TRon

I woudn't be that shocked if Wilson starts over Isak tbh. Wilson will be raging to have been so badly outgunned by Watkins last week in front of the England manager. He's basically lost his England spot on the back of that to a direct rival. He'll be champing at the bit to get at Spurs tomorrow, so maybe Eddie will want to channel that.

Looked fiercely determined to win in his own understated way. Love how he never separates players from the coaching staff when it comes to taking responsibility, he just said words to the effect of "we analysed last week's game as a team and will be looking to improve on some aspects". I mean he will actually have been livid at the performance but he's never going to say that publicly.

I have them too, but it's more nervous energy rather than fear. I just can't contemplate getting anything less than a point from this, and that would almost feel like failure. The ground will be electric, as long as we rise to the occasion, we should overwhelm them IMO.

Don't really do twitter but just had a look now.

Got to be false bravado, they have more to lose than us. If we lose we are still ahead of them, if they lose they are more or less out of it. They are probably bricking it in reality.

That's fine when you have the ball, but it would be pretty difficult to press teams when you don't have it if you have too many players who can't close the space quickly enough.

I think he's decent on the ball, but doesn't look particularly mobile, so not sure if he's a good fit for us.

That's my impression as well. Always looked like he was nearly a good player, but somehow always falling short of producing anything of any real note. Just ran around a lot with big hair from what I could tell.

If he's not playing on Sunday - and it seems unlikely - then that's two pivotal games he'll have missed in the fight for the CL. It's not his fault he's picked up muscle injuries, but these are the games you want your best players available.

This game could almost decide the CL place between us and Spurs anyway. If we beat them they are more or less out of it unless we implode on the run in. If they win, then I guess it might be us imploding.

They'll probably just add to it, bloating it a bit more. Their MO seems to be keep chucking money at it and see if it works. Maybe bribe someone from the PL if FFP starts raising it's ugly head.

Not sure about the official figure, but heard something like 350k/week being bandied about. It's not made him or their team any better for it.

Roma are supposedly a lot better organised since he was replaced by Mourinho. Not sure Fonseca is all he is cracked up to be.

I don't think Liverpool are keen on chucking ridiculous money at players next season after the season they've had following giving Salah a bumper contract.

I think the really top tier premier league signings like Rice are still a season or two off. Until we have really lucrative sponsorship deals in place anyway. If we can secure CL football this season though, we will at least be in a position to make offers to this calibre of players.

Isak is a better player, I'm just saying don't write off players like Wilson if he starts. There's every chance he could bang in a goal or two against Spurs if he's picked. we aren't talking Chris Wood here. In any case I expect Isak to start, but if Howe wants to have Isak to bring off the bench when the game is more open in the second half, we do have options.

I'm hoping that loss to Villa will give our squad a real kick in the pants. It wasn't just a loss, we were beaten badly. It could shake confidence if we aren't sure of ourselves, but we have been playing good stuff for a season and a half now, so you would like to think this will serve as a wake up call to get back to doing what got us in a CL position in the first place. The lads should be itching to get out there and bury Spurs and any memory of that defeat last week.

Wilson is pretty decent as well mind. That goal that was ruled out against Brentford for handball was a class finish.

I thought Liverpool were out of it before our loss on Saturday, and in all likelihood they probably still are, but I also think they are capable of going on a run of wins. There's only one way we can keep that 4th spot and that is to do the business ourselves, and then what anybody else does is immaterial.

Like asking why does Donald Trump have gold taps on his bidet.

As soon as he has a stand out game where his decision making is matched up perfectly to his natural speed and power, then we find out he's out injured again. Difficult to get too excited when he never seems to build any momentum.

I thought he was closer to 31 tbh, if he's still 29 then it's not outrageous to ask £14m. I wihdraw my skepticism forthwith.

Yep. We will have 90 mins to show we are undoubtedly the better side, that's more than enough time to get the better of them.

I think without doubt he'll be asking questions of himself how we didn't deal with Watkins - and Ramsay to some extent - better. Schar looked totally unprepared, maybe he just underestimated Watkins sheer pace out of the blocks. I'd like to think we won't make that mistake again.

Point taken @STM but we're not getting £14m for Lascelles like.