Tiresias

Sigh

I imagine we haven't pushed boundaries on things because the loopholes will shortly get closed and more punative rules may be brought in. I imagine, frustrating as it is, they aren't actually in a huge rush for immediate 'success' and preferred to get the revenue up, get the training facilities up, improve the team bit by bit and if it takes a long time fine. Chasing winning the league immediately would be fun but I think the 4th season was further ahead of schedule than some think. I imagine gordon, isak or bruno will be sold in the summer to fund 2 or 3 more players in. It will hurt but that will have to be how we do it for a while.

That's terrible

I would agree he impressed but also clearly bit too soon really. However since he's put himself in first team I hope he does get minutes as if he doesnt really should be on loan

He shouldn't be a starter by any means not saying that but he could be handy squad member and could start for a midtable team fine imo

It's really worth remembering that night when people are really (and not unjustly) critical of Longstaff in particular. I am frustrated at him giving the ball away cheaply way too much but people seem to think that's his level, it's not, he's not consistent enough tbh to play at the real top level but he can be better than he has been and deserves better than being totally binned off which some have suggested...

Unbelievable night. Probably showing my nufc chip on my shoulder but i was just thinking all the praise (not unjustly) Villa just got for beating Bayern Munich i don't remember much similar, just seemed to be treated as a freak result or typical psg. To bad it was the high mark of the season, but people shouldnt forget we should have beaten them in Paris too were it not for one of the most outrageous referee decisions you'll ever see, and then we would have got out of the group of death. Only reason I'm not more bitter on that is considering us last season no chance we would have got any further anyway.

De Ligt isnt rubbish, when a bunch of good players go to a club and suddenly 'become' rubbish I feel something else is going on really. I really can't get a handle on ETH. Like Froggy is right they have won stuff (with fair amount of luck but what cup win doesn't involve that) under him so isn't devoid of any credit, and yet every season they go through this looking like crap period. If they stick with him I imagine they will improve just enough to make it look like he's making progress and yet not enough to actually make any progress. I would say looking at them now there's no way in hell they'll even compete for the top 4 and yet somehow annoyingly they could slime their way up there. If he gets sacked and they go for Southgate, will be funny.

Has there been any discussion on this imminent ruling on the Liassa Diarra case regarding transfers? If they rule that he was unfairly restricted from moving his trade could mean that players will find it substantially easier to break their contracts. It will likely mean an independent body being set up to detirmine value of contracts that clubs will have to compensate when purchasing players but would essentially end the ability of clubs to keep hold of players 'against their will', if a player wants to break a contract they can and the buying club just has to accept whatever compensation is agreed by the body. This will be catastrophic for smaller clubs dependent on player sales as the compensation will almost certainly be significantly lower. It will be simply illegal to stop say man city coming in for Bruno mid contract. As such player contracts will be worth a lot less. It will presumably mean cost of players will be substantially less but it will be impossible to prevent man city (and maybe us once ffp is all evened out) from just assembling who we like based on players. I would anticipate wages spiking as a means of pricing out clubs coming in for players. A total clusterfuck in otherwords. Interesting if any other takes on it to be honest, i think it will likely be slightly less dramatic than that but looks a possibility.

Why wouldn't we play him centre forward for the former player always the one to score effect? What kind of fan doesn't believe in that! (hell remember Chris Wood last season...)

Could you imagine Chelsea with the window open all season? Everytime a player got praised on MotD Todd would be on the phone

I'd love to do some deep dive on clubs that 'just' stayed up and see where they got their points, was it really against their relegation rivals or is the clubs that get some more flukey results along the way. I do agree mind, got to actually get the points in the games where you have a chance to. I just remember my everton mate telling me in the allardyce season him telling the players he only cared about a set number of games and they were going to lose the rest, like jesus that can't be helpful. I just think don't make it easy for the opposition and try and do some unpredictable things in attack cos if you're really below lacking in quality going forward it's going to be miserable and demoralizing

Ipswich look alright. Don't think they'll stay up to be honest but dont think they'll embarass themselves much.

I do sometimes think a lot of the 'good' strikers score a lot of goals by shooting early without much fuss for goals that dont make the highlight reels. Helps if you're accurate mind.

This means wrong, more meant super focused on goal, was good skill in it obviously

He does look a bit of a Howe player in that not that skillful just direct

What a goal

If Tonali is fit i imagine he will play, he clearly needs gametime more than protecting but we'll see hope the ice on knee wasnt anything...

Theres nothing worse than other teams having their shit together is there Fucking vila and their competent manager

Of all the tactics in the world i still hate the 4-2-3-1 and the double pivot most of all It's not really anything to do with what people are suggesting here, there was just period in premier league when every team had to have 2 defensive midfielders sat in front of the defence not doing a whole lot and keeping games down to low scores. I know it doesnt have to be so defensive but i hear double pivot and i want to cry

I agree completely a solid defensive mid who can keep possession is needed and joelinton is one who may have to make way to allow tonali there but i want more than 3 high quality midfielders to sort between. There is also something to be said for keeping squad dynamics when good there, Joe is clearly well loved, committed and loves the club the style of play and the manager and the rest of the squad. The maybe we should have sold him to bring in s different type isn't without merit but also feels a bit in a vacuum tactics board thinking

I'm fairness this is why false cbs and false full backs were invented to allow more midfielders to push up field in possession.

I think we may be arguing on linguistics he's in the top left are of a left sided 3 person midfield a lot on that heat map that a winger wouldn't be a huge amount but didn't really matter what you call it. I totally agree he's not a deep lying midfield you may have in the old double pivot but he can do that, but you'd be right to say he's not best in class at that but when i say he's great in midfield that's not role i think of, it's in that advanced left side winning ball high up

This is his heatmap for that season, certainly left sided but getting a lot more into the central areas. He is in that gray area between winger and midfielder but he certainly was in that lcm position a lot of the time, here is (apologies different format an way round i am just googling) Gordons last season where he hugs the line a LOT more of the time and spends a lot more of the time nearer the corner flag

He was switching with Willock, Willock would come into the middle and Joelinton pull out wide and vice versa a lot, he was in central plenty of the time I do wonder with our move to slightly more defined roles has made us a bit more predictable in attack, Willock and Joelinton's positioning must have been difficult to track, and I also hope we get that Willock back sometime