TRon

Fuck off Murphy.

Look at that first touch from Murphy, it literally bounced 12 yards

Feels like we gave up on the press after the first 10 mins anyway.

City are playing in 5th gear and he's trying to stroll along in 3rd.

That was Murphy, he's not really up to this level.

Joelinton looks like he's firing on all cylinders again.

Tonali seems to be the one struggling the most with the City press. He really needs to get up to speed with this game, they aren't going to give you a second to control it. Other than that though we are coping just about considering the difference in quality between the two sides.

Livramento has started well, but City's press is lethal.

Can see that going better than we might hope tbh.

He's going for the poor man's Fab Schar look there.

Everyone boo this post. Boooooo!

Looked cool as fuck though.

And Miley. Can't say I'm looking forward to seeing Dummett though.

Summed up perfectly.

Well that's us out then. They've put out a much stronger side than I thought they were going to, and we've got a CB pairing from the Steve McClaren era.

Supposedly Arsenal are going to be attempting to sign Toney for £60m but they need to sell first. For us it's a moot point. Wilson has signed a contract extension so him being guaranteed goals for the next two years is worth more than £50m to us.

Exactly. Why does he need to shit or get off the pot at this stage? I feel too many of us expect everything all at once. Elliott's a hugely promising talent, but it's still a big step up to be performing at that level week in week out. If anything, I've been surprised at the impact he's had recently, he's definitely looking more equipped for the challenge this season. With Barnes, Joelinton and Willock all out at the moment, he's got a big part to play over the next few games, but let's not carried away one way or the other.

I don't think that's right tbh, his main asset is his movement and willingness to run for 90mins. If he can add some guile and touch to his game on a regular basis there's now way he won't get recognised. For us his ground coverage is massive because it helps our press become more effective, and that in turn makes players like Bruno look much better.

And you really showed your respect for our appreciation of Maddy by pelting our players with bottles of water. Nah, only half serious, I realise it will only have been some knackers, but still a shit way to carry on, hope your club took some action against the bell ends responsible.

Both valid points. I think the way they lost their grip on a game with their local rivals on Sunday might also come back to haunt them. Other teams are going to look at that and think they can be got at. I was a bit disappointed at our performances against them last season, especially as we bullied them with a worse side the season before.

He's looked a little bit nervous when he's come on for usas well IMO, maybe he's still feeling his way. Quite a big step up to turn out for a club with such huge expectation compared to playing for little old Southampton. I think once he's had a couple of games under his belt he'll start finding his feet and showing us his full attacking repetoire. Feels like he's playing it a bit safe at the moment, probably terrified of making a mistake.

It won't be so bad once we have the two Joes back, but yes at the moment, it does put a lot of work on the shoulders of Gordon.

Big Joe and Little Joe returning will certainly soften the blow of losing Barnes, they worked really well on that left side last season.

Not going to disagree with any of that, Woodgate was useless for us for vast periods of his time here, but when he was there he took us to the champions league, and we got some pretty great results against some mighty European teams on the back of his class. He was probably the only defender who could make Titus Bramble look like a champion.

He might turn out to be even better, but I'm just giving Woodgate the nod on experience and nous at this time.