Lotus

Is Tammy Abraham realistic? Because I think he's exactly what we need. Physical but good feet. Strong with back to goal. Good in the air and a hard worker. What's not to like?

I think we’re better with him in the side. If he could be effective from wide he would definitely solve some problems.

I think Dortmund might let Julian Brandt go. Certainly plenty of the support wouldn’t be bothered if they did. He’s definitely a project. With his talents and when on form, if he was firing on all cylinders we wouldn’t have a chance. He’s been patchy at best though. I think Howe could definitely improve him. He’s a little click away from being a top footballer.

I thought Shelvey played pretty well yesterday. He’s slow, we all know it. He got his foot in though and used the ball pretty well.

He could press from wherever he is. He doesn’t press from the left anyway and barely offers Targett any support as it is. Anyway, just an idea.

Really has improved a lot. Credit to himself and the coaching team.

One idea to stop him getting double or triple marked would be to give him a floating role. Let him pop all over the pitch. Don’t think it would hurt our defensive solidity much. He would, of course be very careful if he wants to take players on much closer to our box (should he ever find himself there….).

Is he? if so I’d put Shelvey next Bruno and move Joelinton to Willock’s spot. However I don’t do this for a living so Eddie Howe may have a different view :-D

Shooting the breeze…. Dubs Schar Lascelles Burn Manq Targett Bruno Joelinton Willock ASM Wood

Is Botman not happening then or do the journos just know nowt?

It's one thing doing that on a windy Tuesday night in Poland.....

Tchouameni would be awesome.....

Manager Lee Johnson had said to Bristol Live back in August 2017: "He's 6ft 3in........... There is pretty variable info on him around the net tbf. I thought he looked way taller than 178cm when seeing him on video but did find the above quote eventually.

Clear from the video that he’s at least as quick as Kovacic who was much fresher as he was only a 2nd half sub.

Can I ref demand VAR show him an incident he didn’t see and VAR don’t think there’s enough in it to intervene?

I don’t honk JL nor Shelley are ideal for that position but needs must. I imagine we’ll change tactics and formation based on the opponent and players available. See so obvious to write that but had been sorely lacking for so long!

Wonder if that formation will be the optimal for the rest of this season? 4 2 3 1 with Bruno and I presume JL when he’s back playing 6 and 8 and Willock ahead as a 10.

Bruh....

I just Krafth is not Prem standard at all. I think we've done recently utterly in spite of him, not because of him. Unless Manq has a genuine fitness issue I can't think of any justification for Krafth playing.

If we’d had got Botman for £40m and he would’ve played like this everyone would have said it was a steal.

In the 1st half he gave the ball away a couple of times when we were pressing forward in attack. Simple balls too. Put us in a very difficult position to try and get people back to cover their subsequent attacks. Poor play. Wouldn’t want to see him start for us again.

After Bruno came on I thought Shelley made a couple of positional errors. Twice I think he was resting a bit, nothing wrong with that per se, but you have to rest in position and he wasn’t. He was not central where he has to rest as the deep CM. He was on the left and given the ball was with Brentford on the right I thought that was the 1st time I’ve noticed him make a definite tactical error since Bruno showed up. He was slow to react and just kind of ambled more to the middle. Up to now I think he’s been pretty good tbh (last 6 games) but those couple of little lapses made me wonder if that’s the crack that Bruno squeezes through to start a game.

His 1st touch is a caress.

Very very good performance. Both with and without the ball.

Our organisation and work ethic over the past 5 or 6 games makes us a very stubborn opponent. It’s so different from what we’re used to. I think we’ll get at least a point. All 3 if ASM is playing and on form.