Solitude20

Wouldn’t that be the CEO?

Signing Elanga as our main RW was our biggest mistake in the summer.

He took a few penalties this season, and each penalty gives an xG of 0.8?

I think it’s time Howe looks at a 3-5-2 given how underwhelming our wingers have been. It suits Hall and Tino as wing backs and lets us play two up top with Wissa along with Nick. Gordon can then come on around 60 minutes as a striker and run at tired defenders, or he could be the second striker in case others get injured.

No elite club should have him as their starting RW, we wasted 55m on him since even Murphy is a better backup.

Will he be considered better than Shelvey though? That’s the real question.

Signing of the season.

His long legs definitely help him in duels and winning the ball back.

Over the last 10 years, here’s how many seasons the “big six” have missed out on the Champions League: Arsenal: 6 Man United: 6 Spurs: 5 Chelsea: 4 Liverpool: 2 Man City: 0 The point I’m making is: it’s actually fine if we don’t get in next season. Missing out doesn’t automatically mean we’re stalling or not progressing. The Premier League is brutal, and even the “big 6” drop out regularly. If anything, I wouldn’t mind a proper run at the Europa League. With the new format, it’s become much more winnable, and lifting a European trophy wouldn’t exactly be a bad step in our journey.

What’s really done us in this season is losing both of our first-choice fullbacks at the same time and having our wingers massively underperform. That combination would unsettle any side in world football. If we can get Wissa on the left (he has played more games as a LW than a centre forward), and Tino and Hall properly fit and available, then hopefully things start to settle and look a lot more balanced.

So Elanga picks the ball on the left, Hall was trying to make a run and create an overlap, Elanga runs so fast and leaves him behind. Hall was unsure what to do to do then.

Transfermarkt shows Wissa’s actually played more games on the left wing than up front. Stick him there instead of Gordon and let Nick keep that deep-lying forward role. Nick needs a winger who can score, and Gordon clearly isn’t that.

I hope he gets better in the coming weeks, but spending 100m on him and Ramsey was … a choice.

And for half the price of Isak?

Are we good again or are mid table EPL teams tougher than UCL opponents?