WilliamPS

It was never going to be plane sailing - from the takeover to being part of the elite, this season is going to be a tough one. Did people honestly think it would just be season after season of higher league places? I don’t blame Howe at all, I’d probably apportion more blame for this season on whoever was supposed to do the background checks on Tonali. José is a busted flush and replacing Howe with him is a terrible take. Mourinhos time at the top of the game has long gone. Howe is a far better coach and man manager.

True, but it’s one thing asking them to step up for a couple of games vs perform week in week out for an extended time. As well as Miley and Anderson have done they likely will struggle to keep form consistently, it’s unfair on them to expect anything else.

It’s a fair point about how the stadium has changed. It changed constantly until 2002 (roughly! I can’t remember when everything got built! Many fans will remember the gallowgate stand going up and the leaves end being rebuilt twice. It’s only been the same the last 20 years. However a lot of new stadia do go wrong, even commercially successful ones like the emirates and Wembley are total failures for atmosphere and experience

This match isn’t even in the top ten most important games of the season. Sunderland are a midtable championship side, so yeah it’s their biggest game, but compared to Milan in the CL it’s nothing

Top tip; sign up to the main NYT as a foreign reader for £20, and the athletic is bundled (it’s still shite but it’s cheaper shite)

Kane would have been relentless as City, Levy did the league a favour (and Kanes career huge damage!) in blocking that one. Arguably bad for Spurs too as it allowed all their other problems to be masked for years, now a manager is actually had to manage them. Haaland is incredible (11 already in the PL) but Kane would have brought even more out of the rest of the City players.

Bournemouth are a poor side, if you had to pick a team to play when injury ravaged you might well pick this lot Really think it’s a big opportunity and the 11 on the pitch will have the quality to win

Probably a lot of swelling in the ligaments. Maybe They don’t think there is a tear but the swelling needs to go down before he does anything or it’ll aggravate it and tear. The risk is the swelling goes down and they find there is damage and need to operate anyway

I am not a fan of the Trippier to LB stuff but it would be slightly more credible against Arsenal as they are not the biggest team. People tend to ignore Burns ability in the air esp at set pieces, if Burn is out you’ve only got the two CBs and Wilson (if he’s playing) as players really strong in the air. Joelinton and slightly surprisingly Willock are decent beyond that there’s not much. Against any side that plays 3 CBs or just has a bit of height in midfield you want 4 players who have the height to defend corners (to mark the 1 big striker and 3 CBs / 2 CBs and whoever else is big)

Assume there’s pain or discomfort and they were hoping it was just swelling rather than damage and it would be solved with rest. Frustrating!

Both are rotten but Schar in midfield has a another level of terrible take. I don’t agree with it, but Trippier at LB is a legit position he has played. Whereas Schar in midfield is nuts

I must be the only one that winces at the knee slides - your cruciates lads your cruciates! Man United have an easy run of games now where (hopefully) they’ll do well enough that this circus limps on. The last thing you want to see is them acting to fix their problems

Has Tonali not learned his lesson?!

My guess is if he has bet on Milan games he will get a big two year ban, but this will then be reduced to one year for admitting guilt and cooperating. Probably can’t train until June next year or so. Fagiolis is a one year ban reduced to 7 months for pleading guilty, so I’d take that as the precedent. It is a proper kick in the balls as Tonalis ceiling is a lot higher than Longstaffs or Joelintons. Tonali was supposed to be like Botman, Bruno and Isak and lift the quality level. The club will just have to suck it up. The hierarchy will be livid as this basically costs £18m (wages plus the share of the transfer fee given it’s about a quarter of the contract length)

What’s wrong with having a load of English players (or any nationality really!), makes no difference if they are good enough

Daft comments from Keagan, and before people go on about wanting men on men’s games, remember it’s the same root cause as all those ex pros who tell fans “you’ve never played the game at a top level so you can’t comment” it’s a way of busted old knackers protecting what they see as their patch from outsiders or defending themselves when their opinions are nonsense

If this was the plan I think we’d have seen it by now i can see it being used when chasing a game but don’t think we’ll have a formation change this season

Athletic’s problem is they have to stretch out every story as they have so many podcasts and pages to fill. Gets so tedious. The written bits are the same, a two line update becomes 500 words

Sheffield are a big side at set pieces, so risk taking Burn out of the side for that.

Am not sure it’s always wise to get too deep into team selections. Howe may make some changes not on form or fatigue but based on what he considers the best way to beat them. E.g. This might suit Wilson more than isak, the wide players might reflect their full backs abilities etc For me this is a more important game than Wednesday. Going out first round of the league cup is fine given the CL commitment and beating Sheffield and Burnley is important for a good league season.

Man Utd fans complain constantly about what they have became - some fans even made a whole new club! First time I’ve ever heard anyone claim Liverpool fans don’t complain either. They have whole fan groups to pressure the owners about the soul of the club (groups like spirit of shankly) (see also the protests about the super league)

They’ve certainly managed to get you defending them.

A free press challenging what a dictator says is a bad thing? Should they be like the Saudi press and have their hands chopped off for asking awkward questions? If the Saudis want to play with western toys like the PGA golf and PL football then they get the press scrutiny

The claims of “we’ve got our club back” were always going to ring hollow. NUFC will now become a football mega brand, like Man City or Man Utd, we’re fans are customers and TV deals in Asia more important than local supporters. That is the price of a good team on the pitch. City are unrecognisable from the club they used to be - as is a lot of their fan base. The only way to have success in the PL without being a brand with a football club attached is if you are taken over by a super rich fan - the Brighton /Leicester model - and that has a ceiling based on the owners wealth. Just wait until the existing fan base are referred to as ‘legacy fans’! People can decide for themselves whether that’s a price worth paying, the alternative is a midtable PL existence at best. For some the CL and competing for trophies will be worth it, for other it won’t.

A £100m+ release clause is fairly meaningless as if a club came in for Bruno at that price it would come down to player power anyway - if he wanted to go he’d go and it would be seen as fair to all parties. Its only when a release clause is stupidly low does it cause problems