Shak

Don't really care about not bringing on subs personally. I'm all in on the FA Cup this year. More worrying for me is that we looked absolutely shite tonight against what was largely a backup Fulham team. A lot of blaming of fatigue for our away performances this year but after a two week break we still looked exactly as we have done all season. Delighted we're through of course but have come away from that feeling a bit flat.

Be class if we just won the cup playing like absolute shite in every game and snaking shite wins.

We have a few players that are weak links when pressed and nobody in our midfield can beat a man and break the line. Also, for as good as he is in general play, Isak isn't a good outlet if we go direct. Net result is that it's pretty safe to press us aggressively as we've no real answer for it.

Would love to see a young CB brought in this summer that can also be second choice RB.

Someone saying he would need to dislodge the likes of Foden and Grealish to get game time. Is he maybe more of a RW option? Left footed too.

And YOOOOUUUUUUUUU This Sesko's on fire!

If Bayern are after him then it's going to be hard for him to not really want the move tbh. Genuine chance to win the CL, you'd have to think. And right in the hunt for a Bundesliga title or two over the next couple of years or however long he goes there. Couldn't really blame him.

Aye, it's definitely not been encouraging what we've seen from him thus far. Hopefully it's just a case of him getting up to speed and he'll be able to play a bit more, particularly if we do sell Trippier. Selling Trippier and maybe the likes of Wilson or Almiron would to me signal a bit of a commitment to a small rebuild, moving out older players and bringing in younger ones. If Hall still isn't getting game time in that scenario then it will be quite concerning, given that we're seemingly locked in to paying 30m for him in the summer.

You'd hope we'll start playing Hall at LB soon enough, or at least be comfortable with him backing up Burn. If Trippier does go I think Tino at LB is gonna be as thing of the past, he'll be first choice RB and rightly so. And yeah, of course both of them could get injured but that applies to our options at any other position too, surely?

Tino first choice with Krafth backup is better than our options in a lot of other spots IMO. If we do sell Trippier and a couple of others, I'd much prefer the money be spent on other spots than better RB depth behind Tino.

Christ, I feel genuinely bad for you lads who have been watching football all your lives and think just coming out and going hell for leather at them in the second half with no subs was an option More good than bad to take from that IMO, we looked genuinely good on the break and had numerous chances to score. I know both our goals were absolute worldies but so were all of there's to undo us. Really can't wait until we have subs again.

You can't just substitute some words out and replace them with Isak and expect it to not be shite.

Aye, this is it basically Would be fine with wages having to be part of FFP rules but there's no good reason that clubs who have the resources to do so shouldn't have the option to put future wages in escrow if they choose to do so.

It's not really fair after what he's done for us but I do think he's going to come under pressure if we lose and look shite on Saturday. We can sit here and be reasonable all we want but a huge section of the fanbase is not going to take a loss to Sunderland well at all and the grumbling we're hearing now is going to morph into quite a few people turning on him and making the next few months less than comfortable. A huge part of the last two years has been the really positive vibe Howe has built around the club. Players seem like a great group of lads, we've been good to watch and competitive in every game... results have been good. This feels like the first time that's really started to turn a bit. We've lost 5 of our last 6 games and we've played like absolute shite in all of them. Yeah, there are mitigating circumstances. But they don't excuse just how bad the last month has been. It was always going to happen eventually, Howe's first mini crisis. Players don't look happy, fans are starting to grumble. The injury crisis seems to be getting worse rather than better. Desperately need a win on Saturday, I still think Eddie can manage this team to the top but the margins are fine and he needs to arrest this slide. Fast.

Last few minutes have been a good example of the gulf in quality on the ball between their players and the vast majority of ours. They work a beautiful goal in tight spaces to take advantage of an opportunity. One of our players blasts the ball aimlessly into the stands from a similar spot. Another falls over because he knows he can't take advantage of a good position.

We have a number of players who haven't got the technical ability and passing to keep the ball when pressed the way Liverpool are getting after us.

If we do sign Gallagher I'd honestly be pretty concerned about the long term vision for how we want to play. Actually think Gallagher is pretty decent but he's basically an upgrade on Longstaff but not as good as what we hope Tonali will be for us. I remember in summer there was talk that Howe wants a midfield of three players who are all all-rounders rather than players who fill different roles. While that all sounds very exciting and dynamic in theory I don't know how easy to implement it's going to be. Any examples of midfield threes who've operated like that?

Away to Brentford last year we went 4-2-3-1 after half time and Bruno and Joelinton absolutely bossed it and we turned that game around. I'm also not sure why Miley, who has consistently risen to every challenge that's come his way, is such a guarantee to fail as part of a two man midfield either. All seems pretty irrelevant anyway. The last month has shown us that Eddie isn't going away from 4-3-3 even in a crisis. If our whole squad gets and stays fit then we probably have enough on the wings to get by for the rest of the season but long term only Gordon and Barnes are good enough IMO, whereas in midfield I think we've plenty of players who are going to be here and play a lot in the coming seasons. I'd agree that the ideal signing for us would be someone who can play all across the front line, though.

See mine!

Miley looked well able to play in Bruno's position away to Dortmund and could play alongside him too. Joelinton has also played alongside Bruno in a two man midfield when we've gone 4-2-3-1 and looked good there. Think it's a bit bizarre to be focused on bringing in a backup option to our best player rather than trying to improve the weakest parts of the first team.

I think Gordon and Barnes rotating at LW is the plan for the future. Think that'll be quality too, frankly. RW is by far the weakest position in our strongest eleven. We've got two options there in Almiron and Murphy who are both decent backups for a top half team, we desperately need someone better. Raphinha or Olise would be my top options, though not sure either of those are realistic. But that type of player would add so much to us.

We've put in a couple of years of playing nice with FFP, would very much like for it to go away so we can compete on something of a level playing field with the top teams. Wouldn't like to see us go and do what Chelsea have done, simply because it seems unlikely to succeed. But we clearly needed a couple more players last summer and had we been able to bring them in our season would likely have looked a lot different so far.

Allegedly Tripper has gone off the rails and bummed several members of the first team squad. Between hurt feelings and damaged anuses there are likely to be some more absences in the upcoming games.

Smith Rowe would be an interesting one for me, think a creative player that can play as one of the CMs or as one of the wingers depending on the opposition/situation is something that would add so much to our team. Maddison and Szoboszlai both would have fit the bill so there seems an interest in adding a player of that description. The obvious concern is his injury record, we've shown with Tino we're willing to take punts on young players that are working their way back though.

At this point I'd actually really like to see us sign Phillips on loan just to see how our midfield looks with a more traditional DM sitting in front of the defense. Allow us to be a bit more aggressive pushing both our full backs forward in attack, no more of the whole Burn becoming a LCB when we're in possession thing. Also a chance to see how Bruno looks as a #8, operating further up the field. I have doubts about his athleticism for the role but also think there's the potential for him to give us some more ability on the ball in the final third so I'd really like to see it for a bit. If it all looks good then bring in a true DM in summer, be it Phillips or someone else. If not, Bruno goes back there to start next season.