Smal

player of the season

please learn how to attack corners Dan. Please.

crowd sounds quiet? not sure if it’s just tv

Howe has done something with the press on GKs here. Looks like it’s working too.

good corner.

Hope Trippier plays deeper than usual tonight.

atmosphere needs to be scary. Every time the ball goes back to Steele put him under pressure.

has anyone ever seen Carlo Ancelotti and Steve Bruce in the same room at the same time.

They basically play a 2-4-4 formation in build up with no striker. They pass the ball between their defenders whilst the the two central forwards draw out the opponent centre backs and then the wide forwards make diagonal runs in behind them. Feel like there's two ways to approach this. We either sit off them, let their defenders pass the ball about until they play the ball forwards and hope we can win it and counter. Or we press them like fuck and force errors. I feel like we're more likely to try the latter so I'd go with our best pressers: Pope Trippier - Schar - Botman - Burn Bruno Anderson - Willock Almiron - Isak - Joelinton Anderson is in there out of necessity really. He's our only fit midfield option if we want to play the Willock/Joelinton left hand side that we know understands the press best. I actually think Anderson has looked really good when he's come off the bench too so kind of deserves a shot at some point. Howe trusted him to start against Liverpool but Pope ruined that. If we play on the counter then ASM has to play. He'll exploit the fuck out of them only playing two defenders in build up.

it’s not happening lads

I think you'd get the best of Bruno as the more progressive half of a double pivot. So, like: Bruno - New #6 Maddison - Willock - Joelinton Isak This is a midfield and attack with a structure that has control written all over it. We've missed control in a lot of key games this season despite how well we've done.

Sit deep and compact. Win 1-0.

If both sides are at their best we are better imo. Better goalkeeper and defenders, and much, much better strikers.

Everton have laid out the blueprint of how to play against Brighton. Defend narrow and deep and don't press their center backs, then be fast and wide in transition. We can do the latter but probably not the former.

He really needs to step up in the next two games. Games like today's are the ones you expect someone like him to be able to control - put his foot on the ball and slow the game down a bit. He can do it with his quality but he wasn't close sadly.

Need to beat Leicester and Chelsea to get top 4. I don't see us getting anything from the Brighton game unless we make big changes - the way they play through midfield vs our non-existent midfield atm is a massive mismatch.

better than 1 in 2 in the Prem for us now. 37 in 72 is pretty good considering 44 of those games were fighting relegation. Would be cool if he got to 20 PL goals this season.

He can be dodgy sometimes, sure. The positives far, far outweigh the negatives with him though. He has been the most effective build up player in the league behind KdB this season. Take that out of the team for a better defender (Dumfries is not a better defender at all) and you lose so much more than you gain. There is a clear hole in the system when Longstaff isn’t playing as you’ve said. The midfield basically didn’t exist in defensive transitions today and it was the same against both Villa and Arsenal.

this is absolute madness imo. He has been incredible this season in all kinds of games.

ASM for Miggy imo. Get past their full backs and we're in. Keep Willock on. He's good for a goal here.

If Miggy has a right foot that's a goal

Proper heads gone stuff from us.

Both wide players cutting in and passing across will suit Leeds down to the ground. This was the wrong game to bring Miggy in imo.

They will be fine with that. We must get to the byline - that's how City scored both goals last week. The rest of the time they were pretty frustrated.

Big Jo holding with Bruno further up