Lotus

Is he having an op this summer?

I’ll start by saying I’m by no means unhappy with our owners. Couple of points though. Didn’t the club go after Emery first? Wasn’t it Amanda and Merdad rather than the Saudis who making those choices at the time? I'm certain they all knew the PSR restrictions at the time so knew in advance we couldn’t go all Galacticos. My personal concern is not the willingness of the Saudis to fund us, it’s their inability to do anything in a timely fashion. Or think ‘outside the box’.

Ederson > Ramsey

I would imagine that such a hiring would require an approval from a particular key person/group and there’s the bottleneck right there. The kind of decision where, if it doesn’t work out, would be very hard to pin it on someone else…..creates a certain reluctance in said key person/persons.

Given all the hype around Bardghji pre injury I hope we’re having a very serious look at him.

That must near on untenable for everyone involved.

Love Froggy and his input but given he seems to know every intricate detail of all the financial deals, wages, pay offs, etc with Manu either, a) he’s speculating or quoting someone who’s widely speculating or, b) Manu is possibly one of the leakiest clubs in the world. No one can simply look ‘at the published expenditure’ and then accurately workout what each individual player is earning. And if during negotiations players requests are leaked to the press at every juncture the club is gonna become a pariah.

Mbeumo would be away for AFCON I presume. From the 21st of December. That could be an important factor in whether to sign him or not.

Antonio Silva Arthur Vermeeren Oscar Gloukh Roony Bardghji

If I was Delap I’d want a move to Villa. I reckon he’d be the main man before long while not having the pressure of being the only striker.

If/when Trippier leaves/retires I'd be more than happy if we signed Dalot as a replacement. There must be a way Amorim can get a tune out of him.

He's good enough when he's in a Portugal shirt. He's a talented lad. I bet, if he moved on you'd see him playing well at a new club. I've even seen you say he's a good player, I'm certain of it! Something is badly off all over at ManU. You can't have that many decent to good players out of form for so long.

Dalot is a good RWB.

Spurs were much more in it in the 1st half. After they scored, in the most un-Spursy way ever they successfully shut up shop. ManU didn't have the cutting edge to score. I do honestly believe if Spurs needed a goal they would have got forward a lot more and do I think they'd have caused ManU problems if they had needed to.

Think the assist stat can be a bit unfair as it relies on another player to do the hardest thing to do on the pitch. Gordon put 2 balls across the box on Sunday that I reckon Murphy would’ve been in on (no guarantee of a shot on target, obvs).Barnes didn’t make the run. Isak has been a bit in and off. Gordon may have a couple more assists if Isak had been sharper/fitter.

Had to let things settle before posting.. Very disappointed by the result because I thought our performance deserved some reward. I thought we had some really good movement and interplay, especially in midfield. There were times when we really looked like we had a Brazilian and an Italian pair of internationals in there. Thought Gordon was industrious, he ran a lot! Don't understand the criticism of him at all. Certainly can't blame him for not getting to Rice in time. Barnes had a better view of that tbf. We got done in transition in a very dangerous part of the pitch. Shit happens. They had 3 in midfield to our 2 and you largely couldn't tell, in fact we were better. But for the goal the extra man paid off. C'est la vie. Tino was brilliant, I think Murphy did well enough in that role. Back 3 were very good. Wilson struggled somewhat but I think he was ok tbh. Not much of a goal threat himself but his presence there allowed other of our players to get into positions. We just didn't manage to score. Barnes had an off day imo. Gordon played a couple of good crosses that Murphy would've got to the back post for. HB didn't show the same willingness. I thought Willock did ok, enough to warrant a start if JL is injured. Miley was tidy, no mistakes. Nothing that stood out in a good or bad way. Thought we were well set up and prepared. I think there's some evolution happening around the way we play. Couple more ballers and we'll see that progress nicely. Rice is beast. Havertz looks like he's got early stage syphilis. Hope it's undiagnosed.

You had the total hots for Onana and don't lie !! You were saying Onana was nailed on for the Golden Gloves earlier in the season! He's probably just going through a rough patch. He's not become a bad keeper over night/week/month or 6.....

They did it like you thought they would!

Anyway, I think Nmecha has the potential to have a similar physical profile as JL with a higher technical floor.

Actually, my apologies to you! I didn't see Frankfurt were 3rd That is going to be an interesting end to the season. If Dortmund win I think I'm right in thinking they need: a) those 2 to draw b) any Frankfurt win as Freiburg's GD is crap c) a thumping Freiburg victory. If Dortmund draw they need a Frankfurt win.

Freiburg are in 4th and play Frankfurt at home. They're a point above Dortmund. Freiburg have 4 wins and a draw in their last 5 matches. Dortmund to the CL is not a guarantee.

Only caught the last 20 mins of normal time and then the extra time. Coventry were absolutely in the ascendancy until the last 15 mins when they ran out of legs. Sunderland were woeful up to that point. I'm not from the NE so the rivalry means very little to me so I feel I can watch it a bit more objectively. And objectively they were rubbish until the Cov players died on their feet.

If the Dortmund fanbase got past it I'm sure ours would.

Think Felix Nmecha would be a very good fit. Good combination of physicality and technical ability. If Dortmund fail to get CL they could end up losing a few players.

Would like to see us play the ball more into the central zone between the centre circle and the opposition penalty area. Think it's zone 11 and 14 when they divvy up the pitch. Ideally it would not be Isak receiving the ball here but one of our wide forwards or one of the CMs. Bruno has the passing skills to make that work but not the pace to escape a recovering defender. JL has the power and pace to drive forward but lacks the ability to play a killer ball (his stats bear this out). I don't honestly think Gordon or Murphy can do it either. Barnes, maybe.... It's very much a position Bournemouth use to great effect. It really opens a team up. We've seen it done to us. We love going down the wings. We're very cross heavy. We're 3rd so it's clearly got lots of merit. When we occasionally go through the middle though I think Isak really comes alive.