KingArthur

Isak on the left has worked well at the end. When the opposition is not attacking that much anymore ( Southampton and Brentford) or they have awful fullback (Everton) Isak has to do too much defending if he starts there. No room to carry etc. I don't think this should be tried in tougher games. But on the other hand, you usually want all your best players on the pitch and at home have a go.

Win against Leeds and it is pretty much guaranteed. Cannot see us going the last 3 without a win.

He is clearly injured. Running is slow and shooting weak. Most likely he is paying with some drugs because of the ankle problem.

I think all of our wingers will be sold (edit. could be sold) with the right offer. Murphy most likely will not have such a good season again next year, but he is cheap. Almiron or ASM would bring some cash in. I would want to see the back of Hendrick, Lascelles, Ritchie, Dummett, Lewis, Fraser and Dubravka though this summer.

Or 1-3-1 record?

Yes it is. And many other sports give assists from rebounds.

True, we robbed Hoffenheim blind. 40 million for Brazil International man!

93-94 was with 42 games?

Burn can be 4th choice CB, but not a starting left back. Horrible performance today.

True, Chelsea is a mess. But would he be more than a rotation option in our team? He is not better than Willock/Joelinton or Bruno, so would fight for the third spot with Longstaff, who has clear weaknesses, but is using 30-40 million on Gallagher the best option to upgrade Longstaff? Not sure about that.

That might be, but hasn't really shown anything at Chelsea. I remain sceptical until I see him having a second decent season.

I really don't see the point with Gallagher. He is decent yes, but somehow reminds me of Ross Barkley. High risk high reward, because the price would be ridiculous. If he costs 40 million or something we better not go anywhere near. 20 million maybe, but young English player from top EPL team? Not going with that price. Too expensive, and having a good engine and working hard is not something you pay 40 million for.

And I would guess Ritchie and Lewis (younger Longstaff? Lascelles?) are out of the door come summer.

I am pretty sure Dummett is needed for HG-rule? How many players we have that are not club trained? Lewis has sell on value, and neither of them will play much + Dummett's wages are most likely a lot less.

Was the ball going to Weghorst without the hand ball? If it was, then it certainly was not denying obvious goal scoring opportunity.

I cant see the point of Jimenez diving. He might get a penalty and sending off for Pope, but if he stays up it's a certain goal. Might have been not that big of a contact, but I think ref just bottled it. A bit like in Leicester-Chelsea with the first minute red card. I would say Jimenez did not lose the ball / was not going out of the play.. But seems like some disagree and thats fine. I think these even out in the long run. We suffered from VAR against Palace

It is a clear red for Pope and penalty. Jimenez is 100% scoring that and it is a clumsy collission, but still denying a goal scoring opportunity.

He was good yesterday. I think one thing Howe needs to make him understand is that he does not always need to try to go past 1-2 defenders. Just release it and make a run behind or something. He always wants the ball at his feet. It slows the play down and makes it more predictable. But he played great passes to Isak, and was not just going to cut in and shoot like often before.

That is true, but we will be there every season soon enough anyway

I don't think us finishing top 4 this season is a must like some see it. We will invest big next summer anyway, but if we get to UCL we are going to need 5-6 new players to that squad for Europe alone. Our squad is paper thin. Top6 will do for me and constant progress. Teams like Chelsea and Liverpool are spending a lot more than us and they are desperate for CL football and money. We will get there for sure in a year or two.

Trippier has been awful today.

It is ok if 1-2 guys talk to the referee, but when he gets surrounded, specially with VAR with people claiming handball or red card it is just annoying. Just like crowding the guy taking penalty. Everyone outside of the box except the shooter and goalie, and yellow card if goalie starts some antics. Ridiculous that it takes 2-3 minutes to take a penalty these days..

In theory yes. But A) will he be fit B) if he plays and gets automatically new contract for like 80k/wk, that hinders our transfer dealings a bit next summer...

I think we have started to play "badly" during last few weeks because opponents have started to sit back and have given us the possession. Bournemouth really didn't press and before their goal our passing was very slow and predictable. After the goal we upped the tempo a lot. First half of the season we pressed high up on the pitch and got a lot of breaks high up. Now teams like Bournemouth, Palace and West Ham are quite quickly launching it behing Burn and Trippier. With Bruno we can open up spaces more and push the opposition deeper, without him we lose the ball too much in too dangerous areas. Especially Willock, ASM and Burn. Our squad just lacks quality in key areas. We really need a ball playing midfielder in place of Longstaff or Joelinton. Both have great engines and are great at winning the ball back, but neither are very good at opening up defences.

I think we are going to be 5th or 6th. Drawing too many games. Spurs are not great, but have a better squad. Liverpool and Chelsea are far away already.