Smal

Yeah, you'd usually expect him to just blitz straight past Danilo in that scenario. Made me think he's playing slightly injured tbh.

Thought his passing and touch were pretty good tbh. Second half the whole team were just clearing it instead of passing out so I'm not going to judge him individually on that. He played an excellent pass off his left foot in the first half which Isak and Gordon were too knackered to make the run for but both acknowledged.

only just now remembering that Isak should’ve scored 3. What on earth was he doing for the one that Joelinton slid through for him?

I guess regardless of the rules, how can they give the Livramento one and not the Miley one? They really make it very difficult not to shout corruption at this bullshit.

they really should have scored 3 or 4 in that half if we’re being honest, mind . Barcola should’ve had a hat trick.

they have completely ruined football, like

do wonder if we might switch Miggy and Gordon at some point

Gordon is struggling with Hakimi in both directions but Tino and Schar are offering fantastic cover.

Expecting something special from his performance tonight

Same team as Saturday. Dubravka, Karius, Hall, Dummett only senior players that can possibly be on the bench I think?

Romano linked us with him this summer just gone I've slightly misremembered it. Thought we'd actually offered WH some money.

They thought they would get through our press to get Mbappe in behind our CBs. Their whole forward line were incredibly lazy though and basically didn't move. I can't imagine they'll be that bad again.

I think the point was more that Neto's injury history suggests it might be a bit much for him under Howe. I think Gordon leads the PL for sprints this season by miles iirc and obviously Miggy sprints around a lot too. Our wingers have to do that both to press and to cover back defensively. It might be a step too far for Neto's body given his history of injuries the past few seasons. He seems to get both muscle and joint injuries sadly. I agree we need more technical quality though of course. We tried to get Szoboszlai/Paqueta tbf. Those two have that mix of technicality and physicality and I'd expect us to continue trying for those types. We bought Isak, Botman, Trippier. A more technical goalkeeper would be my priority for the same reason tbh. We need to have more control in games.

https://archive.is/ewLIK

I’m guessing Krafth isn’t registered for the CL?

Think Eddie has really worked with him the last couple of weeks to get him to do the Burn role properly. Positionally it's a key part of our defensive shape and build up and we really missed it against Bournemouth. completed 43 out of 44 passes too. The only thing missing is that it's harder for him to pass to Gordon than it is for Burn because he's right footed and doesn't have that angle. Passing to Bruno instead isn't a bad alternative though.

the best thing you could possibly ask a player to do after a mistake is to keep calm, keep trying to play by the principles and then make up for it at the other end. He did all that. He'll have been here 10 years by August. Really happy for him. Hope he stays another year.

We do need more young players, agreed. We have one of the oldest squads in the league iirc. I think Phillips is a good fit medium term and should be happy to be a rotation option, mind. Howe would have the best chance of getting the Bielsa version of him back because the coaching philosophy and training methods seem very similar.

Trippier is 33, like. Footballers don't die when they hit 30 anymore.

that's Ghodoussi

proper blatant penalty. This ref is amazingly shit

the speed and ferocity that he ran at Silva with was amazing. Silva absolutely shat himself. It’s no coincidence we score plenty of goals like that.

how are referees this bad at their jobs, man. These are supposed to be the best in the country . I know they were all the weird freak kids at school but you’d think at least a few of them would actually be decent at their jobs.

thing is, the issue isn’t that we don’t have numbers. The squad is full… it’s just half of them are injured . We can de-register Tonali to free up a space and that’s about it. We can sign under 21s who don’t need to be registered for the PL too I guess.

He absolutely fucking bullied them today. Won every 50/50 easily.