Conjo

I think Howe has always preferred a right footed CB at RCB and left footed CB at LCB. Not sure if I remember correctly, but didn't he mention something about that back when we signed Burn? He's been true to this set up since we first signed Burn up until the point where injuries forced him to play Schar at LCB for a period last season.

He's a striker with potential. Seems to have the physical requirements to do well. Howe and Tindall rates him. Sounds good to me.

Without signing Hall and Kelly, LB would have been a massive hole to plug. Without Osula it would be very nervy going into the season with effectively one striker since Wilson is always injured. All three of them were great aquisitions. To say we haven't improved our squad this window is frankly not true, although it could have been better. We could have kept Minteh.

Great replacement for Tosin. Well played Fulham.

Much rather we stuck with Hall at LB and *gasp* committed the cardinal sin of playing a left footed player at RCB.

BDB won't play LB in this match.

No Semenyo vs out of form/lack of confidence slow Dan Burn at LB or in form Solanke this time though. They'll have to find another strategy if they want to win. I'm not sure they will. Fancy us to be a lot better away from home this season, and for Howe to get his first(?) league win against them.

One of the most unlucky players in the league

He's so annoying to watch. Has every tool needed to be a solid PL midfielder. Tall, strong, fairly quick, good close control of the ball, decent passing.....but plays so passive and afraid all the time. If someone manages to unlock him he'll easily be worth what Sheffield United, Burnley and Fulham paid for him.

If the first round is any indication, it'll be really tight at the top. Every team expected to win secured 3 points. Provided this ends up with a Tottenham win of course.

We'd lose the appeal. After Diaz had gone into the back of Schar, Schar pushed Diaz, then approached him with Diaz standing still, then moved his head forwards before Diaz moved his. If you can't take into context why Schar is behaving like he is, then the decision is easy to make based on how the rules are written. Efforts would be much better spent advocating for changing the rules so stuff like that doesn't happen again.

I'd say it is for someone like him moving to Chelsea. There's no other rational explenation.

I'm sure he's devestated

Turned on the game after 12 minutes. Guehi hasn't had a touch or involvement until now and gets done by Mbuemo. Send in a new bid for £30m.

That's one of Gordons biggest strenghts being hard working. Should definitely not try to coach that out of him like

Finding myself caring extremely little about whether we get him or not. If we do, fine. If we don't then We'll manage without him too. Maybe come back next summer if he hasn't signed a new contract. Plenty of talent out there. A younger understudy to Schar with higher potential wouldn't be bad either.

No matter how unfair the red card was, Schar should know better than to get duped into that situation. Diaz played him like a fiddle.

Honestly, if he adds more goals to his godly beast mode destroyer role from the LCM position, he should rightly be up there in discussions of who the best midfielders in the league are. So unique. So lovable. So fucking scary.

Think that is the classic first game of the season for a newly promoted team simply outworking the established team. With the exception of working harder than us and being extremely cynical/dirty with their constant shirt and arm pulling, they were very unimpressive I thought. Will be a massive achievement for them if they somehow manage to stay up. 11v11 I think we eventually would have won more comfortably than we did as they got more and more tired.

Loved that. Southampton will go straight down again if their only tactic is to hold the opposition players.

Good team, glad to see both Livramento and Hall starting. Good bench too. I like everything about it so 1-2 loss it is then.

Pretty sure the consensus in the other clubs transfers and Man Utd thread was that Man Utd paid stupid money for Yoro. We'll need a town hall again to decide if in fact everything Man Utd does isn't necessarily bad before we can use Yoro as an argument for why we are not getting rinsed by Crystal Palace here.

Already looking forward to losing in the semi final away to Man City.