Thumbheed

No credible links to creative players...

Surprised there's this much apathy towards Cantwell, clearly a talented player and as desperate as we are for 1st teamers, it's just as important to build a squad as well. Cantwell has a few roles in him and would be a good option off the bench imo.

Yup. Especially interesting that we're pursuing him to this extent in the situation we find ourselves in too. A 19 year old striker valued at €30m with only 17 games top flight experience isn't the most orthodox of targets for a relegation battle unless they truly beleive he's exceptional.

Based on absolutely nothing, this club isn't spending €30m on a footballer they've only watched play 19 games. I have a feeling he's been scouted for a few years now and is making the step up they'd anticipated.

Surprised by this but not against it at all. He's about as safe bet as you can get tbh.

Aye thats the confidence of a guy who can carry his price tag.

There's seemingly options out there, but unlike our defence it's pretty unclear who our priority signing is.

Aye I've seen the same sort of thing, I guess he's probably just low on the list and they don't want to fill a squad space without looking at other options.

Azmoun just seems like a no brainer to me. Can't even begin to understand what the hesitation might be. Not like his wages'll be astronomical. Would love to see the ins and outs of a transfer.

This come from Edwards? Suppose we've got to make that £50m stretch. We're not targeting the striker of the team who's scored less goals than us ffs. (We've just signed the 1st choice RB for the La Liga champions)

Reminds me more of Mclaren; possession without purpose.

Aye that's fair but I guess the wider point is we haven't been putting away the chances we have been creating under Howe, and those chances have largely fallen to our midfield players, so does Howe and the club recognise that and will they be addressing it? The type of players we've been linked with at this stage suggest they might not.

I could be wrong like but I think we've scored more goals pre Howe, it's gotta be on the agenda this month. Edit: we have

I really like Murphy but that is spot on

If Howe's plan is to only play with 1 striker then we surely need more goals from midfield? That doesn't look like it'll happen with this set of players.

One plus point of today is if any of the players were unsettled by any potential wage disparities they can suck it up because they've just emphatically proved why they need all the help they can get.

I dont understand why he played Joelinton in the role he played today. He's literally been our very best player in the deeper position. If it's not broke dont fix it.

What about the previous 20 games? Or the previous 2 years? If I'm assessing an offer from this club I'm asking myself one thing; 'based on everything I've seen does this club stand a good chance of avoiding relegation?' Having watched us lose to a L1 side where our defence wasn't really the issue, I'd have a serious and legitimate doubts of that being the case. I'd have second thoughts, when the alternative is just wait a few months where another big club will 100% go for me.

Why? If you're a defender, are you looking at that performance and thinking 'yeh I could have been the difference maker there'?

Don't think there's an issue with how Eddie is training and managing the team tbh but as I've said before, if he doesn't recognise the strengths of his attacking players sooner rather than later he's gonna bomb. Even trying to play Joelinton further up the pitch was the wrong decision, and yet inspite of watching him absolutely excel in a deeper position he still managed to end up upfront. That's inexcusable imo.

Maybe Howe is seeing some nice possession based stuff being played out on the training ground which is informing his decision to play it in matches, but it's been clear for a while now that we do not have the players to be playing this type of football. He needs to realise this right now or at least recruit accordingly. We have the players to counter, so counter.

I'd be thinking twice about signing for us after that.

Aimless popossession because none of our players are willing or able to break through the lines with their runs. Sick of seeing them all hang back waiting for a pass into their feet.

This is actually fucking embarrassing

Yup, some decent possession but without a focal point we look a bit short of ideas with that final pass