buzza

Is lascelles injured? Not on bench?

Very attacking villa side!! Hope our midfield and defence are on it... Bruno on for baaaldy in last 30

If we stay up, there will be a lot of strikers happy to come and join the project

Striker is the key signing in the summer. If we are going to make a statement, the Nº9 is where it should be. Nuñez, Schick, Vlahovic, Haaland, Mbappe... We can dream for real!! A couple of wingers/wide forwards plus central defender/s and left back and we will improve dramatically.

I think that their defense is appalling of late, Mings is totally out of form and with konsa out they will suffer a lot. Digne gets caught way too far up the field so we should get some joy down there. Yes, their midfield looks pretty good but I am not convinced by watkins, as long as we track the runners (we are a lot better at this now with eddie) we should be allright. They won´t like to visit a buoyant st james park.

We don´t need Joe to be scoring, just to continue the beast press he does and win every contested ball in the air and ground, making a few half decent passes along the way. Has a role which he is currently excelling at...

We have four winnable / points-worthy games coming up; villa at home, Wham and brentford away and then brighton home. We need to take minimum 7/8 points from that lot. Looks like burnley, norwich and Everton have a run of hard/tricky games coming up, we need to gain some distance from this lot and put some space between us.

The way they are using coutinho to pick passes for willking runners from deep means that Jonjo should be swapped for this match, he is too much of a liability when tracking runners. He is also slow. Willock is covering a lot of ground defensively, has the legs to join attacks and seems to be improving game on game. Ditto Joe linton. Bruno has to start as our midfield linchpin and base the game around him. Villa have done it with coutinho and it has worked for them....

Watching Villa last night and the two main threats from midfield are coutinho and ramsey, we all know that shelvey tends to run five yards with his marker and then stop, falter or foul... It is a very clear choice for me, SHELVEY OUT... BRUNO IN! We need willock for the ground he covers and he would be a great foil for a more forward thinking passer like Bruno

Team Played a blinder last night. Trippier instills both calm and fight into the players around him. His goal was the finishing touch to the best defensive performance at st james park for a good couple of years... ASM was in piss-take mode in the 2nd half, didn´t matter how many there were around him he just threaded his way through, shame he didn´t give bruno the return pass which would have made the performance an 11/10. Yep, shelvey worries me with his stupid tackling and I think he will be the one who is displaced by Bruno, willock is perfect for bruno´s progressive passing. Only down point was that Wood dissapointed, he needs to get more involved. i caught the last 15 mins of the Burnley game and the german bloke (wheghorst?) they bought, for half the price, looks a lot more mobile and productive.

You are giving them a headstart by not starting him. Only thing might be jet lag, it does give you a knock after about the second day...

Hope has returned!

I am also nervous for this one, if Bruno plays I think it will give us an added dimension and will also keep them guessing/on back foot. The player that has been standout for them this season for me is Gray, but with Trippier on his side I am confident about him. DCL should not be match fit and a doubt to start, would be a great advantage for us if he was kept on the bench... Hopefull we inject Dan´s foot with a load of painkillers, would like to see lascelles out and a new backline with schar, some good passing out ability now!!

Sure he was called Woods at some point, maybe when he was at Leeds, they are a bit backward down there...

If we put pressure on the scouse mackem defence I reckon they will fall apart, new manager or not.

I think as Howe is a positive manager, and going by the quotes we have heard bruno telling his teammates in a cup game, he is deffo going to put Bruno on the pitch. We will stick with a 433, with Jonjo on the pitch for 60 mins and then willock coming on to give a bit extra in the final stretch. I would have Joe on the left of midfield to provide extra cover for asm.: --------------------Dubs-------------------------- Trippier--------Schar------Burn-----------Targett ----Shelvey(willock)------Bruno---------Joe-------- Fraser---------------Woods--------------ASM--

WE NEED 3 POINTS AGAINST THE SCOUSE MACKEMS. We should also have a lift in the squad... just having clark out of the squad makes me giddy, thinking about bruno comin on in last 30 to fire us home is jizz- tastic?

Is he left or right footed? if left, then it´s obvious he will play "inside left", if not I think he would be more of a number eight with big Joe... and shelvey as our hollywood pass sprayer in the middle

As far as i am concerned we have fixed the "glaring" weaknesses in our side; left side of defence and holding midfielder. Most of the draws we have had have been defensive errors and cos we were incapable of holding out for the win. This should be fixed now with Trippier, Burn and Target. Schar or lascelles play decent and should up their game with the new competition. bruno is a huge unexpected surprise, this will go a long way to improving screening in front of the defence and quick transitions. If chris wood can put in 3-4 goals until calum gets back, we are sound.

If we get lingard in I honestly think we would be too much for them. Their midfield and defence have been woeful of late

No chance, let's s3nd these buggas down into the relegation scrap!

This, deffo...

Great to have two proper left footed defenders, Burn can cover both positions. great signings. Get rid of clark and Dummet now for two packets of salt and vinegar crisps

Let´s be positive, I´m sure he has been well scouted by our lot, and all the frenchies seem to think he is going to be the next best thing...

Lingard would up our chances dramatically as he is capable of putting them away from the right hand side of a striker or a number 10 role. Targett and Burn would help the defence, especially our left hand side which is a weakness (ASM in front of whatever rank defender we have in that position). If we beat everton on the 8th we will survive...