TRon

This is just bollocks tbh. Even if you don't like the player, should at least be able to give credit when he's had a good game. Maybe he'll be awful when he's up against 11 next week, save the vitriol until then.

Imperious.

Took the shine off my day when they chalked off the hattrick goal. Would have been one to talk about down the ages.

It was embarrassing tbh. Absolutely nothing to look at yet they took 5 mins to make their minds up.

Some lovely footwork today, he's shown glimpses of it in previous games as well, just nothing has come off for him. He does some real clever stuff.

Just as well he hit that so well, he really should have been taking that on the right foot. Even when he scores a worldie he's still showing how one footed he is.

Rafa was all about the system tbf, he would happily sacrifice a player who didn't fit his plans. Quite topical since he binned off Mitro who has gone from strength to strength at Fulham, and brought in Joselu as a replacement. You can't really argue as he got the job done, but he when you think he let Toney and Mitro go, and how hard it is to buy a decent striker, we did lose some assets to maintain that system.

The lack of athleticism is still a big drawback to his game, but in his favour, he is actually one of our best players on the ball. It's not just his passing, it's also his ball retention, he has good control and isn't easy to dispossess. His tackling is still shit for a deep lying midfielder, but he's quite disciplined in positioning so he does shield the back four somewhat.

Yep. We can't keep taking draws, we've already drawn 5 out of 7 so far this season and it's cementing us in mid-table. We need a couple of wins, and Fulham are the sort of side we should have a good chance of beating.

They are going to support their mackem twat keeper obvs, but likewise for us. I wouldn't swap given the opportunity. Pickford looks like a charva apart from anything else.

Fuck off you Everton twat.

is he fit? Never really sure with Fraser, Would be a good time to show up assuming he is.

Maxi on the bench only, at best. Still at least some light at the end of the tunnel.

As if he'd ditch this job for England. I'm sure he'd love the honour of being the manager of the national team one day, but that will come after he's won club honours at one of the biggest clubs in the world. (That's us for anyone who is wondering).

I think Willock might get the nod because of his pace as well. With both ASM and Isak missing, Howe might see him as an asset on the counter.

Just shows the difference between international football and the PL tbh, less high balls to deal with, which Pope handles brilliantly, and other skills like shot stopping and reading of the game are more important. Not saying Pope is bad at any of those btw, but Pickford has generally risen to the challenge for England.

Isak is out as well, I was really looking forward to him hitting some space on the counter like he did against Liverpool. This is going to be another frustrating afternoon I feel.

I think it's probably been a shock to the system how physical the game is over here for sure. When we are at home and he's marked by 3 CB's, he's getting clattered fairly regularly. After last week's game I'm not that surprised he's feeling it a bit. He went down for a fair while after getting cleaned out iirc.

He really needs to be fit when our main strikers are out, he's not going to get time when they are available.

That's doubly annoying as I feel his game is perfect for away games.

If he's signed a new deal that probably means any deal is dead in the water. If they were asking £30m before which was already a really large ask, then I can't see us or anyone else paying more for him unless he has an outstanding season in the championship.

I mean that's what it looked like on Saturday, and most games this season. He's not finishing or creating enough at the end of the day, but just looks like a lack of confidence ultimately, so should probably be on the bench rather than starting every game. I still think he's doing some good stuff approach wise, just doesn't have the quality to finish. Neither does anyone else though at the moment.

The whole point of posting the cherry picked stats was to make him look worse so there's your answer.

We need to accept we are putting a lot of expectation on players who don't really have that much pedigree. Joelinton was not bought as a midfielder so it's not surprising he has games where he looks less accomplished in that role. Willock was a 21 year old reserve from Arsenal. He should really be on the bench for us as well, when he's not playing well he should be replaced. But Longstaff's not the answer either, we really should have a genuine midfielder of international quality playing first choice.

I was at that game and those stats don't seem to reflect what I saw. His shooting was abysmal, but he was trying to create spaces and put people in, either with a pass or sometimes a dummy. Joelinton looked a lot worse on the day, he was giving the ball away, and not so successful at winning the ball as usual.