Shak

Gonna keep banging the drum for us to view Elanga primarily as a LW competing with Barnes going forward and buy a ball playing leftie for the RW spot (or two, ideally). We really desperately miss having a wide player who is a bit of a #10 in one of the wide spots. Almiron’s issues with his final ball were pretty severe but his interplay with Bruno and Trippier did serve us well. We been linked with anyone at all that fits that description or we gonna persevere with trying to recapture that lighting in a bottle right footed RW setup we had with Murphy and Isak?

I like how you have seemingly put massive thought into it and then specifically decided against it

@Ameritoon watch your letterbox, mate.

I mean there was still a decent bit of time left and the ref has had to blow it up because they wouldn’t get off the pitch. Looked like there were some knackers getting physical with Hearts players and all. There is an argument that result shouldn’t stand, surely?

And no invite for your old pal Shak? I see how it is.

Off the pitch you gimps.

Some absolutely grim football here all the same, even given the moment

Gets brought on in the 88th minute when they’re 3-0 up and gets to lift the trophy.

I think as an Irish person I’m supposed to be happy about this but it’s shite like.

God winding you up about this for years is gonna be class.

It was fuck.

Was a clear interception and all.

Your hatred for him seems to have softened, sad to see.

Relieved. We are definitely at a point where you could very much justify moving on from him, but he has so very thoroughly earned a bit of patience and a chance to go at it again with a better summer window behind him than the disaster we had this season. Hopefully one takeaway from this season has been that if he is going to continue to succeed here then he needs to be able to trust and work with someone who leads recruitment. If we start hearing reports at some point that he and Wilson are clashing over targets then it might just be a case that he isn’t cut out for managing a big club with the ambitions we have. There is far too much to do for one man, he needs to be allowed to focus on what he does best while allowing other people to do the things he struggles at. Noises seem positive regarding summer, much bigger pool of targets and sounds like everyone pulling in the same direction. Looking forward to a refreshed squad and a hopefully rejuvenated Eddie.

Would love to lads but gonna have to keep the powder dry until the autumn meet and up and game, wife has gone mental on the home renovations Actually wouldn’t be able to play at the moment anyway, I think. Been out injured for a few weeks and doesn’t seem to be getting any better so could be a while yet Definitely got it pencilled in for October or whenever the Lockwood Cup is this year though.

Damn right.

Can’t give the ball away stupidly and then get sent off for a reckless challenge if you’re gonna have hair like that.

Don’t love that, honestly. This is the most winnable tournament we’re left in and I feel that’s quite a vulnerable lineup. Still, nice for Willock and Osula to get chances after their good efforts on Wednesday. Hopefully we give them all ther can handle tonight!

Eddie will coach him up to the point that he will be a decent contributor but it does feel a bit like the battle is to make him a serviceable player, which given how desperate we were for a quality RW and the money we spent is very disappointing. He looks like a promising youth player, not someone we spent years looking at and bought to be our first choice RW. It’s his first touch and ball control in tight spaces that has been the most disappointing thing, for me. Everything looks like it’s a massive struggle to just get and keep the ball under control. Feel like if he looked better in that regard and it was just the decision making that wasn't clicking for him I’d be less worried but again he just looks like he needs more time on the ball than he is ever going to get at this level.

His positioning was off on the first, it’s well hit but he’s showing too much of the near post to O’Reilly. It’s nothing massively egregious though.

We were really good there, could have got something there and would have been well deserved. Just ran out of impetus really as we just don’t quite have the quality off the bench. Cup game against these should be a good one.

Be shocked and a bit disappointed if it’s anything other than Gordon up front. We struggle enough away from home against weaker teams with Woltemade leading the line trying to hold it up long enough for the midfield to get up in support. Against a team like City who will pin us back that’ll only be exacerbated. Gordon and Elanga gives us a real threat on the break, Willock left should give him some opportunities as a ball carrier too.

It’ll require some top play from Wissa over the next couple of seasons for him to be looked at as a good buy, the whole point of getting him over a promising young player was that he wouldn’t need a season to get up to speed like a raw, younger player with a bit more potential and the ever exciting resale value you love to see in a signing. Mitigating circumstances with the injury and all that of course, but best case scenario seems to be we’ll have spent huge money on a solid PL player who is about to be on the wrong side of 30 and likely falling off in terms of quality. A cracking season next year where he is the difference between us making or missing the CL would basically cover it, mind you. I do wonder if he’ll even be seen as the first choice striker going into next season though.

It’s made such a difference to us on the ball just having the threat of pace in behind, and obviously the speed with which he presses without the ball is fantastic. The concern with him at CF is that he hasn’t been a great finisher so might not score as much as you’d want from your lone striker, hopefully having Woltemade in that LCM position will offset that though as you’d expect he should be able to chip in with more goals from that spot than Joelinton or any of the other midfielders who have played that spot have managed to do.