AyeDubbleYoo

Always have mixed feelings about ‘letting us have the ball’. While it’s right on one level, it’s also what bad teams do out of respect to better teams, and the reason is that it’s their only option. It’s not like tactical genius and it’s not like there’s anything the better team can really do to avoid the situation. The only thing they can do is be so good in attack that they eventually manage to score (see Man City every game). We’re in a tricky situation at the moment because a lot of opponents treat us like an elite team but we don’t have the attacking resources to be sure of beating them. Sometimes we will, sometimes we won’t. When we don’t, I think we need to be a bit patient and realistic about who we currently are.

If we supported Man City then almost all of our games would be like today, we would just have another half billion pounds of elite players to help us get the goal.

That’s what I was saying

Well sure, but surely the team who surrenders possession and doesn’t press can’t be said to dominate the game? Therefore if one team is on top, it’s the team with the ball who spend most of the game on the attack. For me that means dominating the game.

We did, Newcastle v Wolves? We just have different opinions of it. The middle part is a bit of a silly thing to say. We played the game we were in (given possession against passive opposition) and we managed their counters with minimal fuss. We just didn’t score.

It was a very logical signing, even if Isak had stayed. Just got injured and it fucked him and us.

Should’ve gone down a couple of times, especially the one where Joelinton got onto the cross and he was being tackled in the box. I would like to see him stay on for 90 mins so he can benefit from when the game opens up a bit.

I can’t ever be that annoyed by a game where we dominated, the opponent offered nothing and we were comfortable throughout. Problem is we just didn’t get on the end of one of the good deliveries we put across the box.

Thought he was fine today. Doesn’t threaten the goal though, which could be an issue for us since nobody else does either.

I think he’s getting picked at the moment because of his engine and defensive cover. Which is fair enough because we need it. But he has been very poor on the ball. FWIW the midfield approach where Bruno and Joe run forward into positions where they rarely get the ball is a bit odd.

Been very disappointed with him but it’s early days. FWIW I don’t think he’s a late sub game changer, by that point the pattern of the game is defined and we know whether or not we’ll be able to get him into the game.

Wolves didn’t do anything though, how did they look like world beaters? We just didn’t score.

Thought we basically played well and dominated the game, we just have weaknesses in our lack of really dangerous attackers or an ability to reliably unpick defences. It’s annoying because we had such a good chance to go 5th, and we could easily lose the next few games. But in isolation it wasn’t too bad IMO.

Based on the form table we’re the most in form team in the league.

I mean, 210 minutes is almost nothing, there's not going to be any meaningful stats in that time in either direction. I just think he was showing signs of causing problems for defences just before he got injured.

Totally agree, we could've used him over Christmas and New Year for sure. I don't think many teams have top 3rd strikers if they play 1 up front. Given he can also be effective off the wings he could've added a bit of chaos and threat going forward at least. I'm naturally biased towards backing all our players, but I think he was starting to show some good signs. But I guess if Howe doesn't agree then he'll be oot.

Shock Would love Khusanov but guess they’ll just hoard him. PS can Romano not just put a little bit of work into making sure his English makes sense? An important proposal FFS.

Surely there’s no way we’d even consider buying him for massive money. We have Miley and another 4 good midfielders. We will need to replace people at some point obvs, but Anderson for loads of money won’t be the answer.

It's the amazing football pyramid we have that stops that I guess, would just affect the integrity of the lower leagues which loads of people follow.

Naturally a CM I think but being asked to play CB out of position.

You're onto something here.

But hold on, we hammered the club for getting in the position to have to sell Minteh and Anderson. Which is exactly what Villa did when they gambled on the CL with those expensive loans. I wouldn't say it's transfer genius.

But fans on the internet aren't the club. Are you saying if fans online were different we could avoid Arsenal or Liverpool wanting to buy one of our players? I don't get it.

What has Abraham been doing recently? Feels like a bit of a punt but I suppose he’ll just take some of the load off Watkins.

In a way he’s approached his introduction to the squad well. Played it quite safe, been neat, avoided any disasters or harsh criticism. Eased himself in.