alexf

To be fair the last time he played regularly, that sort of thing would probably have been waved off. Fucking annoying though. Ball was nowhere near getting to Young and they were never scoring without a gift like that ?

I mean Schar was holding his hamstring multiple times towards the end of the game. Looked like Willock was also nursing some kind of injury when there were shots of the bench. But we'll see. If you can walk then you will play tonight ?

The athleticism of Rodri and Kovacic against Longstaff and Bruno last night was such a problem. We couldn't get near Kovacic, he was just able to stroll past our midfields attempts at tackles at will. Sort of game we can see how far off we are especially without Joelinton smashing into people. It's definitely an area I hope we focus on in the summer. I think Tonali should help if he's up to speed now ofcourse. but you can see teams are starting to target that weakness. It's why they had Doku coming in off the left and making those surging runs through the middle as we have no one that can live with pace.

Max Southgate would play from that attacking collection is 3 so not sure why he needs 9 options and then bare bones midfield options.

Thought he was very good today. Was shocked to see it was him overlapping for that first goal. Avoided a yellow again? How long does he have to keep going or do they never get wiped again.

Love him. Great surge forward into space and then the directness and confidence to take it on himself. Almost more noticeable though was his acceleration and tenacity to win back those loose balls. Something we really lack I feel with Burn and Trippier due to their age and speed.

I think the club would obviously be more concerned about the insider knowledge he will be taking to one of our rivals rather than any sadness about losing his expertise. Be that contract info regarding any of our top players they might want to poach. Future transfer prospects, youth and first team, and also just generally anything financial/FFP related that we would really rather our league competitors aren't privy to.

Expecting same team most likely as Eddie doesn't seem keen on changing formation or personal, even though we are haemorrhaging goals at the back. But I'd try something like..... --------------------------Dubs------------------------------- -----------Schar------Lascelles------Botman---------------- ---Trippier----------------------------------------Livramento --------------------Bruno--------Miley----------------------- Murphy-----------------------------------------------Almiron --------------------------Gordon---------------------------- Or if need an extra in the middle.. --------------------------Dubs------------------------------- -----------Schar------Lascelles------Botman---------------- ---Trippier----------------------------------------Livramento --------------------Bruno--------Miley----------------------- --------------------------Almiron----------------------------- ---------------Murphy---------------Gordon----------------- Keep compact and restrict Saka and Martinelli as much as possible and try and counter with speed through the front 3 like against villa. Barnes probably best from bench for this one maybe? With hopefully Isak and Willock available from the bench.

Probably more to do with the fact Doku has outrageous acceleration and is almost unplayable at times, so their tactics seems to be, get Doku isolated 1v1. Grealish never had that sort of ability outside of being really good at keeping possession and winning free-kicks. So when he plays they make him recycle the ball over and over untill it opens up space elsewhere.

Crikey imagine an alternate universe where Shearer did actually sign for Man Utd instead and perhaps never plays for us and doesn't become our leading scorer and is actually vilified for winning countless trophies with them.

First goal was horrible with the slip obviously but the second really highlighted just how easy to score against we are currently. 1 pass from the CB, straight through our midfield, leaving essentially a 3v3. Then Botman steps out leaving a gap behind and Burn also drops deep on his own. Once this happens though, Burn simply has to engage in some way. He needs to move towards the attacked and send him wide or push him inside and allow others to support. But he does neither as he is scared to get into a race and leaves the door open for a shot on goal. Finally Dubravka has to do better, the shot is not in the corner and slips under him. Just poor all round but showcases the same deficiencies as most of the goals we are leaking lately. Exposed defenders with no midfield protection, total lack of mobility from Dan Burn, and usually Dubravka glued to his line and not inspiring any confidence in his back line to step up as he won't sweep.

Yeah in the balance of fairness...Sven has been really poor since returning from injury. Understandable maybe given he's so young still and had a bad injury. But he's looked just as slow as Burn and can't really remember anything from his performances that make him look like the high ceiling potential player we signed. I guess their absence has shown to those that might have doubted it, just how important the likes of Joelinton and Willock were to protecting the back 4 last season.

Been thinking for awhile that Chelsea are going to finish above us.

Why can't Tino play the same role as Burn and let Trippier push on when he wants to? I'd much rather have Tino as last man back with his recovery pace then any of our other defenders.

He did nothing. He neither closed him down or blocked the angle. Couldn't have asked for an easier opportunity as a winger. Burn might aswell have not been there. I'm not blaming him personally, I just can't get my head around Howe not changing it especially as Tino has proven himself at left back plenty. Every time Tino has come on recently we haven't conceded and have also scored goals and looked more dangerous going forward.

Maybe should try the 5 at the back for Arsenal if he refuses to drop Burn. But yeah it's not working. Bruno was excellent today and Miley had good moments but we still looked utterly wide open every single attack they had. No protection from midfield and back 4 look slow and exposed. Lack of striker was also a problem ofcourse, but the need for Tino in there is far too obvious to everyone and for some unknown reason keeps getting ignored. How many goals have we conceded when Tino has come on recently? I make it zero in last 4 games since Villa?

How many more games? What's that 4 in a row now he's been done for goals?

Defo feels like we are gonna concede in this game with our defence. Look exposed so easily. But we don't look much cop going forward today. Need some luck 2nd half.

Awful inconsistent crap today. Giving nothing against us and no cards and yet when we breathe on some of theirs he is giving free kicks to get them out of danger.

I was hoping both him and Gordon came off sooner in that Forest game. With hindsight we now know Murphy wasn't capable of coming on,but it still doesn't change the fact that Eddie has been reluctant to bring people off when we are trying to see out a game. He just doesn't seem to trust the others. But I think that mentality is costing more than potential dropped points in one off games. Sure we might have conceded a late goal at Forest if we had subbed Gordon or Wilson sooner, but we now have lost Wilson for 2-3 months where he might have contributed to more than the potential 2 dropped points. I know it's impossible to truly predict injuries, but there is definitely a pattern where players, especially those returning from injury, have been pushed beyond their physical limits. Joelinton, Willock, Isak to name a few.

This is a sickener. Especially as it was such a stupid situation that caused it. The media people and even Shearer can piss off saying we shouldn't be using injuries as an excuse this year. If any club suffered as many key players missing for so long as we have then they would all have suffered similar seasons or worse. Gonna need to wrap Isak up and manage his minutes, otherwise we're going the rest of the season with no true striker.

Hope we smash west ham whenever we play them and cement ourselves above them. Would feel so wrong to finish below them, if not for injuries we would be miles clear of them yet we are on the same points.

What's clear for me is we need more pace and athleticism in the back 4 and midfield positions. I think it's really holding us back especially as we have been missing Willock, Joelinton and to some extent Tonali most of the season. There are no legs in the team once you get past our front 3 and feels like every other team has an athletic advantage.

Props for the result and for trying something different to unlock Bruno higher up the pitch. However I really don't think the result should justify the team selection. I believe that should have been far more comfortable than it was. It needs to be flipped. Tino should be starting games and Burn on at the end if we need to sit deeper and see out some pressure. Also we complain we had no subs before and players getting run into the ground but then we run Wilson and/Gordon till the end when Gordon looked done for a lot sooner.

Dunno how many more times this has to happen before we see an actual proactive halftime sub from Howe. We cannot continue like this, we look like conceding every single time. But it feels such a simple solution to relief the pressure.