HawK

I dread a bid from PSG

If we finish 17th and Burnley finish below us, it's £25m well spent, any other performance metric aside.

I haven't seen a player look so out of place in our team because he's that good since Jonathan Woodgate. He's that good, maybe even better. I have no idea why he's playing for us. And I fucking love him.

Jesus the ego on this lad/social team, I fkn love it. Next Shearer FFS

You obviously did not watch any of the matches if that's the conclusion you're drawing. Tell me the gameplan, and how he instructed our players to use the ball when in possession. The 5th position was a fluke that relied solely on the sheer individual brilliance of several players, notably Cissé who for 4 months could not miss, in spite of Pardew.

With the way we usually play, he'll have 2/3 of an empty pitch in front to aim for

Chris Wood, Chris Wood's GF, Chris Wood's mistress

The injury/need to play him reminds me a bit of Bellamy. It's hard to let a player like that go when we've got no-one better right now. When we get Haaland in the summer all will be good though

2-0, Willock & Wood. Joelinton MOTM

We now have a better team than at least 3 teams - Watford, Norwich and Burnley. This was the measure of success I was going to use. If we can get the results to match our team's relative ability, we'll be OK. If our new jewel of a midfielder can stay fit for the remainder of the season, I've no doubt that he'll be that transformative for us that he'll almost single-handedly pull us up the table. He'll elevate the players around him, with Joelinton's work-rate, we'll see Shelvey get more time on the ball which despite his flaws, is a good thing for us. I do worry about our right wing, though. I'm entirely unconvinced by Fraser. I'd like to see Willock given a run out up there, drifting inside with Trippier moving up the field into the space.

I've loved that we've not signed any 'attitude' players, or cast-offs from top clubs. Not signing Alli, Aubameyang (if there was even a chance) etc. Just players that are used to first-team football and seemingly have a good head on their shoulders. In a relegation fight you need grit and determination and especially the two I've mentioned haven't really shown me they could contribute in that way.

2 days to get the music licensed i imagine

I doubt anyone would predict this future when Ashley bought us that the top 4 rival would be West Ham and the relegation candidate was us.

No argument from me that he's better than Ritchie there, but so is every other LB we have. In my view, it's Lewis < Dummett < Manquillo.

Remember how good Andros Townsend looked for us when he came in for the latter half of the season we ended up going down? I think Lingard might have a similar effect. Hopefully this time with a different end result.

I really don't get this viewpoint that seems to be shared by many. Lewis hasn't shown anything to suggest he's better than either Manquillo (who's looked quite good recently) and Dummett. Tell me I'm wrong?

Lightning edit that gj site admins ;-)

What's a 'four-and-a-half deal' ?

Literally same page But yeah, he definitely has that 'style', he runs upright with the ball, poking it forwards with his toes in front, and he's watching the opponents' strides and just knows how to keep the ball just out of their reach with his pace & body.

He goes past players like Hatem does, exact same style. I approve.

Players only love you when they're playing

Literally bidding like FM on these transfers. 'Scout estimates between 25-35m for this player'.. bid 25 'no', bid 30 'no', bid 35 'fuck off already'.

All part of the master plan, just sign all the best players from the other teams that are in the mix and then they'll end up shitter than us. I mean it's frankly quite disgusting but I'd love it if that were to happen

Anyone else think that since Joe has come into the middle, he looks so, so strong? I mean, he shrugs people off the ball with absolute ease, people can't take it off him easily. He's a huge presence. He must have something drilled into him from a young age about playing for fouls and free-kicks in the attacking third, because he looked weak as piss up top. If he had used half the strength he's showing now in midfield, he'd have been a handful at least, even if he can't score to save his life.

But he's really not, Joelinton moved there and looked like Socrates compared to Jonjo. We need a hard-working, industrious midfielder to go alongside him. Heck I'd put Almiron or Shortstaff there tbh just to be a busybody.