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Don't buy the Ramsey to us rumour. Feels like Juve are playing the dark arts here. Why would he express his interest in joining us via the Italian media?

Should just sign the Lille scout tbh

Glad I'm not the only one, but a massive no from me. 86 games in 5 years!! Clearly a very good player who'd normally be way out our league but the outlay for his wages would surely be better spent on literally any other player on the world who'd actually be able to turn up for the majority of games.

The real test for him as a midfielder will be if/when he's played in a pair, seeing him paired with a ball playing CDM would be very interesting. Interesting comments from Longstaff about him being widely recognised as one of the best players in training and always on the winning side. I've played football with players like that, players who just seem to always be on the winning side without appearing to be particularly skillful or gifted. They just seem to have a innate quality to be in the right position at the right time or always be able to play the right pass, something which now seems apparent with Joelinton from what we've seen the last few games.

Spot on tonight. Really good all round performance. Tactics were spot on, defended well and most importantly he looks likes he'sgiven us belief.

Always been convinced there's something about him. Good today and definitely a step in the right direction but plenty of room for improvement. Won't go overboard with praise just yet but definitely deserves to keep his place.

Reminds me so much of Vieira. Calm in possession, closes down brilliantly, reads the games well and the way he uses his physique all reminiscent of how Vieira used to play. Also carries the ball up the field with such ease. I'm actually not so sure we need as many CM's as I once thought.

The kind of shitehousery I live for.

ASM him and someone like Fraser breaking with pace from deep would cause problems for alot of sides. ASM, him and Fraser trying to play a pass and move possession based game would not.

Mackems aren't people

To be fair, there's a significant portion of people born in this country that can barely speak the language.

Sorry, re read what I put, but yeh that's been horrifically worded. I just meant the defence only, as in you surely you can't blame the quality of player for the reason a defence is performing poorly for one manager but not the other. I think it's fair to criticise - or at discuss as a going concern- our defensive performances. We can see the impact of Howe's coaching and management on our attacking play which has improved 10 fold under him, but as of yet, I've not seen much in terms of progress for our defence. I think that's literally been my only point, that and some of his selection choice are questionable.

Does he train them with his eyes closed like? What's he seeing that we've not seen the last 3 years?! Anyway, leaving it at that now.

Tbf I meant his selections throughout his time as manager but, but yeh thats fair enough. Just hoping for a massive January, nervous as fuck about it already.

The coaching side of things can take a backseat for now, I agree it can take time for methods to bed in (time we don't have), and I'm happy to see how we get on in time but I don't think his judgement gets the same pass, because at the end of the day its his judgement which has lead him to play Ritchie over Lewis, Clark over any other defender and even Murphy ahead of Manquillo, all whilst failing to pick our best defender. These aren't minority opinions, they're observations the entire fanbase has been making for the past 3 years. Of course I'm desperate for him to succeed, but he does not have the time or scope to make mistakes, let alone repeat them.

Aye thats fair. I seem to remember the same thing happening with Rafa before things clicked. No idea how he managed it but defo rings a bell. Willing to wait and see how we get in with new signings but there's nowt wrong with making the observations beforehand.

Think I prefer being called a mackem tbh

This guy looks shot of confidence. Seems to be playing like he's 5'3".

You can absolutely coach a defence beyond the sum of its parts. We've seen that over and over and over again in football. As for the lack of quality, well, doesn't that same argument stand up for Bruce? It shouldn't, but if you're saying the defenders have never been good enough, that these kind of performances are to be expected and that there's nothing Howe can do about it, then why did Bruce get such a hammering for our shit defence and what was Howe's plan when it came to addressing our biggest weakness? Wait till January? All I'm looking for is signs of cohesion and coordination and I haven't seen that so far. Couple that with some strange selections and I think it's a worthy point of discussion.

My indicators are watching him pick Ritchie over Lewis, Murphy over Manquillo and Clarke and Lascelles over Fernández in the past.

Is there even any indication he wasn't selected because of fitness, and if it was a fitness issue then what's to stop him getting a season ending injury the next game in your totally made up scenario? Apparently it is for some.

You'd hope so, but he's said similar with Fernández no? But either way, it's probably proven to be the wrong decision, which was my point.

Well, it was either medical advice or because he wanted to play Clarke. Not sure how much more wiggle room we can give Howe on that.

Really good again today. Probably one of the stranger career turnarounds I've seen.

Tbf, when I made my original post I talking generically, not just today. But to answer your question, yes, Schär should have started today instead of Clarke. Which kind of reaffirms my view that Howe is making mistakes with his selections, because as you say, it was literally the only decision he could possibly make for today's defence and still got that wrong imo.