Geordie Ahmed

Tbf I actually thought the same, there were some moments where he was very casual and had the ball stolen off him But he more than made up for it I personally don't have a major issue with how casual he was as that's what makes him the player he is, he's very relaxed and calm under pressure and it mostly ends with him easily beating the press or winning a free kick

I take the point about Burn but there are times we see the value of Burn, even today the second half he had a very good game. As for Willock, he got fit and his minutes were managed fairly well (featured in 6 games) and then his injury reoccurred. A player being brought back too sign usually gets injured almost immediately. With Murphy he didn't bring him back too early, not sure why this is often used as a stick to beat Howe with, the injury already happened. By playing him, all that happened was surgery was delayed by a week. At the time it happened, the option was to operate and he misses about 12 weeks or can continue playing and there is a chance he can get a number of games without it popping out again but as soon as it does then surgery was necessary and the recovery period was the same 12 weeks that was mentioned.

Felt like he was used a lot to play the ball into midfield and he does it so well It's only a concern when he plays it to Longstaff if he has players around him as his touch isn't great and it can often lead to trouble Had a quick check of the stats and he completed 104/113 passes, next highest was Schar with 82/93

Quite easily He hasn't really had a bad game, he's had games where he's been absolutely knackered and it obviously shows but he is always a threat Barnes returning should ease the workload on him (just a shame Murphy wasn't fit enough today to allow him to come off a bit earlier)

He has made mistakes but I agree it's absurd to then ignore the good that he does or when he plays well Some would have you think he's a liability from minute one to minute 90

Credit where credits due he had a much better second half and it wasn't just aerial stuff, he managed to deal well with a lot of ground duels too I'd still play Livramento at this moment simply because Burn is being targeted and we do suffer for it but when he plays like he did in the second half then it makes sense why Howe sticks with him

Villa and Arsenal wins tomorrow would do nicely Then it's a case of just gaining 2 points on Man U in the remaining 12 games and if we manage that all things considered it would be some achievement

For those that claim he has no plan B and that he's very rigid and predictable would do well to remember today when they will inevitably get ready to have a go when we dare to next lose Utilising Botman to play those passes in between the lines and having Bruno further forward with Miley back was good to see and ultimately was what helped us win Of course there are aspects we need to get better at, still easy to cut us open at times through the middle and Burn when isolated against pace is a problem Still, we are in a decent bit of form, he's halted that awful run we are on and now needs to make sure we don't have a repeat of that

7 points from 3 games is a pretty good return, especially as most would have expected the first of those to be an easy loss Got some tough away fixtures, especially Arsenal away so not sure we'll go on one of those Eddie runs of 6/7 wins on the bounce but as long as we go on some mini runs we should be finishing in a European spot Just could do with no more injuries and some key players getting back

Taylor had a poor game and fortunately for us he got the Awoniyi pen shout wrong

Not sure I agree He was playing ahead of Miley, it was Miley who was playing in the 6 I liked the tactical switch from Howe, got the two goals and also protected him from a booking

Longstaff just casually giving the ball away in midfield

Get in Made up for giving the ball away lots

Get the feeling goal is coming soon for them

Miggy has been particularly bad today, should get Murphy on

Started from a shit pass from Miggy, then Burn gets done and Dubravka is in no man's land

All from a shit pass from Miggy

Blatant foul by Schar

Get in, filth that

Dubravka loves to stay on his line

Forest will put Elanga up against Burn Howe will need to make sure whoever plays in LCM or LW provides support because otherwise he'll get shredded

Yes but it isn't always the case And he's particularly good at that aspect of the game

I think it's a bit unfair to call him a clogger, he's not totally useless on the balk and there is value for teams like Everton in having a defender that really puts their body on the line

Good finish from Beto even though he was well offside

Was just about to praise Branthwaite and Haaland just does that to him