Nine

The reason I replied is because I have done the same about a player like him for a while, a younger Firmino type of our own would be absolutely perfect providing we don’t look to keep Isak in the middle of the three.

Firmino would have been perfect for us 5 seasons ago, but hes played 300+ games for Liverpool while pressing like a maniac and is 32 now.. half a season strolling around in the Saudi league won’t have helped either. His fitness record is decent though.

Do you think management are unable to pick up on this themselves? Or do you think it’s a matter of having limited personnel to pick from? You can argue we change the formation, but changing formation mid season during a massive injury crisis/bad form could easily leave us far worse off.

Just let the emotional children out themselves, although the amount of it around football is scary. Rational, level headed football fans are few and far between unfortunately.

I’m not going to disagree, at some point the quality has to match the industrious nature of our system. The type of players that possess both are not easy to come by however, that’s my only point.

Ironically, the same preference for intense pressing is what got us into the CL in the first place.

The trend is and has been that we are consistently signing system players, players that slot in and out of the high press seamlessly. Physical attributes are valuable above all else, and I can’t see it changing anytime soon. It’s why we went for Tonali over Maddison for example.

I’d agree to that to a point, that it’s also just as important to have the attacking quality ahead of a DM so your attacking phases don’t suffer for not having a Bruno at 6. Or you change the formation, but that’s a different story entirely.

De Gea must be asking for the same insane sort of money he was on at Man United to be a FA for this long, money he’s probably offered from certain Saudi sides but won’t get in the leagues he’d prefer to play in.

The trend so far defo seems to favour signing a high ratio of British players each window, usually with one big signing from the foreign leagues. I wonder if we start to adapt that slightly going forward as we have built up a core of brits now.

Todibo would be the pick of that list but he will have more appealing options on the table than we can offer for now.

100%. I’ve seen people on here asking questions about how Trippier and Burn can start being consistently rinsed by quick wingers all of a sudden, long story short is the protection they had in front of them just isn’t there at the moment because everyone is gassed. Now I could pivot this post into making a point of how under valued Miggy especially is on that side, as the protection he provides when he’s fully fit is a massive piece of our defensive (and attacking) structure on the right.. and it baffles me how some fans still go on about how ASM would have made the difference in this game or that game A player like that is the furthest thing from the type of player we need to use out wide, the physical attributes of Gordon and Miggy are the bread and butter of our wide play and the next winger we sign will be of the same mould but with more technical quality and end product.

If we sign a DM it’ll be with a view to start with or switch to a 4-2-3-1 when deemed necessary with Bruno as one half of a double pivot, we won’t play Bruno further forward anymore. Bruno needs to play as a 6 in whatever formation we use.

Having Murphy available takes a lot of the physical strain off of Miggy who has started and played 90 mins every game for how long? Just having any options in the wide areas is massive, having gassed players there is a huge part of our problem.

As I said in the match thread, this result will cause the more emotional ones of us to turn.. then we have a very tough set of fixtures to get through. By mid Jan things could be messy fan wise and probably will be, such a shame how things panned out since September/October. Howe has shown he will stick to his guns, gone with the 4-3-3 high press that we all know and love. I don’t think he’ll change it now either, but it was always going to be a big ask when only have a knackered, half a squad. Post January will be when we know if there is any lasting damage from this loss of form, the transfer window will be closed and we’ll have most of the core of injuries back fit.

This result will be the catalyst for some of the more emotional fans turning today, then after the very tough run of games coming up it will probably get very messy. Shame how things have panned out so far this season.

We brute forced many results last season purely by using our manic press and physicality.. being physically superior and possessing elite fitness is the bread and butter of the system we have had success with. Without that we are a weak side, the snowballing injury list fucked us in October. A bad run was always coming after that, forget creativity and technical ability for a second - we won’t see any sustained run of good form until we have the important components of this side fully fit again.

It is what it is, tight or not. Hopefully gives us a lift.

Feel sorry for anyones that’s ever had a Bruno shot on target on their bet builder

Jacob Brown having his way with Trippier

Exactly my thinking, he would have changed at half time if not for Lascelles having to come off

I’d very much doubt he was taken off for that alone

The tactical change has brought some improvement going forward, but we just look so dead on our feet at times. The tempo, the energy is off.. Luton asserted dominance early and we havnt stepped up to it. Having said that I think we grow into this now, every chance to come away with 3 points if we start the second half brighter. What I’d give for a fit Barnes to take unfit/knackered Gordon’s place at the moment.