Lotus

Genuinely interested to see how he does. He looked decent in his previous loan but was struggling when back at Chelsea.

Is he fit? Think there’s an argument for him starting against Luton. They’re a bit more agricultural and Jamaal is excellent in the air.

If you have a player who is injury prone and completely exhausted, barely jogging let alone running. I’d think to throw on anyone, a youngster even to protect the 1st teamer, inject a bit of energy into the side and at least give a youngun a taste. I’ve made this same point a few times now, these are the circumstances it’s clearly justified in my mind. If you want to contort that point into something else so you can make a counter point to something I didn’t say, fill your boots ?

The fact he doesn’t get any minutes would lead me to feel we could use that money more effectively. It’s a lot to tie up in ‘a project’. Don’t think we’re financially at the level yet where we can do that given how thin the squad is in other areas. That’s not meant as a knock to his potential. I’ve the same level of an idea as to his potential as everyone else on the forum. None.

would be a good retort if it was to a point someone actually made…..

Was out with a group of blokes a couple of months ago and when one of them found out I was a Newcastle fan he showed me old photos of him and JT as kids playing for some East London (i think) Sunday league team. Said he knew him quite well back then.

They also don’t usually have squads as utterly rinsed as ours.

Personally think Tino is. Hall, I think it’s almost worth not talking about. Something seems to be going on so I wouldn’t want to put the blame at anyone’s door. As I said, the young forwards are most likely not good enough. But they can run. And when Isak or Wilson can’t and are injury prone, letting them chase the ball like a dog in the park for 10 -15 minutes wouldn’t surely be a detriment. I’ll also say, if we had a full squad to pick from then it would be obvious to say that Miley wouldn’t be good enough to get a look in ahead of Bruno, Tonali, JL and Willock. Necessity has forced the issue though the experience will have been great for his development. You can’t wait for a youngster to be good enough without exposing them to the experience of actually competing at that level.

I’ve mentioned him.

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?