Holmesy

And yet Pep, the best manager in world football has continually tweaked, adapted, evolved and has won 5 PLs out of 6 and a treble last season. Pep's approach largely stays the same - front foot, possession-based, lots of technical players but look at peak tika-taka Barca - they don't look the same as current Man City. And when was the last time City had a bad season? They are an anomaly of course, but central to their success is constant evolution around a theme. Don't get me wrong, I would love us to have Klopp-levels of success but i'd rather we were a bit wiser during this transitional phase so it's not feast or famine.

Klopp has a deep squad full of top talent. Conditions are rarely non-optimal for Liverpool. It also worked for Barcelona and it works for City etc. - both deep squads full of top talent. Conditions are far less likely to be optimal for us, for at least a couple of years at least, so being pragmatic rather than stubborn makes more sense. When we have a squad full of world beaters, i'm all for 100% of plan A. Burnley came up playing a certain style and they'll go down because of their slowness to adapt to the quality and rigours of the PL. The only way they'll stay up is if they adapt and find a different way to get results. We're not Burnley but we're also not Liverpool, we're somewhere between the two right now.

Starting from the halfway line would give him a better chance of catching someone than treading water from the opposition box. As i said, we don't have a round peg for that round hole, but maybe Longstaff could be our oval peg for now? He can't finish for shit, so I doubt we'll miss him much in attacking situations.

Longstaff has thrived under two managers who gave him a very specific role, coached him in detail and told him where he needs to be in certain situations. And he disappeared under Cabbage head, a known 'go and play' tactical moron. If Eddie told Longstaff to sit, fill the hole and stay back on our set pieces, he would. In an ideal world we'd have a dedicated #6 but that's not looking likely so we might have to work with what we have.

Largely, i think our approach and identity is great and i love that we finally have a style of play that is recognisable and brilliant to watch (when we're at full strength). However, it's pretty obvious that when conditions aren't optimal, our identity/style of play can be pretty ineffective. That's the drawback with only approaching games in one way - if plan A doesn't work, we only have more of plan A, but maybe with a couple of players substituted. I definitely don't want us to tear up the script but I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that working on a secondary approach to games, for when conditions aren't optimal, would be a sensible thing for next season and beyond. If that doesn't happen, we find ourselves in a similar position again and we go on another losing run as a result, pressure should rightly mount on the management team. But learn from this, adapt and evolve, and we could turn a huge negative into something that strengthens us going forward. Some folk on here have been saying we haven't been worked out. I think you underestimate the size of the role analysts play in PL football clubs. We are being picked apart in the same way game after game - that isn't coincidence. Every team pours over data to understand the finest details of where competitive advantage can be gained, including where goals/chances result from and where opposition teams are vulnerable. Spotting the grand canyon size hole in our midfield and recognising that we over commit in attack and have no pace to counter the counter will take them about 5 minutes, if that. A new DM would help, but so would adjusting our game plan slightly to leave us less vulnerable. That isn't a 'rip up the script' change, it's a slight adjustment. And it's absolutely not asking too much for Eddie to make that change.

At this stage, Jessie Lingard on a free is looking pretty tempting. Words i thought i'd never say

I don't think he'd have his heart set on staying in the PL. He hasn't made the effort to learn the lingo, which suggests his life isn't here long term. Saudi would be my guess or a mid table Spanish team

Would Almiron want to stay and warm the bench? Murphy is happy to, but I could see Miggy wanting to leave for first team football

I can't imagine those conversations were very long, if they happened at all

This argument could be made for quite a few of our players, which just highlights the need for upgrades. Add another effective attribute to those players and they'd be quality Eg. If Almiron had a right foot and better decision making, if Joelinton could connect with the ball when shooting, if Longstaff could finish, if Willock had more composure in the box, If Murphy had better decision making, if Burn had pace. Coaching can only do so much to improve players, but ultimately we need better players to start with

Bamford just scored one of the goals of the season for Leeds. He’s normally absolutely awful but fair play to him, that is unreal

He’s having a pretty shit game all round tbf. Looks clumsy as fuck!

Oldest trick in the book. Talentless dickheads have been keeping themselves relevant for decades by spouting vile antagonistic shit. If people just ignored it they’d have to stop. It’s the reactions that create news that create relevance that create income. Hopkins, Farage, Price, Tate etc. People just play right into their hands

Yeah, that might be him.

There are one or two that have been mentioned, that went over there and aren't getting a game - doesn't bode well really. One was a mid-20s Portuguese right winger if i remember correctly?

When was the last time we dipped into the Championship or below to pick up some talent? It feels like it's been a long time. I don't think Livramento counts

Peak Dortmund Sancho would improve any team, but i'm pretty sure he'd fail our background and personality check within the first two minutes. By all accounts he's a total c**t. Olise on the other hand would be worth breaking the bank for. What would he likely cost? £60m?

It's looking really unlikely isn't it. Loans without an option to buy aren't very attractive and loans with options to buy are difficult to arrange for players we actually want to keep. Is it even possible to find funds within the confines of FFP even if we wanted to bring a transfer forward from the summer? There don't seem to be any rumours about us selling players, so I think it's going to be tumbleweeds throughout January. Going into the second half of the season with this threadbare squad, no new additions and Almiron playing every game doesn't scream European football though.

You can add Almiron to the Longstaff pile as well. He's arguably worse at it than anyone else

Very similar to Grealish - he was the most fouled player in the league for a couple of seasons I think, but he buys a lot of fouls by being clever with his body positioning, slowing down at just the right moment to invite contact and, for want of better words, falling convincingly. It's a skill of the 'dark arts' of football, which is sad to say but some players just do it much better than others.

He's also a red card waiting to happen every time i watch him play. Doesn't seem like an EH signing at all.

Palmer was the big one for me - Northern lad, proven quality, can play in a number of positions (all of which we're crying out for), young and only £40m-ish. He would have been a transformational signing.

Surely selling Botman over Bruno makes more sense?! Quality game-running central midfielders are like rocking horse shit. Quality CBs are nowhere near as difficult to find. Lascelles came in and did a half decent job in Botman’s absence. It’s not like we fell apart after the Botman injury. Bruno goes down and we really are fucked!