Mole

I know we say "act like you've been there before" but he took it a little too well ngl. I'm kinda scared by what's next.

He then celebrated like it's something he can do a 100 more times I know we're not winning games but this sick fuck is making me enjoy games by himself.

Not sure on the others, but due to them already been ransacked I doubt Bournemouth were going to sell Semenyo. At least outside of silly money we couldn't commit to this summer due to needing to cover multiple areas.

It's a pointless comparison anyway because from what I gathered from this summer's reporting Kudus wanted to to join Spurs. Maybe we could have looked abroad but from the Premier League options Elanga was really the only one that was available for us to get.

(Still alive)

Yep. That's been my biggest issue with how we've played so far. It honestly hasn't helped with Joelinton being a no show mind because it compounds the winger issue, I thought the build up phases looked better in the second half yesterday. I'm sure it will come good because I've noticed incremental improvements but it just depends how many dropped points happens before that point.

Context is important here. I don't think he's bad in isolation but the reality is how we play we need wayyyyyy more from our wingers than what he's providing. He's not the only one, they're all not doing anywhere near enough but it's magnified because of how important the role is to the team's overall success.

I will say the one thing I saw in highlight clips that I haven't seen a lot yet is dribbling at players. I'm hoping he gets a little more greedy regarding that in time.

I do think there's definitely room for improvement on that end but I also think for much of his career here (aside from Bruno and Tonali) what's behind him really haven't performed to a good enough standard. Maybe it would be easier for them if he had more conventional movement but even so I don't think it really justifies the standard they've put out. I'm also pretty sure if you asked Howe privately he would say they haven't been good enough either.

The fact every answer is about we and not me points to the type of person he is.

Aye I don't get it at all. Probably considering some thought Minteh would destroy him coming into the game it's an easy thing to fall back on. But from what I saw he wasn't the problem today at all. We were too open down the middle for the second goal and the wingers simply weren't good enough are things I would point to before anything else.

For the most part I feel this way about all the wingers tbh. Murphy can put in a decent cross I guess but that's all I got, I said a few weeks ago that I was very unimpressed by all 4 of them and I'm getting closer to the conclusion that none of them are good enough.

What's the alternative? Like he obviously isn't one but he doesn't have a choice currently.

People did the same based on to Thiaw based on his 10 minutes against Liverpool. It's stupid, but predictable.

I didn't watch the first half so I'm missing a lot of the context but I thought they played really well in the second half and the 2nd goal felt incredibly frustrating. From what I saw they definitely deserved something, but I guess if you don't show up in the first (I'm assuming) that's what happens.

I genuinely think the only positions up for debate are the wingers and Joelinton. The defence will likely be unchanged and I would be shocked if Bruno and Tonali don't play. They could probably do with a rest at some point but try convincing them to do that

The more I think about it the more I think Barnes is going to start, Tuesday is such a quick turnaround that I'm starting to think he'll rotate there and Gordon will come in for Benfica.

Ramsey for Joelinton will be the only change I think (but one of the wingers being rotated wouldn't massively shock me either) Oh I didn't realize there's another CL game midweek, that increases the likelihood of winger rotation then I think.

I agree, he's spent the international break preparing with the coaching staff and Howe said prior that he could have made the Forest game but decided to hold him back and prepare for this game. While Joelinton has been away with Brazil and even without the groin concerns Downie mentioned there I think Ramsey would start just due to circumstances.

In general goal and assists are incredibly flawed metric when discussing a players impact because goals and assists happen as the result of the whole team (mostly) none of it happens by magic. I get it's an easy look into a player and you actually have to watch them play for weeks at a time to know said impact. It's why one player can have amazing stats for one team and then not look so hot for another team, it's not that they're suddenly garbage but they're not put into a position to succeed or have to sacrifice stuff to help the team run better. Very few players are amazing no matter what, the circumstances that surround them matter loads.

Limited sample size as far as what I've seen but aye it's not Tonali's role at all. I'm sure he could do it if we asked him to though, he seems to be able to do pretty much every fucking thing else. I've only seen Anderson once, which was our game against Forest recently where Tonali and Bruno bossed it. So I won't judge him on that and just say everyone else seems to think really highly of him so he's very likely class.

I didn't watch last season but so far this season part of the issue is teams aren't really being pinned back and attacks aren't really being sustained. When Bruno gets on the ball 30 yards or so from goal something good usually happens but it doesn't happen enough for my liking, if it did I'm pretty sure a lot of the creation concerns would go away.

I feel like people have been saying this every year since 2010.

Not gonna bother responding to the stuff about the fans but it's still incredibly hilarious every time someone says "lock the thread and move on". It's literally never happened in the history of this place (to my knowledge) and people still call for it everytime expecting something to happen. Just learn to observe without reacting.

Oh yeah but I feel like very meh would be a step up from what I saw before that