Dr Jinx

He’s one of many who physically are not in the best place. Whatever training they were doing in pre season, it built the bricks for many players walking the hamstring tightrope all season.

But with Lascelles who’s prone to a mistake, having serious physical limitations are highlighting this.

He’s also lost his voice a bit.. when he first broke into the team he was a natural leader. Not for a long time though. He seems to look to others for guidance now.

I mean, I don’t dislike him. He’s always been a model pro and aside from the Mike Ashley comments he’s always represented the club well. But what’s happening on the pitch is making it hard to take all this into account.

ASM has been absolutely knackered this season. Go and look at the clips of him the year before, he just looked sharper and fitter.

He’s still capable of going past anyone but we’re currently only getting an hour out of him playing the way he does in the setup he’s been in.

He’s working harder under Eddie than he ever did for Bruce and it shows.

Right now we need him but when we have other options available we should rest him whenever we can.

Next season is going to be a big one for him and us. (Assuming we stay up..)

I’m fairly sure he’ll come off the bench against Everton. Howe likes to prepare well in advance and uses what he has at his disposal. Could be brought on to see a game out if we are in the lead?

2 minutes ago, McDog said:

 

 

Right, I agree, but who plays the third midfielder and what role? This assumes Bruno and Big Joe.

 

 

I think we go 4-3-3 or maybe 3-4-3 with wing backs.

The latter might work better, Bruno and Joe in the middle flanked by Trippier and Targett when we’re going forward.

ASM, Wood and Willock up top but obviously players coming deeper when needs must.

Everyone seems to be choosing their side and making cases for players based on how we have been playing.

Bruno G changes everything. His confidence on the ball will seep into the rest of them.. this manic pressing that we’ve been seeing won’t be as much of an issue.

Expect ASM to play up top and feed off the exquisite through balls that are about to come his way.

With a full strength squad between now and end of season I think we play 4-3-3

Bruno, Shelvey and Joelinton in midfield and ASM, Wood and Wilson up top.

So long Jeff we hardly knew ye

1 minute ago, xLiaaamx said:

I remember a certain centre back who'd rather collect stamps than play for Sunderland. 

That was Andy O’Brien and he did collect stamps but they kept getting sucked up into his massive nose.

Think he tried his luck at being a tv pundit then but every time he’d move his head he kept knocking cameras and parts of the set down.

Good interview that, how long has it been since we had a central defender where the fate of the club actually mattered to them?

You can see it all over his face he’s buzzing to be here.

The signings we’ve made will breathe new life into some of the others. Bruno G will influence the team to being more comfortable in possession while the essential new back line won’t be as overmatched as our previous found it all too often.

We’re a much stronger squad already, should be enough to stay up but we need everyone to hit the ground running.

There’s still a lot that can happen.. thought we’d get a forward in today but we have to be happy with the business we’ve done.

Generally, club captains are safe as houses unless there's an incident that causes them to be removed i.e being sold or something unique like Roy Keane when he left Man Utd.

The problem with Lascelles is that nobody wants to buy him, he doesn't quite fit into the criteria of being available for loan as he does play.

Now Eddie Howe has never publicly stated about Lascelles, "yes he's my man, i want him to be captain". He's stated that he didn't see any reason to change things when he first took over.

But it's very tricky to take the armband off a player if he's staying in the squad.

We all know Trippier is the man.

Poor start under Bruce, won't blame him for that and then he was one of the ones who got badly affected by Covid. Something he still might not be fully over.

A loan out at a lower level, let him build up his fitness/strength and then see what's like when he comes back.

3 minutes ago, Emotic said:

With Targett and Ekitike, that’s six players in the door. Why not go all out and replace all eleven of our current first team 

But but.. Isaak Hayden won't be happy, "the current players in the squad are settled here and have kids in school n stuff"

I think if he adapts to this league he could be cheap at that price. Imagine him running onto Bruno through balls.

Fuck I’m not going to get anything done today ?

Happy with our business even if we don’t sign anyone today (aside from Dan Burn)

Its been a great window for them despite everything they were up against.

Burn gets announced early and we follow up with 2 permanent signings and a loan with obligation to buy.

Nee idea who yet but I think we go for a forward, a left back and another central defender.

It only seems like he’s played for us about 5 times. That first game was ok and then..

I think all these clubs are just waiting to see what we want to do.

Eddie will have analysts working out the stats of these players to see who will fit the best with what we have.

Take him on as an ambassador for the club, he could look on it as a retirement gig. Not that he needs the money but the club should definitely give back to him as much as he’s given to us.

Give him a seat for life in the directors area, similar to what SBR has. Would be great seeing him looking on at home games. He’ll always be loved here. Always.

1 minute ago, Alberto2005 said:

If he was leaving I really doubt he'd do an insta story of him at the airport almost teasing the Lille fans that he's fucking them off.

His account just reposted the bit Lille put up. He’ll have someone managing his account like most professional players do now.

There’s fuck all to read into.

Can’t see this one happening. They have no reason to sell right now.

While obviously smirking quite a bit looking at the clips of that own goal, they as a club have mostly disappeared from my thoughts, before reading a few comments earlier I didn’t know who their manager was, couldn’t name any of their players and although was aware they were taken over by a kid recently, I can’t remember his name or what he does.

As amusing as that decline is looking from our side of the fence, it’s scary too, that easily could have been us.. Mike Ashley’s luck had run out here and we were going to have a relegation that we didn’t come back from straight away.

We could of course still be relegated but I’d be confident we’d bounce back now if that worse case scenario took place 

It won’t be announced until Monday. All is good. The fewm from other clubs is glorious.