Shak

If the 8v8 isn't too cramped I'd lean three games.

Aye if we go for just two games each this seems better, surely?

How big is the pitch? Is 8v8 gonna be cramped or fine?

If you ain't white, you ain't right.

If Mode shows up and fucks this for me it'll be the last straw.

White power!!

Burn is well capable of doing a job as a squad member. Backup CB and emergency LB. Issue is, we've just given Kelly a long term contract and he seems to be the exact same thing.

Good post.

Can't really fault him for anything today. Suppose you could argue based on what we saw that Almiron starting ahead of Murphy might have been a better call, Miggy looked sharp and tried to get on the ball I thought. We controlled that game for the majority of the 90 minutes and had the penalty gone on I'm fairly confident we close it out without much issue. Today was a consequence of what we did in the summer. Or didn't do, more accurately. Some of which is Eddie's responsibility. We have three really good front players in Gordon, Barnes and Isak. The drop off on quality after them is absolutely immense. A past it striker whose body is gone, a raw kid who they clearly don't think is ready to play and two wingers who offer work rate and almost nothing in the way of quality on the ball. There's not a team in the Premier League that Jacob Murphy could start for at RW and be a real asset to his side. Had we had a player who can actually contribute something in general play there I'd expect today we'd have found a goal. There's also the issue of our midfield. We still haven't added a player with any ability to unlock a team in the final third. Tonali looks like he'll be a player, but he seems to me more like an upgrade on Joelinton. Meanwhile, we've extended Joelinton go presumably play alongside him.

Maybe an overstatement but we've had far more of a foothold in the game than any other this season. Significant improvement IMO.

We've been excellent like, controlled the game. Just lack quality, can't really start Murphy and Joelinton as two of your most advanced players and expect much in the way of quality in the final third.

Definitely thought that I'd have preferred to see Schar on it before it was taken. Was playing so well too.

God what a shite moment. Awful penalty like.

Roof closed would definitely help the noise but there's nowt quite like a good game of football in the rain.

Really looks like a barn

I'd agree that if it's at all possible we should have a stadium that has a more classic look that will age well, feels particularly important if we stay in the city centre. Full expect some sort of modern looking mehfactory but would love to be surprised.

Looks like what you'd come up with if asked to draw Megatron's anus.

Just saw the red incident, weird one. Quite a cynical foul as it appears like he slips and then just decides to take Madison down. Feel like he got that part all wrong and took him much higher up the leg than he thought he would. No massive sympathy for him as it seemed quite nasty but I don't think it should be a red.

Joelinton is an incredibly easy player to cheer for and I do think he's turned into a good Premier League midfielder who'll be a solid asset for years to come. That said, there's a decent argument to be made that moving him on last summer and replacing him with a player who's better in possession might have been the smart move when you divorce emotion from it. Tonali seems to me like he'll eventually be able to bring pretty much all of what Joelinton does to the table in terms of his presence in midfield, while having a much better eye for a pass and generally being tidier in possession. Either a player to play as the #6 and release Bruno further upfield or a more creative #8 seems like a better complement to Bruno and Tonali in my view, with those two being who I suspect we're planning to build the midfield around. This is especially true if we're trying to transition to being a bit more possession based, which the early part of the season seems to point to being the case. As much as Joelinton does bring to the team, it's hard having one of your more attack minded midfielders being someone who offers very little quality in the final third.

He's class like. Surprised by how much of a beast he is. Impressive mix of speed and power. Feel like once it all clicks he's basically gonna offer us all the good stuff that Joelinton does while also being much better in possession and a threat to create in the final third.

I think we've maybe fallen into thinking that against supposedly lesser teams we can control the game a bit more and maybe don't need the same work rate. But that's not where the strength of the players we have is. I dare say that in terms of our ability to play patient build up, possession based football we're probably in the bottom half of the table with the personnel we have. Where we have the advantage though is our physicality and how good our players are at doing things at high tempo. Joelinton and Tonali's physicality, Gordon and Willock running at defenders, Barnes' ability to quickly create half a yard of space and get a shot away. Even our limited players like Murphy and Longstaff are at their best as they're playing more of a reactive game rather than needing to be tidy in possession. We've read before that Eddie wants us to transition to a more possession based style but I just don't think we have the players for it and he needs to go back to what we're best at. If he wants to transition to being more possession based, we need to bring in players that allow us to do that next summer. Either that or build serious squad depth that allows us to rotate and play at high intensity every game.

Aye, we were much more high energy and had a go at City throughout. Had the better of it first half until they scored in terms of taking the game to the opposition and we pressed them in their own half really well.

Delighted to see him get the response from the team today, thought we were quality for the whole game really. I hope today will be the day we flip the switch. Our entire ethos as a team needs to be to do everything at break neck speed. When we sit off teams, it's easy to pick spaces between our midfield and defence. When we try to play patient football in the final third, we allow teams to settle into their shape and then don't have the players who can break that down with intricate play in the final third. Wheels up, trousers down. Press teams like we're Lou Thesz from first whistle to last.

Proper fucking game of football that.

That's fair enough, I guess what it comes down to is that I'd like to see the bar for what constitutes foul worthy contact be where it was yesterday, rather than where it generally is.