Yorkie

I've predicted defeats more often than wins recently but I've got a great feeling ahead of this. I'm absolutely convinced we reigned it in against Man City to some extent and that would be a means to an end. I think we'll do em. Whether it's enough over two legs, not sure, but we beat them at St James'. Can't wait.

Think we'll leave it there, man. I don't really know why you can't discuss it without being a complete arse.

Well like I said I don't want to put a number on it because there's more ways to measure output than basic stats, though clearly more goals and more assists is required. 'Acceptable' is regularly making a positive contribution to the team. He hasn't done that enough this season; you're probably counting on one - maybe two - hands the rules he's done that this season, which clearly isn't anywhere near enough for a first-teamer. I don't think I've continuously appealed for people to overlook the fee, unless I've forgotten. This discussion has existed over the last couple of days. He'll always judged against the fee - aye fair enough I guess. What I'm saying more than anything is that he's getting more pelters than he's actually due, on the basis of the fee, so maybe it needs putting to one side in the interests of being objective about his performances, and in the interests of being supportive of the players rather than calling them useless cunts when they're probably not really.

He contributed absolutely nothing positive last night but in fairness to him we were absolutely finished as a force long before he entered the pitch. He just joined the group of knackered players who were chasing shadows. Disclaimer: I know he's been a disaster, just not sure you can put much stock in last night.

I don't want to put numbers on it but for a start I'd expect him to deliver more assists in the event we sign a better striker (or Wissa dramatically improves to the extent he's capable of being first choice). More goals too. I just believe that the talent is there; we've only seen glimpses but he has the capacity to frighten defenders, no doubt about it for me. All sass aside, that's why I think - at some point - you've just got to forget about the fee or at least don't view every action he does through the lens of the fact we've overspent. He's on a hiding to nothing in that case because we can probably all agree he isn't gonna justify the price tag. But he can still be good for us.

Alright, I'll rephrase it to put it closer to the point I was making: I think he'll have a good season next season.

Surprised he's called it the biggest game in our history; think that's a bit of a stretch but I loveb knowing that he's obviously extremely fired up. Cos the team will be too. Will be absolutely massive if we win, and dreamland if we win well. Not like him to have this eyes on future games but he clearly has here.

Really putting your neck on the line with that prediction I wasn't trying to be bold! Come and join me in the faith, man. It beats cursing the summer outlay all the time. We've seen worse players redeem themselves at this club.

It's not blind though; he's improving slowly. He's definitely not a useless cunt anyway; that's really harsh. I'd put money on him having a much better season next season.

Deleted my post cos I figured I probably couldn't be arsed with the scrap but clearly too late. Big night for you, matey! Even Wissa made an appearance. You've only really had scraps to feed on so far this week but tonight I'm sure you greedily gorged on the 'the summer transfer window was shit' offerings. 😉 Mind you I thought Elanga's performance matched the team's really; good for 30 mins and invisible for the rest. Ps. The 'allowed to' thing is and always has been a very melty way to carry on.

Of course it was, but we've been out of that since early Feb. Please let's not debate whether or not we should've tried to win the trophy we won last year...

I'm not guessing at all, he literally said it in his post-match interview on TNT.

Why?

Such a frustrating argument to be having. We've got issues beyond the fact that the schedule is insane, but the schedule is nevertheless insane. Denying it's impact is absolutely stupid. He selected the team against Qarabag because he thought we needed to get the run of home games off to a good start and didn't have many rotation options beyond throwing academy players in, which would've undermined the main objective.

We go at them for more than 30 minutes, that's for sure.

That's not even true and (unbelievable that this would need saying) a piece of piss game, early in the season, where we coast to victory against an EFL side without breaking sweat is hardly going to break the squad. It's the intensity of CL > PL > FAC against top 3 team carousel that's doing it.

I think if we'd got an easier draw, we win and by the time the quarter-final rolls around, we're only looking at domestic matches and maybe we go hell for leather for the cup. For the first time that I can recall, it really felt like we had one eye on the next game here. He clearly picked a side he thought could trouble the opposition enough to make the breakthrough - which we did - it was always gonna be a case of, would that be enough. The full-back subs were clearly premeditated; give Trippier a rest after an hour and then fine Tino some minutes before the end. By that logic you can probably extend that to all of the other subs and so the focus was never 100% on this game. So to go back to my original point; against a lesser team we might just get away with that approach. Annoyingly Man City were brilliant once their tails were up and blew us away.

Meh whatever. Out as soon as the draw was made. I guess the idea was to try and get it won in half an hour and then take the foot off the gas. Sadly they were just too good for that. Can't really figure out what the plan was in terms of getting back into the game but, for the first time I can really recall, we really did seem to have an eye on the game to come. I think we could've beaten a lesser team today but we got the worst opponent possible. Just rotten luck.

I think it would be the first time in Howe's career that he's not tried to win a game. We're just in between a rock and a hard place with this schedule. Something was always gonna give this week.

The full-back subs have all seemed very much pre-planned. Howe said yesterday Tino hadn't even trained with the team so no surprise he's only got a few mins.

If they're not up to it, yes and yes.

And that's going so well It's going better than throwing a lamb to the slaughter.

Well obviously. Shahar is an academy player and it's literally the best team in the land we're playing.

Trippier clearly had to come off of he's gonna go yet again against Barcelona.

Ref's having a nice time at least