Conjo

Wasn't it the Van der Vaart clause, or was Arshavin first? Can't remember which.

lol

You sure it's ok? You seemed kind of angry about it with your passive aggressive remarks?

and yet he still preferred a half fit Joelinton over a player who did brilliant in pre-season and, by his own words, "came back the fittest player in the squad". He started over Tonali for two games, in a period where we had 5 matches in 2 weeks. You know as well that Howe doesn't necessarily throw new players into the team straight away until they are familier with our system either. Ake was initially a loan, and he was 21 at the time. Solanke was 22. Ramsdale were out on loan for 2 seasons first, didn't get his chance until 21. Trippier was 22. All of them older than both Anderson and Miley when he started playing them, and all bar Ramsdale (although he played regularly for his clubs for two seasons while on loan) had a good number of first team experience at equal or better clubs/leagues prior to signing them. Not sure who is brainwashed. Is it really so bad to admit that Howe is uncomfortable giving chances to talents over seasoned players? He's far from the only manager who does, and I can understand why, and respect that he does what he thinks is best to get results. I am a sucker for giving talents playing time in the hope of seeing a new star being borne, so personally wish he did it more often. Nothing more than that to it.

None of us are. He hardly played. For all we know it could have just been a purple patch

OH DEAR Anderson didn't start until the fifth game of the season against Brentford because Joelintons hamstring injury he had been battling with since pre-season got so bad his body finally gave in. Edit: Joelinton missed the next 7 matches, hence why Anderson got so many starts until he himself got injured. Don't let the truth get in the way of your story though!

To claim Howe gives youth chances is absolutely bonkers As great as he is, lets not pretend he is great at everything. If he could play the same 11 every single game I think he would have Anderson came back in best shape of the whole squad before pre-season, played excellent in pre-season then struggled to get playing time over a poor, injured Joelinton. Miley got his debut against Chelsea last season because of injuries, same as this season. I don't think Howe would have given Miley more than scraps this season (5 minutes at the end of early round cup games f.ex) if everyone else was fit. Doubt he'd be on the bench even. Not that's it's critical for him to get a lot of first team playing time right now at 17, but in a year, year and a half if he can't get on the bench when players are back from injury he'd start slowing down his progress unless loaned out. Our second best fullback was back to bench duty as soon as Burn was fit enough to get out of bed on his own again. Hall hasn't played 3 games worth of minutes this season despite playing for Chelsea under two different managers last season, scoring against PSG and never looking out of place when played and being lauded as "technically brilliant".

Can it be right that he's made 209 appearances for us? That's 19 appearances on average every season since he had his debut in 2013. Feels like there was two seasons he played regularly at LB, but other than that it feels like he's never gotten much further than being a permanently unused sub.

I'm just afraid that we're going to break his body permanently if we don't give him the time to fully heal. He's almost missed as many games for us now that he's missed in his entire career before joining us, and he's been injured for a longer period while with us than the rest of his career combined.

Krafth

He had just made a gruelling run from the other side of the pitch to get in front of the Villa player late in the game. He must have been so tired the only focus was to hit the ball. The finish was of course very poor, but I think he scores there if it had been earlier in the game.

Howe will have them prepared and fired up to avenge the loss. 5-1 win.

Thought we looked dead tired at around 60 minute mark and we went into full survival mode. There's no way in hell those players would have been able to apply the pressure Villa did after we got the third and keep at it until the end of the game. We have looked better than before in the last two matches though. That ~2 weeks period of rest served us well. Still the lack of rotation/sub options is hurting us bad.

In 2-3 years, if he stays relatively injury free, keeps his head down even if there are longer spells he is out of the starting team and focuses on improving himself as he grows into his body, he could be a generational talent. So clever in what he does. He'll win more and more of the 50/50 challenges he's currently losing to players nearly twice his age at the moment, and will be able to function at a higher level longer than he does now in games. With more confidence in his physique I'm sure we'll see him taking on players more often too. It's obvious he can do it, and did it a few times quite successfully against Forest. Against Fulham he showed how sensitive & sweet his passing is. Today he showed real discipline & hard work.

Will never get old

Tbf it took at least over 5 minutes of people (me included) shouting at him in text format on the internet before the message was received and he was forced to do something.

Pope obviously the better keeper overall, but this nonsense that we had to sign De Gea to avoid a terrible season was way ott. We lose a bit of shot stopping, command of box & sweeping awareness, but are much more comfortable using Dubs to counter high presses without it meaning a HOOF & subsequent throw in to the opponent. Too much to ask of Pope to do some technique work with his feet while his shoulder is out of commission? He'd damn near be the best keeper in the leaguee if he was just mediocre (by PL standards) at receiving & passing the ball.

McGinn to Viaplay in post match interview: "The celebrations in the away dressing room will motivate us to stay ahead of them with more than the over 10 points we're already ahead of them" Salty much?

Subs & formation change helped immensely. Well played Howe. Bruno has been fucking battered today

Miley has nothing left in him. Anyone from the bench will do. Burn off for Tino. Something needs to happen now.

TINO TINO TINO

If that didn't scream to Howe that maybe Tino would be a good idea about now, nothing will

Burn

Tactical timeout. Nee worries.