Lush Vlad

Willock is a funny one. Always been a bit in and out of games and with his form. But when on song, he is such an important player for us. Certainly don’t think he’s looked right basically all season.

Got a few at the end of their contracts, haven’t we? Along with some with just a year left on decent money that I’m sure compromises will be reached on. I know we need depth. But quite a few of the squad are nowhere near getting first team minutes. So they’re just purely dead money as it stands.

They’ve been done on the counter a bit of late based on the highlights I’ve seen. So Murphy and Willock need to be running themselves into the ground for an hour or so to support any breakaways we may have. Frustrating Anderson and Barnes don’t start. But understandable. We still have some good pace in the attacking third, at least.

If we beat Everton. I would have been happy with a draw. Feels like we need a win now, though. Not that I’m confident of getting one.

He was in the training photos. Could have just been out there for the warm ups and off the ball stuff, I suppose. I think I'd rather play Ritchie at left back than Dummett if he were to miss this. Spoilt for choice

Bet 365 on their w/o market

I don't know how hamstrung we are by FFP and I'm not going to bore myself reading about all the nuances and what deals kick in this summer and whatever the fuck else. But Bruno and Isak are unique. Not sure it's a good idea to be selling either and then trying to replace them with a sub-par player. Just so you can strengthen other areas of the squad. You'd like to hope our scouting network could hit on players that don't cost the earth for other areas. But that would be an upgrade on the likes of Almiron, Murphy, Longstaff, Dubravka/Karius, Lascelles/Burn etc etc. As opposed to cashing in on one of our blue chip players and doing it the other way round. I would always lean towards replacing starting players with better quality and building the team and squad that way. But if FFP/PSR really is fucking us. Then perhaps genuinely decent rotation options that wouldn't cost a fortune would be preferable? When everyone is fit..... LOL the first 15-16 is pretty strong as it is. It's just the Ashley hangover with loads of average to bad players. It's not really competition for places and most weeks. We have 3-4 players on the bench that have no business being there and are only going to come on in an emergency.

You can get 9s in the without market and also offers e/w terms in that market. If I was a serious punter on football, that would tempt me. I'm not superstitious at all. But also, I'm not risking putting that bet on

I might be wrong. But he sounds like he has a bit of a speech impediment. I guess this could make it worse for him? The Brits are terrible at learning other languages or even attempting the odd sentence. So as much as I can't stand the bloke or the club he represents. I wouldn’t criticise him for bad English.

Is there a chance of that? I mean, I know Southgate has his favourites and he doesn’t seem too keen on technical players in attacking positions. But there is no way he doesn’t go to the Euros, surely?

Thought it was 3-3 which suited us down to the ground. Left the pub to get my train and just seen it was 4-3. Wow. Absolute scenes.

Haaland Watkins Isak Nunez Toney I'm guessing Son counts as more of a hybrid wide forward/attacking mid/striker, type? As I still think he is absolutely brilliant and if he counts, he'd certainly be in my top 5.

Strange side. A couple of terrible results away recently. But they’ve looked really good at times at home and play some nice stuff. I’d fancy Muniz to score again for them. I think/hope we can hurt them on the counter. The players we have available suit that style, at least. Such a shame we couldn’t hang on last night. As then a draw Saturday would be fine. But it now feels like we need to be winning this.

3. It's gone up to 3 now.

2, apparently. Either I misread the article (think it was the Gazette) or they have it wrong. Needs to get through Fulham and Spurs.

Anderson was fucked. Barnes looked like he was gassing and didn't have the same impact on the game late on. Longstaff looked terrible all game, but was still able to run. Hall couldn't manage 90. Isak faded late on, again. Krafth has barely played this season. If we had options on the bench. We would have made more changes, it's as simple as that. Take your pick on quite a few that could have come off. But I understand why it was Anderson.

Agree with this. My worry is just that with the latest lot of injuries. 6th-7th seems like it might be a bit beyond the players we have available. It's actually really tight from 7th all the way down to Fulham in 13th. It might end up only being a few points either way. But 6th-8th would feel like an ok to decent season even without factoring everything in. A brilliant one when you consider all of the injuries and the Tonali situation. But say we finish 12th. Regardless of how close we are points wise to the top 7 or 8. It will be seen as a failure and rightly or wrongly, the pressure on him will start to increase.

Strange that he blew up when there appeared to be about another 3 minutes of additional time to add on. But I think we're clutching, there. We hardly looked like we were going to go on and score. I did think he was really lenient with some of their challenges, however. Beto in particular was like a bull in a china shop. The one on Krafth was clumsy as fuck and definitely a yellow. Absolutely clattered Burn and didn't look like he was ever trying to play the ball, to me. Amazed he never got booked. He finally started dishing the cards out for cynical fouls near the end. But it was too late by that point. Only ourselves to blame for throwing away 2 points, mind.

I read that in a local article, Gazette, maybe. I'm sure they said it was after this weekend. So they're wrong in that case, then. Spurs feels like the sort of game where he could get a yellow and all. They're chippy cunts and play wide open with a lot of pace. So not ideal for wor Bruno.

Female co-commentator was pretty good on TNT last night, I thought. Seemed to actually know a bit about our players and our style and generally how the game was shaping up. The main commentator was useless, mind. Dull as fuck and kept getting players mixed up. Barnes/Longstaff and Murphy/Bruno, somehow

The difference is, though. Bruno loses the ball trying to make things happen and you know he has the ability for that magic. Messi used to give the ball away fuck loads, but he'd still try it. Longstaff gives it away under no pressure and when an easy pass is on. He just takes an age to do anything. Whether it's a touch and turn, a pass, a shot, a cross, deciding whether or not to make a tackle, before letting someone else run past him again. I thought Krafth and Longstaff in particular played like the game was too big for them. They constantly looked scared to make a meaningful decision.

I wouldn't mind seeing this. But based on very little, I feel like Howe sees Longstaff as a RCM and Anderson and Willock are LCM's. Willock has always been poor on the right side, anyway. I also think, that as bad as Longstaff has been. His off the ball work is still very good and positionally, he covers pretty well. The problem is, he is a bit like a traffic cone when he gets to the player in possession. As he doesn't really make a challenge, try and foul them or do anything, really. Maybe Howe thinks Anderson and Willock either side of Bruno is too attacking and we'll lose our shape? Still think it would be better than watching Longstaff play like a ghost for 90 minutes.

Get through Fulham without a yellow and he can then return to clattering people to his heart's content. 15 is the next ban. So just hope he doesn't get 6 more before the end of the season

Even 7th seems like it'll be difficult now. Not purely based on last night, although that hardly helped. But the latest round of injuries has just robbed us of decent starters and also any meaningful bench options. With Lascelles, Tino, Almiron out and Trippier seeming like he's had a setback. It's looking like a first team squad of what? 14, including Karius, for the next month or so? The Man U game being postponed might help us. Just hope we can get at least Trippier back for Palace or Sheff Utd. So tight from 7th down to Fulham in 13th. Only 6 points in it and the game against Fulham now looks massive after those 2 points dropped.

Anderson was and all. Not had many minutes this season and was putting himself about loads. Was all over the pitch. Hopefully with Gordon coming back and assuming Willock is fit enough to start/play more than 20 minutes. We can see a tiny bit of rotation and options when players are getting gassed.