Ronaldo

I turned 10 that summer we signed him and obvs had no clue at the time either. Looking back it’s fairly blatant where that £15m should’ve been spent but at the same time you’ve almost got to admire Keegan for it. Scored a tonne of goals, susceptible at the back with the defence and 2 inadequate keepers so let’s just spend it all on a striker and score more.

All keepers make saves, all keepers make important saves. The keepers who win you games have a fair bit more than that. The simplistic thing is giving him credit for doing the most basic aspect of his job.

You just sussed that now?

Woah slow down there daddeo, apparently there’s an alternate universe where with no keeper in net strikers score goals from 4 yards out. Can we all just take a moment to appreciate Dubravka for having the decency to drive back up from Manchester to get paid to play for us and occasionally do his job or we’d really be up a creek.

He’s there to make saves. Some go on like it’s Ben Arfa against Blackburn every time a ball gets pounded into the keeper’s chest. It really doesn’t take any amount of special ability and it’s the easiest part of being a goalkeeper by far.

?

It’s not my job to fix a midfield that clearly doesn’t work. I’d take out Miley and play Livramento. Back 3/5 with Schar more advanced than Burn and Sven. Far from ideal but it’s worth trying because we can’t keep losing the midfield battle and expect not to concede a tonne of goals.

Not play that midfield 3 even if it means changing formation, for a start. It’s every game they’re getting completely overran.

He looked like he was out for months in December and was back for the next PL game a week later.

I love him for his efforts but also have to acknowledge there are far more PL sides he wouldn’t get into than ones he would.

If we finished 10th last season there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind Eddie would’ve have lost his job. Zero. You don’t spend hundreds of millions to go from 11th to 10th in a league where Brentford and Fulham finish top half.

It’s a bit of an overreaction granted but you can barely keep yours dry when anyone is critical of Howe on here. Surely you understand that people are going to be frustrated seeing the same glaring issues game after game to the extent we’re only 2 points ahead of Wolves?

Nope. Being an inferior shot stopper is understandable and allowable. Causing our entire approach to be severely compromised isn’t. I don’t blame Dubravka for his failings as such but he’s very ill suited to a high press team. Keepers with that starting position have rarely been a thing since Mancini discarded Shay 13 years ago.

Huge. But again, another deficiency in the squad that was kicked down the road.

I’d love to know how much of our FFP freedom we lost as a result of signing him. The whole thing is completely bizarre.

At fault for 2 goals, what would you give him, a 7?

Yeah, nowhere near wanting him out but he’s quite clearly out of his depth at finding a tactical solution to the dreadful midfield issues because the 3 of them are worse by the game. The Almiron and Burn situations I’m sick of talking about.

If anyone has a good means of watching this I’d appreciate it. That was not a fun 45 going from place to place.

Way over the top now, mind. Let it go Lynn.

100 games or so missed though injury by the end of this season. He was signed in 2020 man. Outrageous.

McTominay isn’t a player I’d want here but come on. He can at least get up and down the pitch without throwing up. Imagine Nolan playing for Man U.

We were on the one bus out of God knows how many dozen that broke down about an hour into the journey back. We were stood in a lay-by awaiting the replacement for an inordinate period. The Man U fans driving past in their own buses seemed to quite enjoy seeing us there. Atrocious day from start to finish.

2005. Shit day.