Viana

Yeah, a bit like our loss there last year it's a huge test for them now. They have to come back and show they've got character, potentially without Botman there.

I'll give you that. Allison, Robertson are very good and Trent's great on the ball, but still, the rest are in that upper echelon of players relative to the league whereby mistakes are few and far between. I also don't want this to get lost in the mire - we created a lot of chances we just didn't take.

We have to be a bit careful here. That's an elite Liverpool squad that just dropped 120m on midfielders. They brought on a 80million striker without blinking. I don't know how often we'll face that kind of quality sitting off us and asking us to break them down. Throw in the fact Allison bailed them out and we fluffed some good half chances. It's a perfect storm of events that contributed to this defeat. We can still make changed to the midfield so Bruno is slightly further up. If anything I think Howe has geared our transfers so that we have versatility and different options in different positions. We don't have the financial flexibility to buy specialists like James Maddison.

This was a different game though. Even before the red card Liverpool sat off us and wanted us to play. That's a different kind of game to say Man Utd or Spurs who tried to out fight us and got steamrolled. I think I'd agree that Barnes feels like an accessory to his style right now, but Tonali feels like a central building block that is adaptable enough to play in several styles. The same is true of Gordon. I think it's difficult to justify anything but ample opportunity for Eddie to impart his preference on the squad while we build, but it's interesting to see your interpretation of the deals, as I believe a lot of the major signings are not one style players but rather promising players that can be moulded if a new coach comes in 2-3 years down the line.

Hmm, it's an interesting discussion to have, I just don't know if I can see the other side of the argument. They tried for a more 'pedigreed' option in Unai Emery and were rejected. I don't remember who else was available at that time, but you'd have to consider the first 18 months of Howe's tenure an success. In terms of transfers, it would appear from the limited exposure on All or Nothing, that deals require full alignment from the recruitment team, and I can't think of any that have been total failures (Wood is probably the worst, but was a desperate, temporary, solution). That leads us into the topic of his style. He wanted us to bridge the gap as quickly as possible and has clearly (if somewhat ironically) seen a blueprint in what Liverpool did under Klopp. No system is infallible, and Howe's next obstacle showed itself today - how do we break through teams that sit deep. We'll need to figure that out and we'll need to do it promptly.

The good thing is Eddie seems pretty resilient. Go back to his methods and figure it out. Coaching is a journey after all.

Worth noting, and I can only speak personally, a lot of the frustration here is because it's Liverpool. A more sanctimonious bunch of cry arses you couldn't wish to meet, and we've somehow gifted them three points. Makes Turkey Teeth look like a genius and Darwin Nunez like he's not a horse in an ice rink.

It's been a tough start to the season, but we should be on six points here. My only concern early on is that I felt like against City and Liverpool, we let a wounded animal regain composure and ultimately beat us. I'm not quite seeing that same 'intensity is our identity' stuff. It's a long season, it's an even longer project, so we'll just have to see.

He was something special today. Justified the big billing he got in the Amazon doc. Trent used one of this three wishes to get him taken off because he made him look like a mannequin.

Honestly, think he was put in a tactical quagmire today. You can't have him play six and attempt to take risks against a team that counters as well as Liverpool. Either drop Joelinton in there to screen and shift Bruno up or have Tonali do it. If I have one criticism of him it's that he's desperately trying to make them 1-2s happen and they just aren't. I also feel like I see three or four instances a game where he's asking for the ball in space and not getting it.

Echo all of this. I could have understand Barnes possible for Miggy if you wanted a more clinical option to get on the end of overloads and make most of the space, but it just felt like Howe was trying to inject some energy into the game without considering what we would lose. I love Longstaff, but the first few weeks have only shown the drop off between him and Tonali. This team's whole success has been built on energy, intensity, and ruffling feathers. We had none of that and looked terrified by their potential on the counter. I give Allison credit for some mammoth stops, but this was a brutal afternoon for Howe in terms of trying to prove he's ready to step into that top tier of managers. If he doesn't learn from this he's fucked.

He's getting stick because if you're taking off one of him or Gordon it has to be him. It's fine margins, but Gordon had Trent on toast every time. I love Miggy, and he was denied a wonder goal by an outstanding save today, which makes the one that hit the post all the more important. As the margins get finer at the top of the table he's going to need to be more clinical.

This is the first time under Howe I'm genuinely baffled by every decision he's made and I think he's cost us that game by over-thinking. We had them, we absolutely had them and he takes off Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali for absolutely no good reason. The first 30-35 minutes we kept it even and had the better of it. Then after the red card we just forgot where the gas pedal was. Sorry like, but need an absolute barnstorming performance against Brighton now to eradicate that.

I try to look at these games as a great opportunity for the fans to create an intimidating atmosphere and the players to harness that energy.

To be clear, all I'm saying is I don't see Brighton getting top 6 again, probably closer to 10th.

No that's fair, but that could be the path to a 1-0 win for a lesser side. My point is more, everyone was willing to hail De Zerbi as the next elite coach, but in reality, this season was going to present a lot of new challenges that he hasn't faced before. That's why I wanted to see what, if any, tweaks he'd make to his system to make it more robust tactically. It would appear he's just running it back, which may well work against the bottom bunch who lack quality, but West Ham have that quality and they've shown a lot of teams how to approach a trip to Brighton.

Brighton in for a long old season I think. They've got more games to play and teams will have sussed what stifles them at home - a deep defensive line, and trying to isolate your strongest and their weakest in one on one battles like that Antonio goal. The latter is basically how we battered them 4-1 last season.

I do think we have to take some responsibility as a sport for the fact we've created a situation whereby experienced refs are 'afraid' to send their mates to the VAR screen. It's a failing on both sides; the FA for not allowing refs to explain and fans for being chronically abusive. The idea that it's on VAR or the FA to fix alone won't actually help. You'll likely just make the pool of referees smaller (of which it already is quite small). We still haven't figured out how to practically apply VAR. I think personally, the best way would be apply it for situations involving offside with the threshold for offside being if your foot is ahead of the last defender and for cases of identifying who committed an action/off the ball incidents which I grant you aren't many. You could use it for errors relating to penalty calls like today with Rashford, but that may again muddy the waters. That way you give a lot more power back to the on field referee and you stop the demand for every infraction to involve VAR. The worst refs on a Sunday morning are the ones constantly stopping it. Those who just try to maintain the flow are the best and I think the same is true here.

Hardly played many games for Sporting in a league that's not the greatest. Not sure what they expected. I've noticed you have some feisty debates with folk on here about Man Utd Any genuine concern how easy it is to bypass your midfield?

They were on ESPN today against Coventry. A fairly even contest overall. You can see how much they miss a striker though. It was the difference between Coventry creating better chances.

Everton screaming relegation here. I feel like I watched so many games like that in the two seasons we went down under Ashley. I only caught the second half, but felt like a carbon copy of the Fulham game where they played the better football, created more chances, and then get undone by one goal.

The game is there for Forest if they can find a bit of composure with the ball. Right now they're rushing the pass and you can see it's leaving Morgan Gibbs-White quite frustrated. I can see Man Utd struggling at home this year though given how it's once again far too easy to get in behind their midfield. I'd back us to win if we were playing there tomorrow.

I don't imagine financially we'd want a lot, but I am curious to see what appetite there is from Eddie Howe to do the deal. By all accounts Lascelles is an important dressing room influence and removing that leadership early in the season may be seen as destabilizing.

I can't decide if Wilson or Willock is Bruce's best bit of business.

It would be nice to win just because I felt like last season we left both games with a tone of frustration.