Andy

And basically every away game last season.

It's really hard to see what we're trying to do when we attack, it seems like the entire strategy so far this season is give it to Gordon and see if he does something.

Aye. A proper, athletic DM would transform us more than any other player, and I include a RW in that.

Bruno's tracking back for that goal was shite too btw, running through treacle.

Shite from Longstaff but that still has to be defended, really poor all round.

This doesn't bother me tbh given that he looks dangerous the other way, always been a firm believer that a winger should be using their energy where its most effective, not sprinting around like a headless chicken

Can we try a new strategy of never passing to Pope?

Carragher

Murphy instead of Barnes is really poor. The only reason I can see is that he protects the defence more, which isn't the mentality we should be going to somewhere like Wolves with. Longstaff ahead of Tonali is disappointingly predictable too.

It was the guy stretching to block the cross, I think

Whatever is going on they need to find a compromise, it's felt like everyone at the club has been pulling in the same direction over the last few years, we don't need internal politics throwing a spanner in the works. The summer was an obvious failure and can't be allowed to happen again.

Or one of the people involved leaving

It sounds obvious but you do get the impression that we genuinely do work on one deal at a time.

Might not be "big news" for us, but nonetheless it's nice to see the Premier League getting fucked. The fact they're seething at not being able to dock a club points tells you all you need to know about the organisation. They couldn't give a fuck about the game itself.

He's not the best footballer but always looks like he'll win you games. Was unlucky with that shot in the first half where he cut in and just didn't quite get enough bend on it too.

To be honest I'm never sure if the "three centre backs" is intentional or if we just get dragged into that shape as a result of having a natural centre half at left back, as often happened when Burn played there last season Either way, I felt like it contributed to us spending a lot of the game on the back foot.

Good assist but I wasn't fully sold on him today like, although I seem to be in a minority. He's quite passive at times and backs off a lot, he's also reluctant to get forward (again, assist aside). Players like him will always look decent when you're backs-to-the-wall, but I prefer a full back to be aggressive like Trippier is at his best; he defends the halfway line and stops a lot of the opponent's play from developing early. Early days of course.

Aye it can easily be spun both ways... "We're winning despite not playing well, which is the sign of a top team" Or "We're winning but the performances are completely unsustainable" No idea where I'm at with it yet, so I'm just going to take the points and hope we play a lot better after the break

They had a lot of pressure, usually created by our own errors, but I can't think of that many great chances they had tbh.

So underserved hahahaha. Nice one. Good play by Joelinton.

He's far too passive.

Howe not wanting Gordon to spit his dummy? There's no other justification for that sub based on performances.

Poor from Pope but why does Eddie wait so long to make changes man. That goal was coming for at least 10 minutes.

They'll score from a short corner. We are asleep every time.

Aye I hate the narrative that they got us into a mess. If you'd said in September 2021 that the trade-off for going from second bottom to a champions league campaign in the space of a season and a half, would be having to sell two young players as a result in 2024 - neither of whom had contributed all that much to the club - I'd snap your fucking hands off.