timeEd32

It's far from settled. City should go far and there will be three English teams in the Europe League knockouts + one in the Conference that should do well.

I was near the front of the line complaining about his kicking and some of his decision making coming out of the area (which seems to have regressed badly since the Liverpool sending off), but the last week has been pretty eye opening. I knew Pope was a much better shot stopper, but the gap between him and Dubravka is pretty startling.

This is Pardew level thinking. Fortunately our current manager doesn’t think this way. Eddie would be (rightly) getting ripped today if we shut up shop at 1-1 to hold on for a draw.

This always seems to be the response. True no one is flat out saying to get rid, but why are we even talking about his job?

No, we are miles off being out of Pot 4. Our club coefficient is 8 now (it was 0). We used the country coefficient for this past draw, which was ~21 (and England had the best country coefficient). The last team in Pot 3 this season had a coefficient of 40.5. The top of Pot 4 was 34.5. BTW, Villa are already at 9 this season and will keep growing it. It seems like teams should be rewarded more for the Champions League, but on the flip side being in the Europa or Conference Leagues can really help future CL qualification. The new CL format still has pots, but I'm honestly a bit confused why. Clubs will play two teams from each pot regardless of which pot they are in. Being in Pot 4 seems less of a disadvantage in this system both for competition and money (as they are reducing the coefficient based payments).

Tino - A revelation. Five years from now he'll probably be on a list with Bruno, Botman, and others as some of the best signings of the PIF era. Barnes - I think he would have been exactly what we thought we were getting. Just a very unlucky injury. I also think we might have seen more of Gordon on the RW if Barnes had been available, which could have made that seem like less of an urgent need for upgrading. Hall - An opportunistic signing for the future. I thought he'd be more involved given the injuries, but I guess he's not ready. I'm curious if he's less ready than the club would have thought. I'm also less sure now what position we have in mind for him. Minteh - Obviously not helping us this year, but seems a good signing. At minimum he appears on track to collect a profit. Tonali - When the biggest spend goes on a player who gets banned for a year that's obviously going to make things look worse in hindsight. He had a slow start, but I think he would have helped us a lot in the last three CL games. He's cost us a lot in more ways than one, so he's going to need to be a star caliber player next season to make up for it.

Yup, he’s kind of frustratingly difficult to replace because we will almost be sacrificing some aspects of his play. He ideally should be our backup RW - he’d be immense as a sub / squad option. He’s the exact type of player we don’t have right now, but we need more genuine quality to get us into winning positions.

He tried to almost single-handedly drag us into the knockout round. I think he tired towards the end, but truly outstanding.

That was pretty gutting. Between the injuries and the penalty in Paris it feels like this could have gone very differently. No fault of the players available - they gave it everything.

They also hit the post and missed a 1v1 with the keeper.

It's an absolute miracle it's 0-0 based on the highlights.

I cannot take 45 minutes of 1-0 and 0-0. Need some more goals in our direction.

I think we can finish them off with one more goal.

God that was incredible.

Leao is very scary. We really need to score.

0.58 xG for that chance.

That is a genuinely incredible tackle.

Score first and early and I think we have a memorable night. They score first and I'll be nervous about energy levels, breaking them down, and the crowd.

One of our biggest games in recent (and maybe even not so recent) memory and it’s my birthday. 3 points please and then we’ll see what happens in Dortmund.

I actually think if we win tonight and don’t go through the narrative will be all about that penalty. But hopefully we don’t get to find out.

Man, it'd be so harsh on Pope if we just outright replaced him in January. I don't hate the idea though if it's possible.

I was just skimming but there seemed to be at least a handful of people commenting about his job, when we can talk about his job, re-opening hiring debates, a mention of the last two games being reminiscent of Bruce, etc. Usernames I recognize so presumably not trolls. I just can't believe how quickly it gets to any of that.

I avoid this place after losses and I knew it'd be bad, but wow. The fact we can't lose two games in a row without some people questioning his job and harkening back to Bruce is seriously wtf. Truly over the top even if you ignore the circumstances. I do agree we've missed some chances to rest players when we've created the opportunity to do so. I don't know why Bruno came on for 25+ minutes or Trippier for 15+ up 3-0 against Man United in the cup. And I really don't know why we waited until 7-0 to take off Bruno against Sheffield United. His hands are tied recently and he's clearly loathe to make changes for rest purposes unless there's a 3+ goal gap in either direction. One of his biggest strengths - his supreme focus on the match at hand - also happens to bring a small weakness, which is some trouble letting up on the gas or letting a game go.

I just don't come on for a few days after a loss. Can't take all the sky is falling stuff.

What a stupid goal to concede.