Kid Icarus

Must feel amazing going into a penalty shootout with Donnarumma as your 'keeper like.

Yeah, no denying he's been below par, guess it just depends on the reasons each person has for why that's happened. It's a tricky one for the final, Gordon has had TAA on toast a couple of time and when we played them a couple of weeks ago he handled Willock no problem. But then Barnes is more of a one-two merchant than a dribbler, so I'm not sure if he'd be any good either. Then you've got to think about the defensive side of things too, with Willock and Joelinton both probably being the better choices for looking after that side, Willock and Joelinton's partnership vs Barnes and Joelinton's, and then there's the limited impact Willock has off the bench vs Barnes' record for doing well off the bench, it's a difficult one because if you start Barnes and he doesn't perform, you're more or less cementing the left hand-side as a failure for the full match imo.

Apparently when you arrive at the stadium you're greeted by Jar Jar Binks.

Each to their own, but I've said it before and I'll say it again - being a player who isn't in the starting XI isn't necessarily a bad thing, I think Barnes has exemplified that. Willock in 22/23 was imo as crucial as anyone to our success. His ability to break, get us up the pitch, pick a pass, dovetail with Joelinton, and create/finish chances was so important. I'm not trying to claim he's been great this season or anything, I'm just not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Imo he's always been our most underrated player, even when he was at his best.

It's unequivocal.

Yeah, he was also the only player playing with any real sense of urgency against Brighton. Willock has always been a player who grows into matches, just as Barnes is a player who tends to suit coming off the bench, and his starting game time has been really limited because of injury. Since his most recent injury he's only started against Birmingham away, Man City away, Forest home, Liverpool away. It's been a very stop-start season for him, but I think he's a brilliant asset that shouldn't be discarded on what feels like very little in comparison to what we've seen from him long-term.

He was on for 15 minutes when we were defending a 1 nil lead. I swear to god man

I think it's worth bearing in mind that last season you'd have seen ratings similar to the ones we're seeing for Hall now. It was pretty much a universal opinion that he was about to have a real breakout season. I'm still pretty confident that he will tbh.

I can't get over those images being real like. I get that they're concepts, but fucking hell. Pride before a fall though if anyone saw the original designs for Neom.

Another B-/C+ for me but for different reasons to Hall. In this case because he's a bit out of form.

Was gonna say like. Jesus.

We've seen that Howe quite often has one of the full backs attacking with the other being more cautious and making up part of an effective back 3. I wonder if that factors in at all.

The posts talking about it earnestly. Is it honestly real?

That's a collective whoosh surely? No way that's real.