AyeDubbleYoo

Some people might've left the Barnes sub for later or made a different one, but Joelinton was offering very little out wide and it looked like we didn't need his extra defending. Seemed like putting Barnes on was just about taking advantage of how much the better team we were. It made sense at the time IMO. I'm not sure if Willock had to come off for injury reasons anyway, seems more like Howe to leave the team longer.

If you're saying Howe didn't engineer this then you're just being wilfully ignorant. He gets no credit for when we have great combinations but gets all the stick when they look worse?

Like I said, Kelly looks bad so far, I was just saying he was signed as a long-term squad option who could cover LCB and LB in the same way Burn does. But not start too much in either position.

I do think ultimately we need a third midfielder to partner Bruno and Toni because Willock is too untidy and Joelinton isn't technical enough. But it does depend on what style of team we're trying to build.

Not sure, probably about the same as Burn but younger and available cheap.

Hmm OK, I can't remember that or be bothered to look it up, so I accept. Strange there's so much difference between two basically identical positions mind.

How would you set it up?

Is Tonali known to be best at LCM in a 4-3-3? I'm not sure Gordon was considered only a LW either, before he signed. Agreed we have some issues but we did need to buy an entire new first-team squad and we would always be complaining about weaknesses somewhere at this point in the rebuild. Unless we'd just made 11 perfect signings in perfect sequence.

I don't see how anyone can be sick of Tonali playing anywhere, he's had nowhere near enough games in any position.

Think he's intended to be the replacement for Burn as backup to Botman and desperation backup at LB.

Football in general does, look at what Man City are going through.

Do you not get similar passes in NBA and NFL?

Fair questions but I think a lot of them can be put down to confidence/momentum and the rest to trying to fix it.

Howe's not immune to the kind of thinking that permeates football - 'we won more when playing Longstaff' and all that kind of shit. He's human. What I want him to do most is make a decision on a team for a few weeks (which IMO must include Tonali) and give it some time to breathe. There's no reason at all why Tonali can't play RCM or CM for us, he can do anything we ask him to do.

Things like 160 live and on demand MLB games for around £100 a season.

If we'd won to go 6th would it be OK to back him? There's only 4 points between 10th and 3rd, league position right now isn't a factor for me.

Would you like to pick a league position for me, so that my opinion can be valid?

My point's not about cost, it's about his quality. I didn't say he had earned his place to date, although I think he should get it anyway. I said I think it's inevitable that he is too good to leave out eventually. Especially when Longstaff is so bad and Willock is so inconsistent.

Not sure there's much to level at Howe tonight, we outplayed West Ham in the first half and let in a stupid goal. We played well until they scored the second (against the run of play again) and then we got a bit desperate, started rushing everything and they settled down. I probably wouldn't have played Joelionton on the right mind, I don't understand that one. But I was fully behind the Barnes sub. Haven't seen the second goal back so don't know if Barnes not tracking was a factor. Bringing on Murphy and Wilson is kind of pointless, especially Murphy. But I guess at that point you have to try something.

He's going to play, it's inevitable. There's just no way Longstaff or anyone but Bruno can do enough to keep him out forever.

I thought it was a smart signing for a Burn successor and a squad place. Which I guess it might still be in the long term. But at the moment he looks rubbish, although I do think he made a goal-saving block at one point.

He’s always been prone to untidiness at times, one of the reasons I questioned if he’s really a CM. When things aren’t going right he can look a mess. TBH I ultimately think we need a new 3rd midfielder (maybe Miley) to go with Bruno and Tonali.

Knew there was a reason why American sports can sell their streaming so cheap. They have conventional TV broadcasters as well FWIW, local and some games national. Must still be a market outside of the streaming (at the moment).

Never thought we’d be interested in Chiesa, for many reasons. When someone like that is available so easily, something is wrong. Liverpool could take the risk because they had a massive pool of wide forwards already.

I think it’s because I don’t watch many games on TV now as well. When I do I really notice how grim it is. Last night was Ipswich v Man Utd and it sounded like WWE.