alexf

We're running this guy into the ground unfortunately. Now has to go up against Lamine Yamal in a few days. Feel for him.

Said it in other threads but got it horribly wrong. Line up suggested this was a lower priority to us. Not making changes at HT was criminal considering we were hanging on. Wtf do you think is gonna happen if you change nothing. Then the subs just signalled that they cared more about Tuesday but even then they were abit mental, putting Hall RB, bringing on Dan Burn when even Hall had been struggling against the raw pace of Savinho. But worst of all leaving on Woltemade when we were basically playing ten men by putting him in midfield tonight. If we get through against Barca then I won't be critical but it feels like the Barca game will be a similar repeat of this. Just got the feeling we self sabotaged by the decisions he made tonight and it feels like he was happy to go out of the cup.

Was hung out to dry a little here. Been ill and lost weight Eddie said so clearly was gonna be off it tonight anyways with that in mind. Then you add in that it's fucking Man City and he is utterly unsuited to playing midfield against them anyways and his chronic pack of confidence and form at the mo and that's the performance you get. The fact he wasn't hooked at halftime was the signal to me that a) they didn't care about getting knocked out today and b) he is definitely not playing on Tuesday and they just left him out there as they want to protect other players for their minutes. With all that said, tonight was up there with the worst we have seen from him, think he lost the ball every single time he was near it and contributed nothing offensively or defensively. Oh sorry forgot he had that shot but the less said about that the better. Him, Elanga and Wissa worry me massively for future. Theres a long way to go for all of them to look anywhere near the value we signed them for.

When you consider the outlay of £55m on him, £55m on Elanga and £70m on Woltemade. It really does feel at the moment like a massive waste of £180m. I know circumstances were desperate in the summer, but surely we should have plucked for cheaper unknown quantities in that case. When they talked in the past about how they can barely afford to get a single transfer wrong, that's 3 just there that look like they would sell for a quarter of what we paid if we sold tomorrow.

Set up to lose that 2nd half unfortunately. Not changing anything after the end to the first half, what did they expect would change? They then subs were just bizarre and basically signalled we wanted to lose and just focusing on Tuesday. As much as we got it right on Wednesday we got it wrong tonight. But like I said, to me if felt abit like they weren't too fussed about getting through. Leaving on Woltemade was evidence of that.

Annoying that their 3rd/4th choice right winger would instantly be our best. Having said that Hall was doing well to stick with it. But literally the first time doku gets up against Trippier it was a goal. No sure how we can even defend that, the difference in speed and acceleration between them is so vast. I'd say get Tino on but who knows how fit he is. Nick is a waste in this game unfortunately. It's far too quick for him and we could do with Big Joe. Fuck this schedule and not being able to play our best team here.

Or just Marmoush to score as usual against us when he barely seems to score at all against anyone else it feels.

Also hope the additional fatigue on some of our lads, Tonali, Hall and Trippier (cramping) and Gordon (Ankle?) doesn't hamper us too much either. Remember being gutted we had to play the league cup semi so soon after that 120+ mins in the Bournemouth game a few days before. Feels like this could be similar situation. Fuck City and their massive squad and lucky breaks where they haven't had to face us at our best. When we didn't have those issues we beat them this season so we know we can do it when we're healthy.

Would have "bigger" suitors I imagine. Also bit of a Miley clone. Might stunt Miley's development and unsure what Gray's best position is. I know like Miley he's supposed to be a midfielder originally.

Yeah I'm confident we can give it a good go. Just thinking in terms of small margins, I just hope missing Ramsey isn't the difference between winning and losing. I guess we will never know for sure but it's still a loss having gone less midfielder available and we shouldn't be a player down if it wasn't for that fucking bullshit decision.

Be worried we would end up throwing him in the deep end if he plays against City after so long out. Plus it was the city game last time he got injured. Although the games after that are Barca twice and Chelsea so guess there's no choice but to chuck him in and hope his body holds together. A Tino at his best would definitely give us a better chance defensively in some of these tough games however. Trippier was good against Man U but his lack of mobility still got exposed even in a game he was excellent in.

Different game entirely this though Man u got shown up as bang average and wouldn't be anywhere near 3rd if 1) they didn't have only the premier league to focus and 2) if everyone else like us, Liverpool etc had their shit together instead of being so up and down due to our focus being spread across 4 competitions.

Feel like Ramsey is a big miss for this. Still furious about that red card. Seeing it again on the match-cam footage the club puts out makes it look even worse. The way he doesn't react until being surrounded by man u players (which is supposed to be a booking for one of their players if not the captain). Feel like he is an important player now in terms of being comfortable taking the ball under pressure. Willock is not going to suit this game from a build up and defensive perspective. He might give us something crashing into the box on counters but in general play we are going to suffer from losing Ramsey, especially as in recent games he has started to emerge as one of our better players on current form. Not to mention not having a single alternative midfielder on the bench incase of injuries or fatigue outside of Woltemade aswell. Hope that shite ref hasn't cost us for this game.

I mean if a team gets a penalty and a free shot at goal then it's no longer denial of a goal scoring opportunity is it? I thought the rule changed a few years ago with "double jeopardy" or whatever they call it? Still it's spurs so will allow it this time, especially for VDV.

