Yorkie

Do love a bit of Moyesy. Another cracking little season they're having.

That qualifies Ten Hag and Moyes on the basis of last season then. It's a made up, meaningless term that for some reason is very vogue these days. Howe is clearly a fantastic manager who's among the very best in the league.

Absurd? Surely not 'absurd'. What qualifies as elite in any case? Does it just mean Pep? Cos tbh he's the only one in the league against whom a comparison would be absurd imo. Who else in the league is streets ahead of Howe?

It seems a lot less hairbrained than the first iteration. Fewer games, promotions and relegations, significant overhauls of participants every season at the third tier. I don't necessarily hate it but obviously concede that it's built on foundations of greed and the assurance of perpetual wealth for a select few. The branding/names is obviously a total car crash. To be clear, I'm not in favour of it, and I think it's all very hypothetical because I don't see enough stakeholders wanting to ditch UEFA. But it's not the insult to football it was last time and - tbh - as someone who advocates reform at the top level, I do feel a little bit encouraged by the fact that it could happen. But agree that it would be better if it wasn't being spearheaded by some of the worst people around. My preferred idea - entirely in contradiction to my first post - would be to start by regionalising some collections of domestic leagues to increase interest, revenues and hopefully strength of those beneath the top leagues. But of course that would be entirely counter-productive to the plot of "make Real, Barca and Juve unstoppably rich forever."

Not sure what to make of it all really. The whole thing doesn't work unless everyone agrees to sack-off UEFA's competitions and I just can't picture how that happens. Putting to one side the motivations of Perez et al; I'm not particularly offended by the notion of a stakeholder trying to unsettle the status quo of European competitions. It's the domestic leagues which are truly sacred - not UEFA. If it wouldn't jeopardise the Premier League etc then the backlash is only coming from those with great affection for the Champions League etc. Personally I don't really see the need for that tournament to be safeguarded and protected by the global football public in the same way domestic leagues and pyramids should be. A pinnacle European competition is something we absolutely should have but it doesn't have to be UEFA's forever more.

What the fuck does Andy Sixsmith find so funny? Can we not just have one person covering us that isn't annoying as fuck in one way or another?

At an absolute baseline level I think a tournament like that is quite an exciting idea but it's ridiculously unfeasible. At this point it's unfair on players who are just being treated as financial assets and commodities, and whose bodies are just being expected to run around forever, constantly, until all of their muscles and tendons have snapped. That's before we consider how heavily weighted it is in favour of existing strength, undermining its USP as we inevitably end up with a mini-CL by the last 8. The tide is hardly lifting all boats if you're only contributing ones and twos from entire continents.

Pope Trippier - Schär - Botman - Burn Willock - Bruno - Joelinton Almiron - Isak - Gordon Not sure if that midfield three has ever played together in those positions, like, but those are the best three CMs in terms of talent. The reality is we've got a cracking squad with options to play all sorts of ways, when two thirds of it isn't crocked.

God only knows what we've got in the tank for this. If their games against Liverpool and Arsenal are anything to go by it's going to take a serious effort to come away with three points. It doesn't look like a particularly fun place to play as an opposition player; hemmed in by a boisterous crowd who will feel that they're due a win. I wouldn't take a draw, because we've got far superior players, but I don't think it would be a terrible result.

Vaguely recall that, aye. Obviously if that's what's best for him then that's how it should be. One of those where I've just got total faith in the individuals to play it right. They're a dream team, him and Howe.

I don't think the answer would be to ostracise him, and I'd say that even if he wasn't one of our best and most important players. If his confidence wasn't incredibly fragile before then it certainly will be now but the only way to rebuild it will be to put faith in him. If it's absolutely clear that he isn't in the right place mentally to start Premier League games (something only he and Howe will know), then fine. But if it's just football: fuck it, even the best players go through ropey spells - they don't recover by being on the bench. The mistake tonight was staggering but on his day he's arguably the best in the league. It was only a fortnight or so ago that he was on his day.

Exiting the two competitions in the way that we have - i.e. an injury time injustice and an injury time self-destruction - has been incredibly painful. But there is a glass-half-full take here and it's that the squad is going to get what it so desperately needs: a chance to breathe. 12.08-26.12: 28 games in 137 days 27.12-19.05: 20 games in 145 days (minimum, and bearing in mind the FA Cup doesn't congest the schedule in the same way Europe does). I think we can look forward to a better half of the season. Regain fitness, recruit in January, crack at the cup, crack at the European places. It'll be good.

When we won the game except for the part when the referee decided to write Mbappe (98) on his scorecard?

What's this got to do with Trippier knocking it down for Mudryk in injury time? How is it relevant?

It wasn't though. Chelsea were absolutely rubbish and barely tested us. Backs to the wall got us to 92 minutes and then Trippier shit his kegs.

it was literally won until his RB gave the ball to an attacker eight yards out.

Ropey performance but delighted to be in front and we still look dangerous; if Wilson could execute a basic through ball we'd probably be winning by a greater margin. We'll do well not to concede here but we're in a great position.

Come on then. Let's take it to em.

Matchday experience!

You can understand the appeal of wanting to rebuild Man Utd but if he goes now, barely five minutes into his current project, it would leave a pretty sour taste. If he's that talented (no reason to believe he isn't) then major opportunities will keep coming. Not to mention that he's already got one; and it would be nice if he'd consider seeing it through and having a fair crack at achieving what he was recruited to achieve.

It's on Tuesday.

Christ. Another fun visit to the forum.

Eh? Wtf are you on about?

I know, and I hope we go through. But when you consider how we fared against Man City and Man Utd with a heavily rotated side, I wouldn't necessarily bet against us even if - heaven forbid - Matt Ritchie plays instead of an utterly gassed Miggy Almiron.