AyeDubbleYoo

We absolutely don’t need a DM with Tonali in there. If anything we need a technical left-leaning CM for when we don’t need to play Joelinton.

Think he’s never going to be tidy enough to play CM for a top club. Not to mention being quite fragile physically. Sadly don’t think he’ll be a future first-team player for us. Maybe a decent option of the bench to take workload off others.

Decent

The fact it’s fluid is important as well IMO. It’s not Tonali just standing in front of the back four and Bruno staying in the RCM role ahead. They’re both taking up all sorts of excellent positions throughout the game. The fact Tonali doesn’t give the ball away every five seconds also helps a lot.

Said a few weeks ago I think the midfield will end up being Miley, Bruno, Tonali soonish. In games we expect to dominate. Medium term we should probably be looking for a left footed technical midfielder for that role.

His reading of the game is amazing. Noticed him cover Hall and then Trippier in about 5 minutes of play towards the end.

His attitude is brilliant. Even if he makes a mistake or misses a chance, he swings his boot properly at the next one.

Nonsense I’m afraid.

Yep.

While Man City have won the league nearly every season.

Good post @HawK, I'll read it all eventually. FWIW I never said I didn't understand people who want the selling model, or who think we have to go down that route. Not that I remember anyway.

I can’t see any successful strategy that involves selling all your elite players, surely. What would be the point? Just so you can continue to buy lesser players and finish in the same position? Like I’ve said before, I can’t see the Brighton strategy working for us on its own. That can only work if you’re happy to finish in a mediocre league position. If you have ambitions to be higher than that you need to have elite quality in your team. This may be wishful thinking, I admit. But I feel there has to be something more than just selling good players to buy potential all the time. I don’t think any top club does that.

Absolutely cannot sell this lad.

Fair play to Manchester for fitting 5 defenders and a DM into the lineup.

Superb post.

If we’ve stayed in touch since the summer it looks like he’s off.

Depends on how it happens IMO.

I know what you mean, I love Wor Flags and all they do but it's not really a major factor in the overall atmosphere after the game has started. A spin-off Wor Songs might be worth a try. Hand out song sheets, and/or have people in each area dedicated to starting chants etc. Could even coordinate the different parts of the ground. That said, there is much more to football atmosphere than singing, especially in the UK. Personally I think overall atmosphere has been decent recently even if it's more in the form of shouting, abusing players, making general noise rather than consistent chants.

Deciding on a manager based on a league position here and there is idiotic anyway TBH. It should always be about overall performance, future possibilities, fit with the strategy etc. Last year we basically only missed out on Europe due to bad luck, even with an injury crisis I've never seen before and incredibly difficult fixtures. When Howe shows that he has given up, can't solve problems, can't motivate players etc... that's when we should be thinking about sacking him.

I know he doesn’t score or assist much, that’s not up for debate

I always believed that last summer was all about chaotic timing and not anything fundamental about the people involved. Especially the assumption that Howe was some kind of control freak dinosaur - just silly. I still hope we don’t entirely become a Brighton-style production line with endless replaceable players. That’s soulless and I imagine quite limited in how high you can achieve. We need to combine the Howe character and the odd iconic player like Bruno/Isak/Tonali with the more developed technical operation to really get the max return for the club. IMO.

He’s been treated slightly harshly IMO, I guess it’s because we want him out. Think he’s been generally a bit underrated in his time here, and also very unlucky with Bruce coming in. Glad he got that purple patch anyway.

If Delap is out we should be looking to absolutely crush them. Not much to worry about going the other way.

There’s no chance of a manager change this season. Therefore there’s probably no chance of a change in the summer either, because the rest of our season will be positive. I don’t expect us to win the league cup but we can only take it one round at a time.

I don’t think turning corners and all that is very helpful. It’s not like we’re suddenly going to beat everyone. Are we playing well recently? Yes. I’m happy with that and will enjoy it.