Infinitely Content

He produced a beautiful first touch today in a highly precarious position when Schar I think it was zipped a ridiculously quick pass into him. He's got wonderful technique, something we generally lack outside of a couple of players.

My landlord's cousin here in Tbilisi is a centre back for FC Rustavi who has played against Salia a few times, and was giving me a bit of a summary of his game last night. Apparently he's injured at the moment, but is due back in the new year so hopefully we begin to see him in U21 games. He described him as a constant nuisance, a pure finisher with good pace and clever runs in behind. Not much of a dribbler apparently, but he can fashion himself a yard of space and always looks to shoot early. He can hold up the ball quite well and use his frame to bring team mates into play. He's strong, hard working and relentless so I got the impression he would be great anywhere across the front line in a high press, and mentality wise apparently he's a monster with notable confidence and determination.

He comes across like an absolute prick like it's the way he prefaces the video "look guys, after, and only after you watch the video will you have the ability to speak about the stadium matters"

Have you never seyn Mewkeyeylley marra?

Nah, as a keeper you have to commit to trajectory of the ball, you can't wait anticipating a deflection that may or may not come. If it deflects off one of our defenders 3 yards out and wrong-foots Ramsdale he's entirely without blame. He just missed a beat, if he begins his movement to his right half a second earlier he gets to it, and whilst none of us know the exact view of the ball's path he had, I think Romero's body position gives away the direction of travel. It's not a howler, but it's a save he should make.

Joelinton did his midfield work very well for 60-70 minutes, and then faded and gave away the ball. All round a positive contribution and a good performance. Elanga is judged on his ability to be an effective winger, close control, beating a man, linking up with his team mates around the box etc and unfortunately he's failed at all of it almost invariably and rather miserably from day 1.

Probably because Joelinton played well for the most part and Elanga didn't.

I haven't really got any issues with Howe after that, we displayed most of the positive traits we associate with his teams when functioning, and I think he if had the option to bring on Wissa with half an hour to go, we win that game by a couple of goals.

Not sure we've learnt anything new, Pope is the better overall goalkeeper, Ramsdale is far better with his feet. We have to choose between the two for now and I'd go with Pope every time. I reckon Howe will too.

I get the Ramsdale question marks, but it's one or two questionable moments, where does that same line of thought leave Elanga who looks absolutely shocking 95% of the time? I've never seen Howe so animated as he is towards Elanga when he makes his braindead decisions like the pass at the end. I had hoped for a tiny bit of a technique and finesse to go with his pace, but he looks to have nowt.

They really can't handle a high press, so if we play our game we're probably the best placed team in the league to exploit them, especially at home. We ought to be somewhat careful of a reaction as pressure mounts on Frank, but if we can start aggressively and score in the first 10-15 minutes, which has become somewhat of a habit recently, we will batter them. I also enjoyed Hall and Tino coming somewhat central in the final third v Everton, it was bold but it overwhelmed Everton's back line and it will do the same here. 4-1.

There was a lot of noise about him being poor last season, and he seems to be the one many people (not necessarily on here) are happy to leave out of conversations about who forms our best CB pairing, but for me that noise was always unmerited and he remains our best defender, offering the most well-rounded set of attributes, and some intangible extra which sets him apart. We all know of his distribution but from a purely defensive point of view he's perhaps underrated imo. I love him, best I've seen at Newcastle in my lifetime by a distance.

I WANT TO SUCK YOU OFF HARVEY

I fucking love Harvey Barnes

Miss multiple areas of his game imo. He's still the best we have on the ball, both in terms of passing and driving forward, and we also miss his aggressive defensive style stepping up to win the ball back high and setting the tone. I appreciate Thiaw has been very good, but we were probably better with Schar and Burn in those early weeks.

Purely psychological imo, and the pressure increases the longer it goes on - and the home form starts to suffer as the crowd attend already frustrated and demanding of an early reaction and thus lose patience. The players are in a difficult place and will have to find answers from within the group. Howe and his team have to work on relieving the pressure and build up of negative energy if anything, as opposed to adding to it. I remain behind the manager 100% like, he'll turn this around.

Hope he moves back into the centre in place of Botman once Hall is ready to start games. He's filled in at LB decently imo (although obviously it highlights his limitations more), however at centre back he's been imperious for ages, and was performing far, far better there than Botman has for a while now. Dropping him out the team entirely would be harsh and unmerited.

They were really impressive there. Their manager has done a superb job to get a squad of largely new signings to look this solid and coherent so quickly.

Gordon has been dreadful. Barnes deserves an extended run on the left instead of being constantly asked to play right. He should play in his preferred position with Murphy right for the foreseeable.

Would like to see Schar & Thiaw again as the central pairing, with Trippier and Burn either side. I thought Schar was brilliant last night.

This Schar and Thiaw partnership is a beautiful thing. With Willock and Ramsey flying forward either side of Tonali, having those two at centre back is like having 3 deep lying playmakers.

wrong thread

Stayed up till midnight and have to watch Willock play, please Edward. He's been dining out on that pass he made in this fixture for about 2 and half years.

He's a Bellamy type in a 442 in a bygone era, just with better finishing. He has almost every finish in his game, deftness, power, finesse.

Ban this pizza nonce, my heart sank reading that reply. Hatem is eternal.