Lush Vlad

Massive gulf in class between the leagues, of course. But their fans seem gutted he's leaving and all say he is a good young player with potential.

It will also be an illiquid market with hardly any money down. So a few people putting 2 and 2 together and chucking a few quid down. Will make the price shorten straight away.

Forgot to comment on this the other day. Comes across like complete bellend. Between his comments since joining FGR, that podcast and when I heard him on 5 Live the other day. He just seems thoroughly unlikeable. Maybe he saw Barton ‘telling it like it is’ and getting loads of publicity. Then thought ‘I’ll have some of that.’

Eh? He’s a Spurs fan

His double pistols knee slide celebration is cool as fuck. Expect nothing less of Iceman Isak.

Didn’t appreciate how good that assist was against Liverpool. Makes space all on his own and played that slide rule pass that he is so good at. Pacey as fuck, direct. His workrate is infectious and all. Oh and he’s now our top shithouse to boot Great highlight reel. When we have genuine competition in the wide areas and Gordon can get a rest here and there. Then he’s going to be even better.

Dummett at DM. Hall can replace him after 84 minutes.

I mean, 6 weeks minimum seemed like it’s nailed on that it’s going to be a good few weeks longer than that. Our return dates have been miles off all season. Even if that article is horse shit. Realistically, how many games do people expect him to play this season? 10 at most, I reckon. So we will still have a good chunk of games with next to no options for the midfield or possibly even only two centre mids available for three positions.

Insert the AFTV “WE’RE FUCKED” GIF here. Can’t wait to see what midfield we put out when Bruno misses two games. Might finally see Schar back in there…….

He plays miles deeper. It’s obvious and someone put some stats up (FBRef?) on his starting position showing as much. Even when it’s being left for him/shielded for him to collect or he has a chance to come out. I always feel like he is a bit hesitant. Earlier games he seemed to be a bit no man’s land at times. The last two league games we have been under the cosh and penned in. So it hasn’t really mattered and he’s made countless saves to keep the score down, regardless. I just don’t expect us to start playing a high line again. It isn’t Dubs’ game, clearly. But to counter that weakness compared to Pope. He is much better with his passing. So whilst it is hard to change style mid-season. Hopefully we can work on possession a bit better during this break and building from the back. As he usually has no problem switching play out wide or finding a midfielder with a low pass through the middle.

Forgotten he has bagged so many braces. Feels like a hat trick will come when he can play 70 minutes plus at a similar’ish intensity and we can get back to rotating a bit. No idea on the order: Brentford curler Last night’s Thierry Henry special Forest bent leg volley thing Wolves was an outrageous header and all. Be nice if he started getting some more with his head.

Exactly. He’s conveniently ignoring all of the injuries and the base from which we started. TCD just coming across like a stan account on Twitter. Trolling Newcastle fans talking about what we’ve spent and ignoring any context or other factors that might have an impact. CoLePaLmErSZN123456: Newcastle are a mid club. Spent £500m and you’re still shit. The Contrarian Dickhead strikes again.

Yeah. Brilliant game so far. Man U look dangerous on the break, whilst also being wasteful. Spurs are so good on the ball and working openings. But because of their style, they’re wide open. Some individual mistakes fucking them and all. Howay Spurs. Beat these fuckers.

Rashford is giving Porro a torrid time. Lovely finish. Really like Vicario. No way is he 6ft 4” though. Always looks tiny for a keeper. Might just be his stance, I suppose.

Oh dear

What was the rumoured criteria for buying him? 450 minutes or something? Seems pointless even getting to that number. If Ritchie, who can’t even sprint now is seen as a better option most weeks. With Hall getting 5-10 minutes at most or an unused sub every week. Absolutely mental fee if we are close to our FFP ceiling. Not at the stage yet where we can be spending that sort of money on someone that might come good in a few years. That sort of dough should be getting us a first team ready player. Who we (Howe) will start in games and give decent minutes to.

Minimum of 6 weeks for Big Joe, so most likely longer knowing our return dates. Willock hardly sounds close to returning, either. Still not even running. They’re probably going to miss 7 games combined as a minimum and not be anywhere near 100% when they return.

It is a problem that gap and has been in plenty of games this season. Botman and Schar used to be more aggressive stepping into midfield. Botman and Joelinton have missed so many games that I feel we have lost that. There are so many factors at play here. I don’t think it is as easy to just say we gave KDB the freedom of the pitch. Like it was some pre-meditated decision They move the ball so well that they create space, drawing players in before finding that line splitting pass. Their players are all so comfortable on the ball and with interchanging positions. It must be horrendous to defend against and stay switched on for 90 minutes. No fresh legs to bring on when it’s clear our lads are physically and mentally fucked. No Joelinton to play 2 positions at once. Are the defence dropping a bit deeper, either consciously or sub-consciously because Pope isn’t there to sweep up? If we decided to sacrifice one of our players to man mark De Bruyne. Then they have 4-5 other players who will get even more space and still hurt us. It was more of a concern against Forest IMO. Last night it wasn’t even as bad as people are making out against such world class opponents. It was something that was highlighted before the game. I don’t think this midfield physically can play this system. But it is Howe’s system and it must be difficult to just change mid-season and they’re the only fit midfielders we have. Not sure why it seems to have come to a surprise to so many.

Very average, really. Very good, very nice from basically Jan 22 until around November 23. I can’t put my finger on it. Why are we suddenly so very average? Got to be some reasons…..

He was our MOTM along with Schar and Dubs, I thought. Class from KDB and Bobb. But I still think he should have done a lot better at the end there. Still, good to see the old Tripps back. He was quality at both ends of the pitch.

I thought his workrate was outstanding, as always. Some of the tackles were brilliant. But we had the chance to counter a few times second half and he never once made the right decision. Often had an easy enough pass on, but would look to cut back or wait for a simple 5 yarder. Hurt us a bit, I thought. As we barely got a chance to attack for those 45 minutes. Hard to criticise him for that, mind. As we know his limitations and he isn’t suddenly going to start changing at this stage of his career. Although he did try 2-3 right footed crosses. So you never know.

Can people start putting smileys in here FFS. It’s impossible to tell between piss taking, sarcy posts and the bed wetting brigade

It will be a bit of both. They obviously committed more men forward because of them being behind, so will be taking more risks. As we got more tired, we will have dropped off further still. Once it seemed obvious we couldn’t get out via passing and the long ball to chase was no longer working due to tired legs and/or adjustments by them. Their tactic was to just keep players up the whole time. So we regularly had nobody even near their half. They always had men over and their movement and interchanging was a joke. Hard to defend against that with a high press for 90 minutes and with no viable options off the bench.

I’m usually down on Dubs and a massive Pope fan, so biased. But not having that. The last goal Trippier should do better and yes, maybe Pope having a longer leg gets the ball. But it’s still outrageous from KDB to pick it out and the feet from Bobb…. World class. Pope might have gone early on one of the shots or not got down to Rodri’s one. He wasn’t available, regardless. It’s like they’re probably saying they score 5-6 if Haaland was playing.

Couldn’t split Dubravka, Trippier or Schar for MOTM. I’ll still be happy to see Pope back. But he was superb again tonight. Certainly allayed my fears these last few games about wanting another keeper short term.