TRon

Same here, I actually think he brings a lot to the game, but that can't disguise he's not on a par with elite midfield players for technical ability, although that's by no means bad either. I think he has far better close control than for example Longstaff. But we need to be careful overpaying salaries because we get emotionally attached to players, quite often when you overpay, it's not that easy to move them on to other clubs who don't have an emotional attachment. He needs to be paid what he's worth, but also with the understanding that we might buy a better replacement which would then make him a squad player, albeit a very valuable one.

But they might have figured looking at our forwards that there was a good chance we'd not be able to apply the finishes, so it was worth playing an open game as they could then hurt us with their pace and power going down the other end. Same way as Forest did, and Liverpool did even when down to 10 men. Because of our style, while it's really exciting when we have all our top level players in the team, when we don't it evens up the playing field against supposedly lesser opponents.

Especially when for so long we've had wide players who can do everything right up until the final third, then they'll fail to make a decent cross or strike the ball well when in on goal.

My only concern is that the reasons they beat us in the reverse fixture will be the same reason we conceded 4 goals against Luton. They have some pace that will hurt us if we play an open game. Yes we can hurt them as well, but we'll need our forwards to be more ruthless otherwise it will come back to bite us on the arse. If we'd gone 3-1 up against Luton which we should have, the game would have been buried. Instead we kept missing chances and final through balls, and they went 4-2 up instead.

Win it or not, I just love being part of the European football scene. To me playing Dinamo Zagreb is almost as exciting as playing AC Milan. They are still big clubs in there, and if anything they are more our match at this stage of our rebuild. It's a long way from battling to stay out the relegation zones of the PL for the 15 years under the previous ownership.

Whatever gets us into Europe, and by that I mean the Conference league will be considered a success in my books. Playing with an almost first 11 of players out for half a season would cripple any club. CL football was fantastic while it lasted, even if it didn't work out, but it's wetted my appetite for any form of European contest now.

One other thing I have wondered about, is the club ownership really that much against FFP? While I'm sure they would love the opportunity to invest unfettered amounts into making the squad on a par with the cartel clubs, FFP/PSR does mean that we are forced into making the club a sustainably profitable one, and PIF is after all and investment fund first and foremost. It's win-win for them either way.

Eat that Klopp you fucking twat.

They'll probably find some way to lose tbh.

Allison looked so cute as he curled his legs up out of the way to allow the ball through.

Fuck me

A front three of Barnes, Wilson and Gordon can win games provided they stay fit and we don't shoot ourselves in the foot by leaving the defence exposed to similar threat from the opposition.

Yeah he held the ball up really well. Won't be easy to get him into space though, maybe if Barnes can get an early cross in he might get some joy.

Definitely need another before the ref scores the equaliser.

We've had a massively depleted squad for three months now. Over-playing the same 11 every game was always going to catch up eventually.

It was a lovely first touch to tee the ball up as well. Love owt like that me.

I think we should judge him on a season which hasn't been decimated by injuries like.

He kept missing passes and making bad choices after doing initial good work. You can't keep giving the ball away and call it a good game.

Yep. It has been apparent for a while now that our Luton standard players really struggle when pressed relentlessly. Failure to trap the ball, shift it away from the press, poor composure when choosing a pass or a finish. Difficult to play genuine quality football when you have sub-standard players involved in more than a couple of positions.

I said the same thing in here after the game. Something about being the worst injury time period I've seen from us in a long time.

You could see it coming as well, at half time I said we could end up winning 5-3 or losing 4-2. I think we should manage games better than that.

Could be worse I suppose. Probably a few weeks out but you could kind of see it coming with some players getting flogged game after game because of lack of bodies.

We need Europe, not going to be easy if we keep dropping points to relegation teams.

I'm a bit conflicted on Howe. I love the way we try to play our way out from the back, and I still think it will work once we upgrade in a few positions, but he doesn't seem to have a Plan B. Against teams with certain attributes, i.e. pace and power, you do have to address that and not give them an open field. The game against Villa seemed like a turning point in that we sat off a bit and then exploited the space in behind when we won possession. Today the game was never in control beyond the first 20 mins.