AyeDubbleYoo

Exactly

No, you also need to consider the other 27 injuries.

Man City are always going to be dominant.

Thought this was the politics thread for a minute.

Yeah, it's not an easy answer what's right. For example the flag waving continues throughout the match in some places, where we put all the flags down for kick off. Personally I wouldn't mind watching the toon ultras from nearby, but I couldn't be bothered to be in amongst it.

Do we want the organised ultras sections like in Europe and the US? It's never really been a part of our culture. Would create noise but there's something weird about the noise being detached from what's happening in the game.

Can't wait for people trying to board at Durham with 15 minutes to kick off.

Only by playing all-out defence though really.

Well actually they are

I'm not sure about Barnes TBH. One thing we needed was goals from wide areas and Barnes is all about that. I don't think there is another more natural goalscorer in the squad outside of Isak and Wilson. It's true that it's a shame he plays the same side as Gordon, but we do want good options and Gordon himself is very versatile. Ultimately if Barnes had stayed fit we probably wouldn't be having this conversation.

It's absolutely crazy to even be discussing it, and doing it would reflect extremely badly on the owners. Personally I've had enough of supporting a circus.

So wrong.

He definitely needs a break, but his average level of performance is still only going to be good enough for our reserves. As a long-time sceptic I’m biased, but the signing of Tonali suggests the club know what Longstaff’s level is.

I'm not sure there's ever been such an unbalanced squad in the PL. Maybe when Boro had Juninho/Ravanelli or just after the Man City or Chelsea spending started. But certainly not very often. Half championship, half champions league.

That’s really not obvious at all.

TBF Longstaff wouldn’t be starting this season if Tonali didn’t love a flutter.

I think last night we decided (a) Chelsea are vulnerable to the press and (b) they wouldn’t be expecting it. TBH it was working really well until we let an incredibly soft goal in.

I don’t know if Rafa really adapted though, he was playing quite conservatively even in the championship because he knew how poor our players were. His job was clearly to limit the weaknesses of the team. Howe is in a different situation, he’s working on a long term vision but he hasn’t had the players in the short term to make it work.

Of course the Saudis didn’t buy us to finish mid table, but hopefully they’re not thick enough to think that success is always linear and we’re currently good enough to finish in the top 5 regardless of circumstances. If they’re going to change managers on that basis we could be in for a chaotic few years.

More noise. Shouldn’t really have played yesterday but of course he has to because there aren’t any other options.

Often been the case for us, the problem is the contrast between our best and worst players. With our best lineup there is one philosophy that will work, with the second tier of players you want something more like the Rafa defend and protect approach to limit their weaknesses. But of course if you’re building towards the former you can’t really suddenly switch to the latter. It’s just been a season where everything went wrong and circumstances were impossible. Finish as high as we can, work on the squad again in summer and start again.

Southgate should already know that he should be in the squad.

We’ll be very good next season, I’ve got no doubt about it at all. Assuming we don’t see a repeat of the unprecedented injuries and impossible fixtures we had this season.

Of course, but we’ll probably lose. And it doesn’t mean anything about the manager.

You must know it’s highly unlikely we’ll beat Man City.