The College Dropout

Finish the story. Where did Madrid finish in that group stage and what did they do in the competition? Last season Man City failed to make it to the last 16 for the first time in how many years?

The Kroos - Modric era was truly generational. Everyone they have in CM is a good player. Maybe even top. But not generational like those boys. Valverde at RB wtf is this shit? Play Trent.

Give Don Carlo all these new pieces and he does a better job than this tonight. Every time I watch Real they look shit.

Ok bring him in then.

I would be ok for him to get a run of games just to put the debate to sleep.

Been a fan of him. Had him in my FPL all season. For me he’s a CL level player. In a better team he gets a lot more assists. I don’t think he’s a world beater or owt. But he’s got enough about him technically, physically and mentally to play for a team like ours and add value. He’s relatively new to top level football too. Similar to Semenyo in that he’s still developing quickly despite being in his mid 20’s.

what do you think we are trying to transition to?

It doesn’t have to be one or the other. There’s usually a committee with veto powers. Howe shouldn’t have players forced on him. Likewise he shouldn’t be able to sign any player he alone fancies. He seemed to work ok with Ashworth for new signings. They had some tension about Joenlintons contract but tension is fine and healthy. The Joelinton decision was always going to have pros and cons.

We shouldn’t sign players who are so lacking technically just because Howe rates them. Not for that money.

We aren't even that good at home. We just have more quality than most opposition to get a win over the line with the crowd behind us.

I hope it's confidence. He did one 6 yard pass to Tonali, shanked it shin height to him. I just can't with him.

We can't sign players with such low technical base though. Not for this money. His touch, passing, dribbling is considerably worse than Gordon and Barnes from what we've seen. He looks by far the worst of all the wingers signed by clubs looking to push. We've signed lads for £8m with pace and aggressive attacking intent. Again to much emphasis on a low block. His a poor first touch, short pass, vision, delivery, finish from what we've seen so far.

People are over emphasising the low block thing imo. It's just ability and quality. He struggles to show quality. His delivery is more miss than hit. And 1v1 against a fullback, he's poor. Doesn't find good passes. This is just footballing ability.

Who? And can pay him £125k-200k p/w Pray for Juventus

He's going to need decent league numbers for Man U to buy him. Maybe Chelsea can be fooled. Otherwise it's £40m-£55m from West Ham

Howe will be given another season regardless imo. But his influence on the transfers should wane (regardless). We should build a squad that Howe can work with but also a squad another top manager could work with. We shouldn’t have spent £130m on wingers of this profile. We should’ve signed more than 2 proper CMs in this time.

Considerably less output than Barnes in the league since the start of last season in what is surely way more minutes too. Less G/A than Minteh, Murphy etc. Ive been letting him off as I don’t rate him that highly for so long as my own bias. But he really doesn’t do enough. We need serious conversations about this guy.

You’re right it was

76 league games - 17 goals -15 assists is it? And that's giving him the first half year for free.

Did those 2 come in the same game? He got sent off last season against Brighton

So 1 league goal in 2025 - how many assists in the league?

I think they are v. different types of players but might end up in the same position. Rashford's whole game is too predicated on his technical ability. Rashford wants the ball to feet, beat a man and finish. He has to be a confident player to pull that off and when he can't he's got nowt else. Rashford is quick but he doesn't make great off ball runs, back post tap-ins etc. Gordon is the opposite. His game is all about trying to get in behind, off the ball etc. Where they are similar is their poor games come with being lazy.

Is this true?

Think I disagree. The problem is that he is looking like a very limited PL footballer. We hope Howe will be able to make him effective. But his limitation will be his ability. The touch, short passes, his control it’s looking super bad.