Lotus

Don't think he was awful, that seems an exaggeration. He didn't influence the game particularly or offer much differentiation from Murphy but it's early days. I'm sure, the longer he spends with the squad, the more accustomed he'll be to our style of play and he'll start to show his qualities. Eddie has wanted him for a while and will work with him to bring the best out of him.

Sven played a fantastic pass from the edge of the box, through the lines straight into the feet of Wolt in the centre circle. Was much later on in the game and I think Wolt was too tired to bring it under control properly. Dat pass though. Given what it would cost to replace him, it’s got to be worth while making his contract extension extremely lucrative. To find a player that can defend like that and pass like that. So rare. But to already have such a player. Criminal to let him go unless the fee is extraordinary.

Thought he did well, especially considering he was on his own. No support from fullback and no creative midfielder near him. Whatever he had to do, he had to do it himself and often surrounded by about 3 Forest players.

I telt yas!

Looks like a Bruno backup/replacement.

Want him to stop running around angry and stick to being skillful and creative. He's our best at it. Think him and Tonali would be ridiculous in a double pivot. Seeing Gordon inside more last night, maybe he could play off the striker? Maybe JL....he's better facing upfield than his own goal.

Without seeing Wissa play I presume he is a much more 'stretch the field' type. Hope our players can adapt to both styles. Because Wolt is so good at holding it up and bringing others into play that it's really worth changing the strategy of the team to suit him. He is superb at it.

I thought he showed he is technically a better player than Murphy. Some nice 1st touch lay offs. He defo passes the ball better. Murphy does cross very well though. Want to see both Elanga and Gordon (who I thought was excellent) come inside and run off Woltemade. Our FBs can provide the width.

Thought he did ok. If he'd have been on earlier I do think he'd have contributed more positively but I think the game was pretty much won.

Isak used to stretch the field as he was often looking for a ball in behind. He was fairly ineffective when he came deep looking for the ball. With a defender up his arse he was next to useless. Woltemade is the opposite. Looks great coming deep and can handle a defender no problem. That’s not a surprise, German defenders are hardly nimble but they’re plenty big and strong. So he’s got experience in dealing with that. What we’re missing now is players stretching the field. We have 3 very quick widemen and one who has decent pace but a great shot. Will be interesting to see how we evolve and change. Either one or both the wide players get closer to him to collect the flicks from him or we need a good passing midfielder to get the ball back from him and then knock it forward or in front of the wingers.

Scored loads of goals for us and then we doubled our money on him. Bit unfortunate the way it ended but, we probably need to more a few more deals of this nature to make up for our lack of spending power.

It's been more of the latter tbh.

He's been successful before due to his relentless attitude and stamina. Don't think he's ever been particularly skillful and that side of his game hasn't visibly improved since he joined. In general I thought he really tried against Arsenal but he'd not very good at linking up with players. As someone else pointed out, he hardly had any chemistry with Isak and he often plays like who's ever at LB is wearing an invisible cloak. He offers more than Barnes atm. Probably needs a few things to go his way for a confidence lift.

It's the lack of desire to see the midfield play football that's confusing me a bit. I understand JL has his limitations but the other 2 could surely make up for them. We have 2 out of 3 of some of the best ball players in the Prem in Bruno & Tonali. Excellent 1st touch great technique, vision, quick thinkers.....

The queue of clubs for him will wrap round the block a few times. We'd be no where near.

sure bro

We definitely like a certain type of midfield player. A mate of mine (not a NUFC fan but watches a lot of our games) said, for all the talk about how a player like David Silva would transform us, if such a player were available at the same price as Elanga then Elanga would be the one we go for as we tend to covert athletic ability of football skill and reading of the game. He also argued if a player similar to Bruno i.e. good technical and creative but not quick or strong, if that kind of midfielder was available to us now we'd pass in favour of a a stamina monster. I thought it was pretty contentious at first because Bruno is our captain. But he wasn't talking about the kind of figurehead Bruno has turned into, rather his profile at the time of purchase. Was an interesting exercise in pure speculation.

Given the damage both the UK and the US Govts have done domestically and abroad, both historically and currently, I'm staggered at the brass neck needed to criticize any other regime anywhere in the world.

I reckon: Tino / Timber Thiaw / Mosquera Botman / Gabriel Bruno / Zubimendi Tonali / Rice Gordon / Trossard Wolt / Gyokeres 7 out of starting 11 would've got into Arsenal's match day squad or at least been very very close. But the difference in tactics and approach was chalk and cheese. They tried to control the ball and moves us around. We seemed to just bang it forward at every opportunity. Were have some talented ball players but we don't seem remotely interested in trying to control the game at all. Not even for brief periods. We get the ball you know exactly what's going to happen, launch it. Wide players don't run the channels just run the lines. Would've killed for a win yesterday because it was Arsenal and I can't stand them but I had to admit to myself that Allardyce would've been extremely happy with our approach until the 2 late goals. And even his Bolton sides and a good playmaker not overly burdened with defensive work and running 12km a game. See, Okocha, Djorkaeff, Nakata...

Not sure what we're trying to do with him atm. You'd think having a couple of nippy wing forwards playing close to him for the flicks, etc would be the way to go but no. To get close to the wide forwards he has to go wide to find them.

Didn't he put that fantastic ball through for Murphy? Sure it was him..

Thought Bruno was ok. He's our only consistent creative passer of the ball. Was a difficult game for him as the midfield was very crowded and we didn't apparently have a game plan to hold on to the ball for more than 3 passes.

We’re not a very press resistant team atm. Bit of an issue I think. We also seemed happy to make sure the ball spent as much time in the air as on the ground.

Do you think he looked super fresh against Arsenal?

Don’t think it’s fair to assess how Elanga is settling in until the 2nd half of the season. Some players may hit the ground running but that probably means the adaption to our style of play was a little easier for them. He looks ok to me so far. He has a superior physical advantage over practically everyone and that will always make defenders cautious. Over time I’m sure we’ll see him use the ball better given defenders are likely to stand a yard or so further off him so they don’t get burned. He has a great attitude and he’s in a great environment. It’s great he’s got competition from the incumbent Murphy too, gives him a bar to beat and also relieves some pressure.