Mazzy

Hall is too good at LB now. He's not just a stop gap anymore. His stats are through the roof. Burn will be rested now and again, which he no doubt needs.

It's much more unusual though to see a left footer at LCB. Perhaps only because left footers are a rarer commodity. Either way I'd rather see Kelly at RCB for Spurs. That's alot of pressure on Sven otherwise.

They've got a tricky patch of games coming up. They play alot of teams in the top 8 in the next 10 games. In fact I think just Wolves (in good form currently) in their next game and Southampton after that aren't current top 8 teams in their next 10 games. If they are still top 4 by end of January that will be hugely impressive and then I might start to think they can continue it until end of season.

Even missing Schar for Spurs is going to cause an issue with no other RCB available. That in itself is no issue but then what happens if Hall is also out and then Isak is out at the same time. Like you say, we're only 2 or even 1 (Isak) big injury away from scrambling around in 8th/9th again very quickly.

Can't wait for these automated offsides to come in. Reckon that'll bump up his numbers by atleast 5 goals a season.

If it was Burn that has been suspended then I could see Botman maybe playing some small part against Spurs, a few token minutes at the end if the situation allows for it. But I really don't see him coming in to start the game or for any significant time on the wrong side of defence after being out for so long.

I'm really pleased for him. But, he's had almost fuck all to do. Think I saw a stat that he's made as many saves in these 4 games (4) as he's now got clean sheets (4). If nothing else it gives Pope more time to recover as he clearly doesn't need to be rushed back in right now. Only takes one loss and a poor Dubravka performance to change the fans tune on him though.

Shit having Schar out for this but Kelly will be fine for a couple of games. Means Trippier needs to start though ideally, if he's able to.

This feels all to easy. I'm concerned about what's happening and what will happen.

Not sure where he'd even play for us really. Also, he hasn't scored a goal for an entire year. Not saying he wouldn't improve output if he came here but he wouldn't be cheap. Imagine if we signed someone from another league to play as an attacker and they'd got the same stats, we'd be against it I'm sure.

Can't believe Rashford is back in the squad for them (apparently). Typical bullshit jammy nonsense will occur then I assume.

We've done alright with that recently. Diallo is the one that worries me though, he's the only one they've got in any form .

Unfortunately he needs a bit more time in the team and a YouTube compilation before anyone will think he's any good. He's better than either Longstaff at that age, but he's got a long way to go.

Just looking at those table makes me think one thing... That fucking West Ham game man.

That's definitely why you should do it but there's a reason we had to do it unfortunately. I don't see Longstaff leaving myself either, unless you get crazy bid for him but as you say even then that hurts us when it comes to European squads. But equally we're unlikely to be able to meet the homegrown requirements anyway even with Longstaff so perhaps it doesn't matter either way.

Absolutely need to be two goals to the good before 85mins else I can see them getting a jammy goal as they often do.

Well considering Anderson went for basically £15M, you'd think £20M would be a minimum for Longstaff really. Willock would be half that though I reckon considering the couple of poor seasons injury/form wise he's had, but then it's less likely teams will want him because of that.

I think if any one of the midfielders were to leave it'll be Willock. Not that I can see which team would want him or what someone would even pay considering the form and injuries he's had over the last 2 seasons.

Got to look at the players he's playing with as well though. I know Brentford really did us over not that long ago but Mbeumo has some extremely average players around him. Would be much easier for him in a better team.

Khusanov looks like the kind of player who would absolutely get a red card 5 minutes into his debut.

Always feels like we are less effective against a back 3. But, having said that, that 3 at the back of Man Utds contains one of the the slowest CBs in the league (Maguire), a 19yr old kid and a really out of form Tiny Martinez. Will be a good test of how far we've actually come in the last couple of weeks. Don't want another false dawn this season.

Fernandes and Ugarte out is great. Means Casemiro and Mainoo I'd guess? That's as good as a one goal headstart.

No way, he's better than both of them right now. He's been in good form last month or so.

Would've put money on that being deflected that one but actually a very very good finish from Big Joe