midds

He's been dropped. The gormless shithouse

Didn't play particularly badly but that lack of cutting edge has cost us another 2 points. We should have won that but simply didn't play well enough to make sure the ridiculous goals conceded didn't matter. If we're 3 or 4 up then his spunky (shinned) overhead dribble into the corner doesn't even matter. The fact it cost us 2 points is beyond infuriating but it's largely our own fault. Main takeaway is we have to turn pressure into goals and that's not happening enough. Our mistakes are really costly as a result, needs fixing once Wissa is back in and fit

Only thing to worry about here is Kudus and a sucker-punch. They don't look great at all but while it's still 0-0 then there's a chance of getting caught out with a soft one at the other end

No reason why we shouldn't beat that Spurs XI mind, there's obviously some good players in there but not sure that unit looks too frightening tonight

I can still shut me eyes and hear the noise of that connection to this day. Like a bomb going off, he just fucking smashed it through space, great goal

Obviously overcompensating to try and hide his clear dodgy side. Projection and pointing the finger at the people who are highlighting the sketchy stuff he's clearly involved in, none more so than today. Bloke is a shithouse and it wouldn't surprise me at all if we eventually find out that the red today was the last big payoff

Xhaka is on 4 yellows with Liverpool A followed by City A. He's 100% getting booked at Anfield so he can sit out City and be available for the derby. This will happen. Liverpool win, Isak goal, Xhaka yellow, price it up and get a tenner on it

Mixture of Berbatov and Kanu for me - epitome of the whole 'good feet for a big man' type of striker

In hindsight the blooding he got 2 years ago looks like a blessing in disguise now. Howe had no option but to throw him into the first team and he's now looking like the CM we all hoped he could be, he's developing nicely and looks so calm and unflustered when he steps in and no-one is worried about him drowning under the pressure of big games or filling in for Tonali or Bruno or whatever. The players trust him with the ball and that's the biggest positive I can think of, they see how good he is every day and he's slotted into this group of full Internationals and doesn't look out of place in any way

That's decided it - another 2 hour hatewatch lies ahead

Got it right Made the big calls, dropped a few and he's obviously put a rocket up them this week. Massively improved performance and 1-4 didn't flatter us at all,it could have been more. Credit to the players for raising the levels but credit to Howe also for changing the personnel and making it work, needed to be ruthless and was and got the rewards

Ridiculous improvement on the utter shite they've served up recently. Executed the basics and looked dangerous all night, the early goal helped obviously but we've been in similar positions recently and completely fucked it but getting the second relaxed us and we popped out about really well at times. Everton away isn't an easy fixture so it's an excellent 3 points tbh. Don't think anyone played poorly but mentions to Miley, Bruno, Hall and Thiaw. We needed to see a reaction and we absolutely did. Fair play to Howe, he dropped who he needed to drop and it showed. Great performance but we need to keep this going now

This is much more like it, there's accurate passing, enthusiasm, movement, first touches seem better, we're committing bodies forward and opening them up without difficulty. Not going to get the tissues out just yet but it's been really encouraging that

De ja vu feeling reading out the 'new' team, thinking "surely it's got to click soon??" Even doing the basics consistently well will be an improvement on the last half a dozen aways

Could and should be joint 3rd in the whole table with just 3 games to go. Still fucking furious about last night, it was right there in the palm of our fucking hands man

Fair play, she's game as a badger

I think a lot of the frustration stems from the fact that a lot of the negatives of this season seem very much self-inflicted. We're our own worst enemy in many ways. This constant pattern of starting well, going ahead and then (sub)consciously letting the intensity drop , sitting off and letting the opposition we're leading have the ball - which gives them confidence and a foothold in the game which inevitably leads to an equaliser is fucking painful to watch. We're not executing any of the basics of the game well enough either. I'm talking about passing, movement, communication, dwelling on the ball, crossing, set-piece delivery, playing the ball to players under pressure, getting dispossessed, bad touches, shit throws, poor corners it's basically the basic stuff that professional footballers need to be at least competent at. I'm not expecting Ronaldinho dribbles beating 5, I'm not expecting glorious 70 yard raker passes on the diag, I'm talking about basic skills that simply aren't being executed well enough across the entire pitch Mental mistakes are also killing us. The amount of soft goals we concede is embarrassing, we're carved open with a single simple pass, horrendous keeping mistake, ridiculous og, caught in possession leading to a simple finish etc. Opposition don't even need to do anything spectacular, just take advantage of the dogshit play and score with ease. Genuinely worry Howe will get sacked because his players simply can't do the basics - he's responsible at the end of the day but his players are often fucking shocking and putting him in danger

It's even worse - he doesn't care imo. Not remotely interested in getting involved, watches and waits for the ball come to him like a 10 year old then throws his arms around when someone else gets there first. This cunt's already checked out mentally imo, can't even be fucked to go through the motions

Stick him on the bench until Easter minimum, he's been great at times but these braindead rushes of blood are fucking killing us in big games. He's got to take at least 60% of the blame for that tonight - 20 seconds into a hugely important half of CL football that has automatic qualification riding on it and he does that? A strong manager benches him and let's him stew on it for a long while, he's got to better than that, shocking mental mistake that completely swung the pendulum their way immediately. Horrific keeping and needs a reaction from Howe tbh, it was that bad

Not only does he look poor, he looks completely disinterested and that's even worse. Trying like fuck and it not happening is acceptable, not looking like he gives a tenth of a fuck is something else totally. I'd honestly list him in January and see who fancies him - not fucking many would be my guess. He's offering us nothing regardless of where he starts, he's a disengaged fucking waster atm

Absolute pigshit performance. They wanted it more, played better and fully deserved it. Fucking livid with the team unable or unwilling to just execute the basics of the game. That's 3 points fucked straight in the fucking bin towards CL qualification because of thick, incompetent football. 9pm we're looking solid, 9.10pm and we're chasing a losing cause, fucking sick of watching the same shit from this team

At least get Gordon off so we can play with 11 ffs. De Zerbi has fired them up and we've utterly crumbled and struggling all over the park now. Totally unprofessional from so many yet again tonight

This has been about as unprofessional, sloppy and substandard as it's possible to get at this level. Thrown the position away and now we're hanging on hoping they don't get a third. I fucking hate watching us this season, it's the same story every fucking time

Get fucked man. 4 mins and position completely thrown away. So fucking Newcastle man