Lenny

I thought Gordon looked accomplished enough but ultimately played it safe almost every time. Liv looked good defensively and bar the stray pass towards the end he was solid. Hall has probably been England's best player overall. Love how crisp his passing is.

My memory might be deceiving me, but wasn't Perch's redemption arc mostly realised in midfield?

I'm not sure how anyone, with 15 years worth of context and hindsight can hold anything against Given for leaving us when he did. Or Enrique, Keegan, Wijnaldum, Sissoko or anyone that's left us that's been held in even moderate regard, who had a drop of ambition.

His best overall performance of the season today, I thought. His linkup play was much better and his goal was obviously absolutely class. Cooked by 75 again, mind

I thought it was the best he's looked whilst used on the right for us, and quite possibly his best overall performance of the season, too. Well worth trying him there for a run.

Was he quiet going forwards? Thought he gave Timber a torrid time and looked a real threat. Was really refreshing to see us look dangerous that side.

He's shown some real positives that have unfortunately been undone and undermined by his failings in the final third. He uses his power and pace really well to carry the ball into dangerous areas, but unfortunately whenever he gets into them his delivery has been poor. If he can sort out the delivery, he could be a quality player and a source of a lot of goals for us as he gets himself into positions that few others seem to be able to do. As with a frustratingly high number of players in our squad, his passing can be quite sloppy, too.

Tonali already shows he brings speed of passing in the middle that no one else in the team does. The ball from Bruno through to Isak isn't avaliable if Tonali doesn't play such a quick pass. He makes those sort of passes often and we will ultimately benefit from it sooner rather than later. Think he's a quality player, personally and he'll become more influential as he settles into his role.

I wouldn't say I was under selling him. He looks a good prospect but I think his performances were more "good for a 17 year old" than "good for a regular starter in a team with champions league aspirations", which he was forced into being. The team massively struggled whilst he was playing and his lack of experience and readiness was clearly a major factor, amongst many others, in that. You'll not find many 17 year old do what he did because most are protected and eased in. He has the foundations to have a very good future, I certainly rate him, but he needs managed first team exposure, like most at that age.

He's nowhere near as good as Mainoo IMO. He was thrust into the team out of necessity at a time when he was ready for drip-fed exposure to the first team. It was fairly apparent he wasn't ready for a regular starting role quite quickly and he would often be the most invisible of the three we had in the midfield. It was basically Bruno largely carrying all three.

I often wonder, and wouldn't be surprised if, when the likes of Joelinton and Bruno get caught trying to carry the ball, it's instruction to ride challenges with the belief that we'll be better for it, if successful. Bruno and Joelinton have demonstrable and evidenced ability to ride challenges at high risk, and often, when successful we are in a significantly stronger position than had they played it simple. Much like line-breaking pass attempts, and ambitious through passes, it's risk vs reward, and maybe Howe deems the reward worthy of the risk over a sustained period of time. It will cost us the odd goal, but the net outcome will be deemed better than not taking any chances. Naturally it would need continued review by the coaching staff and if Joelinton, for example, is failing at it to the extent that it's costing us more than it's benefiting us over a period of time, then it needs addressing. It's similar to when Botman makes a mistake attempting a line breaking pass. He's probably instructed to do so at every possible opportunity as it's an evidenced strength of his. He will get some wrong and it'll cost us in isolated incidents, but we're better for it overall.

I thought he largely had a good game bar a couple of errors late on when he looked a bit knackered. Even then though the mistakes were between crucial defensive actions.

Appreciating the understated nationality pun.

I listened to The Rest is Football podcast last week and I'm sure they said at the time that Jenas was planned to be on MOTD with Shearer, but then it was Joe Hart, so I presume whatever was decided/came to light must have been around then.

He didn't even get booked for it, did he? It was appalling; completely charged him over whilst he was blindsided.