KaKa

Easier than a 5-1 stroll through Frankfurt where he failed to score or make his presence felt in the first half?

Monaco have been poor this season and got twatted 4-1 by Club Brugge on match day 1. Man city and now Spurs failing to beat them is so weird.

My God Salah is so selfish man

Everyone scoring after Isak went off and didn't score. The narrative around him is going to get so bad!

Well Frankfurt have finally brought on both their top two strikers. A cone back here would be immense. Come on Frankfurt.

To be fair I wouldn't be surprised if his ropey groin has started acting up. Probably due right about now.

Think it's been this way every game he's played so far, bar the one against Championship Southampton

ISAK HAULED OFF!!!

It's ridiculous considering the size in the team. We really need to sort it out, at least get some in this competition

Isak still looks lost and continues to get shown up by Ekitike. Good enough for me

Prem teams are so dominant on set pieces compared to all these continental teams.

Such a great counter attack from the back.

Schar turns 34 in a couple of months and has played a hell of a lot of football since Howe came in. It's the perfect time for him to transition to more of a rotation player. He's probably appreciating the break! Those horror years under Bruce when he was stuck on the he bench behind the likes of Clark and Lascelles, I don't even recall him kicking off then, when it would have been fully justified. I'll be surprised if he does that now. Think he'll still play a good number of games this season.

Personally, I think both Tonali and Bruno can be guilty of forcing passes too soon when there's a simpler one to be made initially. It's why we so often feel like we're quite a sloppy team with the ball. They are both our better technical players and so once they start giving possession away it just gets out of hand. I think Miley is better at picking the right moments to play the more incisive passes for the most part, and is more likely to keep it simple when needed, and not try to launch a switch of play pass, when there's a simple 5 yarder to someone that can get the ball and run forward into space.

Yeah that clip of all of them hugging Pope after the assist was fantastic

Yeah, I just think if we're ever in a position where it's either him or Gordon on the right. I'd rather have Barnes there. I just trust him more to produce there, and moving Gordon around appears to really throw him off his game, to the extent even when he goes back on the left it takes him time to get going there again.

His line breaking passes are just too good. Him and Botman are just so calm and capable on the ball and with their use of it. Think it worked out really well with us getting him and Woltemade, as I think it must also have contributed to how quickly both have settled. I noticed on the pre match training videos they're both typically together at the start chatting away.

Yes, and he's the one guy in the team most likely to do just that.

I think one thing we should absolutely not do with Gordon going forward is move him from that left side to play upfront or on the right or whatever. It really seems to throw him off his rhythm somehow. Just doesn't manage it well. Can see with this run of games on the left he's regaining that rhythm and flow and is starting to play off his natural instincts.

Yeah, last season really kicked into gear once Tonali was moved into the central midfield position to help protect the back four and Bruno moved into a more advanced position. Miley is maturing well physically. Honestly, I think right now he does a better job sat in front of that back four defensively than Bruno, as he gets back into position quicker, which became a major issue when Bruno was there before we switched him with Tonali. I think at some point we will see Tonali, Miley and Bruno as a midfield three and it will look really good. I think Miley would give the team a lot more calm and control, as he has such a natural instinct of knowing when to slow things down and play a few more "boring" passes to keep possession.

I'll never change my opinion on Murphy. Love him in the final third. Everywhere else on the pitch he scares the living daylights out of me on the ball. Yesterday was a great game for him to play in. Benfica were low intensity and sat off us and allowed us to play, and these are the sorts of conditions where he should be in the team. Any opposition that looks to press us and apply pressure, and personally, I don't really want him on the pitch. It ends up being almost impossible to do anything down the right side as we can't even advance the ball down that flank. Newcastle vs Bournemouth last season at home when we got smashed 4-1 is the perfect example of this sort of instance. Any success this season will largely be influenced by making the right call on who to play on the right side, depending on the opposition.

There was a period last season we were trying to figure out how best to play Gordon and Barnes together, and who should go on the right side. I think Gordon really suffered on that right side, even though he's seen as the more versatile player. I think he's one that needs to just stay on the left, otherwise his form starts to suffer when he starts getting moved around, whether on the right or upfront. Barnes is always going to make forward runs and find himself in goal scoring positions, and finishes well and confidently with both feet. Was good to see him do so down that right side when he came on and we didn't put him on the left and shift Gordon over to the right like we did at times last season.

Crazily enough, the most convincing midfielder at the club when it comes to calming things and controlling the tempo of the game. Feels like all the others are always trying to go 100 miles per hour, which leads to us carelessly giving the ball away far too often at times.

Good to see him get a couple down the right side. Always baffled me when people would say he shouldn't play there because he wouldn't be able to score from that position, as if he was only capable of cutting in from the left to score. He's just a great finisher and striker of the ball.