Lush Vlad

Yeah. Must be some concern around that. As I know he had a couple of setbacks during rehab. Not heard anything from my Pope ITK and hoping I don’t. As I really rate Pope and make no secret of loving him playing for us. Seeing as he is from just down the road. But it would make sense if the shoulder is still an issue. If we replace him with Ramsdale, however…….

Trafford looked terrible all season. Didn’t he lose his starting place about halfway through? If we‘re signing another keeper from Burnley, it should be Muric.

Yeah. Can’t see us spending £15m-£20m or more on a first choice keeper. Unless Pope’s shoulder is that much of a worry and we’re looking to move him on. No way we keep Pope if we spend that on another keeper.

Disagree. He’s better with his feet and distribution and not at anything else. Difficult to quantify that using stats and I suppose it also depends how you weight it. In regards to is it worth having a worse (IMO) traditional goalkeeper. If he is better with his feet?

Looking at a pigeon Some of them shouldn’t be in there and a bit harsh. But it’s been said plenty of times and I remember thinking it when we were first linked. His positioning seems all over the place. Plus he is erratic as fuck, as we already know. Hard pass. Think he’d be a complete waste of money. If Pope’s shoulder is a big concern. Then I’d rather we looked elsewhere. If it’s not, then we need to be investing money elsewhere and not on a new number one.

Sack Tripps for being unloyal, disloyal.

I think this is a hard one to answer. I think if we finish 7th and manage to get the Conference League. We have finished slap bang in the middle of where I was expecting. I may be wrong. But I think I said 6th-8th at the start of the season. So when you look at the players that are regularly getting minutes. The fact our 4 new summer signings haven't played anywhere near as much as we'd have liked. The cup draws. The high quality back 5 from last season being decimated by injuries. The Wilson/Isak conundrum. Loads more, I'm sure. It feels like we have over-achieved, if anything. But then the fact we finished 4th last season, expectations have naturally gone up. Fans have got fed up of the injury/fatigue excuse and we have still thrown away crunch games that we should have won. Even when factoring in all of the above. Fairly recently, Chelsea and Man U spring to mind. A point in each of those games and we're home and hosed. So it feels like the season has kind of petered out a bit and we've wasted a really good opportunity to finish 6th, possibly even 5th with the way Spurs have dropped off. General consensus seems to be we have done it the wrong way round. If we went 11th, 7th, 4th. Fans would have been happy and expectations a bit more inline with the squad that we have to pick from. Even if we end up with no Europe next season, I'm still 100% behind Howe. Massive summer ahead, though. I know it's done using hindsight. But we can't afford another transfer window like last year. We need to be hitting with all of our signings and have them contributing to the first team in a meaningful way and on a regular basis.

Agree with all of that. With so many holes to fill in the squad and the money we have available. I'd be happy for him to stay another season. Just not sure he would be happy playing a bit part? As he shouldn't be starting ahead of Tino or Hall now.

Yeah. It is easy to say in hindsight. But the last transfer window has not been great. Tonali barely played. Tino has had niggly injuries and not fully trusted to get minutes even when he was playing brilliant football. Hall has taken an age to get a game. But is now looking decent, at least. Barnes has spent months injured and as others have said. Looks like he’s the backup LW option. Desperately need some quality in the final third and he can’t buy a start. Plenty said last season we needed a RW option that could perhaps cover up top if needed. Yet we’ve had Miggy and Murphy there. With Wilson missing half the season (again).

I mean. If the medical staff (no laughing) think it’s likely to go again after it going 5 years after the first injury. Then yeah, maybe we should. Still, ignore the 6 then. Those other positions still need filling and a number 2 keeper in to replace Dubravka. As I can’t see Pope sitting on the bench. Busy old summer when everyone keeps saying we have naff all to spend.

So we have fuck all to spend by all accounts. But people want to drop £30-40m on a keeper? Whilst it would be lovely to have someone in goal as good as or better than Pope. With his sweeping attributes and aggressiveness. Along with being great at actually stopping the ball goinf in the net. Yet also great with the ball at his feet. I don’t think it’s realistic to be getting a keeper this window. Who is this mythical keeper, anyway? The Valencia lad that everyone seems to have a full scouting dossier on and is totally flawless the way people are carrying on. I think we need to improve a couple of starting positions (RW and a possible 6 option other than Bruno) and depth (striker, CB, full back) a lot more than we need a keeper. Not even debatable IMO. How much would a genuine back up to Isak cost? Same for a starting calibre RW? Not that we have it to spend. But you could be looking at £100m for those two players.

To me. It’s when there is something meaningful at stake. Or perhaps against a big stadium or team. Then the players freeze, play a bit scared and/or safe and make poor mistakes all the while. Bottling their chance to win X, qualify etc. Last night certainly felt like that to me. I don’t think we were undone against a brilliant team. Bar Fernandes and Mainoo. Plus the odd moment from Casemiro and Amrabat (they were shit in the main, otherwise). They were crap as a collective. We were just even worse, or worse in the moments that mattered at either end.

