Holmesy

Out of interest, what have you seen from Wood that would make you pick him over Maxi?

Put him down to a 5.1 and the point still stands. He offers a shit load more goal and assist threat than Wood and that’s not even up for debate.

Seriously?! The worst? Ok mate ?? We’ve seen this before with lots of shit players (especially under managers like Bruce, Pardew etc.). When you have a player in your squad, there’s always the temptation to use him. If he’s not in the squad you HAVE to use a different (better) option. Hence, stronger squad. Wood, isn’t good enough and nowhere as good as Wilson, Maxi and Isak. Therefore, the average quality of our attackers is reduced with Wood in the mix. Wood - 5 Wilson - 8 Isak - 8 Maxi -7 Average - 7 Wilson - 8 Isak - 8 Maxi - 7 Average - 7.66 This is merely for illustrative purposes obviously. No exact scientific models were applied.

Getting rid of Wood and not even replacing him leaves our squad stronger. Obviously replacing him would be the ideal scenario but knowing he wouldn't be involved in games any more is benefit enough. I'd rather have Maxi or someone from the academy playing than someone we absolutely know can't and won't perform at this level.

Adama Traore is just Jacob Murphy but quicker - does the hard bit and then either makes a wank decision or fluffs the final pass. So frustrating! He’s like 5% away from being world class

Not sure where people are getting ‘not a penalty’ from. Take away both of a player’s legs anywhere else on the pitch and it’s a stonewall free kick.

It’s all good lads, Murphy’s got this!

I’m sure Longstaff used to be able to shoot?! It like he’s got his boots on the wrong feet whenever he’s in front of goal

To be fair, he looked alright at the World Cup but he was never good enough for Barcelona. He's a decent Premier League performer but he's no Miggy

We're one injury away from having to dip into a poor group of bench players. The step down from Botman/Schar to Lascelles is significant, Trippier to Manquillo is not a nice prospect and any scenario where we're relying on Murphy doesn't bear thinking about. We need more strength in depth as we get into the second half of the season or we risk not capitalising on our great start.

I was thinking exactly the same. I loved him in that CM destroyer role. If we put him back there, we could drop Longstaff and put Maxi left wing, everyone wins (except Longstaff)

Bruno joining in with the Joelinton song after he scored was class. He knows!

Schar won absolutely everything in the air and played some class cross field diagonal passes. Burn was an absolute monster all game! I think he overcommitted a couple of times and left us open down the flank but he's not a bloody robot, and he's not a left back either so what do people expect. Some people watch the matches through shit-tinted specs? Baffling!

The fact that he has zero aerial ability will stop him getting a move. Physically he looks like your typical big CF and there's still a place for that type of player in the game, but since he can't hold the ball up, shield the ball or win headers, what's the sales pitch? "He's a nice bloke" doesn't warrant a £20m price tag and blowing your wage budget for

I didn't realise he was 31. I had him in his mid twenties for some reason.

You only have to look at what Liverpool paid £85m for to realise how short the game is of top quality strikers. Isak could turn out to be the steal of the century (after Botman of course)

The shithousery and speed of winning the ball back in central midfield when we lose it mirror Atletico. Undoubtedly things Eddie picked up from that dirty Argie, but i'm delighted he did

Bit of an odd statement! Trippier is one of the best right-backs in the league, Botman is one of the best CBs in the league, Pope is one of the best keepers in the league and Schar is possibly the most underrated CB in the league and has been for years. On paper and in reality, those 4 are class and i say that without any bias at all. All 4 would walk into any side outside the top 5 or 6 and Botman would arguably walk into any team in Europe right now

This is by far his biggest weakness and why he’ll never succeed at this level. His decision making is shocking, especially around the box.

Watching Chris Wood gives me hope that even at the age of 44, I still have a chance of playing professional football

Bielsa was given money to spend but didn’t spend it. He was his own worst enemy in that regard and it led to his sacking. Any player coming in had to spent 3-4 months getting up to Bielsa levels of fitness and learning the way they play, so Bielsa just stuck with the players he already had. They were essentially championship players, playing at a ridiculous intensity. Once teams figured out to play against Leeds they were screwed because they didn’t have the player quality for a plan B. Not that Bielsa was a plan B guy, but better players would’ve made a difference regardless.

Rafa had Almiron looking effective, Eddie has turned him into a world class performer. He’s some coach!

How has Fred even made it into this squad, let alone starting ahead of Bruno ffs?!

You're on glue

That’s all well and good but the stat isn’t really relevant to the discussion. We know Kane scores goals and gets assists, that’s not in question. If you can find the stat that shows how many times Kane has shot when passing would’ve been the better option, we can all make an objective judgement. I doubt it exists though, so you just have to judge it on what you see. One perfect example is against Croatia in the last World Cup. Square it and Sterling scores. He shot instead and got rightly panned for it. Maybe that’s what some people want from their strikers but I always prefer a player who puts the team first.