sixx

Onana crosses the pitch in about three steps.

Being held back by Murphy, Longstaff and Burn at LB.

Scrappy but we look solid. Just need that little bit of quality to get the midfield play going. They give their best but it’s really on these occasions when Longstaff’s and Murphy’s limitations become the most evident.

Championship level football. I'm pretty sure Gibbs-White can be moulded into a good player given the right circumstances.

We’ve managed to sign an incredible spine in Pope, Botman and Bruno. Wow. I really can see him as world class in a couple of years.

Atmosphere sounds extremely flat. Such a shame when we’re playing so well.

I love the fact he’s building us up from the back. Our back 5 is almost completely renewed and we look very solid defensively. Really excited to see what kind of midfielder he envisions in that Shelvey/Longstaff role - a classic DM, a box-to-box or a deep lying playmaker. 

Surprisingly strong and very confident. Deserves to start the next home game.

Fuming after this. The result in and of itself is allright considering who are injured. Pope is class and Botman looks really good.

No excuse for not giving Anderson more time now.

Willock’s been minging this season so far. Get Anderson on for him.

Who is this absolute ghoul sitting in the stands behind Howe. Get him off he’s putting the hex on us.

We’re winning a lot of tackles.

Great at those surging runs from deep. Will be a great option from the bench but as pointed out above he needs to beef up a bit if he's to play as a box-to-box midfielder. 

Almost puked from excitement.

I'm a big fan of Casemiro. I said earlier in the thread that if Manu Utd are going to play Eriksen and Bruno together they would need peak Makelele behind them. This is as close as they're going to get. The problem is there's no strategy to this. Just reactionary panicking and this amount of money for Casemiro reeks of desperation. Huge question marks on this as he has spent almost all his career in Madrid all the while winning 5 CLs. On the surface it looks like a good strategy to him to wind down an insanely successful career on bonkers wages.

1 hour ago, Froggy said:

 

Well he's better than what we have, so it's a step forward right? 

 

Right?

I love that Man Utd think Rabiot and Arnautovic are the appropriate amendments to the most toxic lockerroom on the planet. Absolutely zero philosophy behind their player acquistions. Even Eriksen is testament to that. Now two of their best players are playmaker 10s who really can't play simultanously unless they had prime Makelele to sweep up. Until then they make do with McTominay. Great idea. 

If only we had someone else than Almiron chasing those glorious through balls. 
 

Not many XIs on the planet this guy doesn’t stroll into.

Not that they put us under much pressure but those little sparkles of quality to release the ball, evade pressure and keep possession is on a different level than I’ve seen for 20 odd years. Absolutely no one is scared of receiving the ball. Such a big difference.

Bruno and Joelinton were so, so good but everyone deserves credit. With the 5 substitutes we however need Almiron and Willock as impact players. Add a couple of quality players in their stead and we can do some serious damage this season.

Get Anderson on. Boy are we looking good.

Mostly Fulham have just been great. Full credit to them. Mitro looks sick as fuck and that Palhinha looks really really good.

I’m very interested to hear the thinking behind wanting to sign him. Do we want to play with a #10 down the line? Is he going to be a sort of withdrawn Müller type right winger? A part of a midfield three?

He’s obviously a top class players. Only two members of our squad can be considered in the same bracket as him. Yet I do worry about falling in to the Man Utd trap of signing a top class player just because we can and he’s available, with little to no consideration of what he brings to the XI.

Lövenkrands has an absolutely hilarious accent.

Willock really needs to improve on his dribbling.

Would be a statement signing for sure. If we’re picking the best players of teams that are better than us it sends a clear message. Don’t remember much from Leicester last season - did he ever play in a midfield three? Did he maybe play in a bit of a withdrawn RW role? 
 

Ronaldo to Dortmund?

It’s kind of great that improving the RW is our biggest priority in the market yet it’s the position delivering the best in preseason. Goes to show there’s competition in the squad and underlines Howe’s ability to extract the maximum from average players.