KaKa

25 hours away travelling in complete luxury for a pretty relaxed end of season friendly. Goodness grief man. Such a difficult life.

Oh man ... confirmed?! Would have been a great value signing both fee and wages wise.

Hope discussing possible striker options if Wilson leaves. Sesko is a pipe dream at this point I think, but Ghuirassy is a great shout, especially for the £15 million release clause. Apparently we have had him watched a number of times in Germany.

Really like that we are doing this in an effort to address and prevent the kind of situation we faced with injuries this season. Excellent news.

Ah, I see. It's a fair point. Against deeper set blocks, Bruno is really the one player with the qualities you are speaking of. Hopefully Tonali can show some of that too. If we can bring in a right winger that has playmaking qualities that would be ideal too really.

There were also times he dropped into space and Murphy hesitated and didn't release the ball. On that transition chance that Longstaff played a terrible pass, he could have looked for Isak earlier when he first made his move, and Longstaff hesitated and held into the ball too long before playing an awful ball straight to the defender. Painful stuff.

Joelinton is underrated in his ability to link up with forward players, and he also has a knack for playing them in. It's been one of things we've missed with him. In the lead up to his through ball to Longstaff, I believe there was a slick one two he played with Isak. I also think once Tonali returns and now he is fully settled and more familiar with the other players, we'll see more chance creation from him too, as he loves to play those first time passes forward.

It's exactly the news I was expecting to see come out regarding Man Utd's bid for him. Reports are that he spoke directly with Howe who laid out the plans for him clearly, which he appreciated and was enthused about. Man Utd don't even know who the manager will be yet, or which defenders will be staying or leaving, and where Tosin would then fit in.

This man is talking about Bournemouth ...

This is the main thing for me. I want to see what he can do with a more talented and well rounded squad before any talk of making a change. He's shown a lot making use of some very ordinary players so far. It's such a shame this FFP nonsense means we have to build so slowly.

So never mind actually winning any duels, he wasn't even involved in any?! According to these numbers he was basically out there just to miss chances and give the ball to Man Utd. He was essentially playing for the opposition for goodness sake.

Prisoners of the moment man. Never mind the season we had the year before. Despite the issues we've had this year, and what he has still managed, the manager needs replacing. Zero perspective.

He is under no greater pressure than any other manager, based off of what has happened this season. Happy?

If that's what you meant fair enough.

Don't think he's under pressure going into next season at all. The issue this season has been player availability, no matter how much people might want to overlook this. It won't be the same next season, and we won't be inconsistent in the same way. If somehow this does end up being the case then I'm sure questions will start being asked at the end of the season. This is not the same as saying he is under pressure going into next season.

This guy has really screwed us over these last two games. Actually really pissing me off. Even that whole penalty incident was weird, which makes me think he is throwing a strop. Absolute joke if so.

He didn't say if things go the same as this season though. It goes without saying that if at the end of next season things are similar to this one despite the squad being improved and players coming back, that questions will start getting asked.

Performances don't need to improve, they absolutely WILL improve. There's no doubt about it for me. I cannot see a situation where we will be missing all of Joelinton, Tonali and Willock again, all at the same time, for such an extended period. The last two games have been frustrating. We're already making the midfield work as best we can, then on top of that Isak has apparently been ill, and of course Wilson is then not available either. Even today here comes Trippier to directly affect two of Man United's goals. Don't know what on Earth is going on with Wilson, but just having him available likely gets us at least 3 or 4 points from both games. I'm already looking forward to next season. I know it's going to be very different and the joke is going to be on everyone else.

It's why the team performances have been so inconsistent. The midfield as a unit has been poor. This has affected the team both going forward and defensively at various points. We're not even seeing the Longstaff of last season in there as he is not even at those levels. It hasn't been good.

We have been achieving what we have despite the midfield combinations we've had to manage with this season. That is credit to Bruno and to the manager for finding a way to make it work. That is why it is comical when people moan about the manager so much. I need to know which manager is going to have us controlling games with Longstaff, Miley/Anderson and Bruno. Please let me know.

This season is the aberration. I fully expect us to return to what we showed last season come August. The reality is that we have been missing Tonali, Joelinton and Willock for large chunks of the season. It is very unlikely this will be the case again. Just by virtue of that alone, we are going to be back to business. Especially with a right winger coming in too.

Our midfield has absolutely not proven to be more than capable. The story of the season has been Bruno having to carry the whole unit, while Gordon and Isak have had standout performances higher up the pitch to win us games.

Players, particularly the ones that aren't as good, absolutely tend to play with much more confidence at home, yes!

If there's one thing I know for certain, it's that we are not controlling any games with Longstaff playing the way he has been in midfield. Especially when we also have had to use the inexperienced Anderson/Miley in there so much too. Apparently this is surprising to some people though. And they think some revolutionary tactic should sort it out. The truth is though, most other managers would most likely have us looking far worse than we have with these options.

It's unacceptable in your view because of your arrogance. You think we have a right to get a result in these games just because we came 4th last season. This isn't a video game. You can keep dismissing the injury situation all you want, but at the end of the day, most of this season we've ended up playing Bruno in midfield (the most impactful part of the pitch) with some combination from Longstaff, Anderson and Miley. And you really think this is no big deal and 'tactics' can simply sort this out, so we can go to these away games and just beat these teams, because it's just that easy, and everyone else is doing it. It's this kind of thinking that means I cannot take you guys that 'keep it real' seriously.