Abacus

Least there's something to play for last day

What a scintillating festival of football.

I'm going to try the reverse jinx. No point watching this boring non-event of a match since Burnley are completely useless.

Yep, it's easy to judge in hindsight. As for Gordon, he can go with a mild shrug from me. Excellent player on his day, still one of our best forwards but inconsistent. From the outside, and this might be completely wrong, he seems pretty high maintenance. I get the impression that when his head and heart are in it he's a real menace, but I haven't felt he's been that way in a while for us.

The defence, including the keeper function as a unit. One weak link and it falls apart making everyone look bad. You could extend that to the whole team, from midfield protection, to a forward line capable of retaining the ball and as an outlet. In that context, Thiaw has stood out as being pretty undroppable. He's not perfect, no-one is, but he's also done really well in a new and unforgiving league. I'd say he's a hit, with the potential to get better. Botman, unfortunately, was also a hit until his injury. I still think he'll get back, just takes a while with that sort of injury. Defensively Tino was a better left back than Hall is, however much I rate Hall. But unfortunately he's only been fitfully available, which doesn't lead to a good understanding across the back four, which a lot of managers usually don't rotate too much but Howe has been forced to. And Trippier's age has caught up with him. Reliable full back cover and a keeper goes a long way to fixing this imo. Thiaw being the least of our problems and the best of our solutions.

I said in the Gordon thread that IF he goes, and we end up with a different profile of winger who can leave him less isolated, I'd like to see if we can get the best out of him. One season in the PL is a pretty steep learning curve for quite an unusual player, who does have real vision and technique if not the physical presence (yet) to be a standard no 9, certainly not in our familiar system. It would be a shame if we couldn't find a way to make it work and bring his talents out in my opinion, but sometimes you have to accept when it doesn't work. I don't want to see him sat on the bench for another half season either way.

I'm not sure if it's the system that's flawed (i.e. stale) or the personnel we have to do it, especially without a striker like Isak. At the moment, it's only really Gordon of our front three that can execute it like a couple of years ago. I thought Elanga might have been like that on the right, but so far it looks like that might need a rethink. Which might in turn mean a bit of evolution in playing style by necessity. At the moment, I'm not surprised that Howe has reverted to what has worked in the past probably till the end of the season. Whatever happens over summer and next season will be the interesting part.

I'm fine if he wanted to go to Barca. I've been thinking that we need to replace the players we lose and that in itself could be a way to evolve the playing style - a more tricky winger who creates more for the strikers would be a good start.

First non old firm game I've watched from the SPL in years. Nice blood and thunder tempo to it

I can't believe I'm still in a pretty foul mood after that Villa performance, despite us winning and therefore it not really mattering to us. In fairness Spurs put in a much improved display and will probably now stay up at West Ham's expense. But they were allowed to against a Villa side that barely showed up. If it is West Ham to go, it's their own fault, true. They looked like goners earlier in the season but had found some fight and form until completely messing it up again. Even so, nope, still annoyed with Villa.

Interesting, I read that from the BBC and it was all very positive. But then I read quotes from Moyes (reported by Paul Joyce) saying he needed to do better and to improve his work and training, and also to "pull his finger out", which might be an old quote. Likewise "he's a player we put a lot of faith and money into so we are looking for a lot more". Might just be old school boot up the backside territory from Moyes.

This is one of those games where the home fans are entitled, required, to boo their team off at half time. Just no effort whatsoever.

I agree, it's why I don't agree with the line up. But then, what do I know.

My only thinking is that he was encouraged by an upturn in performance against Arsenal, and so decided to stick with it except for swapping Joelinton in. I don't agree with it as a team at all, but there you go. Let's see what happens.

I never like this fixture, but I'm really hoping we're up for this after a much improved Arsenal performance, with Howe fired up after Matfen and Bruno leading the charge on the pitch. Joe will be back, fired up and rested too. Could be mathematically safe by Sunday night, not that there's a real chance of the drop for us in any case. Just means I can enjoy reading that relegation thread again and enjoy the twists and turns there.

I sort of wish this wasn't happening this week; I'd rather Howe was fully focussing on the Brighton game rather than at a summit. They could surely concentrate on infrastructure and other stuff with Hopkinson and Wilson and leave the team inquest until the end of the season. But then, I do get that they need a clear playing and recruitment / selling plan going into the summer, and if there's any disagreement going into that, maybe that's best flushing out now.

What a game

If there really is a sell on clause it would be pretty inexplicable. I could only guess they (and possibly we) assumed he'd retire off to the Saudi League after a few years of banging in goals in the CL here. But it's all worked out so badly so far that it's become quite funny.

@DC Magpie I wasn't sure about Barnes up front in that line up. But, thinking about it, if him and Osula flipped between RW and ST I could maybe see something in that. Also depends if Gordon is fit. I'd maybe have Joelinton rampaging about on LW if not. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why my multiple applications to be a premier league football manager have so far not even been acknowledged, the absolute swines.

Stability and good transfer windows are clearly crucial. But, yes, as much as anything I think a new training ground would be a good statement of intent for the project as a whole. Rafa was always talking about wanting investment in the training ground and I'll begrudgingly admit he knows more about football than me. Then you also have the possibility of sponsorships etc revenue wise.

Yeah, it's a really rough one for him, obviously out of the world cup as well. Fortunately ACL's aren't the career enders they once were, but he sounded pretty distraught in his own comments about it.

My genuine opinion is that he's a class sub, best finisher at the club and I've been crying out for him to start ahead of Gordon at times. But then he goes missing some times when he does start. I stuck him in the neutral category. I'm very glad we have him, don't get me wrong on that. I just think he was an opportunistic buy that worked out well, but not someone I'd hang my hat on. A bit like Ramsey. I can't much judge either as a success or failure.

My percentages were based on hits vs misses purely, rather than total spend when it's neutral. Sue me

OK, clear pluses and minuses then. Based both on sell on value and what they've done for us etc. Pluses; Isak £77m Tonali £55m Gordon £46m Bruno £42m Livramento £37m Botman £37m could argue this based on availability Thiaw £35m Hall £33m Burn £15m Trippier £14m Osula £12m Pope £12m Minteh £8m Total - £423m Minuses; Elanga - £61m Wissa - £58m Ramsey - £45m possibly harsh Targett - £18m Ramsdale £5m Total - £187m I've left out Wolt altogether as I don't know yet, but that could completely swing it. And Barnes, because I think he's been fairly neutral. You could pop them in either column and other opinions are available. Also left Vlach out - still think there's a keeper there in an unpopular opinion. Plus the free transfers. I make that a 69% hit rate on those players. I hope I have played the game correctly and that these are all the questions you need to ask.

Feels like we're making this game up on the fly. I'd say Wood was a hit, for what he did for us, then afterwards not so much until we got our money back. I'd also say Targett was a massive hit on loan, until we bought him permanently. Which I'm not sure the club were all that convinced about making permanent even at the time. Even though I thought it would be a great idea But in terms of big money spending, mostly fine to great till this summer. And even then, I don't think you can write the likes of Wolt off. Agree Heron though re Vlach, but even then that clearly wasn't something EH was on board with, having allegedly lost Anderson in the process.