The College Dropout

While we did have issues breaking teams down. How many times did we fail to score last season in the league vs this season? A lot of that is down to the quality we lost with Isak. Our strikers need to score 13 between them to equal Isak's output. You would hope £120m strike force would be good for 25-30 PL goals a season tbh

The backup is Tino though. And that was always a massive risk that has also become an issue.

We won’t see it but double pivot Bruno and Miley. Wolte behind Wissa. Pick your wingers. I’d like to see it and is our best bet going forward imo

Give him a good player and see if he doesn’t play him. There is every chance Howe ‘fails’ in the eyes of many this season. If the club provide him 2 talented players on loan that Howe refuses to use, I would be a lot less sympathetic to how the season unfolds. But also I don’t think Howe should dictate transfer policy.

Im just not buying that we can’t sign anyone on loan that can’t add value to this team within 5 months. Thats essentially what you’re telling me - we are so special and unique that any loan player we sign will offer little so the entire idea does not work for us.

I don't think this is really true. Pope, Botman, Thiaw, Burn, Trippier, Isak all into the first team and immediately contributing. And most of those came into winning teams with players in good form. That isn't the situation here. Tonali, even Bruno and Gordon joined winning teams with players performing well. If players come in and perform - they'll start and get good minutes.

But there’s an upside. There’s no upside from doing what we are doing now. Not taking a risk is also a risk.

You just need players that will help you win matches right now. Thats going to be worth money itself. I don’t think Jadon Sancho was a great loan. But he’s starting games so Villa dont need to persist with a transfer that didn’t work out. Howe only trusts about 17 players. Thats not enough.

Aye if we sell Elanga next season we make a PSR loss. But let’s be honest. His £11m amortisation when playing has been bad value for money anyway so what does it matter? If we sign a loan player that helps us win games, our revenues increase and it’s worth the money.

It’s not fine mind. We’ll have £22m amortised for little value and just removed the remaining liability. Thats the same as paying £11m loan fee for a season. The PSR impact is entirely known and you have a good indication of how much you can afford.

I want to resist the urge to talk about Villa. But their loans last season gave them a shot at CL football down to the last day of the season and helped them run deep into 2 cups. They also have loan players now in the squad - 1 started yesterday. Villa seem more willing to be flexible and take risks and find workarounds in the transfer market and their general approach to PSR. We are overly risk averse and inflexible imo. We need at least 2 bodies this window and won’t get them. A defender (left back) and an attacker/creative midfielder.

I’ve said similar on here. There’s a major mental aspect to injury prevention.

Front 3 spread wide as hell. 8s pushed all the way up. Yesterday we kept giving it away and giving Villa opportunities on the counter. And while it got better in the second half we ended up looking even less dangerous. Rarely any players in the middle to interplay. It’s the opposite approach to Villa or always get numbers in centrally.

Bruno is great at 6 and 8. At the 6 we are more vulnerable on transition but better at deep build up. I don’t think deep build up is a major issue mind. And I don’t get this idea that Tonali should play LCM either. that’s Joelinton’s position. I think we need to be more willing to change formation entirely.

I really don't think it's coachable. It's not coaching that has someone scoring 50 goals in 2 seasons. When it is coaching - it's usually pretty straightforward. Carlo said to DCL - forget running the flanks. Make sure you are in the 6-yard box when the ball is played in, 1-2 touch finishes, that's it and DCL moved up a couple levels. Wissa has also shown he can finish and score big chances at Brentford. But perhaps he needs to learn his team mates more.

I think we need a double-pivot and nick playing off Wissa. In the current setup it's Bruno & Joelinton's team. So it's Miley at the central deepest role for games we need to break teams down in.

I think we need earleir subs when winning aye. But we didn't strengthen well in the summer and at some point we would be flogging Bruno G, Livramento, Tonali etc. We spent £45m on some kind of CM that can't lace Bruno's boots. Ramsey is a tidy footballer. He has actual ability sure. But he offers nowt and starting him over Bruno or Joelinton (atm) makes us winning less likely. That's poor business.

A lot will depend on how many games we play in cups. If we are out of all them come the end of Feb we'll have 3 months of 1 game a week which will help a lot.

Last summer proved we need different people leading on transfers. The transfers weren’t fit for purpose at all.

I do agree that the system now suits few of our players.

Aye his pressing is surprisingly bad. But that will get better over time.

Osula’s a better dribbler and has a shot on him.

At some point he’s got to come off the bench and impact a game for real. Beating a man and playing one nice cross isn’t enough man.

I don’t get the logic of playing Villa with 2 of our most important players missing. Trying to win a football match against 3rd in the league - we play the best team we can.

True. But we don’t have the squad to rotate and still win football matches at this level. We are not alone - I think only Chelsea of the 6 English CL teams won in the CL and in the league this week. Everyone apart from Spurs lost one and they drew to a team that will get relegated.