Hanshithispantz

@ManDoon pointed it out but against Watford we weren't even playing it long with Wood in the side. Next game against Leeds, Wood made an obscene amount of challenges in the air. I thought it was pretty interesring like and an insight into how he thinks seemingly on the fly.

Even without Trippier I trust Howe will set us up with a decent plan. It was really impressive how quickly he switched our gameplan to utilise Trippier, Wood, and ASM. I actually get excited now to see what he'll try, even with shit players

Villa look a decent side. I wouldn't shit the bed over them like.

Joelinton is great on the ball he's just not good at the fast paced intricate stuff in and around the box. It's a completely different skill set.

Brentford have Arsenal away next too (I kna it's Arsenal) so should really be another loss for them before they play us too.

So glad we never got Emery like There's just nothing about the bloke.

What's the point of watching football if you aren't allowed to get exited over new players

Probably is recency bias like, I'm not going to pretend my memory is infallible because it's absolute shite I was just completely awe struck by Tuesday, which I've never been since I started watching again.

https://youtu.be/sIS-xsl3rFs The Villa performance mentioned is there (not sure if the others are on Youtube). Agree it looks a better overall game than Maxi against Everton but it's still just a typical Ben Arfa on a good day game, isn't it? He was a much better all round footballer. For me the thing that stands out about Tuesday was how often ASM was able to run at Everton, and regardless of how many players were in his way, he was able to carve through them. I just cannot remember seeing a player for us doing that, to that extent, in a single game. Cannot find the other ones and really should get myself to work ... So may be wrong, my memory is shit like.

Maybe just time but I cannot remember Hatem putting in a match like that, where he was consistently taking 4-5 defenders out of the game. He could do it, and did it often, but Maxi did it time and time again in the same match from different areas of the pitch. He didn't just have the beating of 1 man on the night. Not saying Hatem never had better matches, just cannot remember seeing that kind of a performance - it was pretty unique. I actually didn't find Hatem frustrating at all though, he had quiet games but I didn't find him detrimental to the team in the way I did with Maxi against Watford before he scored. I think his game was much more rounded but hopefully Howe can smoothen Saint-Maximin out.

Yeah I feel the same. It's sort of like looking behind the curtain when nthe talk about us. It's weird though because both James Lawrence and Tifo have put out things very recently which I pretty much completely agreed with, so I assume they've been paying more attention since January.

My issue with Joelinton pushing into the box is that it cannot be doing his confidence any good when the biggest talking point is a meme of him kicking the ball into his own face

Pretty sure I made a post on here years ago looking at that period like, it was something like 2-3 months of Pardew saying he wasn't fit, Hatem saying "here mate, I'm fine" and looking our best player during some of the short spells he was allowed. Pretty sure his first (or one of the first) game back was against Man City and he looked sharp as fuck.

Yeah this is where I'm at too, his final form is a 6 imo. With licence to buzz around infront of the defence it would be pretty hard for the opposition to find space I would imagine, and if he's instructed to keep things simple I don't think he would be too wasteful in possession.

Should just do a massive tifo of David Dickinson for the Villa match. For absolutely no reason.

Fucking hell

Depressing watching Courtinho like

Howe has players filling out very specific roles (essentially trying to get our best players on the ball as often as possible - Trippier and ASM) and because of that I agree it's not as simple as just dropping any player. As a team we're better than the sum of our parts. With that being said I do think some of the roles being asked aren't going to be too difficult to pass on. Shelvey being one who I think could easily be swapped out.

Proper bell ringer

What do I need to know about football to realise that Wood has actually been great like? Like ManDoon says, he's a big body up there, it gives us a target to hit and we've clearly adjusted our game plan around that. If he would also start doing other things it would be very welcome. EDIT: FWIW I really like the bloke and hope he improves. What we paid was daft but I wanted us to sign him when he was linked.

I would understand Bruno over Willock although I think it would be harsh, as Bruno presses well from what we've heard. Neither Willock or Shelvey should be keeping him out of the side like.

Would be funny as fuck if Pickford just randomly lost his rag and jawed the cunt.

It would be absolutely crackers to not start him like.

I still don't really understand what Shelvey actually does that's so special tbh, or what it is that Joelinton or Bruno couldn't also do. He's just following instructions and acting as the pivot in the middle. He isn't pulling off especially great, penetrative passes and he's not that much of a threat from outside the box.

Probably will be this actually.