Lotus

Hall hasn’t had plenty of chances. By any metric. How is giving Ritchie a few minutes here and there over Hall to anyone’s benefit? What the issue is, I don’t know. And I’ve said before I don’t know. Something is amiss with that one. Tino has had limited time given his very obvious talent and physicality . We can look at Trips and Burn’s recent performances and think they deserve to start but it wasn’t long ago at all they’ve both had problems. Significant problems. Result changing problems. As I said and firmly believe, Miley would have a fraction of the minutes he’s had if we were at full strength. Surely that’s obvious. Alex Murphy looked decent in preseason. Seen him since? He’s been on the bench. When games have been very clearly won or lost we don’t see them for 15, 10 or even 5 minutes. Anderson is pointless speculating about due to his very unfortunate injury. When Isak or Wilson have been absolutely dead on their feet and can barely jog let alone run are at a risk of muscle injury due to fatigue…..a youngster on the bench just couldn’t do any worse. Don’t see them though. So far this season, EH has not felt comfortable giving young players the experience.

Would be actually be surprised if we saw him this season tbh. EH doesn’t seem to be particularly trusting of youth imo. With Miley his hand has been well and truly forced. We’ve signed a number of promising youngsters so that’s clearly a club policy. Very curious to see which of them might start getting some 1st team minutes here and there next season. I’d like to see Tino get some regular meaningful playing time this season but I don’t see him getting starts in either FB spot soon unless injuries/suspensions force it. And, tbf both Burn and Trips have looked worthy of their places past couple of weeks.

Well, I hope he makes a real contribution.

Not sure….they pass, we run.

Tonali is not available....

Given the actual players available who would you play as the midfield 2 and who at 10?

It’s a message board, relax.

Was hoping he’d get a goal yesterday but it didn’t seem to be happening. Just a fraction off with everything up at the sharp end. The supporting cast didn’t make the best use of him either.

I genuinely thought it was harsh until the posters on here very much suggested I watch the replays of the incident (I saw it live at the time). Was a red tbf. Also, the idea that Longstaff made a meal of that is laughable. He certainly does of nearly everything else but that poleaxed him.

Thought the pressure the Liverpool got to him and contorted him. But, as others have pointed out he certainly had his moments of being quite the tossed in Germany so……

Got to be honest, I’d sell him and replace him with more technical midfielder but the joy from watching smash through people is quite unique. I giggle at it in a very immature way ?

Of course people are curious about what’s going on with Hall. You’d be stupid not to, frankly. He can’t even get a few minutes ahead of Ritchie in a position Hall has played in. To suggest there’s nothing in it is willful ignorance. As to what it is exactly, I have no idea. It’s odd. Gordon certainly had more opportunities in his first half season even though he didn’t show much. It might be that Hall is particularly poor in training. Maybe, despite looking half decent for Chelsea he’s actually crap. Maybe EH never wanted him and he’s making a point. Maybe it’s thing with the fee. Whatever it is he’s occupying a space on the subs bench for no apparent reason. Something with this transfer, given the size of the fee, has gone amiss. There’s nothing wrong with people on a message board guessing. That’s the fun of it. If someone turns out to be right, it still would’ve been a guess.

Maybe the lack training time will show an improved performance. Despite the form table predicting a very comfortable win for Villa, we’ve definitely had it in us to throw a massive spanner in the works. Would love us to be that disruptive again.

We gave Fulham every opportunity to win that and they didn’t have a striker worth he’s salt to score. That’s their issue. Other than that I thought they looked far better than us with worse players. They looked cohesive and decisive through midfield. We looked like we met yesterday. If Mitro was still there we’d have been on the end of a hiding. Anyway, he wasn’t and we got 2 goals from a bit of luck and a bit of hesitancy from Fulham. Hopefully we spend less time on the training pitch as it appeared very detrimental to our overall play ? Hope we beat Villa. Don’t care how.

Glad to see him. Was expectedly rusty. Showed plenty of willingness and he’ll sharpen up if he continues to get game time.

Hall does count. Alex Murphy could’ve got a run. He’s looked decent. Tino or Krafts should have been on for Trips earlier. Why risk it? Now he’s got a niggle. I mean wtf?

Thought it was a perculiar and poor performance from us pretty much until the game was so late Fulham knew they couldn’t get back in it. Then we had a bit more space and time in midfield. If we’ve been working on the training ground it didn’t show. Was like a flukey Pardew result tbh. When where you know the score line looks good but the general play was predicated on the opposition fluffing their lines. Also, what is it with EH and substitutions? If you don’t rotate, even for 15/20 mins here and there then players will never have any match sharpness at all. If they don’t then you’re always forced to start the same 11 pretty much. Result: injuries/fatigue.

If we need to sell players to improve the squad and those players need to be of a certain standard and value in order for the fee received to be significant, JL would be my 1st choice. He’s very good but I think there are better ball players and better positional sense out there.

please tell me it was Saracens…..

Would be surprised if we ever actually managed to replace Bruno. It’s not just his skill it’s his ‘all in’ attitude and commitment combined with his skills and vision that make him the player he is for us. He’s totally bought in on the idea of being The Man. He also rarely misses a game. Chances of finding that combination in one player again for us will have very long odds.

TTA. Think he is a very rare talent with the ball. Has decent pace and strength too. Can’t understand why he isn’t a better defender. Must all be in the top 2 inches.

Moukoko. Never really managed to hold down a place in Dortmund’s 1st team.

That particular scenario would be nailed on tbh….

I think we need a midfielder who does his defensive work actually facing the opposition. Too often all but the back 4 do their best defensive work facing their own goal, running back, surprising, disrupting or nicking the ball as the opponents run towards our goal. Just to have someone who could actually be facing the play from midfield when we lose the ball and get caught in transition would help immensely. Their skill set should in no way be limited to tackling or intercepting and then laying the ball off but having the situational and positional awareness to drop back 10 yards facing play when we could look vulnerable would be massive. If they can play make from a deep position too then we’ve got a winner.

I love JL’s attitude and physicality. I think he lacks a degree of finesse in midfield. His progressive passes stats are pretty low. He’s more of a runner than passer. He’s scoring stats are good but assists are low. I think Ederson is an upgrade tbh.