80

I think that's massively unfair.

Always feels like he's playing for his future at this club. I honestly think he wants to stay as much as we want him to. It just needs to be viable for the club's finances and his career.

He comes on with the intention to do harm. Exactly what we need right now.

Him replacing Botman has been of massive benefit to our defence. Says as much about Botman playing like he's been gelded since his initial ACL, but still, full marks to Burn.

I wasn't optimistic for him today after him talking about Antonee Robinson being his toughest opponent last season. He's the kind of guy who can lose a game in his head before he's on the pitch. Still value him as part of our team, mind.

Well, I'll take that as a mixed blessing if he's been playing while never feeling right...

The injuries have been the story of his season to be fair to him. Just hope he comes back stronger after the summer off. I doubt we'd get anywhere near his potential value any time soon.

Not good today. Seemed to be playing within himself in every way. Schar didn't look impressed with him when he went down towards the end of the game...

Need to go back to Howe's remedial training sessions from late 2021 on off the ball movement.

No comment on Sancho but I love the idea of Howe taking someone who used to be the next big thing and renovating them into the real deal. I'm sure he could do what he's done for Joelinton et al for others if they're committed enough to invest in themselves.

Believe the idea is we're releasing all the older players we don't think will make the grade, to create space for more promising 18 year olds in the under 21s. But it doesn't necessarily mean he isn't the best choice for putting out on the pitch today as we speak.

Just gonna watch this and (hopefully) enjoy it. Not too bothered about the result. It's more about learning lessons now for the rest of this season. Hope we're better than we were in the cup fixture.

The club should think about providing complimentary guards during games and trips. Or at least facilitating the players hiring them. This is getting out of hand.

Hopefully so. Still think the whole thing has been weird, would like to find out what was the situation one day. In time hopefully Hall will do a proper interview about it. Wouldn't be stunned to find out there was something vaguely like what Willock underwent in terms of moving to a new place etc.

I wouldn't say it's obvious why he's been held back as much as he has, given the injury plague we've had etc. But he was a bit rash at times e.g. slicing a clearance. Once or twice Everton players got through him like he wasn't there, or he lost track of potential runners. You could just tell he wasn't 'solid'. Given the expectations on him from fans when we first signed him, in a world where he started our first 15 matches, I could see people talking about him being a weak link in the team, not being ready and putting a lot of unwelcome pressure on him. But there were a load of positives to his game as well, both defensively and offensively. He was always looking to show up when needed at both ends. Was particularly brave with the ball, literally putting his foot on it at times and weighing up situations, and taking on their players

Plus medical guidance he's received, nutrition, the training pitch itself, the natural constitutions of the players he inherited... There are a lot of factors to take into account.

Don't know for sure about that data, but we had quite a few injuries last season. Big difference was a) they were very well-timed e.g. Wilson returning from injury the very same week as Isak getting injured, and b) they were less severe - 6 weeks rather than 6 months. That data references incidences rather than severity. Would be interesting to compare minutes lost to injury across seasons. We definitely were very lucky with injuries last season, but we've paid for it in spades this time around. I'm truly open minded on why that is. People understandably say lots of them were freak occurrences, but you're more likely to be harmed by an event if you're deconditioned, too.

Contributed lots of things he's accused of not contributing tonight.

I didn't think he was that bad? Feel like he wouldn't be getting slagged if Dummett hadn't been practicing judo.

Been resisting saying this for a long long time, but I can't stand him. I want him away.

Taking wider things into consideration such as likelihood of clubs wanting to sign him compared to Longstaff, then maybe yeah. But I'm not enthusiastic about the idea. He's having a bad time at the minute but I think he just needs to hit his stride again. These injuries have disrupted a key moment in his development as a player, but I don't think we should be abandoning hope.

It's difficult when he has to juggle all the other responsibilities like selling programmes outside the ground. He's spread thin.

Good game tonight, took a lot of responsibility in the first half. Just a shame he tired out later on, but it's to be expected in the circumstances.

I thought that was the most effectively proactive game I've seen him have, in fairness to him.