Shak

Aye, but the comprehensive streaming platform would be in addition to all the other deals they have. You'd still be selling games to Sky, BT and the rest because not everyone is going to want to fork out a couple of hundred quid for a yearly PL subscription but millions would. Maybe those deals would get a little smaller but they'd still be getting monstrous viewing numbers. Not like sports fans are going to ditch those channels either, unless they've no interest in any of the other sports on there. I'm not seeing it as a way to streamline things for fans like, moreso to gouge diehards for even more money

I wonder how far away we are from a Premier League streaming platform where you can just pay a yearly fee and watch any game you want, either live or on a delay.

And just to add to that, we won't be too heavily disadvantaged in terms of prep time for the West Ham game on February 4th. Our second leg semi will be on the Tuesday before while West Ham are the Monday night game in the FA Cup 4th round so only an extra 24 hours for them.

Couple of nice little scheduling breaks for us coming up. Fulham this weekend we'll have had two days extra rest and prep going onto it and then Saturday week we'll be going to Palace with a full week to get ready while they'll have had Man U the Wednesday before. Such a huge opportunity coming up with Man U and Liverpool entering tough runs of fixtures while we have four very winnable games. Obviously there are no easy fixtures but 9 or 10 points from our next four fixtures is very doable and would likely have us in a very nice spot with no European football (and only one potential cup game... which we'd manage to pay some attention to I'm sure) to distract in the run-in. Feels fucking nostalgic being excited about the future, haven't been this excited since the peak Bobby years.

I'll have to turn my phone off for weeks if we lose a final to Man U. That's about half my friends just getting cut out completely, the gloryhunting cunts

Forest like us will also have no game in between the two legs which will help them. Still fancy Man Utd over the two legs.

Be great if we played Wednesday first week then Tuesday second week. Makes it even tighter for Southampton with the game in between. Gives us an extra day before West Ham in the league too.

Are both of the games on Wednesday? Southampton having the FA Cup fixture in the middle is nice, they'll rest players you'd assume but it'll take focus off the 2nd leg.

What time is the draw?

Not sure what I want in the draw. Think there's definitely a case to be made that Man U over two legs might be better than a one off game.

Not sure there's enough quality on the ball between Willock and Joelinton to be a long term pairing in LCM and LW. Not where we're hoping to go, anyway. I think we'd struggle to break teams down. Maybe if we were to get someone like Maddison in alongside Bruno in CM it could work.

Maybe Joelinton is actually left footed? Such a cool finish.

Would be such an incredible upgrade

Almiron is on it today.

If the ref knew it was a head injury why did he wait until Leicester lost the ball?

Absolutely brilliant from Almiron. Longstaff man, such a clogger.

Is Moukoko an out and out striker or could he play wide in a front three? Would love a left footer who can play either as a striker or on the right.

If we do make a big name signing out of the blue I'd expect it'll be someone that we've been linked with in the past. Isak and Botman had both been linked before so we do seem to have long term targets in mind and then make our move when the opportunity arises. Diaby or Maddison would certainly fit that description and either would be a massive addition. I suspect the discussion right now is around potentially moving forward some of the money earmarked for summer recruitment and trying to get them in now and spending more modestly in summer if necessary. Yesterday must have been a pretty stark illustration of how bad our squad is beyond the first dozen or so players. I obviously hope we do move that money forward and sign a couple of quality players but I suspect they'll only do so if it's one of their primary targets and if the price is one they feel comfortable with.

Me too? Have said for a while my ideal signing would be a left footed right winger who is comfortable playing as a striker too. Not sure who though.

Think one midfielder and someone like João Pedro and I'd be happy. Some youngsters signed with an eye on the future would be great too but in terms of players who are going to play a lot we need two or else we're going to have to be incredibly lucky with injuries. I'd prefer Maddison and leave Bruno as a 6 but I'd be happy with Tielemans too. Pedro is actually an excellent shout because I believe he can play as a striker or out wide? Would reduce the chances of seeing Wood play significant minutes. Bruno, Joelinton, Tielemans/Maddison as the three first choice midfielders. Willock and Longstaff backups. Five players for three spots. ASM - Wilson - Miggy front three with Isak and Pedro in contention too. Again, five players for three spots. In reality, Isak will almost certainly be first choice sooner rather than later but there'll be more than enough game time for all five of those when you consider the injury history of some of that group and how physically demanding these roles are with the way we play.

Fairly confident Joelinton at LW is not going to be the plan. Maybe the odd away game against really strong teams where we want to set up more defensively but that'll be it IMO. He's only getting games there because ASM and has been injured and we've had no other options with Isak injured and Murphy being awful when he gets on the pitch IMO. That paired with Longstaff emerging as someone who can do a decent job in CM has meant that Joe on the left made some sense. We missed him a lot in CM against Arsenal IMO. He was a huge part of why we were able to go blow for blow with Man City earlier in the season IMO, just a relentless presence in the middle of the park. If I had to guess I'd say the plan was possibly for ASM on the left and Ritchie in CM yesterday before Maxi came down I'll. Although if there's anything to the rumours that ASM was angry that he wasn't starting then maybe not.

If we could get a couple of CM options in I'd love to see him used more as a winger, at least in the short term to move Murphy down the pecking order.

Just noticed that if we do win and make the semi final we won't have a game between the two legs. Semi final would be January 25th and February 1st. The weekend between those two fixtures is FA Cup 4th round. Would be huge to have the week to prepare and make sure everyone is fresh.

He'll carve out a nice career for himself if he avoids injury but I'll be amazed if he ever plays much for us given where we're expected to operate in the coming years. We're all excited because he looked good in the fourth tier of English football last year. A product of our fanbase as a whole being absolutely starved of quality coming from our academy for so long. There's way too much expectation on him when in reality I don't think he should be seen as quite an exciting a prospect as he is. He's not even that young.

Spent all evening thinking about this post. Wood and Murphy are absolute garbage and if they play significant minutes in the run-in we'll not finish top four IMO.