Theregulars

I don’t like him but great header for the goal

This is really poor.

Made all the worse with this arsehole Keown. “A hint of offside”, “well machined oil”, arsenal bias dripping through.

We seem allergic to this competition

Whatever happens from here, I think the case has been firmly made for some reinforcements. Our squad is paddling pool shallow.

Excellent

We’ve got to get Murphy off the pitch, he’s having a really bad game even by his low standards.

As a pointless aside, how the fuck would this kit have clashed with Brighton?

Surely Ritchie isn’t playing in central midfield? That can’t be right.

Hoping Schär and Wilson just rested. I’d have had the latter on the bench just in case. I’ve lost all faith in Chris Wood

Does this bloke have a secret stash of kompromat or something? So mediocre.

Semantics really, but yes this contributed to that sense. With that said, Murphy is the RW back up and Maxi the current LW backup, so Maxi wasn’t coming on for Miggy.

I get the distinct sense that he’s not trusted defensively, and currently team defence is so crucial to what we’re doing that he won’t get more minutes without improving. It’s a difficult one, he’s so talented and productive at times, really hope it can be worked out.

Which definitely happened in time before £83m on Maguire. Back in your cave, troll.

Go home, Alan / Mike

Paully’s pre-match tweets have taken on the status of Bruno’s for me. Essential parts of the matchday experience now. Full marks for that breakfast of kings.

I think he’ll play the substitutes with 3/4 starters, with regular starters on the bench and a shortish leash. Pivotal month of the season for our league campaign and we’re advanced in the other cup competition, there has to be rotation because the squad isn’t deep enough to weather injuries for long. I think he’s too pragmatic not to.

“Stan, we’ll give you a few grand to get people tuning in”. ”How accurate do I have to be?” ”Bless you, Stan. Crack on”

Fucking maths-loving Tory

I'd fucking love Tielemans, absolute regular with screamers and has the door-unlocking passing. I think the miff re his attitude is just because he doesn't appear to be trying hard for Leicester, which is really crappy but that club is dysfunctional at the minute and we've seen first-hand what it can do to players (who look reborn under Howe). If we're seriously after him it means Howe thinks he's an OK character. Would be a mega upgrade on Shelvey.

I think the point is the system, no? We like to play a system which involves 3 at the back in possession with 4 at the back out of possession. Burn has a very unique skillset that he's a good centre back and a good left back. He is not an outstanding out-and-out left back, but he's a good one and is improving that side of his game under Howe in my view. It also helps having 3 tall centre halves for set pieces - if you watch closely we win a lot of knock-downs. Burn is ideal for what we're currently doing.

Lewis - difficult to make serious judgment bearing in mind injuries and Bruce-ing. I'm not sure he'll get the game time to ever enable us to make considered judgment, but he's been underwhelming aside from a few matches under Howe when he first became manager. Manquillo - he's fine, no more or less. Can very much be improved upon, but it's lazy to say he's shit in my view, he's had some good matches in his time at NUFC. I think a lot of people in today's frustratingly binary age can only conclude "brilliant" or "shit". You have to have less good players in a squad - fundamentally, persuading a professional football player that he's not going to be playing much professional football except in case of injury to somebody else is a hard sell. If Fresneda represents an upgrade on Manquillo, then yes, it's a no brainer to proceed. Lewis gets more time from me because we don't yet need him - Burn is playing well, Targett is a very good option. I suspect Targett will be sold this summer and the idea is to see this year if Lewis can be one of 2 options there. If he can't be, I imagine they'd extend Targett or sign somebody else.

To be fair I think Fraser asked to play on the left instead of right, meaning Murphy became plan B behind Miggy. Fraser hasn’t been able to get a look-in on the left because he’s behind Joelinton and ASM. If he was happy to play on the right maybe he’d have played more than Murphy.

I just don’t see a PL player here, and I’m normally on the generous side with my assessments. You’ve got to have squad players I suppose but I always think a good litmus test is “would he get game time at another PL club?” - I’m not sure he would, and I don’t even mean a top half club. He’s so naive, rarely beats a man with his pace and seldom uses his other best skill (crossing) to any real effect. I hope this is the last season where he gets significant playing time.

Institutional cheats don’t like it when other teams behave exactly as they have done year on year, decade on decade. Champagne socialist melts.