TRon

I do think having a proper attacking LB will help, but at the same time, when I see Mbuemo playing, even for a shit Man U he looks class.

While I agree that Bruno can often dwell on the ball for more touches than necessary, I don't think you can say that about Tonali. I've always considered his one touch passing to be one of his strengths. If anything he can look to move it too quickly, but personally I'm a fan of that. Joelinton is just watching too many games pass around him this season. This is why you see him end up in the book making stupidly late challenges because he's behind the play.

I think everyone is happy with our cup form, but the PL is how the season is usually judged. On that front we are (currently) failing, and that's where the concerns are being expressed.

I think that's not quite true. He can sometimes show really nifty footwork, and deal with the press better than many in our team. But this season he looks off the pace, similar to when he had previous spells carrying an injury. He's never been an elite level midfielder, but those aren't ten a penny either. When we were negotiating his new contract I did wonder then if it would be the right time to cash in and buy a replacement, but then I guess we wouldn't have a cup win under our belts.

Echoes of what happened to Elliott Anderson in some ways.

It's well known that we tried to transition away to the DOF taking charge of signings but then Mitchell clashed badly with Howe. PIF backed Howe at the end of the day, so here we are.

Does anyone know that is what we are trying to do? I know plenty of our fans think we should, but that doesn't mean the manager has plans for it.

They are, but Bruno is not the most mobile to start with, so he needs legs around him. Joelinton's seem to have gone this season and that means we don't have enough running in midfield. You can't put everything on Tonali.

Well we've chased him for a year, and Howe clearly wanted him for a long time. In that time we had a makeshift transfer team including Howe's nephew, Elanga was finally signed. Eddie Howe does have the final say on transfers and his record has been better than most, so I can understand why the board backed him over Eales and Mitchell.

He did in his first few outings but then when he lost the ball a few times his confidence just seemed to plummet. Now he's playing it safe and tbh Murphy is far more suited to that type of game. It's just a waste of Elanga's ability if he's not going at teams with that aggression and pace.

One of our most important signings hasn't kicked a football yet this season. Put Wissa in the team along with Hall and Livramento, and the picture might look a lot different. We are having a lot of bad luck with the players who we haven't been able to use for long stretches of the season. It's killing our season so far.

I don't think it can be put down to one player, it's when you put too many of them in the same who aren't natural footballers, then it's going to affect the sum total negatively.

Howe obviously put more stock in the attributes he does have though. Which would be pace and I suppose a very aggressive attacking intent. Not sure how useful that is against a low block though, but that is Howe's call. If he wanted him in so badly, he must think he will suit our style of play.

That's usually his game tbf. It's one of the reasons I thought he was in the side ahead of Ramsdale, he usually claims the high crosses really well.

He was really poor apart from the goal. Gave the ball away loads of times

I think it's best just to enjoy the CL while we are in it, I'm not really looking at next season's competition right now. We need to show we are actually better than half the other sides in the PL first.

That's how it looks this season. Which means with Bruno not being the most mobile, it leaves a lot of space for Tonali to cover.

Made this point in another thread, we are hammering the crap teams where suddenly our football is flowing and effective. Teams that can hit back are a different story and they are exposing our players who are technically weak. Dan Burn at left back and Krafth always looked like a problem waiting to happen, then you add in the rubbish served up by Murphy, Joelinton and Bruno into the mix and we can't string two passes together.

Too many players in that starting line up just aren't good enough footballers at this level. We made West Ham look like Barcelona

Burn can't do nowt going forward and he just left acres down left defending as well.

Too many bad footballers to carry in this game.

Burn and Krafth predictably killing us down the flanks

Bruno has been garbage so far.

He's always dangerous going forward, but I think the reason we never made a move might be because he doesn't really do any of the hard work stuff.

Think we will miss his distribution personally. He's not so great defensively any more but he's still a good footballer compared to Krafth.