Thumbheed

On a side note, I don't think it's too far fetched to say we haven't played well as a result of the quality of the opposition we've faced. How many times last year was it the other way round for opposing fans who claimed they were shit and we just caught them on a bad day when in reality it was because we made them look bad? Same thing's happening now.

Yeh, I referenced that in my post. We're at par points wise and haven't played particularly well, I'll worry when we don't play well and don't get the points we expect.

I'm not sure what the point of this post is mate.

Aston Villa 3 Man City 0 Liverpool 1 Brighton 1 Brentford 3 AC Milan 0 How many point would people have expected from the above run in? I'd have said 8 realistically. If anything, I'm slightly encouraged by the fact we're probably on par with expectations and it hasn't even clicked for us yet.

My initial thoughts on him so far is he's very good on the ball and I'm excited to see how we can best utilise that but he's not as impactful as others off it, and we're perhaps suffering as a result of that. Early days yet and certainly encouraged by some of the things I've seen from him but not 100% convinced just yet that he's the right fit us at the moment.

Buzzing with that draw

I've been a big fan of Miggy and still think he'll get 10 this year but I just wish he was more direct and more willing to go on the outside a bit more even if that meant losing the ball a bit more. Everytime he cuts inside he holds up momentum and gives our opposition time to reorganise, it's a small flaw but one that I think really impacts our game.

We were just so passive with our build up play today. Alot of times where we found ourselves in good positions and turned back on ourselves. Alot to unpick today.

By that definition we'd need about 18 new high calibre players for a 10.

You wanted a minimum of 7 signings this window?

The thing is I don't think he needs to change too much, it's just a case of getting better players into the system and the results will follow - I think he's got the mentality of the team in an incredibly strong place.

Just got so much faith in the fact that he'll really study and learn from every negative result. Just pure elite mentality.

Think it's perfectly valid to point out out his qualities as a player that we might miss against the top sides who are very organised and difficult to break down, something that's perhaps missing with Gordon, Almiron and Barnes as our wide options.

Nah

When the game opened up in the second half is where he'd have been at his best.

Not bemoaning his sale but can't help but feel these are exactly the type of games he'd have thrived in and made a difference.

I dont think it was too bad. We just came against a side who were better tactically and blocked all our normal avenues of play which really restricted us. It was just one of those games where when plan A doesn't work you really need your attacking players to really step up and none of them did - Almiron in particular was making poor decision all night. Won't include Isak in that as he was left woefully isolated but I guess that was the plan. Personally, I'd have pulled him to the left and given Walker something different to think about, but overall not particularly surprised nor disappointed by that result. Hall will be a massive player in games like this.

Think we need a change of system, they're squeazing the space we'd normally operate in. 5 in defence with 2/3 players in DM positions and 5 in attack with 2 in AM positions when we're on the back foot.

New CB incoming

Based purely on YouTube he plays a bit like Balde at Barca. Really excited by this signing if it comes off.

We get caught up alot in thinking that transfer fees are the driving factor behind our restrictions on FFP when in reality it's wages that hurt the bottom line the most. I think that's why clubs like Dortmund and Birghton will always have the ceiling they've got and never truly break into the elite because their business model relies on sourcing high potential players to replace the excellent players they sell. Selling any player for large sums helps our bottom line in the short term but its not a sustainable method of building a highly consistent winning team (as alluded to by Eales in We Are United - "wages are the number 1 reason for a successfull team"). Ultimately we need to improve our commercial revenue and that can only be done by ensuring we continue to be successfull on the pitch - that can't be done by selling our star players and hoping the replacement we get in replicates what that player has produced. With that in mind, this would make Isak comfortably our least sellable asset.

Based on nothing I think we know exactly who we want but are waiting till the end of the window to avoid a scramble that pushes the price up.

If I had to choose I'd probably go for a left back based on the general quality of opposition in that area of the pitch.

Cisse for me. Lived off the back of that 5 month period for the next few seasons. Edit: didn't realise you meant was here for the shortest period.