Smal

Murphy destroying them. World class.

The Longstaff box run is so beautiful

28, poor lad. Really unfortunate.

Insane pass by Trips. Callum should’ve done better tbh.

Our right hand side is absolutely ruining them here

that was a cross though, right? We’re not pretending it’s deliberate

MURPH!!

ooof, that’s gonna be tight.

They introduced the blackout, what, 60 years ago? Maybe it was relevant then but it certainly isn't now.

Man City vs Brighton not being on telly is just pure 3pm blackout banter isn't it. Like, the UK football follower gets absolutely fuck all for their money, it's nuts. £80 a month for Sky and TNT and you can't watch the two best footballing sides in the division play each other, lol.

this is gonna be an absolutely horrible game . They're even more anti-football than usual without Eze and Olise ffs.

Hope he gets the support he needs. Addiction is horrible and ruins lives.

we are mint.

We have got some absolutely fantastic players haven't we.

Bellingham is so good man. Sat here laughing

That's a pen imo

If Howe can get Phillips back up to speed then he'd be a very good player for us. Also potentially allows you to play a more attacking player at left back because he will sit much deeper and be part of the 3 alongside the centre backs (instead of Burn tucking in to make the 3) at times.

I don't think Howe is particularly suited to international management. That's not a criticism, it's just a totally different job. One of the biggest reasons for Howe's success is how fit he's managed to make the players. You can't have that kind of impact in international management. Another factor behind his success is working with individual players to improve their tactical understanding. Again, you do not get time to do this in international football. You basically have to be a politician who gets the media and public onside. It's preferable to be a good tactician who can change games (which is largely where Southgate has fallen down and why he hasn't won a tournament), but I feel like it's not essential to doing well.

hasn’t corona done enough the last few years ffs

I’d be tempted to play Wilson and Isak together as an out and out 2 for this. If they’re missing Eze and Olise we should be fairly dominant with the ball.

I’m not saying you said he’s shite like, sorry if that came across. I just want people to see what I see with Burn in truth . He’s a player who is predominantly in the team to a) provide the structure of our rest defence shape and b) assist in our first phase of build up (you will often see him and the two centre backs for a 3 at the back shape when we have the ball deep whilst Trippier pulls high and wide as part of the attacking unit). I think given this role in the team it’s impossible to also expect him to provide overlapping runs into the final third *regularly*. Whilst this might seem frustrating, the left side of our attack is instead designed - purposefully - for the left sided forward player to combine with the left sided midfield player rather than the full back (unlike ie Trippier and Almirón on the other side). That’s why you see Willock/Anderson/Joelinton often position themselves on the touchline even from the left central midfield position. In our setup it’s their role to combine with the winger rather than Burn’s most of the time. Absolutely no top side leaves only two defenders back apart from maybe Brighton sometimes - and they regularly get exposed for it. Most good sides build with a 3-2 structure (ours is often Burn-Botman-Schar with Bruno-Longstaff in front for example) and have done in the PL since Conte’s Chelsea.

this is it basically. That his kicking has been worse since then too tells me it’s entirely a confidence thing so hopefully it can be resolved, but it has been quite a long time.

Burn played him an absolutely lush through ball today like so it’s a bit weird to single him out