Hanshithispantz

He must be rapidly declining physically like He was really solid last season and a few months later he's behind Murphy.

Send him off to live out the rest of his days with the Stone Men.

Like Rich says, just watch the .tv highlights man. It’s essentially a compilation of great set pieces followed by woeful finishing I’m not going to defend his overall game (not that I think it was bad), it was obvious him and Almiron were stifled well enough so they never stood out too much, but his set pieces caused them all sorts of bother.

Probably longer

He set Wood up for an open goal (from a tight angle) with a 60 yard ball over the top from open play, Wood miskicked. From corners he put one on Schar's head in the middle of the box, headed wide. Joelinton at the back post who headed across to Burn to miskick in the 6 yard box. A 1-2 with Almiron and then hit to the edge of the box to Willock who miscontrolled it. Whipped to the back of the 6 yard box for Schar, great save Meslier. From freekicks he found Botman on the edge of the 6 yard box who hit it straight to the keeper (would have been offside but a great ball in). Clipped a flat one across the box which their defence clipped onto Schar who took it down and then skied over. Found Burn for the knockdown to Wood, 1-on-1 Meslier did well to close him down. The amount of set pieces we had without scoring combined with him mishitting a couple straight into Meslier's arms is distorting people's views here like. I thought the same but watching the highlights back we should have been out of sight even in the first half from the balls he put in.

Extended camera shots of players instead of just keeping the focus on the pitch. I swear it's getting worse. A quick 4-5 second cut when it goes out of play now and then is fine but they seem to spend 30 seconds cycling around different shots whenever there's a throw-in.

I actually thought she was alright, the first female commentator for the BBC (cannot remember her name) set the whole thing off to a bad start but I find droll platitudes from the likes of Jonathan Pearce much worse.

I don't want to be harsh on Longstaff like, I think players like him are massively underrated (although not so much by our fans anymore which is nice) but a front 6 containing him, Joelinton, Willock AND Wood is going to look limp at times.

Probably mentioned but our reaction to Leeds' time wasting was shite like, we allowed them to waste nearly 90 seconds and Meslier to walk away with a massive grin on his face.

So aye, about James Maddison…

Think we definitely need Maxi on the left. Not even sure what to say about the penalty decision, VAR is a complete joke.

But he’s shite defensively. I’m not saying he should be a midfielder but there are obvious reasons why a team wouldn’t want him as a fullback.

Crossing is hardly a dead art in midfield like One of the most dangerous crossers in the world is De Bruyne and he’s a central midfielder.

Ah that’s class like

There was over 2 minutes added on though. I'm not against time out of play being literally added on but it's rarely how it works (and not how it's supposed to work in the current 45 minute a half format) and it's pretty obvious when referees go out of their way to do it. It was still our fault for falling asleep on the corner like, so it's not really an excuse for the loss (we nearly scored ourselves during his added on time), but it's just another example of 'the rub of the green' going to the same sides. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20464371

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zdAVsAnSVs&t=70s There's basically no way to tell if it was on of off, it's guesswork how far his knee is over his foot (if it is at all), plus the exact moment contact is made on the ball is near impossible due to the video frame rate. No way it should have been disallowed. As for the Carvalho goal, the literal amount of time the ball isn't in play has never (until seemingly the world cup) been added on. There was a very clear narrative to the game and the ref seemed to make a point of stopping his watch and playing every second. Completely fine if it was consistent but he cannot decide to just do it in extra time, if he'd been doing it throughout the second half we would have had another 10 minutes to find an equaliser.

Even last year he was winning loads in the air, they were bouncing everywhere and his hold up play was dreadful but it was still clear that tactically Howe knew how to use him, we're very good at using any time the opponent isn't in control to get into shape. I think most managers would have noted he was essentially just a lump up top and dropped him for Murphy, brought some random academy kid in, or moved Maxi/Joelinton up top.

Man City (Schar penalty), Liverpool (Isak offside, Carvalho goal), Wolves (Longstaff penalty), Palace (Willock goal) That whole run was completely ridiculous, VAR has definitely improved for us since we complained after Palace.

I think people take the pressing thing a bit far tbh, not every player in the side needs to be a Joelinton like juggernaut. Shelvey slotted into the side perfectly fine last season, when we relied even more on our off the ball work to win games. Reading Shed End Jorginho seems a bit like a Brazilian (Italian) Jordan Henderson anyway, in that managers love him but he isn’t flashy enough for fans. Bit of a monster defensively despite his shortcomings physically (like Bruno) and tends to keep it tidy rather than hit Hollywood balls.

Getting a young player of Jorginho’s ability would cost like £40m+, with no Premiership experience.

One of Spurs’ biggest weaknesses (as we exposed) is how shite Loris is when put under pressure. They can do better than Pickford if they’re willing to pay but he would improve them quite a bit.

Never had much interest in Tielemans tbh. Jorginho would fill the Bruno role perfectly if we wanted to push him back into the 8 role though. Chelsea fans absolutely despise him like but they seem to hate all of their players and managers all the time.

Maxi running at Leeds' defence seems too good not to abuse.

I've seen too much or Trippier now, rapid wingbacks are old news, I want wide playmakers flicking the ball about for fun.