TRon

Might as well close this thread and lock it until the end of the season then.

I'm getting a bit concerned how long it's taken him to shake off that rustiness tbh. We had it last season before the ban, and that was somewhat understandable. But he's been training with us for a year now, and he seems to be playing barnstormers for Italy. There's definitely a player in there, but he doesn't seem to fit our style since day one.

This. I was concerned some of our supporters were giving them too much respect before the game when in truth they have been a relegation threatened side for three seasons running. A draw was a poor result yesterday, the truth is we just weren't good enough to put them away despite us having enough chances to win by three goals. Yes we were missing a striker, but that's our own fault. And they were missing their best defender so not really as much of an excuse as it would be normally.

He missed the header as well from Murphy's cross where instead of going for goal he tried to head it back to a marked Joelinton. That's probably why it's not on page 2.

Our season basically hinges on him or Isak getting back into the side and scoring some goals like happened in our CL qualifying season. Unlikely maybe, but not impossible.

Howe is overly cautious with young players IMO. When you need a goal, what's the harm in chucking on a young lad to get out there and run at them? There were far more opportunities to get in on goal today than there was against Wimbledon where he was up against a 10 man defence.

Think he was trying to change it up because defenders are probably expecting him to cut inside every time.

He wasn't great but felt a bit sorry for him because he never seemed to get much support from Murphy. Miggy offers a lot more from a RB perspective.

Always does tbf. Until he gets in the penalty area.

Looked back to his best today, everything good was going through him. Felt like his efforts were a bit wasted with some of the sloppy stuff going on around him sadly.

At one point there was talk of us signing Madueke for £30m, then he scored some goals in pre-season and Chelsea put a £60m price tag on him. The he scored a hatrick in the PL and suddenly he wasn't for sale. I guess timing is everything.

One superb cross all game and that's basically the only thing he done. Think he made Tripper look worse as well because he didn't offer an out ball.

As soon as I saw Pickford jumping and smacking the crossbar with his hands and staring him down, I knew Gordon wasn't going to score. The body language of the two of them was just in stark contrast. I don't think it helped they are former team mates, the pressure will have all been on Gordon.

Thought it was a weird game from him tbh. He was involved constantly, him and Bruno definitely won the midfield battle, but Joelinton was a mixture of some really good work finding his way out of tight areas only to mess it up with a loose touch or not quite getting his pass right. I suppose you could say that for a lot of them Bruno excepted.

Aye, I would never have him down as a bottler, but weird that he goes there and wilts instead of ramming their taunts down their throats.

They don't end up in relegation battles because they are any good. Should have buried them in all honesty.

We missed several chances to put players in on goal as well when their defence was exposed.

Felt like if there was no opposition we'd still have found a way to miss the final pass or screw the chances wide.

Pickford psyched him out big time.

If you want to win games away from home you have to beat shite like these.

Still plenty of time to win this with just one bit of quality in the final third...

That was the first decent delivery in, from Murphy of all people. Should have been a goal.

Not sure what position he's playing. Seems to be carefully finding infield pockets to hide in.

This is fucking poor stuff like. So many shit passes for no reason.

Aye it was a bit of a gift anyway.