STM

Gordon is like the runt of the litter. "Go on son".

Schar will play. He just loves making a fuss. Gordon will get the nod but Barnes is one hell of a sub. It's that RCM slot that's interesting. I'm now swaying towards Tonali.

Won us about 40 free kicks in the first half.

Thoughts/notes: Yep Lascelles is going to cost us goals. Richie is actually serviceable in an emergency, worked his socks off. Murphy is 10 times the player he was 2 years ago, he was class. Bruno had his swagger back. Joelinton is as good/important as Bruno. Barnes is going to score loads, him and Wilson already have an understanding. Longstaff and Tonali will be neck and neck for that midfield slot. Unbeaten in pre-season against quality opposition; Chelsea, Brighton Villa, Fiorentina and Villareal, despite having never played our strongest 11 bodes very well. Competition for places is the most I've ever seen it. Looking forward to seeing our bench vs Villa.

We don't HAVE to compare Barnes and Maddison like. We could just let Madders get on at Spurs and enjoy wor Harvey.

Yeah he's even better than I thought. He's going to score a hat full the way we play. He's got that knack of finding himself space in goalscoring areas. Also, he looked up to the pace of our game. Never looked tired.

Can't find the game. Got every bloody channel. Not happy.

Dazn spain, is that 1 2 or 3?

This is the issue though. I don't think we want "solid upgrades". Everything I've seen suggests we want to go for a potential future star.

Whilst I agree that in essence, they are "mid table" ish players, I think from a strategic point of view we don't want to be just signing players that are a slight improvement. I think we all agree that our next left back needs to be an absolute worldy and tick all of the boxes. I think it will take 40m+ and the right player to enter the market.

I agree that it's the weakest of the 11 positions but that doesn't make it WEAK and that's the distinction I'm trying to make. You can want a better left back without throwing mud around at our current players. Also, some might argue that some of our second choice players such as Lascelles are a bigger issue, should injuries arise.

They were both called "average" in a post above. Which is clear bollocks. They are good players. Also, left back is arguably the hardest position to upgrade. I've asked countless times for realistic suggestions, I've barely seen one decent one.

4th, we finished 4th. easy to forget at times.

They are both good players.

Bless. He was trying his best to make a joke at the end. Bon effort.

There was a 15 minute spell were I felt he was blowing out of his arse and doing what I call a "fake press". Where he was closing the opposition down slowly and not really putting them under pressure. However, he'd been grafting his arse off up until that point, so perhaps he was genuinely tired. I think he's doing fine. He does need that goal to settle him down. The one where he hit the post was well struck, so I can forgive him for that. He does need to stop trying to skill his way past a man when one on one. It's just not his game. Give and go, then he's dangerous.

We've only signed 2 players and one of them, Barnes, is incredibly unlikely to start. If the rest don't have a decent chemistry after last season, I'm not sure one friendly is going to change things. Howe is keeping his cards close to his chest for 2 reasons: 1. It motivates the players 2. It gives Villa something to think about.

Didn't do it last season either. Working theory is yesterday's attack, today's midfield and a mix of defence.

Also, today is the day that Bruno and Joelinton need to turn up and remind everyone why they are nailed on.

The only one I'm struggling with is the Tonali/Anderson dilemma. I think the other 10 will be obvious. What do we reckon?

He's absolutely mustard. I don't even worry when he drifts out of a game because I know that he will explode into life. The beauty is that if he's getting shut down in the centre, Howe just switches his position and the opposition isn't ready to deal with it. It's not that he's "better" in the middle or out wide, it's that the opposition players are wholly unprepared to suddenly have to shift focus when they are all knackered. Imagine having to deal with Gordon or Barnes for 70 minutes and then Isak, must be bloody heartbreaking.

He wasn't poor, he didn't do much wrong but he just didn't influence the game enough.

Seen nowt from Tonali personally.

Reet guys, SOS for a way of watching this. I have IPTV but can't find it. PM me if you have a way, even on my phone... anything.

Imagine the business we could do if we managed to wriggle Hayden, Hendrick and Fraser off the books. Must be 150k of wages there.