BoSelecta

A few dodgy moments early on losing posession. Then went on to have a decent crack from a Gordon layoff coming from left to right, could have had a tap in if Isak squares it, then sets Isak up for the winner. 3 potentially really big goal involvments in what, 20 mins? Fair play.

European games mid week for our rivals from now, should give us an edge.

Very harsh. Excited for Tonali replacing him though.

More than the sum of our parts again today (thanks Eddie) - barely an individual performance to talk about but ground the half out 1-0 with one moment.

Half a yard? Couple of inches more like.

Might as well put Hall on for big Jow if Joe is gonna be playing left wing back out of possession.

Aye that was a pinger, he’s generally ponderous on the ball though (and has been once or twice in that half)

Not throwing shade but Tonali is levels above, particularly in possession when moving the ball forward quickly.

20 more mins max of Longstaff first choice RCM.

Aye it’s a fucking quagmire at the minute.

Not the fucking players fault is it, get behind them.

I’ve convinced myself he’ll start Tonali and change him on the hour. He played too well against Forest to leave him on the bench.

Just by being available to take minutes off Isak when needed.

Perhaps the fullback data is skewing. Agree to disagree.

Pretty much my thoughts. I think Howe will try and rotate between him and Kelly to get the best of both worlds - that might look like starting with Kelly to keep things solid and moving to Hall if we need a goal.

Can’t believe questioning Burn’s passing output is being deemed a load of shite - it’s quite clearly the weakest part of his game and below PL average for a CB. The bloke is an absolute unit in the air, defensively a monster, fantastic defender but his passing is weak. https://ibb.co/StZxBfn By your own admission he’s not attempting ambitious passes and he’s only completing 80%; that’s not anywhere near ‘decent’ in the premier league.

I love Burn but how anyone can watch his passing and claim it’s decent is beyond me. It’s consistently the wrong pace and/or onto the wrong foot and that’s the passes he’s completing.

For some reason I desperately want Willock to do well for us, just really rooting for him to succeed. Absolutely love him as a player. Hope it’s not serious.

£65 million + add ons + a 6 pack of timeouts and that’s our final offer!

The triangle of burn-pope-krafu is woeful for passing out, really showed in a couple of bungling moments. Tino is a beast of a ball carrier but again he’s no Trippier on the ball and Kelly is an unknown entity but certainly on yesterday’s showing he lacks the technical quality of Hall. Then 2 out of our 3 midfielders (Longstaff & Joelinton) - both have excellent qualities (mainly their physicality) but, again, they’re not technically excellent passers/on the ball. Murphy on the right, don’t need to say anything there. That’s over half the team who are objectively below average PL players when it comes to passing out/controlling possession. The opposition tactics can basically boil down to ‘don’t allow Bruno to receive it on the half turn and press everyone else relentlessly whenever they have possession’. We really missed schar yesterday & botman is a miss longer term. Hopefully Spurs at home might suit our game a bit more, hit them on the transitions. Already a few fires for Eddie to put out tactically/selection wise. Still; 4 points 😀. Beat spurs, sign Guehi +1 and it’s an excellent start to the season.

I thought so too, some really nice touches.

I can feel it down in my plums.

It was a plane engine wasn’t it?

Pope Krafu Burn Kelly Tino Hall Longstaff Bruno Joe Isak Gordon

Good for his fitness to get a full 90 surely?