AyeDubbleYoo

They weren't even good.

Groundbreaking

Ironically loads of people argued against both Tino and Hall for being Eddie's Brexit mags.

Not sure why we only count league games. And we weren't even a functioning football club for most of those games.

I don't want them to succeed but I think it adds something to have a derby in the calendar. In that sense it's good.

I literally think zero people said it didn't matter.

It's very weird looking at our results from Man City up until yesterday. Very respectable results including a couple of draws that could easily have been wins against quite good teams. Including away at Leverkusen and a thumping away win at Everton. Yet the way we conceded late goals makes it feel more fragile and probably plays into this feeling of lack of confidence we all have. But I equally think if we had drawn 0-0 yesterday we could be feeling a bit more positive about the overall direction - the margins have been very fine.

The worst one was the second yellow for Brobby which wasn't even given as a free kick.

We're 4 points off 5th, everything is up for grabs still. Reminds me a bit of that season where we looked nailed-on for relegation but were never actually more than 4 or 5 points away from safety and eventually made it. Of course if we play shit for the rest of the season we won't do it.

He was absolutely gutted like, hard to watch.

I don't think you could expect an upgrade on Isak like.

I really think we need to separate who is 'better' from who is playing better at the moment. Quite different things when we're assessing who's a good or bad signing. I think the intention of almost all our signings was to provide greater quality in rotation than what we had before. We weren't really aiming for many direct upgrades to starters.

Nah that's all right, I'm just saying that in theory Gordon has a lot to his game. He's been rated at the top level at all age groups really. You're right he needs to find a way to deliver now, but TBF our team needs to find a way to play well from back to front.

I think they're caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment. They're playing poorly and really should concentrate on getting the basics right, but they're feeling like they need to force situations and try to make something happen, which then fails.

Think the problem is that the same players can't start every game, I guess. That and we need to try and get a return from Elanga rather than write him off. Management I mean, they can't think like fans do.

Well nowadays it's not great. But in theory it's about movement, unpredictability, taking up clever spaces, moving the defenders around etc. I don't think his bad form means he's permanently finished though.

Ah yeah, well they're another level again. Not sure there are any other examples of players that good outside of the top few teams in the world. I just think Barnes and Gordon are both more wide forwards than wingers and in theory they should be able to play OK off Woltemade.

Gordon's natural game isn't constantly going outside on his weaker foot though. It's not even really getting to the byline.

To me this is Gordon and Barnes though. I feel like Gordon is only going outside so much because he's been told to, his natural game is cutting in at least 50-60% of the time.

I think the reason to sign Woltemade and Wissa was also that we could rely on Wissa to score some goals and take the pressure off while we integrated Woltemade more gradually.

Yeah, we shouldn't be firing aerial balls into him anyway, unless they're crosses.

If we can I'm up for it I did think it was strange that we didn't sign a left-footer for RW.

Yeah I guess, I was more thinking about developing the overall recruitment team so that it supports Howe and provides us with more targets.

No chance we can sell Elanga in January after buying him in summer.

FWIW I've always agreed that Howe shouldn't be too powerful when it comes to signings, no one person should. Ideally it should be a collaborative effort with data and targets identified based on the manager's needs and what the experts in the recruitment department can spot. But I have no idea if we're getting closer to a proper recruitment setup or not.