Wouldn't normally recommend talksport but Jaime o hara is broken and Jason Cundy has an Ange mask on and for some reason it's cracking me up just watching the Ange face smiling at him

Always felt like VDV comes across like an arrogant fuck who thinks he's better than he is due to being fast. Loads of pundits seem to overate him aswell. Sure he's fast but seen him make tons of mistakes, Isak used to make him look silly every time. Seems like the wrong sort of character aswell from the little clips of his interactions and perceived disrespect to his managers.

They remind me abit of us in our relegation years. Everything is just going so wrong for them and it's getting really serious now.

First half I was still getting frustrated with him. Two times he was fed down the right with loads of time to set himself and he blazed both crosses way too high and long. Then he also kept losing the ball for a spell, one of which was really sloppy and was what caused Ramsey to get his first yellow because he felt he had to stop the counter attack after the turnover. But he did grow into it. Problem will always be the price tag with him. If he was a £10m prospect like Osula was when he signed, you take the rough with the smooth and accept it. I think the £55m will always be in people's heads and rightly or wrongly they expect alot more of a finished article player for that sort of fee. Sometimes he barely resembles a footballer and that's not good for someone who you have invested that heavily in. Time will tell .

Yeah, would need to play like that til the end of the season for me to consider it good value to sign him permanently. As Eddie said in his post match, he's had chances in the past and failed to claim the shirt. 1 game won't change things but if he can put a run of form together then maybe. If not then we are better served putting that money towards a genuine number 1 goalkeeper and then just keeping Pope as number 2.

That celebration where he goes to the corner with his arms in the air and the camera pans around him is iconic for me. Also always made me chuckle the way he celebrated goals with that nonchalant chest pat and arm out to one side with the confidence like it was just another day at the office. Guy was such an inconsistent frustrating player, but would occasionally score a belter and celebrate as if he does it all the time

I remember thinking when they put Malacia on. Hmm maybe we could get some joy down that side. Wasn't expecting that though

What I would say about that goal as well is that I don't think anyone else in our squad is capable to replicating that. Maybe Barnes for the shot part but even then I don't think Barnes could pull that off on his weaker foot. So in terms of raw potential and the ability to pull off a goal like that ( all the elements from winning the ball, then the speed to keep it in, the dribbling ability and the weaker foot shot) I'd say he has the highest ceiling of any of the front players outside of maybe Gordon. However putting it all together will be the challenge. He has had some poor games this year as well when he starts, but I will give him benefit of the doubt as Howe said he was no where near his physical optimum and perhaps that hampered him. Do think it would have been a mistake to sell last summer, even at the rumoured £30m. Just got a weird feeling he is one of them that might be a later bloomer and suddenly score a bag full for someone else if we sold him like in the French league and then be worth double/triple what we sell for. Can't be on a high wage and only cost us £10m so would prefer to see him stay and develop with us.

Just lost his shooting boots lately. His overall performance isn't horrible or even anything close to that, just as always with Barnes, if he isn't assisting or scoring there isn't as much to his general game compared to Gordon for example. Which is why he was always playing 2nd fiddle to Gordon in terms of selection over the years because clearly Howe preferred Gordon's all round game and liked Harvey as the finisher to bring on later in games. I think he's fine and just needs a goal to get back in the groove.

For the people bemoaning that we "turn up for the big teams but not the smaller ones". I'd like to add a counter for that. Firstly, by the look of the stats for our results against the current top 8, before last night we had only won 2 games so far, 1 was city at home and the other was Everton away. So we haven't really turned up against the Big sides results wise, but I'm assuming the point being made is the level of performance. However on that point, I would argue it's not that we don't turn up against the 'smaller' sides, it's that our biggest achilles heel is breaking down teams that sit in and then counter us with pace. CL and some of the other bigger teams come and have a go which gives us more space. It's been our biggest problem pretty much ever since Eddie came in. It's the main downside to his style and approach to football. We look great when games get chaotic and we can press and win the ball high and play fast. But that means we don't have the technical methodical guys to play possession football and unlock stubborn defences. So we have to take the good with the bad really. For a long time we all seemed to be in agreement that we preferred watching an Eddie Howe style side that gets the ball forward quickly and plays with speed, compared to a more possession based Pep rip off attempt. Which realistically we wouldn't be able to pull off anyways because we don't have the technical players to play that way and it would cost fortunes to acquire the players that can. I'm not exonerating Howe completely here as I believe if he wants to evolve the team and wants to avoid these drop off seasons every time we are having to balance league and europe together, then we need to find a perfect blend of both and many said we needed more technically competent players in the summer compared to more runners like Elanga. But clearly this is his preferred style and it's taken us a long way so far and really it's only when injuries and fatigue are a factor that it suffers as a style of play.

Was thinking about how disillusioned a lot of people have been, myself included with the style and quality of football these days. Osula's goal last night was a real throwback and glimmer of hope that there is still a lot of joy to be found. Feels like ages seeing that sort of thing, a striker sprinting full speed down the wing, taking on a full back and beating them, step over's and an unstoppable outside the box bending shot into the corner. Feels like normally that sort of flair is discouraged and players look for the safe option there instead. Enjoyed it so much, but adding in the 90+ min factor, the hanging on with ten men before that and getting one over on the old enemy, just made it all the better.