Smal

lol, what’s going on

Olivier Kemen just come on for Cameroon. Remember him?

Gambia are really taking it to Cameron now. Fun game to watch.

Maybe we’ve managed to recall Minteh after AFCON? Would be a mad sale if we don’t have anyone coming in this month.

like, I even know it’s the right thing to do, but it’s still heartbreaking . Don’t really want to sell any of our players - least of all the ones who’ve always ran themselves into the ground for the team.

before his dodgy period (coincidentally whilst we were playing 13 games in a month) he was playing his best football for us and there were no signs of any kind of decline. The opposite if anything tbh.

wouldn’t sell our only creative player, like. Not unless we were getting wild money for him and had a genuinely creative replacement coming in.

Definitely think it's time to give him a run in midfield. At least in the FA cup game anyway. He could play that more advanced LCM role we use better than Longstaff has done imo... Longstaff is completely unsuited to it and is a different player on the right. Get him crossing from deep on the left and providing overlaps for Gordon. It makes sense in a lot of ways.

He's rapid, like. Gambia are just punting it long at every opportunity though. It's horrible

The area he can most improve on imo is his movement in the box. Too often we'll have the ball wide near the touchline and he'll be behind a defender rather than in front of them and ready to be on the end of a low cross. Think this is what Eddie meant in his comments in the Shearer article too.

yeah. As mad as it sounds, getting Jacob Murphy back will be transformative for us.

yeah, don’t mean it as criticism of Miley, he’s pretty much a square peg in a round hole. His profile suggests he’s a 10 to me too.

Think we can do something if we get some support for Galloway. We’ve been too eager to go long I think.

hmm, not really got much to play to when we get the ball back here. Wonder if we’ll get McQuade on for the second half.

Decent enough start but Man U have had some good chances already. Boddy and Kelly key for us I think. Feel like they’re winning the midfield battle.

If our midfield line is pressing that high then the defensive line has to step up higher too. We can’t put all the focus on the midfield shape. The defence can’t be that deep when the midfield are pressing, it’s crazy.

I think we win the game if Joelinton isn’t injured btw . Miley is fantastic with the ball in the final third but he can’t play as a box to box CM yet at all. Swap him out for an athletic player who is strong in duels and we don’t concede De Bruyne’s goal.

It was good to see him out-pace Foden on one occasion when he came on. Hopefully a sign that he’s getting closer to what Howe needs from him physically.

League only: xG conceded per 90 pre-Pope injury: 1.02 xG conceded per 90 post-Pope injury: 3.16

the biggest problem with the system at the moment is that the defensive line is playing about 15 yards deeper than it usually does since Pope’s injury. That’s why those gaps between defence and midfield are even bigger than usual. Last season we had Schar and Botman stepping up and marking opposition forwards into midfield, but it’s just not happening anymore because the distances are too big. It’s not a coincidence that our xG conceded has gone up massively since Pope’s injury.

It’s a difficult one because you could see that coming a mile off and he didn’t do anything to change/stop it at all. What could he do though with nobody on the bench who could come into the front 6? Lascelles on to make a back 5? That sounds like something Steve Bruce would do.

felt inevitable in the second half, really.

If this ref was giving yellows for dissent they’d have 6 players

Big Dan Burn winning offensive headers from our goal kicks is an underrated part of his game