Shak

Would be tempted to try Wood for and go two up top, give Isak a foil to work off.

Such a tame effort man FFS.

Yes but you're seeing what the something different is. It's Almiron, Murphy and Fraser. It's a different conversation when we have some good bench options but for now unless he's injured taking him off the field is a massive subtraction.

It's completely and utterly mental to me that people ever suggest subbing him off when he's having a bad day

Increasingly baffling that we didn't get a wide player like. We've got ASM and then a bunch of players that have no business starting in this league. Fraser and Almiron are both such passengers.

I spit in the face of people who don't want to sign Kuol.

Yeah ideally we'd have half a dozen of our first team squad be similar to where Anderson is now in terms of their level as prospects. Sign young players before they become stars, occasionally splash the cash on a big name we see someone who can really make a difference.

Does sound like we'll see a lot more of this under Ashworth, signing top notch young prospects and hoping to bring them into the first team down the road. Sounds mint tbh

Seems like the fucking obvious way to show respect would be to have a minute's silence at games across the country in the two days before the official funeral, right?

Waiting all day for Sunday night!!

It's pretty bang on the nose, alright

It's absolute madness, frankly

Three and a half weeks will have passed by the time the Bournemouth game comes around. Chances he might be back for it? With two weeks before the Fulham game after that, I'd imagine he won't be risked until he's absolutely 100% ready but would be cool to see him coming on and playing alongside Isak for half an hour.

Much as I was looking forward to this on Sunday, happy to have an extra week to get ASM, Bruno and hopefully Wilson back. Obviously condolences to you guys losing your Queen and all that

In the current squad I'd probably agree with you. If Bruno is back on Sunday I'd like to see him, Joe and Longstaff as the midfield three with Longstaff sitting. Long term, nobody is suggesting him being the "destroyer" though, looking at the DM as simply a midfielder who defends is a bit antiquated. Were players like Pirlo and Modric wasted playing from deep? Not to say he can reach that level but having a player who's always ready to receive the ball and can pick a pass at will to get the ball to our attackers in good position is massively beneficial to a team, and certainly the way Howe wants us to play. Having a beast like Joelinton allows us to have a player like that without being weak in terms of ball winning in the centre of the park. Again, in the short term I'd like us to see Bruno play more advanced. We need him there with the current squad. But say by this time next year we'd signed an attack minded midfielder like Maddison and a RW like Diaby, the thought of Bruno from deep feeding an ASM, Isak and Diaby front three sounds immense to me.

Joelinton has a chance to stay in the team for a long time IMO. He's not a classic holding midfielder obviously but he's the kind of physical presence and ball winner you need in a midfield. The thing will be to have him in there with two absolutely quality footballers who we can play through. My current inclination is to leave Bruno as the sitting midfielder just running the game from deep while we get a quality AM in there in Willock's place. You could also move Bruno to the more advanced role and bring in a new DM but the key is that whoever you bring in is more of a deep sitting playmaker, not a destroyer. Joe is going to look limited when we need more of him in attack as we have the last few games with Bruno out. However, you saw him against City where he was an absolute monster. I can't see a player like that not being very useful for us for a very long time. Hoping the home game against Bournemouth we get Bruno, Joe and Anderson in midfield.

Fucking zeebs

I mean, even with a fully fit squad our three best options of the bench would probably be Almiron, Fraser and Anderson... Not exactly inspiring.

Seeing the issue with our squad depth here. Our lads are tired and barring Anderson the guys on the bench are so shite that they're a net subtraction even with fresh legs.

Tiocfaidh ár Eitleán

There's no way he wouldn't still be a better impact sub than Murphy. Just sayin

Really fucking impatient to see Bruno, ASM and Isak play together

I mean if we have five points after the next match I'll have some serious questions myself, frankly.

Think given our business in summer it's a safe bet that Isak will play off Wilson quite a bit this season. Could see it being the go to strategy against teams we're expecting to dominate and maybe having Almiron off Isak against tougher opposition... in theory, at least. I'd imagine much will depend on who's available game to game. What do you think his long term best position is though? Do you think long term we'll be looking to buy someone like Diaby to play off Isak or a top CF for Isak to play off?