Smal

Doing the opposite of what we need to with the ball and rushing everything. Need to just have some possession.

The Longstaff fall over under pressure... someone please coach that out of him

Just need to play it exactly like the Fulham game. Keep possession and pen them back in their own third. Be patient and don't make any dumb mistakes.

Think that Jordan James looks like he’s got some ability

Phillips has played very effectively as an 8 as well for England btw. He won England player of the year doing that role. There's no reason he couldn't come in and rotate with both positions imo.

Reckon Arsenal might win the whole thing unfortunately. They are much more boring this season and Rice just dominates the entire middle third of the pitch. They have the control required to win knockout games against anyone.

every game is massive tbh. We're trying to compete at the top of the Premier League.

they are less likely to pick up muscular injuries (like the ones Joelinton and Schar just picked up) Luton if they get a rest between now and then.

It's not just prioritising the Luton game but the rest of the season. If we play Wilson again he'll explode and then we'll be back to being forced to playing an injured Isak until he returns. Likewise if Miggy/Gordon, who are playing every game, pick up an injury then we're looking at starting Matt Ritchie in the Premier League.

we need them both to go as far as possible tbf if we want 5 CL spots

Be good to rest Gordon and Miggy at some point as they’re the two who look most dead on their feet to me. We have absolutely nobody to rotate them with though.

Zirkzee from Bologna looks fun. 6ft4, 22 year old, joined them from Bayern summer before last for €8.5m. Scored 8 in 17 this season.

this is diabolical

28(!) progressive passes yesterday . Not sure I've ever seen that many in one game tbh. For context the most he's managed in a game this season so far was 11 and he's averaging around 8 per 90. Bumps him up in the standings a bit and ahead of Rodri

Kind of agree with Jagten to a large extent. His off the ball movement and pressing is very good and his finishing seems to have come on a lot but he needs to improve with the ball and especially his 1v1 ability. He does still struggle to beat a man in the final third. Bottom 10% in the league this season for successful take-on % is pretty poor and an area he needs to improve on massively. It's fine to admit this.

he looked like he was really keen to try and do something positive when he was on the pitch which says good things about his attitude. Few nice passes as well.

his movement and pressing are his two biggest strengths imo. He’s been poor with the ball recently though.

he has time to recover some of his pace though. Anyone would be slower after not being able to do any sprinting or training for over a year.

more than anything he just deserves it imo. Especially after losing a year of his career. His performances under Howe have usually meant we’ve not missed Trippier which is a pretty big compliment.

very nice to have Sven back in and with a couple of line breakers straight off. What a player, man.

class trivela

I guess the next step is trying to find more ways to get him involved in our play. His quality is there for all to see. Probably a bit too good to play that Longstaff b2b role?

Bruno is about 3000 levels above these, like