Smal

looks happy again!

that was much more like it. Hopefully should return some confidence to his game.

last two games have been much more reminiscent of our 22/23 season. Going back to a formula that works

thought it'd be more tbh . An extended Nick Pope special lie down and numerous fouls on Bruno.

infuriating that nobody told Gordon he had a man on

Longstaff's running is great, idc what anyone thinks

Sandro is rapid

gosh, where has this Willock been?

Lewis Hall is the man.

out of possession when they have it deep yeah. Willock is pressing as a striker alongside Isak.

Howe probably believes that Longstaff can follow tactical instructions better than Tonali at the moment (by virtue of having played many more games for us), and we're playing against a team where we need to be really well drilled to win. I can see the argument... don't need to lose our heads about it just yet.

That is a team made for pressing. Need a big performance from Bruno today.

Hope we're on full WUM mode tbh. They seem easily agitated and wound up by their relentlessly stupid fans and cunt manager, so getting one of them sent off should be a priority.

yeah, I'd agree some of it is tactical. We have seen Livramento play well individually with the same/similar tactics and personnel last season though. He has some work to do.

I know what you mean but that's not really the point I was making. I'm not expecting Livramento to be peak Trippier for various reasons, but I'm just trying to highlight that individually I find it difficult to use him being surrounded by poor players as an excuse for basic errors and poor performances considering that this didn't seem to effect Trippier (or indeed Krafth whenever called upon tbf).

Trippier looked like the best RB in the world for 12 months with Almiron/Murphy/Longstaff around him. I'm not sure how much you can blame Livramento's poor performances on them, if at all.

The above example has Krafth in at right back rather than Livramento, but I do wonder whether we can make a tweak so that instead of Hall playing deeper and forming a 3 it could be Livramento doing it from the right side instead, so that Hall could play more advanced and with more creative freedom. Think this would suit each of their skillsets better - Livramento is a better 1v1 defender and has more covering pace, Hall has much more ability on the ball in the final third.

one of the beauties of football and data is that you can just ignore it if you are not interested in it

bit of a change of style for them this season, isn't it. More boring and less direct. Most of their progression is going through their CBs in Van Dijk and Konate - as seems to be the case with all of the dull control teams. Trent is still providing the most xT for them though. They should probably use him more often.

7th most progressive passer (and most progressive full back outright) p/90 in the league so far. He is really starting to fill the gap Trippier's left in terms of our ball progression. That Schar and Hall are that far up there is really, really remarkable given our poor possession numbers.

man Tino is absolutely hopeless this season

Seen nowt to suggest we shouldn’t carry on with Tonali central. Bruno either side of him + one other.

love Krafthu