Lush Vlad

Maybe not so much against the super clubs. But I fancy our style more against European teams. Especially considering how uninspiring so many of our league performances have been. Then again. Chelsea would be easier than Barca, if we get through

He’s up there with Arteta, Simon Jordan (90% of Talksport TBF) and Luke Edwards. As one of the most annoying people to listen to talk about football.

And vegetarians aren’t vegans. But that doesn’t stop people lumping them all in together.

Morning Bastads. Today is the day we break the Anfield curse.

He’s not a very strict vegan. He eats fish in that video

Not sure if I’m being whooshed and it’s become some forum in-joke. Or if we genuinely have a load PURE ALPHA Andrew Tate fanboy types posting on the forum

WE’RE ALL GOING TO BAKKKUUUUUU.

Spence is a great defender, mind. Just crap going forward. The same way Tino and Wan Bissaka are. Winks not so much I’d argue we have much better players and a deeper, more balanced squad than a lot of years gone by. Although uncapped. Colback was called up to the squad once FFS.

Someone embedded the link for me.

Who else has seen this filth?!

I mean. You‘d like to think he has a shot at the squad. But to say guaranteed a start when he’s not even been capped yet? We’ve got a huge amount of depth across the board now bar striker. So I wouldn’t be so sure myself. I wonder if Tuchel already has the majority of his squad set and there’s just a few places up for grabs. It would be great if he got a call up in March and for Tuchel to have a look, at least.

The absolute minerals on the lad at 23 seconds Bear with me for this long winded explanation. But what he does when he plays deeper. Feels very un-English to me. I don’t mean English CM’s now so much. But growing up, I didn’t feel like we had loads of CM’s that took risks like that or demanded the ball all over the pitch. Whereas players from abroad were often more technically gifted and were always showing for it and making themselves an option. I think it’s even more impressive when you factor in his limited game time and quiet and sort of uninspiring start here. I thought he was going to come in as a bit of a Willock upgrade and to rotate for Joelinton in certain games. But he gets a bit lost and drifts out of games when wide in the 3. Small sample size. But when he has played deeper in a 2 or had opportunities to drop in from the midfield 3. It’s when he’s looked at his best. I wasn’t expecting that at all. Loves a pirouette

Am I reading that wrong. Or do you think Miley is guaranteed to start at the World Cup this summer?

Lampard vibes

So we’re efficient and they’re wasteful. Is that what he means? That sounds like a you problem, Vitinha. You dog faced gimp.

Well by that logic. Marseille deserved to beat us, too. They missed plenty of sitters first half. That one hurt more than Marseille for me. To get that close away from home and chuck it away at the death is proper frustrating. Especially as we were sitting deep and still failed to defend. Marseille scored 2 goals in 5 minutes of madness. We had plenty of time to get back into it and we couldn’t. Either way. Still a quality return to the CL. Dominated half our games and we were in the rest and competing for the majority of the game. We’ve done better than I was expecting.

And poor, sloppy defending. They’re not always mutually exclusive.

Just focus on the crap defending for the last minute goal we conceded in Leverkusen, then. That would have seen us through

The thing is though. He didn’t really play LW last night. The same way Elanga wasn’t the usual chalk on your boots, touchline right winger that we play with. They were popping up all over. Steve Bruce would call it two false 10s To use American parlance. There is no reason why he couldn’t do similar again with the likes of Gordon and Barnes, Elanga and Murphy or whoerver being the ‘closers’. Or vice versa, depending how the game is going. I think with all the games we have, sports science, the analytics and how in depth every team has become tactically. Along with the game constantly evolving and things going in and out of fashion. The notion of your strongest XI and a set way of playing and formation. Isn’t really a thing at the top level nowadays. I suppose some managers and teams have their style and system and they won’t change. But even Pep has adapted and shifted over the years. It’s not made him any better, either.

I read that Konate might be back. As he's been away for personal reasons, his Dad sadly passed away. Even Gomez has a chance of making it. But he's always injured, so I doubt it. They'll probably play Slobberdog at right back and he's usually class wherever he plays.

Burn, Joelinton, Trippier and Bruno raising an NUFC flag.

I know I'm biased. But he always comes across so incredibly well in the media. Even after the game when emotions are running high. Great ambassador for the club and because of the way he's had to come up in the game. He's a really grounded, level-headed and 'normal' person compared to a lot of footballers. Obviously helps that he's from the NE, as well, of course. Comes with the territory I mentioned on here I was stood next to his Dad away at Chelsea last season and it was easy to see why Dan was seemingly such a nice guy.

He has a habit of slashing at chances coming across to the back post. Usually on the other side, but he missed that one against City and also Spurs in the cup. Give him the top corner from 20 yards or the one on one slotted in the bottom corner. He's not interested otherwise Trying not to get too down on the fact that would have seen us 5th and with a much more favourable draw coming up and skipping the play-offs entirely. It's been a decent campaign already and we've performed in every game we've played. Ah well. Fine margins. Even after everything I've just said. I'd still say if you want the ball to fall to anyone in the box for a chance in our team, it would be Barnes.

£50m doesn't get you a lot these days. *Do not insert Elanga joke here. EDIT: *or a Wissa joke.