wormy

Go on Tino.

Oh, Bruno.

I consider tonight a moral victory if Haaland doesn't score tbh.

Fucking priorities. Ritchie. Redeem yourself.

Okay time to bring Murphy on for Barnes.

Fuck sake. If Gordon gets away with this get him off.

Cant wait until we have an overlapping left back that is trusted by his teammates.

Feels like us 'lacking energy' is just an instruction from Howe to not press so much. Said earlier but a couple of times we sensed blood and pressed them, they switched the play with a cracking ball and suddenly our defense were caught on the hop. If we did that more often tonight I don't think we'd only be down by one goal. We're going to see more negative outcomes in defence purely by virtue of us being out of possession twice as long as most other matches. There's no easy tactical solution to getting more possession at the Etihad.

Maybe I'm just in a positive mood but I really don't know what else we could've done outside of inhaler prescriptions. We sit back and they're happy to pass around us until an opening appears. A couple of times we've pressed and only just managed to get back and defend after they got around it with one cracking ball. They're just as good in defence so we just can't break them down. They just seem switched on today, everything they're doing looks smooth as shit. Really do think it's almost them deciding we're a team they actually have to move out of first gear for now.

Even Isak has lost his superpowers. The bastards are just too good.

Surprised McCoist was still calling it a nudge after we got the view from behind. Yellow ffs.

I do love being reminded of advancements in technology. As I cast a river to the TV in a matter of seconds I'm often reminded of the good old days of hunting down the latest Bloodzeed offering. Fingers crossed it runs this well after kick off which is when it conveniently falls to shit usually. Fucking Rio. At least there's Lynsey.

That buzzcut ain't doing Erikson any favours tbf.

No you don't understand. They just need one more window to get the right players. Just one more!

Not seen the challenge but I can't deny it was fun watching Merson and Mike Dean argue it on Soccer Saturday. Shock horror Dean defending the referee's decision. Now Clinton Morriston arguing with hi about the Fulham red. This feature could actually be entertaining.

You're welcome, bud.

I heard adam_p69 is ready and waiting with a last minute snipe.

Bring him home.

Skechers football boots? That has to contravene a law of some sort. It just looks, sounds and feels plain wrong.

All whilst looking to the future, too.

I feel like there's a conflating of different circumstances here. A player can indeed sit tight if they aren't going to get what they consider a reasonable salary if transferred to a new club, and a pay off can be agreed. But I wouldn't consider it to be the norm? Normally a club agrees a fee, the player agrees terms they're happy with at the new club and that's that. As STM said, there could be loyalty bonuses in there but I wouldn't expect that to be of considerable value compared to the wages we'd be getting off our books.

Completely agree. Was more the thinking that he wanted out of Villa for first team football so if he says he wants out I feel like we'd honour it. I hope he wants to stay and fight though.

Feels a number of our signings are a mix of the two e.g. Gordon. Coveted for a fair while but we're not going to dive in willy nilly, happy to wait it out.

Does anyone know how a sale of Targett would affect our FFP? I always get lost with that stuff but my assumption was because he's such a recent signing, we wouldn't feel that much benefit as there's still a lot of 'amortisation' to go? This is irrespective of how much of a shame it would be for him to go already. The guy really got screwed over with the timing of his injuries.

For a layman like me, is he more attacking quality than defensive? I'm seeing a lot of praise for forward-thinking skills but not sure what his defensive ceiling is considered to be. Seems a marked change if so, having a full back like that on both sides? I guess even if that's the case that's where Eddie's impeccable tactical and training nous comes in so everyone knows their role and when.