AyeDubbleYoo

Definitely the worst feature of our play (errors and giving up possession), compounds everything else as well.

Well we just employed a director of football and a performance director, and it sounds like we’re doing work on stats as well. Would expect further improvements of the technical staff.

Teams have creative midfielders like Maddison and the false Bruno, they don't usually play in that central number 10 role as we might traditionally think of it.

He wouldn’t play ahead of any of those except Longstaff. I think he’s a decent player though.

I’m not sure Barkley would get a game for us but for the squad he’d be decent.

Where would you play him though? FWIW I’m sure the management don’t see him as negatively as the fans do.

I'm sure he knows there needs to be adjustments, he's not stupid. But they're still really our only viable 3 for starting in midfield, it's just a question of getting them to play better or changing the shape. The three of them will still play.

Gusto was/is good but I thought Barnes should have had at least 2 or 3 more attacking free kicks as well.

It's not snobbery, I'm not saying we're too good for it. I'm just saying it's not as big a prize as the others, that's just an assessment of the value of each trophy. I guess I'm also so used to getting knocked out of cups that they don't play a huge part in my thinking.

Would be nice to win a trophy and start that winning feeling for the club, but it's not really comparable to the other major trophies.

I’m not sure where this massive problem with Tonali came from. He’s barely got off the ground in his career with us, he’s just getting started. The team has been struggling but I don’t see him as even part of the problem to any meaningful extent. He’s not playing to his absolute best but that doesn’t mean it’s some sort of disaster. He’s a top quality player and a much needed replacement for Longstaff. He’s a great addition to the squad and we just need to continue working on the system so that the team as a whole starts playing well. I’m not sure if people still hold his ban against him or what.

Hall could also play inside instead of overlapping mind, he has the ability to do it.

Maybe it's not about these specific examples, but I'm not convinced we could have got any of those. Olise is too good and Bayern wanted him, Madueke wasn't for sale, Tosin chose money and an easy life.

I’m not sure any striker is comfortable being isolated.

Everything that happens at other clubs is amazing at the moment.

I’d like to hear that exact quote. I doubt he thinks Man City should drop Rodri.

Sometimes, not as much as we want obviously. But that’s not the point, the fact it’s not working doesn’t mean he’s ‘not a patterns guy’.

The little Turkish fella?

Covered all bases there

Ridiculous amount of assumptions.

Yeah, but box to box doesn’t necessarily mean not the middle player. We know he’s not a traditional DM.

Wasn’t he always a 6 though? Or a relatively deep lying midfielder anyway.

Aw. Move Howe on and get him in?

Yeah fair enough, but Mitchell only just arrived. Of course if neither adapts then we’ll fail. But I wouldn’t assume that’s what will happen. Howe is s relatively young and very intelligent manager. He’d basically be saying he couldn’t be employed by any elite club if he was that stubborn on transfers.

Yeah, they probably have triple the number of PL players that we do. It's silly. We don't even have enough to make a team and they've got two full squads