Smal

yeah, another one who's going to spend the game moaning about him coming deep without realising that he's playing in midfield

Ramsey is good, need to get him the ball more. Good link up between Woltemade and Thiaw just now to create a chance for Joelinton. Starting to get more into it now.

Thiaw just trying to pass it through Beto who was stood only 5 yards for him. Really weird.

yes: Pope Trips Thiaw Burn Hall Ramsey Tonali Woltemade Elanga Gordon Joelinton

Joelinton left wing then

It could easily be Ramsey or Joelinton on the wing tbh, but I guess if Wolt is back up top the thinking would be that Everton are likely to come and sit in so we don’t necessarily need a central threat in behind.

he’s out sea fishing on a boat with his mates and his Dad in Brazil afaict. Looks like he’s having the time of his life, don’t worry too much

I think we've seen earlier in the season that his technical ceiling is actually very high. His touch and the weight of his passing was genuinely top level. Since mid/late November his form has not really been there. Confidence (being rotated out of the team, some poor games, sunderland og, missing a pen, being reffed unfairly) is something that we need to get back into him.

Is he good enough to replace Thiaw?

I don’t think we need to change the system to fit Woltemade in. I definitely don’t think it’s worth it this season anyway given the lack of training time. As I see it, the rest of the season can be a good opportunity to see how he does in the 8 role he’s been playing recently. Before last night he’s been good there the last few games, and on paper I think he can be the player we need in certain games where we lack the technical ability and creativity to break teams down. He has a lot of potential I think, and he really hasn’t played that much top level football at all. Needs coaching, game time and confidence first and foremost.

I do think the way he’s been reffed has had a major impact on his confidence to compete in duels. What are you supposed to do when the referees view every bit of contact on you as fair game, and every bit of contact you initiate to be a foul? It’s genuinely been mental to watch.

he only had a year left on his contract and was approaching 29. I think our early bids reportedly of ~£25m were indicative of what we thought his true market value was tbh. In the end we had to pay the money because of the circumstances, which everybody including Brentford knew. It’s fine - it was a gamble we had to make. It hasn’t paid off.

nobody will be daft enough to pay us more than £20m for Wissa. His value when we signed him would’ve been around £30m-£35m and it’s plummeted since then.

He has been playing well in midfield before last night, yeah. I actually think he played too high up last night compared to his other performances and had limited space because of it, but nothing was coming off for him anyway. He looked really pissed off and possibly disheartened by his own performance.

he played the last 20 minutes or so when Wissa came on as a second striker btw and looked worse for it imo.

Class that we’re into the last 16. Bit concerned about the general attitude towards the game though, especially our defensive work. Hopefully Eddie lays into them a bit for it tbh, which is a bizarre thing to write after we’ve won 9-3 in the CL .

Big fan of his, and I like him in midfield too, but this has been really bad tonight . He looks absolutely deflated by his own performance too.

this Willock performance

what on earth are we doing defensively in this game man . So much complacency back there all game.

Burn having a mare

Theo Walcott has a grey beard

Woltemade and Botman need to show more here

I was tempted given it might feasibly be my only opportunity to get a ticket for a CL game at St. James' but £70 can do one

it’s cool that he still does this btw

I’m pretty confident that all of the strikers we went for in the summer would have more goals for us than they’ve got for the clubs they’ve gone to instead. Delap, Pedro, Ekitike, Sesko, even Mbuemo if he counts as a striker. I think they’d all be close to a goal a game here with the way we play.