TRon

I sort of agree with this. I feel maybe he could have done better on the second one, but the criticism is a little harsh. Pretty sure if the defenders weren't blocking his sightline he would have saved the second one. I would like to see him coming out and catching the high crosses, but that's also a criticism of Pope as well this season.

He was raging after that injury time equaliser. Absolutely going off on one.

Then the only way to regularly get 70k into the new ground would be lower ticket prices in a decent chunk of the new stadium. Maybe the extra bums on seats would pay for the expansion, even if it still won't be the equaliser for cartel clubs who build similar size stadiums and charge more.

You could say the same for Joelinton tbh. He does give the ball away a few times but the easy option would be just to keep passing it backwards. Instead he tries to get a hold of it, manouevre it into some space before releasing a ball forwards into space. I think only Bruno has the quality to do that regularly from all our midfielders.

Well I was factoring in that sustained success would see our fanbase grow globally, so yes the crowds would get a boost from tourists. I know plenty of fans will groan at that, but it's part of being a top club these days. The prices of tickets are going to price quite a few of our local fanbase out, probably the sort we need in the stadium if we want to keep the atmosphere, so ideally prices would be lower in some parts of the ground at least. But how do you square that with competing financially with the cartel clubs in the PL juggernaut these days? I would imagine their ticket pricing will be set quite a bit higher than ours even now.

Said exactly that in the Howe thread.

I'm a bit concerned about some clumsy touches, but he's shown some glimpses of what he could do once we settle into a style of play. Saw it mentioned on Loaded Mags that Wissa might bring the best out of him as well, and I thought that was a good point.

It's a lot easier to succeed when your expectations are survival. A bit like Thomas Frank at Brentford compared to Frank at Spurs. Sunderland are well organised and hard to beat. Beyond that there's not much to them.

You can't keep putting it down to coincidence or bad luck. Something is going wrong, and we don't seem any closer to identifying and fixing it.

Don't think Ramsey's pulled up any trees when he's come on either tbf. At least Joelinton gives you the physical presence, Ramsey gives off more Willock vibes.

Don't think it was the worst idea to sit back and protect the lead, but we just aren't very good at doing it these days. We usually defend ok, but when we get possession, we hand it straight back. It doesn't matter how good your defence is, if the opposition get the chance to keep battering at the door, eventually it will cave in.

I think we could fill a 70k stadium, but to do it, we would need to be challenging for trophies and qualifying for CL every year. We need to be one of the elite PL clubs, and until we have a top 4/5 squad, we can't really expect that. Any owner who is going to fund a stadium for 70/80k punters would need to see a clear path to getting to the elite status within the next few years. I am not sure with current spending restrictions there is one.

I might be wrong, but I think Romero dragged Thiaw down in the build up so that might be why he was stood so close to Burn when Romero wheeled away into space before launching that shite bicycle kick.

Spot on that like. We give up possession so easily, but I guess part of that will be down to us trying to play the ball out and either our shape is wrong, or the players aren't up to it.

You see what you have been missing when he comes on like.

He's not going to make for great compilation reels, he is mostly a safe passer, and he doesn't really carry the ball much. He does the basics well and gets rid of the ball before anyone gets near him, which is good, but at the same time, that often just puts the onus on the player receiving the pass to do something with it.

Oddly enough I thought Miley was actually an asset for us with his height, he won a fair few in the air, although I didn't think he had the best game with the ball on the floor. Very cautious mostly although that meant his passing stats will be decent.

He seems to have picked that up from Thiaw who has brought that to our play this season with great effect. I quite enjoyed it when it was coming off and thought this is a positive effect that Thiaw has brought to our game, but if it goes wrong it can be disastrous.

He's summed it up pretty well tbf.

I actually thought Hall had a half decent game. He was up against Kudus who I thought was outstanding going forwards and surprisingly decent defensively as well. Joelinton did give the ball away a few times, but he was usually trying to turn us around and get them facing their own goal so I give him some leeway for that. It's a lot easier just passing the ball sideways and backwards putting your defenders under pressure.

I was a bit concerned he was the one coming off tbh. We really missed his bite and recovery pace in the centre.

He also lost the ball trying to ping the ball forward a couple of times. I don't mind that so much, it can open up the game for our attackers when it comes off. Miley gives it away less, but he plays the safe passes mostly.

Howe kept him on to give added protection for Lewis against Kudus IMO. Which he did very well for the most part. Defensively he was very important today even though that stuff doesn't get noticed as much.

Well Rod, as true supporters we don't have much choice but to get behind Ramsdale for a few weeks now. It works both ways.

I don't know like. Minteh looks....well...mint every time I see him. There's threat every time he gets the ball, he has bad intent. You can see he's going to be a player.