AyeDubbleYoo

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

Wouldn't be the first time I talked nonsense, but it was fairly low profile prioritisation if so

Does he play in a 4-3-3 for Italy as well? I haven't watched.

I don't think there's any mystery about Osula, he was signed as a young third striker to take some minutes off the backs of Wilson and Isak. Because it's difficult to bring in a striker when you already have the first 2 spots locked down. Not to save a struggling team when everyone else is playing shit.

Yeah, but we didn't want a holding midfielder, I assume. We've never really been close to one as far as I remember. The vision was for an all-action team that just stomps all over people, as far off as that seems now. Whether that might change, I'm not sure. It's quite a big decision though because we now have a decent number of CMs and effective DMs tend to cost loads.

Well, it should always be a discussion between everyone. Everyone will have to compromise, including Howe. Backing the manager doesn't mean letting him decide everything. I would expect Howe to have a type or profile of player he thinks we need, rather than a post-it note with one name on it. I'm sure Howe wanted Tosin for example, he wasn't just obsessed with Guehi forever. We just thought we could get Guehi but in the end we failed.

Well, he's a lot better than Longstaff. I assume we signed Tonali because we do see Bruno as the long-term central 6. I still think it's Bruno's best position, in the same way as Rodri for example. But I guess we might have to face the facts that we're not a dominant enough team to have someone with his profile there. I can understand the thinking though.

I was against team challenges like in American sports, because I think the aim should be to get every decision right and not just a few. But at least if coaches could challenge they could force the issue in the most important situations. Generally my approach to VAR would be more like a second referee with a better view, who constantly advises the on-field ref because he can see better. This idea of protecting the decisions of the on-field ref seems archaic to me - who cares as long as the decision is right?

The chance error wasn't as clear as that still image suggests. In that image he's taking the touch in-field, and a second later the covering defender was back.

I thought against Brighton it was much more dynamic and it was clear that we were trying to establish the combinations further up the pitch. The Chelsea game was way too much for us though, their attackers are just too capable of getting free and make very few technical mistakes while we make loads. I'm not against trying the 4-2-3-1 mind, something has to give.