Nine

It’s likely Bruno, Longstaff or Willock will go down before the end of the season to as they will be required to start and play 70/80+ most games now, this season is just fucked.

‘Score tonight lad and my fully stamped Dixys loyalty card will be waiting for ya’

That clip means nothing either way

Gutted for him, I hope his potential can still be realised after such a strong start last season.

Keep hearing this Fatawu is a rough diamond, and seeing this he’s far too raw to be consistently effective at this level yet. He favours those left angles but every touch is heavy when he’s trying to get there and doesn’t release the ball in time, very naive challenge to give away that pen to.

Absolutely to be expected when you set up to counter with 5 at the back away to City, the issue is we choked our opportunities due to individual mistakes/misfortune.

The tactical set up proved to be pretty sound, the first half could have been more fruitful if not for a few fine margins going against us (Willock not getting his head up to play a ball from out wide to Isak, the ball deflecting off Isak trailing foot when he would have been through, second half Isak getting his touch wrong). Plus two unfortunate goals that killed the game off. However this side and these players confidence looks pretty shot at this point, I described the second goal as unfortunate which it was but Botmans confidence has been lacking to me for a few weeks and him trying to get a glance on that shot to send it wide just proves it - no on form defender makes that choice and gets it that wrong, it was rash. The individual performances are so down from their potential, I will question Howes faith in changing the game plan so drastically even though overall it proved correct to do so it highlighted poor individual performances. Willock for example was far to narrow both times Bernardo Silva cut inside, Burn choked a shot from just outside the box because being that high up the pitch isn’t his remit confident or not and Lascelles took a potentially avoidable yellow and then let Doku past on his outside because he had to be careful. But again it boils down to Howe playing with a limited deck, if Joelinton is available we go here with the 4/3/3. This 5/3/2 looked alright even with low confidence and a limited selection.. Howe is making sound choices and decisions even under ‘pressure’.

Botmans lack of confidence showing with that poor decision to head it

Why do we get cursed with having to listen to Danny Murphy

And they all laughed it off Class

Unfortunately a lot of football fans fall into the trap of getting emotionally attached to certain players, convincing themselves said players wont leave and then when it happens they label those players as traitors This cycle repeats itself and as you say, it’s mass delusion. We struck gold with Bruno and Isak in particular, but we’d extract big value from a sale for either also. Without a shadow of a doubt we will have targets identified already in anticipation of either leaving, not saying they will or they won’t but management will be prepared.

It’s really not a big reach to imagine that our players wouldn’t at least entertain serious offers from big clubs this summer is it? Because if those offers arrive then they certainly would. It’s blindy optimistic to assume they’d turn down CL moves for more money and a chance at trophies, our project is years away from being able to guarantee that to anyone. Personally I wouldn’t hold it against any player for moving on, under our current circumstances it’s just part of the game for us. I trust management to trade and reinvest well.

It isn’t the first time he’s been done by an athletic forward, if Botman has a weakness it’s physical.. he’s not elite level quick or agile. Its not a massive problem but it will see him occasionally struggle against the more the physically gifted attacking players in this league.

Teams tried exploiting the gap between defence and midfield last season to, the difference is we sit a lot deeper without Pope and the midfield options lack the physicality to cover the passing lanes and press the ball as well as they did last season. It’s literally down to the availability of players, we arnt hard to figure out tactically and never have been under Howe but we blew teams away with our physicality regardless. A DM under our current circumstances could be helpful yes, but with a fully fit and functioning midfield Howe will always play Bruno at 6.

Like last season? When we had the joint best defensive record in the league?

We don’t need an out and out DM, we need consistently fit and available options in midfield in general. We’ve been no where near our peak pressing ability for months due to limited availability in midfield.

He’s 100% carrying an injury

Barnes broke his foot early on, it’s a freak injury that you can’t predict or account for. Something different is something different, but then theres players that are not suitable for certain play styles, ASM is the latter.

Because ASM had an immaculate fitness record right? He was literally the furthest thing from a Howe ball winger in pretty much every way.

I think we expected them to push higher and start faster than they actually did, they were pretty cautious that entire half. We have a chance to adjust now.

Not sure why we wouldn’t? Chelsea will struggle to contain him if we manage to successfully counter them.

Physical attributes are valued above all else in this system so Onana could make sense, I havnt seen him play that much though tbf.

Feels like Villa flopped in what might be their big moment for 4th, the opposite of what we did vs Man United last season essentially.

Nunez is an animal

Atalanta will be disappointed if they don’t win this now, Sporting look defensively fragile and could really be 4/5-1 down on another day.