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Miley got games at 17, will Sanusi get a few games? Has Howe said anything about him?

4 from this and Fulham would be good for me. That would leave us on 11 points after 5, basically on pace for 4th. We are often bad there but with Neto gone, hopefully we won’t be so vulnerable to the counter attack.

How’s he supposed to ghost in from the left if he’s playing on the right? He also assisted Gordon from the left last week and Gordon scored ghosting in from the right.

Poor decision? Barnes scored ghosting in from the left, for fuck’s sake.

Start the next match thread please.

Some absolute pussies on this forum.

Our attacking players aren’t receiving the ball close to their goal. Compare the amount of times Son has touched the ball near our area compared to Gordon or Isak. They play really good football, everyone in their midfield is comfortable with one-touch football. But just because they’re playing better football doesn’t mean we’ve been bad, Pope hasn’t had to save anything clear cut. Barnes is just lethal. He doesn’t have that elite pace but positioning and finishing are elite, easily worth £40m for these moments.

3-1, 7 points after 3 heading into the international break. Everyone gets 2 weeks to calm down and reassess the team, which is still the same as the one that came 4th and also the same one that had the 4th best goals difference last year and the team that had the 4th best xg last year. We're basically the 4th best team in the league and we'll prove it by beating Spurs on Sunday.

We had the 4th best goals difference in the league last year, which historically has been a better predictor of future success than points. By expected goals, we also finished 4th. Basically, the underlying data said we were the 4th best team in the league last year, even with all the injuries and Tonali out for the season. I honestly think there’s no reason to panic. With normal luck with injuries, we’ll finish 4th. With good luck with injuries, we’ll do better. We were quite a bit behind the top 3 if you view it from the underlying data, and Chelsea were close to us. I don’t see us finishing outside the top 5.

We scored one less goal than Liverpool in the league, we were the 4th best at goal scoring. I don’t get the clamour to upgrade the attack over the defence.

Get Guehi done. Tonali is like a new signing. That’s £100m added to the starting eleven compared to last year’s team. We’ll get top 4.

He’s going to be……. just like a new signing.

I agree with this. We’re shopping at Selfridges when we can’t afford it. Until the PSR nonsense is resolved, we need to find these gems from the lower leagues. Is Osula one? Hopefully. We can’t afford £50m for every starter, we don’t have the revenues that Man Utd do.

We're not going to write the season off. Even if we don't sign a RW, we have Gordon, Willock, Barnes and Almiron that can rotate through the 4 spots. Murphy is a good sub. If we're playing against a team sitting back, Isak can also play on the wing. Joelinton has also played higher up and done well. According to transfermarkt, in the season we came 4th, Joelinton played LW 15 games, 11 of which was in the league and he scored 4 goals. We have players who are versatile. It's about matchups. If we have a normal season with injuries, we're probably overstocked in midfield. In CM we have: Bruno, Joelinton, Tonali, Miley, Willock, Longstaff. We need to sell 1-2 players from midfield if we're going to buy, there aren't enough minutes for everyone. Last season has really colored everyone's impression of the depth of the squad, but it was a once in a generation injury crisis. We have the depth this year to change things up match to match.

Given how good Willock, Barnes and Hall looked, it feels good that we have some depth. Tonali’s back now as well, it would be nice to start dominating second halves like we did 2 seasons ago.

I’ll take a point.

LOL Joelinton

They look like they’re out of energy while we’re looking full of it.

This is one of the easiest fixtures that I can remember for a long, long time. If we start off well, we're going to by flying.

I thought Burn was bought as a center back and he was excellent there. Just because he played well at LB after doesn’t mean he should still play there. In hindsight the Hall signing was a huge mistake, we really need a natural LB.

If I think back to all the big matches in the last 20 years, the thing that sticks out is the best players make the difference. They score, they create. Sometimes it’s not a tactical thing because both teams are evenly matched, but it’s the magic that the best players can produce. We need to find someone like that to make the difference in these matches. Liverpool have Salah, City have KdB and Haaland, Barca used to have Messi etc.

The difference between us and City yesterday - besides some tactical things - is that we don’t have anyone on KdB’s level. These players make the difference in these types of matches. We don’t have anyone on that tier, yet. Isak’s close, same as Bruno, but both are a tier below.

Liverpool had a lot of injuries last year and couldn’t make up the gap when their players got back. Even with Klopp, they finished outside the CL spots. Then, they spent heavily and are now top. I hope Howe gets the same chance. Let’s see if we can get on a run when everyone’s fit, even if we finish outside the CL spots.

This is from the SBR days, man. I swear I’ve seen this match before.

Been a while since we scored from a set piece.