Loss. They’re awful to play against and feel like last night will have knocked the stuffing out of us. Really poor showing in a game that was about to define our season and some comical defending. Yes I’ve slept on it and feel even worse about the result than I did last night

Also this. Our service to him consists of pumping it long and then occasionally massively fucking up easy through balls. No real creativity high up the pitch and it is a bit of a flaw with Howe’s system. Made even worse by injuries and those that are currently starting.

It’s such a shame that he has struggled to get say 15-20 games in a row when he’s been close to 100%. Since signing he has had a few injuries and never got a clean run at it. He had that one spell earlier this year where he was unplayable for a good few games and it’s been a bit stop/start otherwise. Not sure if he has got yet another niggly injury. Or he is just ill like Howe says. But the last two games were just like earlier in the season. Where his dribbling, pace and ability to maintain his levels all deserted him. He had the Everton and Spurs goals where he sat people down and casually slotted home. Then that one last night with Amrabat. You were never confident he was going to score. He looked half asleep in the box all game and never attacked either post or the 6 yard box. As plenty of people have said. A back up striker who is not as prolific as Wilson. But that is actually available and not injured all the while. Should be a top priority.

I thought he was shit. But didn’t have a problem with his set pieces. From memory he picked out Bruno and I think Burn/Longstaff and they massively fucked up their headers. Perhaps could have rotated them with Gordon a bit more. Only let him have 1-2 when he was on, I think?

Wilson is our best striker in what way? His legs have gone. But he is still arguably better as that traditional, between the posts 9. But what other attributes does he have that are better than Isak. As I said. He has missed 50% of the games since signing and it appears his injuries are getting more frequent and his pace has gone. Why would you gamble (again). We did it from last season to this and it backfired.

He has had 2 seasons to rotate with Isak. But it’s never worked. Isak has had some injury troubles too. Which has then made it even worse. Is it now nearly bang on 50% of games he has missed since signing? It’s hardly getting better, either. Was he out for 2 months or so with a torn pec. Came back and played about 80-90 mins across 2 games and now he’s injured. Yet again. How can you have a striker as your number 2 with such an awful injury record?

Our worst player by far tonight, I thought. Hoping it’s just rustiness. As he started the season well, had that 6-7 game stretch of constantly fucking up. Then rediscovered a bit of form when he came back. I’m not saying he was tossing it off ala Michael Owen. But he looked like he was just going through the motions before England duty. Was miles off it all the time. Slow to react by basically a second or two at times.

Yeah. I feel a bit sorry for him. Playing in that hybrid left back/dovetail setup with Gordon. It just doesn’t work.

I’m not debating whether or not our makeshift back 4 is any good. Or if they get protection from the midfield, which they don’t. I’m pointing out that they don’t trust him. Ironically, Dubravka’s sweeping was actually ok for once. But they play miles deeper as he’s rooted to his line. When he does come he is hesitant. They always want to hack it clear even when it would be the keeper’s ball 80-90% of the time. We seem to position ourselves deeper from set pieces. As he isn’t comfortable coming to collect the high ball and stays in his 6 yard box. Is it not obvious that they don’t trust him? It’s the same every week.

Yes and no. Yet again, we struggle to build anything from the back and almost rely solely on turnovers to spring an attack or a second ball from a long hump/switch of play. Just slow, ponderous passing across the back 4-5 all the while. Hall helps a bit to progress it up the pitch. But other than Bruno. Nobody else can pass it from deep. Then when we get it in the final third. We go to pieces. Over or under hitting simple passes. Having 4 of our players to pick out from a cut back. But managing to find a red shirt. Rush of blood finishes. It then feels like we’re even more desperate and snatching at stuff even more because of all the previous shite that’s preceded it. It’s understandable up to a point with the players we have on the pitch. Most are not good enough to consistently perform at this level. But even when everyone is fit. I still think there is a massive lack of technical quality in this team and only a handful of players comfortable on the ball. It really shows in tight games.

I mean. You can take your pick on who gets deserved stick tonight. Isak was woeful and bottled some chances IMO. Longstaff non-existent and then wasted a quality chance. I mean, the midfield was non-existent most of the game. Trippier was the worst player on the pitch…. I could go on. But when Dubravka is chucking in a goal every other game and generally looking shaky, with the defence not trusting him at all. It gets a bit tiresome.

He’s pathetic. First order of business is a number 2 that is more use than a scarecrow.

Pathetic that. Didn’t play like a team that were playing for Europe and the biggest game of the season. Trippier was abject. Played like a man just going through the motions waiting for the Euros.