Lush Vlad

I mean, if it was verified as true, then I would agree. But we're supposed to believe some gobshite DM journo? Who was regularly vague and non-committal whilst providing EXCLUSIVES about Guehi during the summer. Why would you choose to believe him, exactly?

It did make me think. It made me think about what a cesspit Twitter has become. Just nonsense and bots all over the place these days.

They’re 4 clear of 3rd as it stands after 11 games. Far too early to be making a confident prediction. I get they seem like a well coached team now. But they’ve often started well and faded.

They are. But that is some pass, take and then finish. They were bad at the back last season. Now they’ve got Kompany. No surprise they’ve got worse.

No safety smiley. Brave move.

One game, yes. The last '10 months'. Well, we we have been pretty bad home and away since the Man U at home game last December and the daft amount of injuries and losing our intensity. It wasn't a home v away argument. Our away results were shit, granted. But we just lost our identity full stop. Regarding Fulham and Bournemouth. We have been pretty crap right up until City this season, though. Again, it was barely a home v away problem, we were just not up to scratch across the board for various reasons. I would say we have always been far more aggressive with our press at home, as well. Sort of to be expected, really. I think the last 3 games show that we are getting better and something like our old selves. Just the results haven't quite gone our way. Hopefully that means we are trending in the right direction. If we go to Chelsea and are completely passive that would be a concern. But they are a good side and were playing round Liverpool's press with ease at times. So maybe we will stand off a bit at times. If we followed up with another soft showing at Forest away and not pressing when we have the opportunity. Then yes, maybe you might have a reason to be so angry

Sorry, Everton was away from home no?

We have a huge amount of evidence from 2017 and 2019 to suggest that Murphy and Almiron are pretty much ineffective on the right, though? Bar that purple patch for Almiron and the odd game under Howe for Murphy. It has been pretty grim stuff for the most part. How many games have we actually persisted with trying Gordon right and Barnes left? How many times have we seen this overall and for how many games in a row? 1 or 2 consecutive games at most, at a guess? It is too much of a small sample size to make any cast iron opinions. Whereas that isn't the case for the other RW options mentioned above. I might be going all conspiracy theorist. But I think the few times I have seen it, Gordon has sulked when he's played there and Howe is opting to keep him happy by playing him on the left. Gordon hasn't really looked good wherever he has played this season, so it's a bit of a moot point IMO. He was at least lively the last two games. But his finishing was atrocious. Not saying it is the case. But what's to say he wasn't going through a right purple patch sort of similar to Miggy last season when it came to hugely increasing his usual goal return? I don't think he has suddenly became a good finisher, even with all of the goals last season. His attributes are more his ridiculous pace, engine and work rate. I think he is relentless and gets a lot of opportunities to assist or score because of this. When on a going day, there is no let up and he is constantly at the full back and up and down the pitch. Looking at a lot of those positions Murphy had on the weekend and the space he had to attack in the first half. Fucking hell, Gordon would have had a field day IMO. If they want to shift over to double up on him, then great. More space on the left for Hall and Barnes. Barnes is a natural and ruthless finisher and I think we should look to at least persevere with the front 3 of Barnes-Isak-Gordon for a while. It has been pretty fluid at times and Isak will often take up wide positions, Gordon and Barnes could swap, which teams used to do all the while. Pep has certainly brought it back into fashion this season, for example. FWIW, I don't think Howe will do this and it is a big complaint of mine with Howe currently. That and his subs.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/anthony-gordon/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/503733 Anthony Gordon has played right wing 48 times. He seems to only play there for us as a last resort, when we have players missing or when we are chasing a game and he gets shifted across to accommodate Barnes. At this point, he often looks knackered so not as effective due to it being late in the game or perhaps when he plays there, he is even sulking a bit at moving position? I really don't buy that we can't play him there. Especially when the alternatives are Miggy and Murphy. He is quite a versatile player that can play along the front 3 and I don't think his skill set means he would be ineffective on the right. Is he better on the left? Yes. Are Murphy/Almiron on the right and Barnes on the bench a better option? No. Barnes has been involved in 4 of our 8 league goals (3 goals and 1 assist) and all the goals were great finishes. When we are going through a scoring drought. I just don't think we should be leaving his kind of production on the bench or taking him off early'ish in games, personally. He is always in and out of the team and seems to always be the one to make way when subs are made or when we revert back to Gordon starting on the left.

Might be blind optimism, as I'm going to this one. But I actually think despite how good they have looked for a lot of this season. I think we match up quite well against them. Just the away form is obviously a bit of a worry.

Looked alright to me the last 3 games.

