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Think I laughed when people were putting him in at CM in their formations but I'm starting to think it's a real possibility, his defensive work is his greatest strength and is actually high quality.

That's to me should be the game plan for us going forward. Poorer sides are going to give us breaks in possession more often than a side like Liverpool will and that plays into this game plan perfectly imo.

It's the taking part that counts

Not seen us linked with one?

Am I the only one who thinks we desperately need someone who can play on the right and lessen the burden on ASM?!

Yeh true. I just seem to remember that being reported pretty unanimously though. I'm confident they'll stay were we to go down but I'm also confident they'd sell if we were to stay down.

It was widely reported that they would still be willing buyers even if we'd gone down last season, so I think there's far far more to this purchase than an advantageous FFP position, hence why selling up just seems incredibly unlikely.

I cant beleive it's 2021, and we're still trying to adequately replace Jose Enrique and Daryl Janmaat/Debuchy.

But Ashley's loan didn't count towards FFP did it?

What's to stop PIF injecting cash into the club via an interest free loan like Ashley did?

Not sure if I should be concerned but I'm not at all tbh. We clearly have money to spend irrespective of sponsorship deals, so building success from any initial outlay should increase the value of any forthcoming sponsorship deals in the future. We already have some of the highest viewing figures in the UK and we're now marketable in one of the richest countries in the world and in all probability will soon have mass global appeal once we start spending some dollar over the next few years. Should we be on the projectory that we hope to be in 2 or 3 years time, then market value will be in line with the teams we're hoping to eventually compete with no? What am I missing?

I missed the part where we read about signing players in order of importance, but for what it's worth our right hand side offers nothing offensively so having someone on the right who can put in a great cross from any position could make a huge difference to our team.

Yeh, totally agree, we could only have a budget of £50m, but I guess I was addressing the notion that we shouldn't be spending x amount of a player of y age, because relatively speaking, it's immaterial to us. It was just an example of how wealthy our owners actually are, I of course have absolutely no idea how willing they are to spend but thats a different argument.

Not that I subscribe to this 'we're pua rich lyke' nonsense, but we probably are gonna have to get used to putting the owners wealth into perspective. So for every £1m Abrahamovich can spend, we can spend £32m... So in my eyes (and I could be talking pure shit here like), it's the equivalent of Chelsea buying him for something like £800k. A few million here or there is totally immaterial for us, all that matters is he's good enough to improve us, which he is.

I'm surprised we've not been linked with many natural RW. CM is priority, as is a striker to cover or provide completion for Wilson but a Right winger must surely be an absolute priority when you consider Murphy is our only natural RW.

I've never seen a player do so well in a position and yet never manage to consistently get played in it. Especially infuriating when you consider Joelinton appears to be in the same quandary... spiderman.jpg

Oh I agree there's things to change, what I'm saying is there's been plenty of evidence in the last 5 games of what's working and what isn't. I don't think I saw anything in today's game which taught me anything new that I didn't already know from what I'd seen of the prior 4, so I don't understand what Howe could have spotted today that wasn't already apparent.

What can he have learnt from today that he shouldn't have learnt already?

*Kneejerk reaction* I've made the point previously that Howe does not have the time to learn from mistakes and yet 5 games into his tenureship we still appear to be making the same ones. There's been a couple of clear positives from his time with us that I'd have expected him to have identified and built on as a bare minimum, such as Joelinton being better suited on the flank and Fernández being our best defender and yet he's failed to do so, which to me deserves criticism. Play patterns, formations, defensive solidarity and team selection are all up for debate at this point in time, but when the few points that are obvious to the majority isn't obvious to the man in charge then that's something to be concerned about imo.

I think there's still a part of me that would still have Rafa back because irrespective of what happens at Everton, I feel like I know what I'd get if Rafa took over and would be excited for that, whereas Howe's still an unknown quantity for us. But having said that, I'm genuinely pleased with Howe but I just think I need those 1 or 2 convincing performances that tell me that what he's doing off the pitch is working and he's therefore the right man for the job, so until then I'll keep a healthy scepticism.

ANOUNCE BEOUTQ!

Doesn't get much credit for his hold up play, this lad. Didn't necessarily show it much yesterday but I've noticed his ability to retain possession with his back to the goal is second to none considering he's not traditionally built to do that. Also think he's better suited and more affective as a winger rather than through the centre. He's obviosuly had success through the centre but I'd just love to see him in more 1 on 1 situations and just let him do his thing. His off the ball movement needs to improving (like pthers tbf) as well, could be so much more dangerous if he was willing to make runs through the lines.

Shouldn't be though should he?

What would people's thoughts be in Howe threw Ritchie and Lascelles straight back into the mix?

Keep having to remind myself how the team took time to adapt to Rafa's methods, so trying not to be too critical, but last night's back four should be a massive lesson for him as well as Joelinton bring more suited to the flank. Will be disappointed if that still isn't apparent next game.