Holmesy

At times it looks like our players have never played together. On 4-5 separate occasions tonight they’ve nearly run into each other ffs! It doesn’t scream organisation.

His first two touches have been class

Who’s the little blonde lad coming on? Looks familiar

I’ll be a happy man when Dan Burn is no longer in the first team. Might have to wait a few years unfortunately.

There’s no reason Bottlejob couldn’t have sacrificed one of 9 forwards ie. Rashford to give Mainoo a deserved cap. 5 central midfielders, including Henderson is bullshit. The balance of the squad suggests he’s going to favour an attack-minded approach but he won’t. It’s not in his nature. Swap one of the attacking players we know he won’t play for Mainoo and let Hendo have his influence in the dressing room.

Gallagher is the epitome of the modern footballer - runs further than everyone else consistently, presses, grafts and influences teammates but you'll never see him do anything specular. Unfortunately Michael Owen said it best recently - there are very few actual ballers in football these days, just athletes. And Gallagher is a really good athlete

The prospect of capturing the next generation of Portuguese stars is mouthwatering! I like this link

So, do we think he makes the England squad lads?

They’re very impressive!

Having someone like Mudryk breaking from midfield onto our pedestrian defence was pretty soul destroying as well. Pace is such an effective weapon, especially late on in games, and especially against us. I don't think our defenders even saw him until he was running past them

I can't see them going anywhere near Mourinho. I think the team we have in place are too intelligent and considered for that. I don't see them being knee-jerk at all tbh. I think Eddie will get the rest of this season, the summer and at least half of next season (if things still don't improve). And it will be the right call.

Tino's performance, Isak's finish, some of the balls Murphy put into the box. He'll have a more granular view than us. There'll be stuff they've been working on in training that he saw glimpses of. To the naked eye it looked like a clueless, shite performance but I don't think Eddie can say that in his post match

One thing that cannot be denied is whatever they’re doing to coach the defence isn’t working at all. We know Burn is shit and costs us goals but the rest of the defenders, individually, have proven themselves to be excellent. So what the fuck are they working on in training?

The most concerning thing is another 3 goals conceded. We can’t defend for shit.

Fucking hell, I forgot Murphy was playing ?

What is wrong with Sean Longstaff?! He’s regressed back to his Bruce-era self. Fucking tragic footballer at the moment

Gallagher is impressive in a really unimpressive way. He’s absolutely everywhere, but then doesn’t do anything sexy at all. I can see why teams are after him and he’s the kind of player that’ll be loved by home fans but not very exciting at all

This is exactly how i think we should play although i'd swap Tripps for a proper left footed full back and there's an argument for swapping Gordon for Grealish (when fit). I understand going a bit less all out attack against some of the big boys, but we should be playing to our strengths and making statements against any team outside the top 10 in the world really.

Pickford Walker Maguire Stones Chilwell Henderson Rice Phillips Milner Mainoo Kane

Is there another CB who can do what he does, anywhere?! Passing, ball striking, finishing, all combined with exceptional defensive positioning and intelligence. From the point of view of replacing him, we’re not going to be able to do it like for like presumably?

Far far too good to be warming the bench. He’s absolutely class. Obviously he’s the natural successor to Trippier, but he’s surely not going to be happy as a bit part player for another season or two?!

Can’t imagine it’s doing wonders for Livra’s motivation

Yeah, I’ve got a feeling we’re going to show up for this one

I think there are very few who are saying enough is enough. There are always a few bedwetters on bad match days but in general the discussion around Eddie's strengths and weaknesses are pretty balanced and reasonable. The injuries and fixture congestion have to be taken into account, without question. However, what they have revealed, in Eddie's handling of them, are some clear things that need to be worked on if he wants to be considered in that elite bracket and probably if he wants to be our manager for the long term, specifically more ruthlessness towards dropping poor performing players and more flexibility around systems and tactics - a setup to help us see out games when we're in the lead, a system that still allows us to grind out results when we're not at full strength, an alternative way to approach games against superior or tricky opposition. If he continues with his 'one setting fits all approach' he only has himself to blame if at all falls apart again. We've got to remember, this is Eddie's first season in the Champions League and first season balancing 4 competitions. He's had every bit of bad luck you can imagine, but he's also made some clear errors along the way. Hopefully he can learn from them and kick on, and the owners give him the time to do that.

I was genuinely shocked he went for so little. Proven PL door openers with end product are not easy to come by, and all of his best years should be ahead of him. And we sold him to a country that was chucking money about for fun. Feels like we had our pants pulled down