Holmesy

Perfect!

Kudus as well, although he doesn't seem to be flourishing under Lopetegui

They might have a pedestrian midfield but they've got plenty of attacking pace and guile to exploit the counter

Said it before though, signings are not JUST about improving the squad. Obviously that's the primary objective but they also give existing players a lift, give us a new dimension that teams have to adapt to, and signal intent. I'm not suggesting we should just sign any old shit but signing a player with a high profile who doesn't necessarily 100% fit our blueprint would be a tactical move worth making, over signing no one at all.

Good shout actually. That left hand side is pretty crowded though - where would be play?

Murphy and Longstaff next.

I don’t think Spurs could’ve chosen a more Spursy manager than Ange.

This is one of the worst I’ve seen. How can you miss an elbow, a blantant pen. A red card offense and wrongly award a corner in one half of football?!

Our set pieces are a disaster! I’ve never seen such an ineffective physically imposing team.

This is some refereeing performance! FFS!

You can’t really argue against it either, as much as we all want to see Tonali in the lineup.

Is he still here?

I put it on here ages ago and it got tumbleweeds. People don't know what they're missing. It's bloody brilliant

The weirdest thing about the appointment is Ten Hag's Ajax team had a really strong identity and discernible playing style, and then he comes to Man Utd and does a Steve Bruce. It can't all have been the players doing it themselves at Ajax, surely?

Professional footballers should be fined heavily for not beating the first man. You kick a fucking ball for a living. No excuse!

Longstaff is making a difference here. Credit where it’s due, he’s having a solid game

What a fucking goal!

Daniel Levy doesn't want to win things, it ramps up expectation and puts him under pressure to spend more. He's like a more cunning, savvy version of Mike Ashley.

Well they're never going to turn a profit on him and we've never seen how Liverpool operate under Slot. If he doesn't want him filling a squad place, who knows. Maybe cough up the £50m or whatever it might take to get him. I'd rather spend that money on him than Guehi

I had a thought that's about to get me dog's abuse, but fuck you guys, i'm saying it anyway. Listening to the radio the other day, it sounds as though Slot doesn't rate Nunez. As a loan with an option to buy, on the right and as an alternative option to Isak, I reckon he would be a decent pickup. Gordon - Isak - Nunez has pace, unpredictability and bags of energy. I don't think it will happen for a number of reasons but it would be a lot more exciting than DCL. Come at me motherfuckers!

I mentioned Iraola on here as a possible replacement for EH IF he was to go, and I got pelters for it. For me, he fits the bill - a young, progressive, tactically astute manager who has proven he can make a team better than the sum of their parts. And that latter part is the biggest telltale sign of a good manager for me. Rafa is a perfect example

I can't see Mitchell being remotely interested in us signing DCL. His remit is to make our transfer activity more fit for purpose. DCL would be an expensive stopgap at best. Yes, he offers us something different and Eddie seems keen on having a proper, physical centre forward but Mitchell will take one look at the costs and his injury record and bin the idea

Doesn't help that we keep giving contract extensions (and no doubt, payrises) to players we should be trying to get off the wage bill

I'm with you. 100% There was a guy on the radio this morning talking about Ange, saying he has one plan and when that doesn't work it's more of the same. No plan B at all. I'm so surprised Eddie fits into that category as well - when he came it was all about how he's a student of the game and spent time learning from other managers, and now we're stuck in this cycle of rinse and repeat.

Interestingly, I think I heard that Man City have played more direct balls than any other team this season (unless I dreamt it). The different between Pep and every other manager is he continually iterates, evolves and adapts. All build around possession-based football but never standing still and becoming stale. This Man City team are a far cry from his vintage Barca tika-taka team but still ruthlessly efficient. Every time he sees teams starting to find ways to combat his tactics, he changes it up eg. by going more direct. Asking Eddie to change isn't something the club should ever do, but expecting him to continually improve and evolve should be. It should be a requisite of any manager we hire.