Memphis

Let's just go ahead and say, brilliant to get a point at Milan. Excellent result. Better second half but obviously that's a low bar to clear. Improvements are needed in quality but certainly we showed great resilience.

It's slightly annoying that some people seem to get annoyed with those of us who think we should be playing a bit better than this. Milan is a good side, of course, but we have no organization in midfield, no link between lines, no thrust up front, and we look well off the pace when they counter. Irrespective of the scoreline, the performance has been lacking.

Miracle to get to the half at 0-0. Need a rethink in midfield. Honestly I'd try Miley in for Longstaff. Need something to help Bruno get forward. Longstaff is wasting possession. Might consider moving Trippier left and bringing in Tino for Burn. Burn looks very very vulnerable.

Except the 5 or so clear cut chances

Leao's move was absurdly good and then just plain absurd at the end

Come on Sean man you've worked hard to get to this stage, don't pull that shit

Milan just look like they're laying in wait, then they burst through our midfield and get decent chances. We're really struggling to link the defence with the midfield, too many long and wasteful balls. Not playing with much pace. Bruno as a 6 is a waste.

We need a real 6 so so bad

I'll take it

Such a subdued performance. Very little energy.

Apropos of nothing, Barcelona have started 16-year-old Lamine Yamal ahead of players like Raphinha - and they've won (he played incredibly in his first match and meh in his second). Miley isn't Yamal-level or anything but it's not unheard of for a player of his age to be playing regularly in the top flight. Given our midfield continuity and meshing issues, it wouldn't be crazy to see how and if Miley could fit in.

All about mentality. Howe's mentality and his players'. We tried to play it as if we were a confident, veteran-filled European power and just ease to a 1-0 win while not overexerting our players, and we are not capable of that. That decision is on Eddie. And it isn't the first time we've tried to manage a game rather than dominate it. Our players - bar Tonali and Bruno - are energy warriors, pressing, running, hounding. Their strengths are not in elegant passing and game control. We played away from our strengths when facing 10. And the subs were all wrong. Again, also on Eddie. The players, though, don't escape blame. Really poor decision making in the final third, a real lack of drive, and a lack of composure -except for Gordon - at the end. Bruno is such a good player but he does seem to struggle to pick the right moments for his tricks. He put us under real pressure a few times and was at fault for their winner. Miggy, again, running for days but lacking the ability to anything other than his two tricks in the final third. Barnes, what was that? And defensively, we remain susceptible to elite speed. We are obviously a good team and will win plenty. But it's comparatively easier to go from 17th to 4th than it is to stay in that elite zone year on year. We are learning the mental lessons now, and it's a painful lesson.

I clarified things a bit later on in the thread, but it's also worth considering that Krafth, Manquillo, Ritchie, Dummett, Hendrick, and a few others will all be out of contract. Were we not to renew any of those five, that would be around 14 million off the wage bill. Now, we wouldn't have access to all of that, but certainly some - and we would have signifcantly improved commercial revenue for next year to help balance it out, so I don't think it's outlandish at all to make that suggestion.

Back of the envelope math tells me that if, as has been reported, Lascelles and Fraser are each on about 40,000 weekly, that's a total of 4.2 million this year. Reducing that number and adding on a fee (let's say 8 million just as an example) balances your books to the tune of 12.2 million. If the incoming player were to cost 40 million and sign a 5 year contract, that would be 8 million this year on transfer fee, and would allow us to sign him to a deal worth 80,000/week, which is what Barnes supposedly came in on. So we may choose not to do it that way, but those deals alone theoretically could open up another big signing for us.

He's not let us down, but he's also quite limited. We're trying to play with more speed and more technique from the back and he hasn't shown the ability to do that. He's a very solid traditional centre back but I suspect we want, and will need, more as we try to maintain elite status. Nothing against him personally.

I agree completely that Lascelles has been superb for the club off the pitch and a great example of character and leadership. That would be missed. On the pitch, not so much. But a fee in the range of 8-10 million would allow us to spend 2x or 3x that in FFP terms, so if his transfer were to happen, bringing in a player like Tapsoba could potentially be back on this window. Would be a big win for us.

Honestly, this is why I prefer when players don't get heavily involved in social media. There's nothing good that can come of it. It's human nature but he's ignoring the 99% of posts that are positive to highlight the 1% dumbass. I think we all do it. Look at the posts on here that get the most response, more often than not it's some shit post from some complete dimwit. Not to excuse the rank stupidity of NUFC360 here, by the way, just desperate for interaction. I hope Bruno can get the validation he clearly needs somewhere other than social media, because it's not going to do him any good to doomscroll Twitter.

That was a perfectly fine performance from us. We had a couple of good chances that we squandered. You don't get more than that. We held them reasonably under control. Nothing much to be concerned about here.

And I'll say this - Trippier has been immense tonight. He takes some stick from time to time but he's been brilliant tonight.

Anderson has been good so far. Looks like we've played a little rope-a-dope here. Certainly a promising last 15 minutes.

We're being treated with respect, they're up for it and have us well-scouted. Player for player, they're better than us at virtually every position so we have to hope for them to make mistakes. They haven't. And I might consider taking Almirón off, moving Gordon right, bringing Wilson on and playing Isak left. Might give us a bit more threat. We really need Joe's size and combativeness, so he needs to step things up a bit. Barnes in for Gordon at 60 minutes, let's see what that can do. Ultimately it's all likely to be for naught.

I will say this is where Almirón is exposed. He has two moves on the ball, the pass back to Bruno looking for the one-two, or the incessant dribble across the top of the box. Very predictable against the very best in the world. We could use a lot more guile and craft on that right side.

It's funny how quickly people forget - this City team did this exact thing, maybe worse, to fucking Real Madrid last year. They're switched on for us, they're treating us like the big team we are, and it's tough to deal with. This is less about us than them.

We're a little timid but honestly they're just much better. Not much else to say. If we sell out and press insanely hard, we're going to run out of energy. They're just ruthless and are quicker in thought than we are. I don't think we've been all that bad, just not at their level.

Great preparation for the Champions League. Has the feel of going up against a giant in the away leg of a knockout tie. They're just on a different level at the moment.