midds

Big B for me. Developing really well and he's going to get even better, injuries permitting, as he truly learns the position, that comes with experience. Could well become an exceptional LB in the next few years

Don't have much time for Arteta but the interviewer was looking for a bite, rather than an answer, towards the end of that. He's a prick but the interviewer was almost goading him tbph

Agree with the general consensus tbh. He's a tough one to rate as he's barely featured which leads to a few awkward questions about why he was signed if the manager doesn't really trust him to give him any meaningful minutes? Could that money have been used elsewhere? How is he expected to improve if he's not given time on the pitch to make mistakes and learn from them? etc He's not been helped by the fact he's understudy to one of the best strikers in the world, cant really blame Howe for starting Isak whenever he's fit. Why would you choose to not pick Isak if he's fit? He's got a world class CF in the squad and we only play with 1 CF, of course he's going to start. We've also been in the unenviable position of having every single game having something huge riding on it, whether it's been getting 3 points towards CL or trying to get to Wembley, virtually every single fixture has been huge for months now. The only exceptions have been the cup games mentioned. He's got to be an E atm but I do think he has enough to become a C in the next few years, possibly a B?

Facepalm all you like, I expected all 3 to drop points today and all 3 of them found a way to win. The chances of us getting top 5 went down as a result of those 3 results today, I'm not saying we won't get there but all 3 of them picking up wins when we've looked really dodgy recently doesn't exactly bode well. The competition for the last 2 places all won, we're going to West Ham needing to win to keep us in the picture, our remaining fixtures aren't great and we're chasing teams who keep on winning

Forest, Villa and Brighton winning feels very much like 3 daggers directly into the heart today. I think we may be just about done unfortunately

D+ for me. Perfectly capable and competent when called on but doesn't really offer much more than that. Solid player to bring in to cover for a few games, textbook definition of a squad player

Fantastic player, complete CF for me. Easiest A I'll ever dish out

Played his best football while on loan and making it permanent plus injuries have kind of stunted his career unfortunately. He's nothing more than a D now but I think people forget how good he was initially. Seems like a nice enough bloke though, do feel a bit sorry for him

Top end of a C for me. Still get the feeling he hasn't really got going at this club yet, he needs a good run in the team but he's got competition for LW obviously and picked up injuries at bad times

Pretty solid B but he's probably closer to a C than an A in all honesty. He can be brilliant but hasn't produced it enough this season really

He's not physically able to be anything other than an E now. That's not to say he hasn't contributed in the past or he's always been shit, at one point he was probably a B but those days are long gone. I need a fucking E to just cope with watching the cunt tbh

No idea. Literally

My point is that he inherited a shit show and he's had to work with lots of it whilst still being expected to deliver consistently. I've been a bit critical of him for being a bit 'samey' and not mixing things up but the club, as a whole, has had to be built from the ground up. He inherited a literal pile of rubble and he's been expected to turn it into a pyramid by some

Still think that many have forgotten what was actually bought in the takeover. It was a shell, a complete husk of a club. It had a shit manager, zero coaches of any standing, zero scouting network, no reserve team and zero coming through the youth set up. The squad had virtually zero value, no player was worth anything and there was no obvious 'sell them immediately and use the money to invest', there was nothing and no-one of any value. The entire entity had been deliberately hollowed out for the previous decade. To go from (literally) nothing to CL in 3 years should have been nothing more than a pipedream. Howe's got his faults and if people want to criticise then that's fair enough, I have in the past but he's built this squad from fucking scratch. He had zero foothold from day 1 and nothing to work with. He's far from perfect and he makes mistakes but just cast your mind back 4 years and look at what he inherited ffs

Mins 68 Shots 1 On target 0 Accurate passes 2/4 Chances created 0 xG 0.15 Touches 9 Touches in oppo box 1 Successful dribbles 0/2 Duels won 1 Duels lost 4 He clearly had a poor game today but that's also 18 without a goal now. I know he's young and still adapting but....

Just a rush of blood to the head, bit of frustration and a bit of an overreaction from the Brighton lad but he was always going to walk for that imo. You can't do that and expect to get away with it. He's not a robot but he's now going to miss out on a Cup Final at Wembley against his boyh.....

He didn't miss them as such. He stubbornly refused to show them

Difficult to begrudge Brighton the win tbh. They looked sharp, quick, organised and made far fewer mistakes than we did. We could easily have won it too, we had chances but so did they. They're streetwise and know exactly what they're doing, they may be cucks for the Sky 6 but they're a good, solid unit and they're in brilliant form

That, ladies and gentlemen, is known as season-killer of a game. Mentally and physically that will be fucking brutal on them all, such a shit way to throw it away too. Throw in the Gordon red and potential Isak injury and that could be that. What a fucking awful day

This is like Rocky 2

Willock - E

He's an A imo. He's exceptional and he's going to get even better too. We only have a couple of As in the squad tbh but he's definitely one of them, probably only a couple of CMs in the league I'd swap him for, he's got the lot

The main takeaway from this thread is that if we look at each player as an individual then there are some pretty flawed players in the squad. Genuine quality is pretty thin on the ground as we can see from the (very honest) ratings we've given each player so far. Given how bereft the squad is of top quality it makes the job Howe has done even better. He's got this squad of C's and D's into CL contention, 2 Finals in 3 years and a good chance of another QF in the other cup. The collective is clearly far greater than the sum of it's parts and that's credit to Howe

Yeah, something like that. It was extremely convenient for Real. Village Idiot is the one to ask tbh

Aye the local government/council have been very cooperative with the club in the past. A new training ground rings a bell and land sold off to pay for it? Some sketchy shit definitely