 2-0 down. After that, they played really, really well but couldn't make it past De Gea. Even then, both sides played excellent football. Only blemish for me is Pogba's sending off.

Episode 7 gets far too much hate. It's not the best episode, but it's not particularly terrible. The issue with it is that it's far too rushed and the content of the episode would have been better spread out over 2 and 3. It's almost like DLC, or a random sidequest. I didn't mind it all that much. Season 2 was just too, too good. We blitzed through it, loved it, and now want more. @Mr-Paul

I'm going to select two. The best game that I've played that has actually come out this year is Horizon: Zero Dawn. Lots of reasons really, including the combat and soundtrack. The story stood out for me. It contains an interesting premise and it just becomes more and more satisfying as it progresses. Looking forward to playing the DLC. My other game of the year is Overwatch. It wasn't released this year, but it's probably my favourite at the moment. Just waaaay to satisfying to play. When you change your character, it definitely does feel like you are playing a different game. The new, recent addition of Moira is also too good. Even when you have a bad match and play shit, it's still fucking good fun. Will hopefully still be playing it this time next year as the events help to keep it fresh and there are always changes and new additions being added to it.

I think you're really stretching there. As @Charlie mentioned, there isn't the "core" of English players there at City. The best players in the side are not the English ones, at least and the side isn't built around English players. (also, I'd argue that although Guardiola managed these sides, he didn't really "build" them, so to speak. The harder work and foundations were laid by previous managers) Aside from possibly up front (the striker position), I can't think of a single area where England have the better of Belgium. Their players are technically superior and their attacking and creative players are better. Can't think of a single English player who is even close to what De Bruyne can offer. The only hope that England have (which is also the same thing that the Belgians fear) is that Martinez will ruin them defensively whilst trying to play attractive football, which is a possibility. I want both teams to do well, but I'd be surprised if England progress further than Belgium.

On reflection, I'm really disappointed with the soundtrack and the lack of a Hans Zimmer-type of booming experience. It's really unmemorable and a bit dull. I felt that the characters had their theme tunes all sorted in Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, so Justice League felt like a bit of a step back from that. I found Superman's themes to be quite uplifting, hopeful and fitting in with the present time. It acted as a good contrast to Batman's music. Bit concerned about that's going to work for future films.

I'm trying to find consistency for exercise and it really just differs from week to week depending on how busy I am at the moment. Last week wasn't great, but the week before I managed to sneak in football and 3 lifting sessions. Still finding the balance. Quite enjoying doing lower/moderate weight and going for 10 reps. It's a killer when trying to overhead press for that amount of reps.

So, saw this yesterday on a spur of the moment kinda thing. Went in with really low expectations and have to say that I enjoyed it. Is it brainless? Yup, it sure is. Is the plot linear? Definitely. It's basically just one straightforward story and is relatively simple, but it kinda works with the running time. Is it too short? Most certainly. Will it change the way superhero movies work in the future? Nope. Is the dialogue a bit basic? Of course. It's just a decent 7.5 (possibly 8 for some) out of 10 film. I found the characters and the action to be enjoyable enough to get something out of the film. It works in the sense that you have all of these heroes in the same film together for the first time doing something together. There's a few moments of potential with some interplay between characters. So, I think with the right director and (more importantly) with the right writer, there could be a great sequel there. I like the actors and the characters. My main criticism is that the themes from Man of Steel and BvS kinda get discarded in this film. Man of Steel is still my favourite and is perhaps the most theme heavy of the series so far. All I'd want from a sequel is (aside from better writing and directing) more symbolism and a more deeper experience. But, for a "popcorn flick", I liked it. Just wish that it was a bit longer.

We saw the deals floating about for the Switch today and talked about getting one. In the end, the desire wasn't strong enough. I fear that we would just buy one for Mario, Zelda and then not play anything else on it.