Lenny

They look a good side.

Intensity seems noticeably higher this game.

Almiron will benefit massively from Bruno this season (providing he stays).

That was so unlucky.

From the limited amount that I've seen Werner, he's always looked to me like he contributes a fair bit to build-up play and looks a tidy player. Some of the missed chances I've seen have looked more on the side of "bad luck" rather than him being useless, too. He does seem to get caught offside an unacceptable number of times, mind. I'd be happy for us to take a punt if a compromise on his reported wages could be found.

He is deceptively fast. And earned the extension

I do hope so however with being afforded more space comes a greater expectation with his decision making and end product. He needs to learn to pick the right time to dribble and when to pass etc. and to be fair to him of late, I think he's working on it so there's promise.

I think this is a fairly critical season ahead for ASM's career. He needs to show that he can adapt and contribute to an organised team with a structured game-plan. I really want it to work for him because at his best, he's such an exciting player to watch, but if it doesn't work out then I suspect his career ceiling may be comparable to Zaha at Palace. My gut feel is that he might not have the right mentality to go to the top, but I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

It'd be that Rihanna song, surely?

Frustration at 10 minutes of a pre season game when the mood is generally positive is bit extreme though, no? These games are literally to allow them to get up to speed, they aren't going to be at their best. And thankfully, we're in a position now whereby if the players don't produce they'll get replaced.

Pulling up in front of the cameras - story of his life

As dislike-able as he appears; Gordon looks a good/promising player from what I've seen of him.

Let's be greedy and go for Sarr and Diaby, with three players vying for two spots.

Hasn't he signed for Atalanta?

For someone that barely uses Twitter I find Romano useful in just keeping me up to date with what's going on.

"Playing the ball" in Fabinho's case is surely successfully intercepting the ball, not passing it to a player. He attempted to block the ball, and was successful in doing so. It's unfortunate that his block went to Benzema but no one blocks from point blank range with any anticipation as to where it's going to land beyond the direction in which you're lunging. Real don't deserve to be winning but that goal should have stood in my opinion.

He's been very good under Howe, particularly defensively. It's a real shame he doesn't have a little bit (a lot) more quality going forward because he has all of the physical attributes to be successful; he's very fast, has an engine to get up and down, is strong and is reasonably tall.

He seems to like a quick "one-two" pass into space and is quite effective at drawing a challenge when he does it. Unfortunately it's not something we've been able to see much during his time with us since we've never had any ability to actually make simple passes; let alone the unreasonably difficult task of stringing two together quickly. Looks another player where it's possible his own game will raise with better players around him, rather than him falling behind. For that reason it might be worth keeping him around next season.

We're pressing and winning the ball higher up the pitch, and with Bruno's assertive and quick passing ASM is able to run at the opposition when they aren't quite so organised, as is usually the case when he picks the ball up for us. Unsurprisingly he's causing them trouble. I think he'll come good as we improve as a team. He's looked like he's trying to be more smart with the ball too with a couple of sensible passes.

Whilst I largely agree that in a tangible sense the January spend is a superficial take; the mental impact of fresh faces coming in that includes influential, internationally accomplished and up and coming players will certainly have had a substantial-if-indirect influence on things. It's quite clear that Trippier's influence extended far outside of the 90 minutes of the matchday, and I would expect that Joel, Shelvey and Willock would have tried to raise their game knowing that Bruno was waiting to take one of their spots.

No doubt some witty joker will bump this thread after we inevitably lose our first game of next season

I think I'll get over anyone leaving all the while there's hope and ambition at the club. In previous seasons, the thought of the likes of HBA, ASM, Cabaye, Enrique, Carroll and any player that is either talented or brings you personal joy in watching, would bring on pretty extreme disappointment. Now we're in a position where we're going to progressively improve year on year, I'm happy that players leaving will largely be for reasons that would contribute to fulfilling said ambition. Obviously I'll still have an affinity to particular players, but I'm not sure them leaving would bring on a feeling of it being the end of the world any longer (at least not until Mbappe leaves us having seen us to a stepping stone in fulfilling his lifelong ambition to play for Sunderland).

There's every chance Joelinton can grow with the club over the coming years. I expect it'll be a while yet before his standard is deemed not good enough for our squad at all.

Real Madrid using just one Ult all game in stoppage time