Lush Vlad

I can kind of see that. Howe does seem to favour system type players and we have a lot of direct or physical types. Who are great runners with or without the ball, powerful, athletic, quick etc. Yet we lack control and a bit of craft a lot of the time. I think we have all been guilty of using hindsight a bit with Barnes. Were many expecting Gordon to be so good after a fairly disappointing start? Surely even the coaching staff were shocked at how he exceeded all expectations. If we had signed Barnes say this season, after knowing how great Gordon is. Then that would be daft, of course. With our PSR predicament. I can agree that £38m for a bench player seems ridiculous. Need to try and get both of them in the team more often. Goal involvements through the roof.

It was frustrating and you’d expect him to get that under and run through. But I feel like he kind of gets singled out for basically every error or bad performance (when others are even worse). Because of how disappointing last season was. Noticeable on here and on social media. Thought he was lively at both ends of the pitch. Gave us some much needed energy once Gordon was gassed.

Haha. Just see he scored and straight away thought of him doing that cringe as fuck ‘Irons’ gesture on some social media video thing. As it seemed like he was signing for them

He’ll be fine. Just a bit of gamesmanship I think.

Morgan Rogers looking very good so far.

Yellow for Edozie for shoulder barging Bruno already on his way down. No yellow for Bruno’s scissor tackle. Just a shite ref all round. Either that or he was trying to even it up after his first half display.

Didn’t even realise Onana had left Everton. Never mind signed for Villa. Not really paid attention to this transfer window.

Went in for a massive 50/50 with Downes. Probably more 60/40 the other way and came out with the ball. He wasn’t doing that at all last season. So hopefully he is confident in his own body again and not playing injured or worrying about getting injured.

I’d like him to start. But think he’ll go with Krafth at RCB.

Colossus.

All over the pitch that second half. The physicality and athleticism we lacked for so many games last season.

His defending and covering that half space or whatever the fuck it is called where their wide men cut back was superb. Always seemed to be there to help out his full backs and centre half.

Ugly old performance and a difficult watch. But a win and a clean sheet. I’ll take it.

I know we are down to 10. But not sure we will hold out kicking it up to the half way line to nobody and sitting in for half an hour.

Just seen it. Soft as fuck but a ridiculous reaction and one the greaseball was looking for. Idiotic.

Not seen it. Sounds brain dead. It’s a good job we have decent cover at CB I suppose.

From the 5 minutes I’ve managed to see. We haven’t been very good.

Not really a massive criticism. As Salah has been doing it to world class defenders for years. But Davis has been asleep for both goals and largely at fault.

I played about 17 leagues lower than him but always felt like you got away with more when your skipper. Hopefully the same for him and he can avoid getting so many yellows. The lovely mad bastad.

Attacking options on the bench. Lovely stuff.

Ipswich looked really good there, I thought. They are defo going to get caught out with the way they play and they nearly did a few times. Where they were saved by a poor ball or good defending. But they did mix it up well knowing when to go direct. Delap a handful and a good focal point. Wide men are lively, with Hutchison popping up all over the place, along with Chaplin in the 10 going where he wants. Burns should be off, mind.

You say that. But as always, fans are biased. I bet Palace fans would say he is better than both Botman and Schar. Not sure I’ve watched enough of him to form a solid opinion either way. However, I’m a massive fan of Guehi and didn’t think he’d be within our reach. He may end up getting away. But it’s why personally I’m so keen to get this one OVER THE LINE @Alan Pardew ™️

Decent source. His brother plays up front for Palace.

Admittedly I don’t watch as much football as I used to. Or play any football computer games anymore. So I can’t say I’m familiar with all of the names people are so keen for us to sign. But surely if we thought there was a player out there abroad ‘just as good’ as Guehi or ‘with more potential/upside’. For less money. Then we would have signed them by now? Seems pretty clear that Guehi is the club’s number one target and there must still be confidence in getting it done. If that’s the case. Then it’s good enough for me.

Guehi didn’t play vs Switzerland. So I should hope he did outshine him. Regarding our strongest XI. You could well be right. But you’re conveniently ignoring the fact that Schar is coming up 33 and his contract expires at the end of the season. So are we not looking to the future, as well? Burn isn’t young in footballing terms and neither is Lascelles. The latter is currently crocked and I think his contract is also up in 2025. Again. These players will need replacing or at least another option to compete with them. Botman is also out for an unspecified amount of time and will take time to get back up to speed. Kelly is very injury prone. So even ignoring the fact that I think he would play a lot of minutes. Either through necessity, rotation or because of how good he is. Then I can still see why they might be so keen on him right now. They may well see it as a chance to get the CB they want for the next 5-7-10 years or whatever and possibly even future captain material. He would instantly help the squad this season. As well as being a mainstay for seasons to come. As we are clearly going to need to refresh that defence over the next year or two. Leave it until January or next season. Then it would leave us light at the back and also open it up to other clubs at a lower price or because of teams suddenly needing another defender. So we could well miss out. I suppose some fans wouldn’t care and think the price is too steep. But the club and the people that matter might think the opposite.