Lush Vlad

I ended up a few rows higher up for the first goal. Must have crowd surfed up there somehow

What? He came on the other night for 20 minutes against a team that had stopped attacking and didn’t do anything wrong. Oh and we won, which means by the rules of this place. You double their rating/ability. Get him from the start, I say.

Ooof. Unlucky. Disclaimer - I am fully aware this will come back to bite me on the arse

Sesko looks crap whenever I've seen him and has been on the bench a fair bit already. Cunha plays up top with Mbeumo and one other behind him, no? Looks very fluid and actually a very dangerous front 3, annoyingly. I'm sure he'd start with those two and it would be even more dangerous.

We already have one winger who seems to be melting in the SJP heat. Johnson looks like he is scared of his own shadow FFS. Would be a complete waste of money, so I'm hoping we don't go back in for him.

I was there both times. The first one I had to walk back to the Power Leagues on my own to where I was parked, hungover as fuck, with loads of Villa fans trying to goad me into some sort of aggro. Some old Villa fan was sound as fuck and basically told them all to fuck off and stop kicking a man when he's down

Had a big old grin on my face reading about L7 when I couldn't sleep about 4 this morning. Had my ST up there in the Championship season and then again the first season back up. Goals galore that season. Was priceless being next to the away end for the 5-1 against the mackems and the 4-4 with Arsenal. I remember the box office calling me to say I wasn't allowed a season ticket in L7 anymore and did I have anywhere else in the ground where I wanted to go. I said L4 Leazes Corner and they came up with a load of bullshit reasons why we weren't allowed to move there. Seriously fucked off with it at that point, I binned my ticket. TBF, I live 240 miles away and I've been going with my mate who has 4 family ST's since 2006-07. So it was a bit of a waste of money in some ways. I never really had too much of an issue with tickets home or away. Until recently.........

I know Robinson is rapid, but on a going day, Elanga beats him and basically every defender in a foot race. But he seemed reluctant to even contemplate the idea of trying to get down the line and it's not the first time he's been like that since joining. That's why it makes me think so much of this is a mental issue. Maybe not quite so much the sloppy passes and the runs he makes/doesn't make. But the heavy touches and lack of any meaningful decisions. Trying to play safe all the while. The problem is. It's not like we can just give him a run of games to figure it out. Murphy is the better option out there. Barnes is better there, too. Even though he is wasted on that side and he is our best left winger. Because of the way we have started the season. We haven't got much of a margin for error and we need results.

Do you believe that though? Because based on where I sit in the Leazes. Elanga gets blamed for everything. From not taking his man on, to taking his man on, to goals conceded and not being 9ft tall to head chances in at the back post. I genuinely think some people have made their minds up on him. Which is fair enough, he has been crap and doesn’t look like getting any better. So they will continue to aim their moaning, groaning, swearing and abuse at him. Which isn’t fair enough. I’ve said it on here before plenty of times. I don’t particularly like Gordon. As a player or the way he carries himself. More so the last year or 18 months. But he still gets my support when I’m at the ground. As should all of our players, within reason.

Yeah. Surely Hope would be all over it with MONTHS not WEEKS. Then a load of emojis 💀😵☠️🪦 Complete with a horrible close up of his big smug dish.

Yep. Typical Willock. The game was open and he shined. Even nailed someone which the crowd appreciated. I noticed him being more physical and more committed to challenges and headers than usual. Then they went and sat deep and he sort of got in the way.

And good tidings.

Not for me. His finishing isn’t anywhere near good enough to play centrally and I’m not sure his other attributes make up for it. He just isn’t a striker, IMO. I would like to see that formation at some point though. Just with Wissa as the 9.

They did try plenty of that, mind. Lukic and then Reed in particular were at it non-stop in both halves. I thought both of their CB's were attempting similar. Wilson escaping a yellow for the most blatant yellow you'll see. Then having the cheek to complain about it. They're just not very good at it in the same way Bournemouth and based on this season, sunderland are.

His lack of fast twitch muscle fibres means he doesn't get many muscle injuries and he can run all game. Maybe.

Fulham always seem to give us a really tough game home and away under Silva (bar the red card 4-1). Whether we beat them or not, it's almost always tight and they play some nice stuff. Bit of a bogey team somehow, even if the results don't show it.

Is Botman that much quicker than Schar? Has certainly looked less agile since his knee injuries.

I thought due to the sheer volume of crosses and how he looked to do it early. His ability on the ball wasn't as evident or as annoying last night. I think he ran it out of play and double touched it off under no pressure, mind Still our best option on the right. Especially if Wissa plays.

I noticed it for the Wissa goal, but not for Miley's. Love how both times. He shoved them back towards the crowd to go and get some more love and soak it up on their own.

No not that line. The other line

I know we have been wedded to this 4-3-3, bar the occasional change to 3 at the back. Which usually results in us looking crap. But I'd really like to see Howe returning to his 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 at times. He is pretty slow. But Woltemade does put work in and he could certainly play in that support striker/number 10 role. Wissa is a grafter and pretty quick, too. So I don't think we would lose loads defensively. It would massively help Woltemade getting on the ball. As he wouldn't always have a centre back or two following him about touch tight. It would also in theory help how we play through the middle and also bring the wingers into play in a different way. Is Howe prepared to lose his two wide 8's, though? Based purely on how he has set up here and his post-match comments, albeit with a pinch of salt required. I think we'll only see this pair together when the game is disjointed and we're chasing an equaliser or the winner in the last 20-30 minutes. It's more of a change than just dropping Tonali to the 6 (should be number 4). But I feel like this formation at times could be our season changing moment. I admire when managers have full belief in their system and the Klopp mantra of work harder when plan A isn't working. But we need to mix it up and freshen things up.

Exactly. Barely seen that at all in Howe's time here. Massively helped by having both Schar and Thiaw together. But it seemed like they were finding him with ease last night. He was often open and demanding for it, if not. For various reasons. You don't see any other of our midfielders doing that, TBH. So he is unique for us in that sense.

We'll be like Everton soon. We can start using that seagull booing meme

Not sure if it was just because his shirt was too small for him But he looked like an absolute tank last night.