TRon

Don't see any reason why Botman can't start, he's had a preseason, you would imagine he wants to start games regularly by now

I said he might get to that point where he's pissed off at playing second fiddle, I just said it's a bit of a reach to suggest he already is. He's playing and scoring goals right now while Isak is the one playing catch up. Liverpool as a club are in a great position, even if either of them do want out, they are going to make big money on Ekitike, and will get their money back on Isak more than likely.

That's a bit of a reach. He might get pissed off at some point if he's benched for long periods, but at the moment he's playing more than Isak.

This is what I thought, she's a dealmaker rather than an investor usually.

While I'm happy for her personally, last I heard she was supposed to have some involvment in a bid for Spurs. Was there any truth to it or was it just baseless speculation?

They did this quite a lot last season as well iirc. They just seem very hard to put away, we know this from experience unfortunately.

Pretty much what I'd go with. I'm not so sure Howe will go with Osula though, he might want to give Woltemade another run out to get him up to speed, or he might just go with Gordon up top and start Elanga on the right.

Please for the love of God, no.

They are the ideal signings from abroad. So is Botman for that matter, they would stay long term all things being equal.

So will most players until we are allowed to compete for the top honours and pay top wages.

I asked for a PGMOL apology two days back. I think there needs to be a stink kicked up at this sort of nonsense, otherwise you can bet the rules will be applied selectively. I personally don't think we have objected strongly enough, we should have filed an official complaint.

Anthony Gordon trying to draw the defence from the low block

But that's not what I asked, I was asking why the defender needed to pull his shirt in the first place. Why didn't he just leave Woltemade alone and let him line up a shot unhindered?

Pedro and Ekitike would have been useless if they got ruled out for 6 weeks due to injury as well. Wissa was that touch of class signing, it's just rotten luck that he got crocked on international duty.

If the contact was minimal, why did he even need to pull his shirt in the first place? He could have just not laid hands on him at all no?

It's good as long as Botman is ok with it. He's got less than 2 years left on his contract and we need to get him signed up to a longer contract because he's the future, and Burn is 34 and probably at his peak right now, but will need replacing in the next couple of years. There'll be plenty of interest in Botman I would imagine, so we need to secure him this season.

He won't score as many goals because they won't rely on him as much so that's the good news from our POV. He will probably score important goals though, we already know this is what he does. He's quality, they knew what they were buying.

I don't think Eddie will want Big Nick playing 3 games in a week. Pretty sure we'll start either Osula or Gordon up front. If Osula's not good enough to start against Bradford then we should just have sold him. Overcrowded fixtures is exactly the reason we held him back.

Liverpool will end up with their most expensive signing going on strike if that happens.

I saw some stats this morning which shows us as having among the lowest XGs in the PL in the 5 games so far. Lowest shots on target and such as well. So despite our apparent squad strength, it does look like we rely a lot on a few key players.

It's a deeper squad, but the reserves are still not that great compared to the cartel teams. We have some decent secondary players, but take the big hitters out and they struggle to make much impact. Losing one striker like Isak shouldn't have made us look impotent, but even our record last season in games he missed wasn't great. Ditto Bruno.

He needs to start IMO. We stopped a £20m+ transfer to Stuttgart so there has to be more there than he's shown so far.

It's depressing how thick so many people are on social media. Doesn't help that the mainstream media seems to pander to the thickos in general.

I would imagine that was the thinking in getting Ramsey in.

Willock is still relatively young, if he's not playing regularly for us, there should be PL teams lining up to take him off us at around £20m. An attacking midfielder with his assets should command that easily. That there was not really much interest tells you a lot. His injury record is poor, and when he is fit, he is underperforming. If he's not good enough for a lower midtable PL side, then he's not good enough for us any more. Hopefully he'll stay fit until January and we can sell him and replace with another young hopeful who has a higher ceiling.