80

It was a weird period when Given left, and I was suckered into thinking he'd done the dirty on us for a little while. Realised eventually we - NUFC - were a pack of cunts and anyone decent should be kept well away from us, though. Was depressing watching others do the 'greedy cunt' routine for player after player for years to come, though. Pope's the better keeper though, by a distance. Given was a brilliant reflex keeper but lacked a lot, in truth. There were a number of times in the earlier years where I wanted Harper to be given more of a go.

Got to be careful not to expect too much from him for months to come, but have to admit I'm imagining him getting back to his best eventually. Will be an absolute gutter if he's lost anything long term.

I think there's a lot in everything you said in your post. On a related note, I think having both Willock and Gordon fit creates an interesting situation. Not necessarily a bad one, but interesting as they've been in the same squad for nearly two years, but they've barely played together really. Gordon came and made LW his own on merit while there happened to be zero competition, but I think both him and Willock require Joelinton alongside them to make their games work, so having them both playing in their natural positions isn't really an option. Obviously, Gordon on RW keeps things rosy for the time being. Maybe that makes the case for signing a RW for the long term rather than immediate impact.

Well, my prediction is if he breaks down again this week, we'll be back to pretty much how we were - unless we try and take some lessons from it, like moving Bruno higher up the pitch, keeping Joelinton wide etc, which might mitigate it. But we still wouldn't have that energy and ball progression in the centre of the park, someone who naturally becomes a second central threat - he was our furthest forward player at the moment Gordon crossed on Saturday. There's a good chance we'll end up as an offensive horseshoe again, spread around the perimeter of the opposing 18 yard box. So in that sense I think we're pretty reliant on having someone of his type - I'd say the closest we have to it in our squad is Gordon, who has played CM before, but isn't focused on it. Either that or strengthening another area so we don't need quite so much from the centre i.e. RW.

Great stats. He's been a massive miss. We should be working to make ourselves less reliant upon him, though, either through tactics or personnel.

I think he should've pushed back more to be honest. He looked like an embarrassed, nice bloke. After the stuff about giving English fans the cold shoulder he probably should've given him a verbal slap in Portuguese.

I'm inclined to agree, and if it was a cup final I'd say to do it, but I can see the sense in rewarding Longstaff for squad morale reasons plus not wanting to interfere with the chemistry of something that's only just started working well. A bit like us not immediately dropping Bruno in when we first signed him. Also, Longstaff just genuinely looked like his old self for the first time in ages. If we can somehow get him back to being a competent, contributive footballer on regular basis then that's going to be helpful to us, either as a squad member or a transfer fee.

...And as I found after Heron helpfully did the work showing the games and minutes Longstaff and Tonali had played in, 7 of the points in that unbeaten period came from us turning around losses and draws after Longstaff had been subbed off the pitch.

I think mental is too strong a word, but I think it's right for him to start the next one. I don't accept we're clearly a better side when he's involved. I think it's possible, but there's nowhere near enough evidence to claim it, and he's also been front and centre of some of our worst performances for the past 12 months. Furthermore, it would be a really bad sign if we were better with him as it would indicate Tonali's been a catastrophic signing. Before anyone says it, there's no way we signed him to be a £60m Longstaff backup.

Aye, but genuinely he didn't originally especially care which of them was on the right as long as it was one of them and not Miggy or Murphy. After that it was just a debate over the finer points. I remember because bleating about our RW and the crapness of our attack was a lonely place until a few weeks ago

What an absolute twat.

Absolutely. They're shaping up to be a lethal trio.

I think Schar's been going a bit superman for us this season. Thinking he's the one to dig us out of trouble etc. Lots of positives to it but it goes to his head a bit at times.

Yep, it's a farce.

Oh that's not Kaka having a hissy fit. His fits are much more hissy. He just thought it was better keeping Gordon left and Barnes right - which I tended to agree with at the time, with the Willock option not yet existing.

If that's really the case then that's great to hear and quite a relief. He doesn't seem unprofessional in the slightest, but that doesn't mean a player can't feel dejected. It still means there are a couple of problems to solve, as @TRon indicates above, but if he's happy enough it'll take a big issue off the table.

It does change the picture slightly, but I don't think we're able to rely upon Willock playing out the rest of the season as it stands. If we lose him again, we're probably back to square one. An interesting idea is whether Gordon could play his role in CM at a push... They're not that dramatically different as players. One thing I do think is this has been a very bad week for Harvey Barnes. It's becoming harder and harder for him to find his spot in the first XI, which I'm sure is where he wants to be.

Heron I'm so sorry to hear that. Hardly know what to say. I hope you and everyone are bearing up.

Yeah, for the first time in a long time we've a) performed well b) got the results, and c) achieved them in replicable ways, rather than 30 yard shots, unforced mistakes or throwing the kitchen sink.

Yeah, I didn't say, but £125m was what I had in my mind. If they don't fancy that, that's fine as I'd like to keep him.

I could see that to be honest, though it would have to be silly money. But if there's one club that has silly money, it's them. Hall I would have down as priceless.

I don't mean this in a bad way, but this must be Mitchell's - or any sports director's - wet dream. Bodes so well.

Nah, it was pitch perfect. Not straightforward, the pacing, smoothness and end destination of it gave Gordon the best opportunity to do something special. I doubt he could easily repeat it, mind.

I agree with most of your post, I'm no fan of supporters who think they win points if they manage to groan before a player makes a mistake, they're idiots. But Pope is a decent enough counter example (Burn is even better). There's no doubt he hears negativity, and he looks like he's feels it internally, but he focuses and has the willpower to keep trying to do the hard things like racing out of his box. It'd be easier to stay on his line, he's far less likely to get dog's abuse and smashed in the press that way, but he doesn't, and respect to him for that. With Longstaff though, it seems like if he's given 50,000 cheers and one boo, that boo will cut through to him, which isn't really viable long term. I honestly wouldn't be too surprised if he'd also thrive somewhere else like Forest - maybe their boos would feel less close to home because he never fantasized about playing for them as a kid, and he'd deal with it better.