The College Dropout

Watkins is terrorising us. Their wide players are coming in narrow and are so much faster than our back line. It’s killing us.

We’ve been second best.

Villa been over performing their expected stats. They are full of confidence and a good team… but not as good as their form suggests.

The OTT defence of him is weird. It was unprofessional and stupid. But ultimately not a big deal. He needs to have apologised with Eddie and move on. He should start at the weekend.

If Miggy / another wide player is going to score 6 in 9 again - aye he won't be missed much. The likelihood of that happening isn't very high though is it? In that run Miggy was over performing his Xg significantly. While ASM - this season and throughout his time at Newcastle is a frequent source of chance creation. Creating 2 of our opening goals in the last 3 games. His expected assists per game is only bettered by Trippier in our team. I will never understand why people are so keen to downplay him. We stormed the last 10 games of last season without Trippier - he's still critical to us though.

Yes. From the players that get regular minutes it's only Burn, Murphy and one of Joelinton, Willock & Longstaff, one of Almiron or Gordon that we could absorb an injury too without significant impact. The rest of the defence + Pope, Bruno, Wilson, Isak, ASM - there's no decent replacement. There's a massive drop in quality when these are out.

Nah I think ASM is crucial. No other player is anywhere close to being as creative as ASM. Not even close. It's borne out in the stats. Our downturn in form coincided with him and Isak being out the team and our uptick when they came back.

Laporte is the one with the least minutes. Don't know if he's injured. Ake would be a brilliant addition but he seems to haved moved damn near to the top of the pile at City.

Their last 4 games are just so easy man. Maybe West Ham or Bournemouth will have something to play for but they are not good teams. Their next 4 are tricky given the injuries. If they lose a couple perhaps i'll be more interested in them. If Maxi is back in full training next week and everyone else stays fit - we should finish 3rd.

Is Targett good in the air? I always thought Targett was susceptible to pace in defence himself (but not to the extent of Burn).

Zinchenko's been brilliant whenever I've seen him for Arsenal. He is very suspect defensively though and when Arsenal are up against it defending a lead - they need to take him out earlier or just move him into midfield. He was getting ripped in the wide spaces against Liverpool.

I like the idea of a left-back that's good defensively and in the air and can distribute from the back. I would welcome a better Dan Burn.

Fair. I think Maddison will have to adapt his game wherever he goes though with the possible exception of Spurs. Unless he wants to move to West Ham or Villa.

I don't think they'll go for him. But Thiago is also not a typical Klopp player.

Dislike the Tierney links. Lad can't stay fit. People are mad that ASM has missed games this season. Tierney has had 4 seasons like that. Yet people want him in, why is that? We are talking a lot about Rice & Bellingham because we've all watched them play actively. I don't think they are serious targets. A player like Kephram Thuram - never seen him play in my life.

Every Isak, Botman, Bruno, Pope level transfer is a game changer.

The Martinez one is brutal. Man Utd have such easy fixtures I would’ve preferred the squad to stay healthy. It’s Kane that could really do with a 5 match injury. Nothing long term or major.

Did City sign Aguero, Silva and Toure in the same window? I think most teams can only handle 3 new players going straight into a team regularly. I would look for a LB, CM, and attacker to come straight in to the team. With another 2/3 that can bed in or be rotated.

Tbf we need them to concentrate on Spurs when it comes around. Didn’t know Tony Bloom also owns the Belgium club in the Europa League. He really knows how to run a football club man.

Agree with everything except the bolded. We need Pope, Trippier type signings of getting great players who suddenly become available at knockdown prices (Maddison or Barnes fall into this bracket potentially). And the Isak, Botman, Bruno CL-level at young age maybe a little unproven in the major leagues (Diaby, midfielder Thuram). And we need more 16-21 year-olds (Lavia and such). With the possible exception of Maddison, i don't think any of these profiles would demand £200k+ p/w.

Need Harry Kane's ankle tapped to get me back to an 8.

This not true at all. Joelinton at CM is great physically but no great shakes on the ball.

Fair. If they replicate that again they'll be in the mix. Our H2H is crucial. If we win that, we just need to hold our form. Again, gutted ASM is out.

Gone from an 8 to a 7 with the ASM injury.

I hate this combo against weaker teams. That's what we were doing in our sticky patch. Barely created anything.