Tiresias

We are not as good as we were before the world cup tbh and especially so without Bruno. Hopefully can grind this out surely will get another good goal scoring opportunity

hahahahahha

The flag has fucked us, no coming back from that tbh

Grim.

I agree we are short, but my point in the 4-3-3 we only need one defensive mid really (although they all contribute defensively with the high press). Anderson could theoretically play a more creative role in midfield 3 but completely agree he is nowhere near ready. We do have Joelinton, Longstaff and Bruno can all do the deeper role, and Willock and Anderson could fill in ahead if absolutely necessary, though more likely we would go to a midfield 2 i guess in a 4-2-3-1 with gordon/asm/isak in the no 10 position. If we lose Joelinton and Bruno we are seriously in trouble though. I wanted a centre mid too, we're short but i am not going to be overly critical, if there wasn't anyone good enough then fine, Shelvey was no guarantee to be fit or to be at his best anyway. I would maybe have erred on keeping him but Howe probably doesn't want players sticking around who don't want to be there.

As much as losing Shelvey feels a risk (and I was keen for us to sign a backup)I think we're fine, with Joelinton, Bruno and Longstaff all able to play in the deep midfield position in our 4-3-3 with Willock and Anderson able to play the other two positions should really be enough.

Hate 4-2-3-1 with a passion to be honest, double pivot midfields can go to hell :P Is Isak out due to concussion? If so just move Joelinton to middle and ASM wide left. He is only player that can be as creative as Bruno so needs to come in.

It was a red, it doesn't matter really if it was accidental, we can't have tackles like that being common occurance and refs can't base decisions heavily on intent. He was also throwing daft tackles around. He plays with his heart on his sleeve and this is the disadvantage of that, Trippier came up to him to calm him down when the yellow was given which was unfortunately too late as it turned out. First red of his career speaks that this isn't a big part of his game

Get in!

He's a very emotional player and as much as it maybe wasnt intentional he was making a bunch of stupid tackles before it. Daft.

Absolutely did not need that. Idiot.

Howe out!

i fucking love this team

Bruno just playing with a cheat code

Would have loved Gallagher a few seasons back when we were shit. Looked to me an explosive player with a lot of great attritubes but also seems more of a Gerard style player who comes in and out of games to make big contributions but not sure works very hard off the ball (could be wrong) and I don't think has fitted at Chelsea because of it. If I've got wrong end of stick on that apologies to the player but not greatly fussed

Really frustrated me at times, but was able to raise himself to be useful, but I still think he let himself down under Rafa. We were so much better when he got dropped and the only reason for that was he wasn't willing to do the running in a 2 man midfield. He then enjoyed being more relied upon under Bruce but the squad was so much worse. Last season under Howe though he did seem to buy in and was very good. Really unfortunate with injuries this season. Think good man management tbh, no point fighting to keep players everyone knows are surplus to requirements anyway.

Going to be an honour seeing him play for Chelsea

Gibbs white is good though

I mean i just don't think it will hurt squad harmony at all and i kinda if agree to keep contact stuff till summer but i just don't think it's a thing with criticising the club for it's a relative no brainer

Just felt harsh!

This is just mean some people enjoy this stuff

Afaik puyol isn't a racist cunt but could be proved wrong i guess

Ripple effect through the squad? If anyone in the squad is sitting there thinking he doesn't deserve to be best paid they need rooting out. They should see being outstanding for the club gets rewarded. I do kinda agree dealing with contacts after season makes a degree of sense but it would hardly be a bad decision. Real Madrid may come in with £100m first day in summer and we can resist that better if he's signed new deal

Is there any indication the road ahead for him is blockaded? They may resist selling him this window but Everton sell all the time and they are desperate for money. Feels a stupid gambit that will backfire when we refuse to meet Everton's evaluation

There are ffp issues i think they've decided to stay sensible rather than splurge to try and secure top 4 and possibly disrupt the squad. The are merits to both approaches and no doubt some fury if we finish 5th assuming no flurry of activity