Smal

I think we’d have been worse off than we are with Guehi tbh. Big Dan has been the least of our issues this season and arguably our best and most consistent performer.

similar story against Everton (the strength of the white arrows indicates the frequency of combinations): I think Bruno has been really poor this season. Need a lot more from him.

It’s not the lack of a number 10 in this instance that’s the issue though. It’s the first part of build up. We should be playing through Tonali and Bruno more but they’re basically never available. Joelinton is off playing left wing. Tonali attempted just 22 passes in 66 minutes and we had most of the possession. When the CBs have the ball Bruno and/or Tonali should be available to receive the ball but it’s rare that they are.

Think we should try playing with a midfield a bit more. Too often our only source of progression is a CB playing it to a full back who plays it down the line for a winger.

Has not been decent defensively either. Really poor.

I've only managed to catch the second half but I have to say AG has been absolutely shite

would like to see Miggy on tbh

Isak disasterclass

Hall is our new Trippier

we are surely scoring here.

Longstaff consistently played to that level from the start for near enough a whole season a couple of years ago tbf. He really needs some confidence back in his game. Perhaps coming off the bench and putting some good appearances in from there can help him do that.

the other alternative of course was to sell Minteh and actually buy a right winger instead of fucking around for a month chasing a centre back who we didn’t even sign!

guys our current right wing options are Miggy Almiron and Jacob Murphy . Of course it was terrible business to sell this guy and not get a RW in.

Don’t see why those attributes have to be limited to a double pivot role tbh. They seem transferable to an 8.

think he looks understandably rusty with the ball but I really like how he’s constantly trying to make things happen, either it be through movement, winning the ball back or first time passes. Confident he’s going to be really good for us once he gets some match fitness. Next step for him would be getting himself into the goalscoring positions that Longstaff constantly gets himself into from that position. He will need to contribute goals for us.

I don’t think we created plenty of chances at all? The Gordon penalty came from mental defending rather than good play, and aside from that we had <1 xG. Only other good chance I can think of was Gordon’s poor effort over the bar.

thought Joelinton kind of got in his way and dragged more defenders out wide than was necessary, which made it tough for Barnes as he was often crowded out and couldn’t create a shooting or crossing position. There are some occasions where crosses come in from the right and I feel like Barnes needs to make more of an effort to get to the back post though.

I don’t think you ask him to be our primary source of ball progression from the back 3 and then also ask him to provide threat in the final third. It wasn’t his role in the team yesterday to do that… you could see it was clearly Joelinton’s role to back up Barnes and provide overlaps. That’s very much a tactical decision from Howe.

I thought he was good actually, and grew into the game. He’s improving in duels but the main thing he brings will always be this: He’s a real upgrade on Burn in that LB/LCB role for our build up.

dire game and another poor performance from us. 1 good performance this season?

bottled it

thought Barnes had a poor game tbh. Don’t mind the sub but would’ve preferred Osula I think.

Their CBs are absolutely shit. It’s such a shame we don’t have Wilson or Isak fit, man. Wilson would be absolutely battering them.

you just knew it, unfortunately. Shocking pen.

Pen all day on Tonali. What’s VAR for.