Nine

I feel that he didn’t really click here mentally, wether it was an increase in pressure and playing for higher stakes than he had before or whatever. Even though his attributes were not suited to it he did function well enough in our system and played his role effectively enough, he just did not have that confidence or killer instinct in front of goal. Glad to see him seemingly more at home for them.

Honestly one of the most underrated players in the world at the moment

Keep in mind the xG will be heavily skewed by the 0-8.

Phillips is a very good fit in terms of style and ability, he played Bielsa ball effectively enough for 3 seasons to earn a move to Man City.. in terms of pressing intensity you don’t get much closer to our style than what Bielsa deployed at Leeds. Yes he is more of an out and out DM than what we have and would not offer what Bruno does going forward but he is technically very tidy, he has quick feet and shifts the ball nicely. Playing him at 6 would allow the 2 in front in a 4-3-3 midfield some more freedom. He’d also seemingly settle right in, knows the league inside out and will already know the England lads from our squad. It makes a whole lot of sense.

Agree it doesn’t suit Howes obsessive style with all the time off. Disagree that’s it’s not a top (international) job though, look at the playing talent at Englands disposal. To the right manager at the right time it would absolutely appeal as a top tier job, it’s one of if not the best international squad in the world right now.

We will, but the management will be planning 5/6/7 windows ahead. I’m just saying I wouldn’t be surprised if a player leaves for decent or big money next summer, it would open more doors for us in the mid/long term.

We are tight FFP wise already, I won’t be surprised to see us cash in on one of our more highly valued players this summer to open our options up again. As Ashworth has said we have to trade.

I feel that Howe would rather only make the changes necessary as to cause less disruption to the side, rather than moving Burn to CB and starting Targett he’d rather just start Lascelles and keep Burn at LB.

Sane is elite is his position but being on near to 300k a week puts that rumour to bed instantly, not a chance we push our wage structure as far as that anytime soon.

The one truly irreplaceable player we have at the moment, what he offers us on and off the pitch isn’t something you can just dip into the market and buy back when it goes. He’s an ultimate professional, that should bode well as far as longevity providing he/we get lucky with his fitness. The most important signing since Shearer.

Yep, so not an error. He did get done mind, that touch was perfect.

When will people learn, give him a fair amount of time to adapt.

It was as much Lascelles fault for pushing to high as it was Popes for coming out like that trying to cover, not much in it for me as far as a goalkeeping error.

Pope tried to cover Lascelles being too high and we got caught, it happens. Hope we can recover.

What I mean is, fan opinion on his ability was clouded because of the reasons I mentioned.. but yes you could argue that he was an unknown quantity at the time.

Because he squared up to Trippier, is generally an infuriating player to watch your team play against and was deemed unlikeable. So slightly different reasons for our sides emotional reaction to him but it’s good to see it’s wearing off now.

Will be plenty of bitter fans from alot of different clubs today over last night, that is quite some wall of thought out text to show that they don’t care though.

I mean, it would be hard for most players to look good in that shambles of a team as it was at the time but if they genuinely thought they ‘robbed us’ that is hilarious. Just another case of a negatively emotional set of football fans failing to see the wood for the trees.. and we got a bargain out of it.

A lot of their hardcore fan base were just emotionally twisted against him, from the incident with the fans blocking him in and deciding he wasn’t trying for their club. He was the only shining light in that awful side of theirs at the time, and it’s why he was the only one to move for decent money when they needed to sell because they are financially fucked.

Still not quite sure that even happened last night The momentum we have been building into that performance last night, people are talking about a hangover performance coming vs West Ham. I think we are just as likely to run through them as well right now.

A night we will never forget.

Everyone needs to calm down

They just don’t want it like we do

No words