SUPERTOON

Yeah he is obviously the biggest miss, thankfully we have a relatively simple schedule for the remainder of the season, only 1 game per week l. International break should also help as well.

I think it’s because everyone can see we are struggling in the middle and more so now with Willock going off injured and Joelinton likely missing 2 games sometime soon. It just seems from the outside looking in that it was a completely avoidable situation that we find ourselves in.

Im not to bothered about the wood one as I think Gordon is his replacement (Howe said himself we wouldn’t replace wood like for like). Im also not on about the last couple of games where Shelvey wouldn’t have played. Im talking about over the next few weeks/months, having Shelvey (or a Shelvey replacement) as an option would have made the squad stronger considering how short of options we already are in the middle.

If they win their 2 games in hand on us they are only 6 points behind us- 3 if they beat us. They will go full strength surely .

It really is that simple, that is the exact point.

Nope doesn’t carry over thankfully

Worth remembering we have been playing all 4 of those CM options in pretty much every game this season up until Bruno’s ban.

Literally no one has said that once.

Don’t even think this is a criticism of Howe tbh, I don’t think he would have let Shelvey go.

Because he’s fit now and would have been an option for the rest of the season

We have played 4 of them non stop for the last few months though so that in itself is an issue.

Because we thought he would be replaced

We didn’t need to sell Shelvey to sign Gordon, why would we ? We signed Gordon and Shelvey was going to stay (Howe had said this a couple of times). Again im not reimagining Shelvey, I was never his biggest fan, but our squad is weaker with him gone and not replaced.

I’m not talking about the last few games, but he would have played a role in the rest of the season and given us an option to rest the 4 who have pretty much played every single minute so far this season. I’m by no means a massive Shelvey fan, but our squad is currently weaker without him, that is undeniable imo.

Why is Shelvey included in that ? Signing Gordon has nothing to do with us selling Shelvey.

Not one person is saying Shelvey is world class, but it’s pretty straightforward that we took a huge risk in selling him without a replacement considering the need for a CM before he left. It’s a risk that has already back fired in my opinion.

Wilson should only miss one game according to Howe but with the final a week later I’d be surprised if he risked him.

Think they have Konate, VVD and Jota back for Monday night so assume they will be playing next week. Interested to see what team we pick, understandably I think our lads focus will be on the cup final.

Is that what it is ? ? I thought it was europa league.

If we don’t get top 4, does anyone think it would be beneficial for us to miss out on Europe altogether? Even with a summer transfer window I can’t see us having the squad depth to handle the Thursday night to Sunday afternoon turnaround.

Even more impressive when you consider we have played spurs, Man Utd and Arsenal in that time as well.

On a side note I wish we would have a normal 3pm kick off for a change.

We currently have 2 fit CMs available for selection and one of those is a booking away from a 2 game ban. Can’t see how people can’t accept the decision to sell Shelvey was a poor one ?

What was said on there ?