jackflap

He has absolutely no final ball when he's on the run and his assist tally tells that. Great chance to put Gordon away in the first half but you never felt he had the pass in him.

Great performance, just copping onto the difference Tino makes at LB, teams have to respect his passing and pace and it opens up the field for us.

I don't think he's really had to be so far but the Tonali situation and injuries mean that we may need more bodies just to protect the ones we have. Our fit players are going to be doing some serious heavy lifting over the next month. We need to have the option to rotate them and with Tonali out that option isn't really there with Bruno though Mileys emergence makes me a little less certain of that. Anything north of 15m for Murphy would have to be taken IMO but not in January. He is an ideal character for a squad player but I don't think he's versatile enough for the role. If we're keeping squad players for wide positions I think they need to be options across the front 3 or else can slot into midfield. I think Hall will be valuable in this spell because he'll likely see minutes at LB, CM and LW over the next month.

Phillips on loan would be the perfect signing for all concerned. The most important thing would be that he would allow us to rest Bruno which is impossible to do at the minute without vastly diminishing our chances of winning. For him and City we're probably the best shop window that'll be available for him given we should hopefully be featuring in high profile fixtures and he'll feature regularly.

Howe is the embodiment of the phrase when the going gets tough the tough gets going. If as unfortunately seems likely we're out of Europe come the New year and our injury crisis has eased hopefully we're still in the running for top 4 as I think they'll be an absolute juggernaut in the league, a squad full of knarly battle hardened bastards with a chip on their shoulder and Howe whipping them into a frenzy every week

Thought when he'd get his opportunity he'd show himself to be too good to leave out and we'd shoehorn him into the side somewhere. The Zanetti comparison is a nice one though a bit premature! Zanetti was my absolute favourite footballer of his era, classy as hell and with a minimum of fuss, no shithousery or silly antics, just got on with the game but what a player, had an uncanny ability to always emerge with the ball no matter how unlikely it seemed. Got left out of Argentinas World cup squad in 2006 because the coach thought he was past it at 32. Was still starting for them in the Copa America in 2011 when he was going on 38.

Gas that it's taken all of a month of his first full season at the club to totally disprove the widespread notion that we overpaid for him

Never a penalty, GK pulled out and Gordon ran into him but deserved after the disallowed goal. Some pen mind

High horse shite, haven't heard anyone "tear" into Howe, if you have to exaggerate to make your point out it might not be worth making. You can be feel overall blessed and still objectively watch a game of football.

Would agree 100% with this, even when he's having a good game he can look like he put on someone else's boots by mistake. Coming into a congested midfield when we're trying to retain the ball just doesn't suit him. Felt like the wrong sub to make given how the game was going today. We needed to keep the ball and Tonali shouldn't have been knackered at least in comparison to the Liverpool players. Think personally it was weak management from Howe, a preordained move that didn't reflect what was needed at the time.

When you look back and tot up all his contributions he usually ends up in credit but he needs to be scoring with at least some regularity to justify the bad stuff, there's at least a couple of instances every game that are just infuriatingly stupid like the 3 on 3 in the first half he fluffed with a reverse pass for Trippier. He has no ability to think on the fly at all, he decides what he wants to do about 5 second in advance and usually does a poor job of disguising his intentions to the opposition.

Thought other than pinging the ball out of play trying to find Gordon in the first half he was tidy today but it was like he became redundant after VVD got sent off. Liverpool sat deep so there was no chance to put the ball in behind and we almost refused to put the ball into the box for him. Noticed him dropping short to look for a pass a few times but anything resembling a risky pass into central areas we shied away from. There was one moment in the 2nd half that stood out where Trippier had loads of space to put a cross in and Isak was in a good position between the Centre halves, Trippier just turned back and recycled the ball into midfield. Wilson frustrated me more with 2 needless naive efforts on goal when we'd good numbers in the box and the opportunity to keep the ball alive.

We're in a vastly different time now in marketing and broadcasting. People staying up all night and paying money to watch YouTubers box is a thing now FFS.

I think once we managed to get Bruno that more or less ruled us out signing an elite out and out DM. I'm firmly in the camp that I don't like him playing further forward. He hasn't that natural burst of athleticism or snap shot ability that you'd want from someone making regular runs into the box. That's why we surround him with ball winners like Joelinton and Tonali/Longstaff, it's a trade off. But it's hard to make a case that the defensive side of our game is suffering when we were among the meanest defences last season. A low assist count from midfield is probably the main outcome of how we're set up.

Real ASM vibes from Doku, strange signing for City considering how structured they play. Not going to happen but would love it if we went in for Palmer, feels like a natural fit considering the business we're doing lately.

Can't see another signing barring injury like Howe said, he seemed fairly definitive and I don't think it's his style to mislead. Plus it's not like other clubs where owners and directors splurge without management being on board. Squad harmony is another big thing and we've a lot of bodies as it is. I think we'll be quite content with Lascelles being the option of last resort and going on last season he seems fairly satisfied with that too. Burn will probably be the backup CB covering both sides I think. They won't sign someone just to have around to cover every eventuality, like CM in January. RCB will be the big one next summer and I think they'll have a primary target well lined up in advance.

Like the Livaremento deal this one is a bit left field but when you take a step back and look at our recruitment it's really going to pay dividends in the years to come and they've done a great job of lowering the average age of the side. Every position now has a long term option for at least the next 5 years with the exception of RW, RCB and maybe GK. We've 6 first team midfielders and the oldest is 27. We've also a smattering of some very talented youngsters. All this in a little over a year and a half and starting from a baseline of 20th in the table. Now watch out for title contenders talk if they beat City this Saturday.

Don't think so, the high profile most prized asset signing that catches the headlines will go for astronomical fees, think your Mudryk, Fernandez or Caicedo. Because the selling club knows that the idiotic buying club owner on the other side of the table isn't accustomed to not getting what they want. You'll still find value in the next tier of players who could have the potential to be just as good anyway.

Or gauze bandages at the very least

He's like a mafia bruiser, all suave and sophisticated one minute and kicking your teeth in the next, love it

I can see why some people may consider Barnes boring but when you look at his goal involvements today he's just efficient, beautiful in it's simplicity. First goal took a bullet pass in one touch out of his feet allowing him to play a perfectly weighted pass to lay a goal on a plate for Wilson. Second goal he gets the ball 40 yards out, in 2 touches he's at the 6 yard box never needing to break stride and ensuring that he's able to get a clean strike away that has enough power that even a touch from the keeper can't keep out. I think if you put ASM in those scenarios at least one would result in a missed opportunity. That's the evolution of the side in a nutshell, we don't need a winger to create something out of nothing anymore, the team creates now, we just need someone to get in the right positions and make it count when they do.

They're looking at a loan move too, their record signing is 20m Euros so can't see them paying more or less double that for Tierney. If he doesn't want to leave the PL I think Arsenal might do business to get him off the books.

If they've no buyers before the end of the window I could see that changing.

A quality LB improves the team more whereas a serviceable RCB does more to improve the squad. It's strange as I don't recall us being linked with any LB's all summer. Perhaps Tierney on a loan signing is all but agreed and Arsenal just want to hold off until the end of the window in case a long term injury occurs to their other options or to have extra cover until Zinchenko returns.

Ashworth: What tends to happen is pre-season finishes and clubs hold a slightly higher number of players. Players then tend to be released from there and then you have the domino effect when the season starts and it accelerates. Tierney seems like the most obvious going off the above. No doubt Arsenal would be reluctant to do business with a PL rival but if Tierney rejects moves elsewhere I could see it happening but sounds like one that will go down to the wire if it does.