Andy

I don't think we've done too badly and I definitely don't think they've been particularly good, but the game still has that slow, suffocating feeling of inevitability about it

They'll score the suckerpunch soon and go on to win by 3 or 4 I reckon.

He's always been popular for his enthusiasm, but I've always found him tedious. Hardly ever says anything even remotely controversial or interesting.

We genuinely track back slower than Craggy Island's five a side team.

As a footballer, he's at least a B. But at the moment it's more like a "B..?". I'm curious to see what he's like when he gets a proper run in the side again.

Aye CF has had a mare here, he's the classic elderly gentleman trying to use modern tech, just go off the vibes rather than the poll IMO

For me, he was very close to an A at one point, there were very few fullbacks better than him around the time of that PSG game. He's fallen to a C or a D now though .

The post you replied to last night said "I reckon Tonali would get in most teams" though, which I think is just a fact tbh, whether you take "most teams" to mean most premier league teams or most Champions League teams.

Tonali doesn't get in most teams? I reckon he does like. He's comfortably a starter for the majority of teams in the division.

I'd prefer Dubravka in for games where we should be looking to control the match. Pope's absolute fear of the football really does cause us all sorts of problems. I'm not even convinced that he's that much better a shot stopper these days, at least not to the extent that it offsets his kicking like it did a couple of seasons ago. Not sure what the goalkeeping equivalent is of losing a yard of pace, but that's how it feels to me this season.

Play Osula at left back and have him body slam Salah out of the final please

I'm not really sure how to assess this match tbh. First half was excellent at times, but on another day we aren't getting the luxury of all four of those goals going in, there was definitely a slice of fortune but we did earn it for our intensity and drive. It's hard to say whether the second half performance would've been that abject if it had been say 2-1, but we looked like we thought we'd won the game and played with absolutely no control or intensity whatsoever. Really annoying to watch and I was extremely relieved to see 3 minutes added on. Pretty much every player bar Hall was culpable of lazy, slack play as the match went on, but Burn and Schar in particular were rank. Good win overall but Eddie needs to give the players a right kick up the arse after that second half.

We have to be one of the worst teams in the league at controlling a game once we're ahead.

I thought Southampton had something about them when they played us on the opening day. I still expected them to go down but not with such a pathetic whimper.

I think we have a habit of saying "we missed Player X, when Player X is back we'll be fine", but in truth we're just a streaky team who sometimes don't show up for games, regardless of who is on the pitch.

The problem is - and this is why I think a lot of people dislike it - it's often presented without context and is frequently used as an argument in counter to the eye test by people who clearly didn't watch the game.

I think my problem with it is that it's often used in the context of "we lost 1-0 but had 3xg to 0.5xg so we should have won, just unlucky", while missing the more relevant context that your 3xg fell to Emmanuel Riviere, while the other team had prime Van Basten up front and prime Buffon in goal. "Over performing their xG" is often used as a criticism too, but has always just read to me as "they have bought clinical attackers".

I can't really see anything that Willock and Longstaff offer that he doesn't. Maybe pace in the case of Willock, but he rarely uses it effectively nowadays anyway... It would be easy, on the other hand, to list qualities that Miley brings to the table that they don't. For me, it's an easy choice at this stage. The only reason he isn't starting is inexperience.

They are very well organised and counter attack well, which is obviously our kryptonite. Having said that, we battered them at their place so who knows. Tough one to call, but if we lose the top 4 race will be looking bleak.

There was a moment where Haaland went through in the first half, where Dan Burn looked like Anthony Gordon relative to Schar.

What's concerning is that this game isn't a bad performance in isolation, it's now 3 extremely poor league performances in 5, glossed over by the tremendous displays against Arsenal in the cup, a bit of a fluke against Wolves, and a stock win against the worst side in the league. What's also concerning is our mentality in those three games mentioned above when we've gone behind. They've all finished in hammerings, which hasn't usually been the case under Howe. We are outsiders to win the cup, so the season is in danger of nose diving if that game goes wrong and we don't rectify the league performances urgently. The players need to get their fingers out. Too many of them look like they're just going through the motions in the league games at the moment.

If anything, our problem more often than not is that we only do it in big games. However, today just felt like we didn't want it or believe we could get anything from the very first minute. The latter of which is bizarre considering how poor this City team have been at times this season. It's difficult to really understand what our plan was today.

This is a different City team to the ones from those games, though. In previous seasons they were borderline invincible, this time we're just playing like they are.

I think it's more the effort levels that people are annoyed with today than anything related to ability, to be honest. We are clearly going through the motions. No pressure on the ball, no intensity, no aggression. Those three things have given this city team issues time and time again this season.