100%. The last 3 league games have been night and day from earlier in the season. Energy levels were there, we actually created a bit (still not enough), possession was a lot better, the press and aggressively winning the ball back once we lost it was there to clearly see. Just a bit shit that we have been, I believe the word I only ever see used in football terms is 'profligate'. As the performances have far exceeded what we saw earlier in the season. I think sometimes fans don't like to consider luck/variance. Win = good. Lose = bad. That is all there is to it, no nuance. It is hard to take emotion out of it and I am guilty of that myself. Football is a low scoring game so it is always going to play a massive part. See that Ted Talk by the Brentford geezer on the 5th placed season under Pardew for reference.

How have you watched our last two league games plus City and thought the press was still missing?

On the subject of Dutch centre backs and ACL injuries. It took Van Dijk a while to get back to form. But he has been back to his imperious best the last season or two, I think. He has been great to start this season and all.

I think he’s a bit like Lascelles. Not quick over short distances and can get done for agility and a turn of pace. But once they open up, they are pretty fast. It is understandable, TBF. They are both absolute units so will at times turn like a cruiseliner.

Doesn’t massively make sense, either. As isn’t he right footed? I thought Howe preferred inverted wingers? Murphy playing on the right seems at odds to what he’s gone with most of his time here. If Miggy comes on, Murphy goes to the left, for example. I don’t think he’s a a bad player and I actually think he could be very effective for us. But considering how long RW has been a position of need. It’s hardly transformative or a signing to get excited about.

You make it sound easy to just go and get Bruno 2.0? Seems a bit too easy of a fix to me. As for the point about him for £70-80m or Anderson and Minteh going. The second is by far the better deal. We’d be losing our talisman, heartbeat of our team and now captain. For a bloke that’d never kicked a ball in the Premier League and another young player who has seemingly turned onto De Bruyne since leaving based on comments in here. It is still shit and I’d rather we kept both of course in an ideal world. Or if we managed to get rid of some dead wood and that somehow sorted PSR. But that would require an over-inflated market (hasn’t been like that for a while) for crocks like Wilson and bang average players at best like Almiron and Murphy.

It was there the last two games, though? And at times against City.

Keeper has had a howler there. Forest above us as it stands

Matz Sels has been a lot better for Forest than he was for us

How many teams in world football could afford £100m? It’s a handful of clubs, surely? So the fact that 5-10 elite clubs in world football didn’t think it was a good deal or a position of need. That says what, exactly? How do we know there weren’t informal talks regarding a possible price and a PSR deal? The same way there apparently were with Gordon? It would need to be the right club for him and all. Not just a money move. As it sounds like he is on a wedge and is clearly ambitious and competitive. His next move might be his last to a club that will play consistently in the CL and challenge for trophies. Bruno is massive for us. As highlighted whenever he doesn’t play. We can’t string 5 passes together or build from the back and we create even less than we do currently. As for keeping Anderson over him. That is quite frankly an outlandish statement Anderson had about 3-4 decent games for us, was starting to look a bit position-less in our setup, was behind what, 5 midfielders in the pecking order? He’s done nothing to suggest he can get to Bruno levels IMO. Different type of player, anyway.

Yeah. I thought Anderson flattered to deceive most of his time here bar the odd game out wide. We don’t play with a 10, so that’s not really a fair comparison. Still shit that we had to sell him, mind. He has looked great for City. But so has Chris Wood FFS and there has been some revisionist nonsense about his time here and all. It was like having a statue up there most the time. He was terrible back to goal and holding the ball up for a big fella and on the ball he offered nothing. His goal return was poor and all. We were always taking that deal.

Could more money be invested in it? Pay them more? Better training? Not sure what the answer is. As it is a really tough job and think they get undeserved shit a lot of the time. But VAR hasn’t helped. I feel like they’re being undermined for grey area decisions. Plus they also seem to be reluctant to give certain decisions and then can’t wait to go overboard for others. It’s like the fact they have VAR there as a backup plays on their mind subconsciously. Can’t go back now. But I wish we could. I think we’d all accept these fag paper offsides, handball and borderline penalty/red card decisions a lot easier. I know I would.

Could have kept both if not for PSR. Just found it a really odd comparison and a bit out of left field. Different players and neither start in our strongest 11. He was instrumental in a lot of games in our 4th placed season. Plus that mad scoring run he went on under Cabbage head. A really unique player and I’m personally a big fan of his. Hoping his injuries might be behind him. As it all seemed to be linked last season and we did the usual thing of rushing a player back before he’s ready. He didn’t have a particularly bad injury record for us before that I don’t think? But it’s not looking promising at the minute, is it?

Bit harsh on Willock. Just because he’s been a sicknote for a while. He has had some massive games for us.