Infinitely Content

For me next season, I won't necessarily judge it on final league position as there's a lot of variables and fine margins in play which are largely out of our control. I will look solely at our performances as a team. A positive goal difference and a minimum of 15 wins should be achievable and would be a mark of real improvement. That would likely see us finish somewhere between 12th-7th.

Lovely strike, a trademark Messi strike. Effortless power and precision. I treat seeing moments like that live as precious pearls these days, knowing that in 10 years we will watch clips of him and long to see such a masterful, incomparable talent as he is.

Nick Cave's cover of Cosmic Dancer by T-Rex. Ethereal, heavenly, perfect.

Emil Saint-Krafthimin

Think Charlie Methven is on the ones-and-twos at Goodison Park tonight. Playing some bangers to be fair.

We switched to that structure yesterday actually with Bruno & Shelvey as two 6’s and Willock ahead of them with a little more license to roam and press the opposition. It certainly made us look more solid and able to gain a bit of control over a game we were struggling to impact in certain moments. If we were to use that again, Shelvey and Bruno are ideal sit as the base and Joelinton and Willock, both of whom are ideal for the more aggressive, energetic role, would fight it out for that position.

Indeed, I see it regularly these days, and predictably, it more often than not causes problems for the team deploying that strategy.

Southampton tasking Livramento to mark Burn on corners is bizarre. I’ve noticed it a lot across all teams, these mismatches. I’m sure the preferred method used to be placing your tallest players on the opposing teams tallest players on corners.

Decent enough half albeit we lost our way for spells. Shelvey and Bruno have shown some excellent quality on the ball, should we get more goals here it's very likely to be instigated by one of those two. Willock has been quite poor in possession for me, he lacks the composure of his midfield partners although his pressing and energy are unquestionable. I'm fairly convinced that Bruno-Shelvey-Joelinton is our strongest midfield 3 when all fit.

What a sweetheart he is I wonder if he noticed it's in fact not his body but his brother Joelinton's that his head is upon, United by Newcastle.

Thank you @Wilson, I was hoping for a photo of it from the stands as I couldn’t be there tonight unfortunately. What a beautiful thing to see it flying in the Gallowgate! So pleased to have contributed from afar to what looked and sounded like a real special atmosphere.

Thank you gentlemen, all credit and praise to Wor Flags though, they're the ones truly putting the graft in! Very much excited to see it in the Gallowgate though, will be a moment of pride for sure to know I contributed something

Thanks! You're probably right stylistically, however if necessary this can be vectorised making it scaleable without loss of quality and thus appropriate for large scale printing.

@Heron, in my rather distracted state from work today with all the transfer going-ons, I created a rough concept for the big Bruno G welcome display I suspect you and the group will be preparing. Feel free to take from it what you will if it's to the group's liking.

Given the inaccuracy and unreliability of fees for players stated by journalists this window in relation to us, I’d suspect if we’re negotiating a loan fee for Lingard, it will fall way short of £10 million. Perhaps less than half of that. If the journalists were to be believed, Trippier was about to cost us £25 million, only to end up costing less than half the widely reported amount. Don’t waste your time on their speculative words, they quite clearly haven’t a clue about the finer details of the majority of what they report on.

To be fair to Eddie Howe, there's evidence to suggest he wasn't, and isn't intending to retreat into a passive, defensive structure to protect leads. I was watching him on the touchline yesterday and he was repeatedly urging the players to move up the pitch as they began to retreat in the final 20 minutes of the game. It appears that he's still trying to work on the players' mentalities, which remain timid and apprehensive after taking the lead in a game, often fearing the worst which is naturally causing them to retreat. It's understandable, they've been instructed to do so under previous management and thus developed that habit which can't be undone quickly in those high pressure moments. I hope we all stay behind him. Indeed we had all hoped a style of play would be implemented and be more apparent by now, a style that makes us look more cohesive and threatening in games, however there's little to be achieved by asking questions of whether he was the right appointment or not. They're not going to change the manager at this stage, and rightly so in my opinion. I still believe the tide could turn this season, I've witnessed seemingly miraculous changes in fortune plenty of times watching the Premier League over the years; where teams which appear to be lacking all confidence and ability are transformed and renewed in a moment. Whilst we are getting increasingly closer to requiring such a transformation and renewal, there's still time for us, and I'm certain Howe and his team are doing all they can. It will be hurting him. We need a Joelinton-esque rebirth to be embodied by the full side.

He shared a lovely moment with the Gallowgate at full time, bowing down to the supporters as his name resounded. He was fantastic, and is going to be crucial to us if we're to stay in the league this season. Continually our best player for months now.

I believe so yes, as the form requires a supporters number which as far as I'm aware is only attained via membership or a season ticket purchase. I only buy the odd single match ticket and don't appear to have a supporters number attached to my account.

Can't really see what we've done wrong here that warrants any criticism or hysteria. We pursued the player as he appeared available and Lille were open to discussing a move; and if reports are to be believed they've pulled out, which is their prerogative to do so if they please. I can't see how that means we've wasted time, in pursuing one of our main targets believing, and having right to believe a deal was possible. Particularly when we have reportedly identified back up targets and are working on those too. We're clearly doing all we can to improve our situation. Those working with the club know more than most of us, and will have identified the areas of improvement and will likely have pages upon pages of players. Let's not lose our minds here and go into delirium each time a tweet is shared.

I'd reserve any judgement of our owners until deals are concluded. We're drawing conclusions based on links and hearsay, of which a fair share will be way off the mark, baring little resemblance to the reality. It could be that we have another player in our sights that we deem to be a better deal or a character more suited to us and what we're trying to build. I've been an admirer of Digne, however over the last 18 months he's been nothing more than average. There's other strong options out there in the likes of Tagliafico or Hickey who we may well have in our sights.

The match being shown live on Bulgarian TV meant the Cambridge keeper's grandparents were able to watch him perform live for the first time; and what a performance he put on for them. Lovely

To little surprise, a lack of a centre forward cost us today. In the final 20 minutes we had all of our attacking players stood in a line on the edge of their area, nobody was coming short for the ball to feet, nor running in behind and trying to drag their defenders around to open up space. Trippier and Shelvey who were tasked with creating in the final third simply had no options. Fraser and in particularly Murphy should have viewed today as a big opportunity and should have gone out to kill, but it was so poor in the final third. I'm willing to excuse Eddie Howe for this one, it's difficult to teach wingers striker's instinct. That said, their goalkeeper was absolutely magnificent, what a feeling that must have been for him today. The save from Joelinton's late header in particular was outstanding. We move on. Well done to Cambridge and their travelling support.

We still need something to the tune of this for Eddie Howe. Too fitting melodically and too beautiful to turn down.

About to be announced I think, hero banner has been taken down from the homepage of nufc.co.uk... about to be replaced with the Trippier reveal most likely.

I wonder if we would have any chance with the signing of Patrik Schick. Admittedly I have only watched him for 5-6 games at Euro 2020, but he was one of the outstanding players at the tournament. If we're to be forced into throwing big money to lure a top striker, it would be him for me. Tall, quick, versatile, presses well, good with his back to goal as well as running in behind. Seemed a complete striker to me and is still just 25 years old.