TRon

Do we even know this is happening? Everyone seems to be assuming the ITK gossip is rock solid for this one.

Compared to what looks like their mam in the middle picture, they look positively angelic.

Agree, I am hopeful that we are just being cautious to make sure he is 100% when he does come back in.

You could make a case for all three of them starting tbh, if the intention is to keep the overworked midfield a rest before the weekend. But that's never going to happen.

I agree, he's not looked great so far this season, but he's not started many games so like Ramsey, might be a bit rusty. Like I said though, if he's part of the squad, then he needs to be good enough to come in when we need to give regular starters a rest.

I wouldn't even question Willock tbh, he's got plenty of PL experience, and this sort of game should suit him a lot more than the much faster PL. If he's not good enough to be used for rotation then he shouldn't be here. I think Gordon should be fine up front as well, it's an away game so it gives him plenty of opportunity to use his pace instead of trying to fight a physical battle like he would in our league.

We should be able to do that utilising our full squad and not just restricting to the same starting 11 every game.

Really feel like we should be using Miley more. He's got good experience under his belt now, he should be considered as a midfield option when we want to give Bruno or Tonali a night off.

Back to his marauding best yesterday. His pressing scared the bejeezus out of them.

That's how he should always look to play. He's not great at carrying the ball anyway, but he can put in a great cross.

I tend to agree. We've got some leeway in the CL because of previous wins, but we really need to keep winning in the PL to stay in touch with the CL contenders. Tough game though so I don't see Howe rotating too many players.

Did anyone even dare to dream that he would be this good?

Barnes was brilliant in that spell of games, but yesterday showed just how important having genuine ball playing full backs are to the wingers. Imagine it would be the same for Gordon, and might explain his lack of form recently.

Funny that, it was the first goal which I thought was a work of beauty and demonstrated fantastic passing and vision from Joelinton, Bruno and Barnes.

Can you imagine Nolan leaping off the ground to perform a bicycle kick? There'd be seismic shockwaves around the ground and a crater the size of a six yard box where he landed.

Moyes would love him.

Yep. He knows where the goal is for sure, and he can put his foot in. Just don't think he's a very skilful player on the ball.

Would you want him back?

Haven't read this thread over the last week but I think the consensus is that he's more of a withdrawn striker, and he likes to drop deep. He's very different to Isak so we need to find a different way to play to his strengths. It feels like we are still playing as if we have Isak as our spearhead. Plus you have to factor in losing our full backs which has affected supply lines, and PL defences are usually harder to pentrate than most international teams.

Same here.

Did anyone ever argue that he wasn't?

They don't necessarily come with any interest in using their own funds for the benefit of NUFC either. Just ask Man U fans.

The loopholes carry the risk of further punitive action down the line. You can't look at Chelsea and use them as a yardstick because they already part of the supergroup club so have more leeway than unwanted interlopers like PIF. Even if they threw everything at it, including a new stadium to bring in extra income, they still wouldn't be on a par to compete with the cartel. The only way to do that is to buy the best players and pay them the best money. Then win stuff. With PSR/SCR or whatever the new version is, we can't do it.

We'll never really know whether they would have thrown £5-10bn at the project to propel us to the top, because the rules were changed immediately following the takeover to ensure we couldn't. My own personal opinion is that they would probably consider it a good investment to do it given they've got the money to do it. The top is where all the big money is after all. In the circumstances, PSR or SCR is probably a safer strategy investment wise, so they aren't going to complain too much. They'll just divert that £5-10bn to other sporting ventures like tboxing, he WCC and their own league.