Gallowgate Toon

The club really has to get a CM and versatile forward in this window - anything less would be poor, imo, and I'm someone who thinks they've not really put a bad foot forward so far. I'm all for trying to get the right player in but having 'a small pool of players we like' sounds a bit odd, in all honesty, considering the thousands of options out there. The likes of Brighton have shown you can make really good buys in less obvious markets when you might not think they're 'PL ready'. If we can't improve the first team then we need to improve the squad this window.

Deserved. God, would love us to sign another attacker this week after seeing the little injection Trossard just gave.

He's definitely a bit off but he needs support. Occupies a lot of important space on his own for us. I think we need to find a way to get him and Isak on together, we're not blessed with great goalscorers in the squad outside of those 2.

The team needs some tweaks so I expect incremental changes to test the balance going forward. I don't think Maxi or Isak we're ready to start today but Tuesday is a great one to at least get one in the starting XI. I have a feeling he's been keeping the consistency recently for the cup tie as a solid defence is a way to a trophy, despite some of the attacking troubles. Tbh, I wouldn't even call them troubles, we're just not being clinical despite decent chance creation.

Even the best teams have off days or small runs of games where they look less cohesive. It happens, and we're not even a top squad yet.

Good luck to him. He touches his own head when he says touch wood so he deserves immense respect for that. He was a useful option for us and always gave it his best shot. Leaves with some good memories and a fantastic penalty record.

Not been impressed by Nunes over here so far.

Isak's career record at Sociedad was a goal every 184 mins in the league, tbf. Goal contribution every 160 mins, if you start bringing assists in. Most goals scored by an under 23 player after Haaland and Mbappe since 2019/whenever at the time we signed him etc. I'd say his fee was a bit inflated in today's market looking at the bigger picture but the raised eyebrows were mainly due to a final poor 6 months in Spain more than anything, his value prior to that would've been seen comfortably at £60m, imo. Wood's price to value was much worse and I was one of the ones that thought he'd do alright we paid 75% more than his actual worth.

Don't think I'd start Isak yet, still needs another 30-min cameo before the cup tie. ASM in, drop Joelinton back into midfield.

Have they done that because their insane shite keeps on getting posted on Twitter?

Thierry Isak

Was a really nice move from Howe to do that. Isak can definitely play as a lone striker but he's a player that likes to get on the ball and find spaces; Wilson is more traditionally territorial and gets into CB battles. It's something as we phase Wilson out that we'll have to counter as Isak leaving that space means we need mids and wingers to pick it up instead. While Bruno's out, I wouldn't mind us going 4-4-2 at all. It's class to have the legitimate option in games as well.

I'm warming to the Neves idea a lot. I imagine they'll know today how bad Bruno's injury is, but Howe made the point that we're light in this area regardless. Shelvey is a decent player when motivated but not someone I'd stop making transfer plans for even before you account for his mounting injury record.

Not sure if it translates well on TV (if you weren't there) but there were quite a few times that he made some odd runs or, should I say, lack of to make himself available when others needed options. Definitely looked a bit lazy at the time but he might've been told to stay higher, or he was maybe conserving energy cause it looked like he was blowing out of his arse on occasion. On the ball, I thought he did exactly what we needed him to do and it's great to have him back in the fray.

Looks like Bruno took the cameras to Bolam Lake. What a guy.

Good cameo but he was making some very odd runs

Just shows how much it pays to have proper goalscorers on the pitch. He's got lots of ability, can't wait for him to properly get into the groove.

Gutted for him - thought he looked right up for it as well with that dirty pass. A very timely reminder that we need reinforcements.

What a moment. Thought we were deserved winners despite not being at our best. I was actually disappointed with Fulham, I thought they'd have more going forward. Hopefully, Bruno isn't out for long. Can see us going 4-4-fucking-2 in his absence. For all we play some great stuff, we're wasteful. It's important to have more than one proper goalscorer on the pitch.

Think Neves is overrated, tbh, but he's the right profile to unleash Bruno.

Just can't see Howe starting him (or even having him in the squad) for the weekend. I seriously doubt he's happy about him being out that late anyway (he's talked about lifestyle standards for maximum recovery before in interviews) even before the drink driving. By many accounts, Jo is a great lad and likely knows this was very fucking stupid. Still, he's got to pay for it as a role model and should be made a reasonable example of.

Would be interested to see underlying numbers to Fulham's recent form. I'm sure I read that they concede quite a lot of shots and don't have many themselves but are very clinical. This may be part of their masterplan but could just be one of those runs too. Silva is quite a streaky manager, isn't he? Anyway, I don't think he'll start Joelinton this weekend (may completely drop him, tbh) so we'll need to think about who takes the LW spot. I think he might surprise us with Isak from the off, especially if ASM isn't fully recovered from his illness.

At some point, Howe is likely going to get some PED accusations chucked at him considering the turnaround of these players and our relentlessness.

Loved his run for the Bruno through ball - started looping out right and then burst left. His movement is looking very good since the return. Definitely a positionally free striker. If he's going to lead the line on his own, we're going to have to make sure we fill up that central space with others as he looks for space, whether that be coming in from the wing or late runs from midfield.