The College Dropout

Absolutely nothing reedeeming about the man. Agbonlahor doesn't get any important jobs. Ferdinand & Owen know abit about their positions. Merson has a bit of personality. Murphy? Dour. Shit points. No insights. Doesn't know anything about being elite at anything. Another Liverpool guy. Zero banter. Why is he commentating on the FA Cup semi final? No chemistry with other pundits. Ugly. Not "slick" at presenting.

Agree with @timeEd32 We should get 11 points at a minimum. Any less and we've absolutely bottled it or suffered key injuries. The only way that isn't good enough for CL is perfection or near perfection from Liverpool, Spurs or Brighton. The only medium risk is us getting the minimum points and Liverpool being perfect. I keep saying it, we'll get 73-74 points and it will be comfy.

Aye. Even 4 points is good. They could win every game this season and not finish above us. 71 point should be our worst case scenario and we'll beat them on GD if that hapepens.

Murphy is one of the worst - his commentaryd during the Brighton game was unbearable. Sutton is awful. For such a great player Scholes is awful at communicating. Nearly everyone on Talksport is terrible with the exception of Darren Bent, Keown is ok too. Merson, Ferdinand, Redknapp and on his best day Owen - actually demonstrate at times, good knowledge of ball. I think it comes down being pretty good to great players in their day and just being comfortable on screen.

Glad Villa won. I want them to be confident and have something to play for when they go to Anfield.

Real Madrid getting pumped.

This guy has been ace.

Agree to disagree. Only thing I agree about is the LB being a higher priority. And I like Lascelles a lot. But I wouldn’t want to see him start 12 games next season. Although I would love him to captain the team while the CL music is playing behind him. Just so he always has that moment. He’s been a great leader for us. But that’s my sentimentality talking.

I watch the Podcast from time to time...... and they hate NUFC. JJ did a couple tactical pieces about us on the youtube.. and that's about it. Unless it's nerdy tactical stuff - they don't seem to care. We play a similar way 90% of the time and that's not interesting enough for them. I don't think any media outlet has spoken about what Howe has done with Pope, Schar, Burn, Joelinton, Longstaff, Willock & Murphy enough for my liking. Almiron's goal streak got him a lot of attention but the othere? Not nearly enough. Even Pope has played a level of both most expected. We play to his strengths / personality much more than Burnley did.

His contract is up in the summer. He got himself into a Harry Kane position with that long contract at like £150k. Zaha has spoken at length about wanting to try the big time again. The £200k makes sense. Even on a free transfer it's unlikely any other team will match that. For the wage he's on already - I still contend he's a sensible transfer for a top 6-8 club for a free transfer. Might end up at Spurs though.

Aye. But it’s possible. They have the talent and fixtures to do it. They won 8 out of 10 in their last terrible season. It’s entirely possible they do something similar again and end up 65-69 points. But I’m confident we hit 70-74 in any case. We could just as likely go unbeaten or only lose 1 for the remainder of the season. Our floor is their ceiling. Assuming the key lads stay fit.

Quietly got himself 4 assists. 2 more before the season is our will be a good return.

They can win 9 in a row. It’s just unlikely. 8 wins and 1 draw they can do. Perhaps 7 wins and 2 draws. With the fixtures we have, the form and the personnel available our floor should be their ceiling.

We can’t go into a CL campaign with Burn our second choice LB and second choice CB. I don’t even think he’s second choice RCB - Lascelles has that spot. New LB Burn Botman Schar Lascelles Trippier Ashby Is not good enough for the games we’ll have. An RCB isn’t as pressing as LB of course. But I’d be disappointed if we didn’t plug those gaps. We are similar to Arsenal. When they missed 2 or 3 (2 got injured in the same European game) the drop off is significant and has cost them crucial points. We’ve been so fortunate to not miss any for the entire season.

We always needed 4-6 from the next two games imo.

I'd consider Schar the more aggressive player. He's more likely to follow the attacker deep into their own half like he did on Son for Isak's first goal. That was a good tactical bit by Howe. Also - I don't think Botman is significantly faster than Schar. Our entire backline is pretty slow.

Eventually we'll need some pace at CB and we really need someone better than Lascelles. IMO we have to buy someone that can realistically take Schar's place. A CL level team needs 3 first choice CB's.

Issue with Rice is the wages. He'll be lookin for £250k+ - Chelsea, Man U type money. Caicedo or Lavia are more proper DMs but both progress play well. The fees might be similar but the wages will be £20-25m cheaper over 4 years. Rice would break the transfer ceiling and change the entire dynamic of the dressing room. He's a genuine PL superstar. Lavia would be a middle earner and Caicedo probably wouldn't be the highest earner.

Teams are targeting the space Trippier leaves in behind too.

Botman has made more mistakes and is far less exposed than Schar. Burn is usually close-by for Botman. Schar has also been a difference maker with the ball. Schar seems to be the leader of the pair.

Aye that was poor. Cost me a mega haul on FPL too. But he's often in that position 1v1 with an attacker. And deals with it 9 times out of 10. Botman isn't often in that position as Burn is close by.

Schar has been better than Botman defensively and Schar is far more exposed.

That starting back 4 was crazy from the outside. 2 wingers come wingbacks at fullback. Dier & Romero CB partnership. Absolutely awful on paper.

Villa are in that space we were towards the end of last season. they just want to finish the season strongly. Europe is a motivator but even without it, they would want to finish on a high and carry momentum into next season. They are ambitious as well so players know they're being assessed for improvements.

Should've given it Harry.