HawK

Can you imagine how many goals Maddison would have had if he'd been playing instead of Willock, with Longstaff tasked with holding back a bit to give Madders the freedom to roam and put those chances away.

I think Maxi is not in the starting lineup right now solely because Howe is being loyal to the lineup that's doing so unbelievably well. All things being equal, Maxi's one of the first names on the teamsheet. He's slimmed down a lot since his early-season injury, and he looks just as good as before, but hopefully now without that extra timber he can be a bit more involved in the defensive work too. That said, as I said in his thread, with Burn and Joelinton on the left I do think there's a spot for him there even if he doesn't do as much defensively as they can more than cover for him.

He ain't built like a footballer, that's for sure.

'Shutup and enjoy the ride' encouraged people to overlook how awful Pardew was. This is a forum and its entire existence is to allow discussion. Differences of opinion and debate are healthy.

I think he genuinely scares a lot of modern-day footballers. He's fucking scary.

Longstaff is far more valuable in games against stronger opposition when we have less of the ball. He's invariable exposed when he's given opportunities on the ball.

Just on the reason why he's not playing - Howe is an absolute stickler for not making changes for the sake of them. If a side is doing well, e.g. conceding like no goals ever, or getting points on the board when we're bottom of the league, then he won't change it. I remember when we started our upturn in form in January last year, and we were chomping at the bit for Bruno to start. It was said that it was to allow him time to 'bed in', but I think it's a lot more to do with showing loyalty and respect to the current XI at the time that were doing well and grinding out the results. It's also partly think why I think Longstaff plays every single game and every minute of every game - he's part of a team that just doesn't lose and there isn't an obvious replacement of genuine ability who will do what he does. It's also the same argument he can use against the club captain every match, look, you're not getting a game cause we're not losing and I don't want to disrupt the team. The squad would lose respect for Howe if he brought others in 'just because' when he didn't bring in Lascelles. It's a win-win, he gets buy-in from the team that's getting results, they know the manager backs them, and it means whoever comes in is absolutely focused on trying to make that shirt his on merit, not reputation. If we lose or don't get the result we want, he has the irrefutable proof in the points themselves and backing to make those changes. It would send the wrong message to change a winning/undefeated team just because of perceived differences in ability. There needs to be undeniable benefits to all parties in making the switch for us to keep this team spirit that's become absolutely core of our form. All this aside, I'd be dropping Willock and Wilson next game for ASM and Isak but I don't know what kind of expectations of keeping the shirt Wilson and Willock have been given. Who knows, maybe Howe's said to the squad 'as long as this defensive run continues, I'm not changing the starting XI unless there's an injury', and it's a perfectly reasonable stance. Not one I'd make mind, but I'm not one of already the most succesful English managers in Premier League history. I'll defer to Sir Eddie.

Elite-level goalkeeper.

Joelinton looks like a roided WWE cruiserweight, he's a brick shithouse

How long before we're all back in the Anthony Gordon thread arguing over FFP semantics?

Long staff with his palms up saying 'i was here', the cheek of the cunt. We all know you'd have kneed it out of the stadium.

How is Bruno MOTM? :/

Nick Pope MOTM for me.

The back of Maxi's head looks like a gammy sheep's arse. Just cut it off man

HATEM MAXI I LOVE YOU <Forum member's printout of picture of Hatem sent to BT Sport>

Joelinton in the middle is 10x the player he is out wide, his ball carrying and retention is elite.

Murphy giving it the Bruno flex, love it.

Aye but part of one of the best defences the Premier League has ever seen.

BBC Sport website guy must be crying into his southern teacup having to revert this to 0-1, it's still 1-1 there atm.

Punches it off his knee into the net, seems legit.

Hand of prod(igy), Adam Armstrong

Isak's good, Isak's good, Alexander Isak's good. Am determined to make this a thing

Expected Joelinton to miss that

Bruno looks knackered

Sort of our calling card at this point.