80

Gonna be one of the spawniest GOTMs ever of he gets it

Beware models.

It's the way he says it. Joe Kinnear is what it reminded me of. Wouldn't be stunned to hear similar news about him in 5 or so years... Not taking any joy in that, but compare him with Bobby Robson when he was 68 in 2001.

Already completed this level against West Ham the other week

Looks like he's developed a bit of a tremor.

A game for the Wilson Isak combo to smash them back on their arses.

Yeah I thought so too - looked like he only had the shot in his mind.

That was the biggest mistake Gordon made yesterday. Not holding it against him, but yes, either through making a poor choice or lacking awareness, it was a big error. Sure Eddie will be highlighting it in his post match one to one.

Yes, I can see his position evolving across his career.

Iirc Howe had him on an extra fitness regime to get him up to speed back in February. Not sure if that's ongoing etc.

Just on the stamina note, he'll still have an Everton hangover from that. His conditioning will have been at the same levels as the team we faced the other night, who had only one half of football in them before falling apart when trying to keep up with us.

Blatantly done that scenario on the training pitch a million times. As the saying goes, make your drills bloodless battles and your battles bloody drills.

Relentlessly positive, I like it

Not saying it's especially rational. Partly one of those 'TOO confident' vibes. But it does look like Longstaff is very key to our more traditional approach working. IF he isn't playing, I worry about us getting sliced up. Unlike Southampton, Arsenal do know the right decisions to make. Probably my nerves making me forget how crumbly Arsenal can be. But we also shouldn't forget what a hell of a game they gave us in January either.

I was feeling very good about this, but not so much after yesterday. Maybe it's the Longstaff factor. I can't really see us losing it either though. A hard fought 1-1 feels plausible. Would be another step towards success for us.

Oh, I'll take that deal...

Basically, yesterday was a Rorschach test.

I've done quite a lot of mental twisting looking at that, but just can't see it unfortunately!

Small thing but showed great leadership in his response after his first goal, keeping purposeful and ushering everyone back to start the game again asap.

Yes, all of it.

I also think he'd benefit from having a modern fullback behind him.

Well this was a divisive performance... To me he has confidence issues, sometimes meaning he plays safe or fails to let his legs go and be more ambitious. And sometimes meaning he looks too relaxed on the ball, which I interpret as overcompensation. I liked a fair bit of what he did, but it doesn't feel like he matches the rest of our team right now. I would guess he was partly hooked as Isak works better out left than right. For the foreseeable, I can't believe Howe and co. don't have a sound end vision for him, though.

Was the Anthony Gordon show for the first half hour. For both good and bad reasons. Needs coaching on his decision making.

Very much assuming Murphy is back in Isak. Don't think it's necessary but tempting to have both Wilson and Isak start today... Could run up a cricket score.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/apr/28/bristol-city-alex-scott-transfer-target-elite-efl-young-player-year-jack-grealish Posting seeing as there's been talk about us getting him.