sixx

Don't mind missing out on Carlos. I'd want us to take a chance on a young centre back like Botman who can be a sort of a legacy player for us and a part of our spine for a long time. A bit like Kompany was for City. Diaby and Lodi look proper great but please tell me we're not after overpriced English players like DCL or Winks. Those are exactly the type of transfers that Everton would make.

It can easily be argued that right wing is our weakest position and I'd be very surprised if any one of them is consistently a part of a PL XI next season. Maybe a bit harsh calling Fraser Championship standard, he'd surely do a job next season as a back up for us.

Wouldn't mind keeping one of the three for next season - Fraser, Almiron or Murphy but to be fair they're all Championship standard.

Did Lyon line up a pure defensive midfielder behind Bruno and Paqueta? If we're in for him we must be in for a DM as well and removing Joelinton at least from midfield seeing as neither Bruno nor Paqueta are really defensive midfielders.

He had space and time on the ball. He buckles under opponents who pressure. Useful player and a good game. I’d keep him.

Hate the fact that a £41 million centre back is sitting on the bench as usual while a geriatric Fernandinho gets to play.

Haaland is my favourite player to watch. An absolute specimen, not sure I've ever seen a player with his physical quality. Honestly can't wait to see him in the PL but at the end of the day it's kind of revolting.

Don’t mind if ASM is a bit shit defensively and talks bullshit in interviews as long as he delivers the goods offensively. Which he doesn’t.

I actually quite like him And I like the thought of a local lad in the squad going forward. He's useful enough as a backup player for another year.

Always a bit surprised at how actually good Nacho is. Very useful olayer.

If there was anything substantial to the Liverpool doping claims we would be hearing some rumours stemming from other players in the league, which we haven’t so far.

Can’t fault our overall performance much. Didn’t really agree with Joelinton out wide and Willock centrally but Howe made a lot of brave judgement calls for the game. Didn’t get anything out of Maxi, Almiron or Wood when he came on. Can’t wait for a bit more quality up front. Dubravka absolutely immense today. Been so solid and really no reason to replace him next season.

We definitely have a chance to hurt them. In between CL games, Everton managed to contain them a bit and no one wants to come to SJP currently. However they have ridiculous squad depth and on current form I'm not entirely sure I've seen a better football team bar peak Barcelona.

What a brilliant read. It becomes more clear every day what a perfect appointment Howe was. He’s literally providing everything we wanted before the takeover while also providing everything this new takeover era needs. The single facet of his repertoire that excites me the most is his ability to develop players. We can’t just buy ourselves towards the top - you need every player to perform at their peak levels of abilty even if they are mediocre in talent. This is what Liverpool and Man City have done right and what Man Utd have got wrong for the past few years. Most of City’s and Liverpool’s elite players were not quite world class when they signed but they definitely are now (Salah, Mané, Robertson, de Bruyne, Silva, Dias etc). Man Utd have gone down the path of signing world class players for extortionate fees just because they were available (Ronaldo, Pogba, Cavani, di María, Sanchez etc) resulting in a disjointed squad most of whom playing well below their ceiling of ability. I honestly belive this type of player development is by far the most important factor to take us forward and Howe really seems to have this ability.

I have no idea who these people in the Norwich team are.

Very disappointed not to see Gayle start.

How this guy plays in tight spaces… fuck me he’s good. Can’t wait for a proper striker to latch on to his and Trippier’s balls.

1. Robert's incomprehensible scorpion kick against Fulham. All time favourite player. 2. HBA against Everton. Made me so excited for times ahead. God how wrong was I. 3. Cisse against Chelsea. I made sounds on that occasion I will never be able to replicate.

Might sound a bit bonkers but Romelu Lukaku will definitely be available this summer. Not many teams will be able to afford him aside from us and he doesn’t suit Tuchel’s football. He also seems to like being the biggest fish in the pond which he’ll be here like he was at Everton and WBA. He’ll also want to be fresh for Belgium’s last push in this winter’s WC.

Thought Gayle looked fresh in his few minutes. Refuse to belive he can’t be useful at least late in games.

I think you could be right in the sense that it's not so much about the transfer itself but about the player's development that happens afterwards. I recall some serious doubts about Van Dijk signing for Liverpool and de Bruyne signing for Man City. I also don't recall that much excitement about Liverpool signing Salah or Bale signing with Spurs or when Bernardo Silva signed for City. There's also definitely an element of luck in this as I recall Salah not even being Liverpool's second or third option in that transfer window. At the end of the day a succesful transfer strategy is an extremely elusive thing but I do hope that the current NUFC brass have a better idea of it than I do

You’re essentially describing Man Utd’s approach to transfer the last few years which I think we can all agree hasn’t been very sensible. I’m very unsure we can just ‘spend’ our way towards the top 6 or so. If you look at Man City’s transfer track record since their takeover it’s like they struck gold at least with a couple of signings each year and to be fair there hasn’t been many expensive Mangala-like flops. Why has it worked out so well for them while it hasn’t for Man Utd? There are definitely some decisve factors behind the scenes in term of recruitment which I can’t really put my finger on. Why didn’t Chelsea recognize Salah’s and de Bruyne’s talent? I’m not entirely sure it’s very much down to the manager in charge each time as Citeh have had some turnover in management since the takeover yet always consistantly brilliant transfers. I’ve seriously no idea how to spend our newfound money and I’ve really no idea either how much money we are actually capable of spending. All I really want to know is what it really is deep down behind the scenes that decides a great recruitment strategy that City undoubtedly have. Everton have spent half a billion since their takeover and Man Utd have spent a billion since Fergie. Both clubs are worse off. Maybe it’s down to a great technical director. I barely even know what these guys even do.

This midfield trio has a lot of future potential. Happy to see them all start and good to see Almiron getting a look in. Secure survival and send these in to the abyss please.

More than half of our best XI missing today. If Howe gets a result today he should be knighted.

On the whole he looked good last night. He's gonna need a few games to adjust to the pace, you're not afforded the same time on the ball as in Ligue 1.