TRon

Osula should be hitting that firs time.

I know it's only Qarabag but would be nice to see Tonali break past players like he did for the first goal and a bit later on as well. Opens the defence right up.

I think Quarabag will employ a low block this time so hope the fans are patient when the stand-in players don't rattle in 3 before half time.

It's so weird.

Osula needed a run out anyway, no need for Neave. But we should have been able to take Tonali and Trippier out of the side and give them a rest tbh. Not that surprising though, Howe always wants to be sure.

He'll be rested today. Now whoever comes in as striker will have to score at least two otherwise they'll be called worse than shit.

We just managed that game disastrously tbh, we were 1-0 at home against 10 men, but we still managed to give him acres of space twice to run in on goal.

Eddie is going to do what's best for the team, but you could understand if Woltemade was a bit apprehensive how it will be viewed in Germany.

He was pretty wank before joining them from what I remember.

Their balloon is definitely deflating, I just hope we aren't going to pump the air back in when they come to St James.

I would imagine bench duty then.

We might just have to bite the bullet and sell some of our summer 2025 signings at a loss to fund replacements who are fit for purpose. Those guys still have the rest of the season to show they can fit the bill, there won't be the same pressure to make UCL qualification in the remaining games because that's probably already gone.

The defence in general seemed to be exposed a lot at times yesterday, City players were flying through massive gaps because most of our players were caught too far forward. It was a very open game in general.

Burn still got booked and could have potentially been sent off for shirt pulling after that. I just pointed that out, I didn't say Burn had a bad game.

Thought Haaland exposed him for pace a couple of times and the booking was a good example. Also felt that Burn needing to grab his shirt to keep him in check showed what a struggle it was against Haaland's pace, so theoretically he could have been sent off for a second yellow. Burn's a great defender, but like Trippier, his lack of pace will cost us on occasions.

Similar to shirt pulls inside the penalty area. If refs actually awarded pens for them it would soon stop.

Murphy is shite as well. We've just made a massive mistake with Elanga. If he cost £25m it would have been forgiveable, but over £50m for someone who's first touch depends on what side of the bed he woke up on?

Gordon was probably a contender for our MOTM today even though he didn't have any impact on the score. Howe vindicated in starting him as striker I suppose, although what that says about our actual strikers is a bit of an indictment.

Was absolutely baffled that they didn't even show a replay of the handball, even from a distance it looked like a good shout. The push on Burn not getting called up by VAR was just par for the course these days. When even a dimwit tv commentator can spot it but the experts in the VAR box pretend it hasn't happened that tells you everything. Personally I don't blame VAR, just the shit referees who are implementing it.

Just seen that Barnes isn't starting so it might be Howe feels he needs a left winger so Gordon would play there.

I'm hearing this but is there any reason why we think Woltemade will be back up top? I would have thought after midweek Gordon will be flying.

It would be a consolation anyway. Obviously we'd all much rather win or even get a point. I can't understand the idea of throwing kids into this one, we have a dead rubber against Carrierbag in a few days, play them in that one if we really need to.

I think we have a big enough squad now to try to win most games tbf.

Ok I see that. My idea of a free hit was more along the lines of being 2-0 down going into the second leg of the Carabao Cup at the Etihad. I think Howe still didn't see it that way.

He's never going to be another Joelinton man, he's not got the physique for it. He'll eventually be reverted to a striker of some sort, probably similar to how he's used for his national side.