Matt1892

Barnes is starting.

Spurs looking good, I was hoping there position in the league was down to playing championship fodder like Sheffield United and Burnley but they are matching Arsenal today.

Which better creative options are better than ours?

I think the cup is winnable once you get City out of the way and their second string will still be head and shoulders above what we will face today, so if you want to win both games you should mix it up today. I don’t think any of the Sheffield United players would even get on our bench, so if we don’t get 3 points today then questions need to be asked about what Howe is doing.

Why the City game?

Exactly this. If we have players in the squad that we don’t trust to get us the points against Sheffield United then they shouldn’t even be in the squad. As for Trippier, he had a hard game on Tuesday against Leao and is likely to have an even harder game on Wednesday against Grealish, so rest him and bring Livramento through against the weaker opposition and opponent in Luke Thomas.

Also, we’re Wilson, Barnes and Anderson that poor against Brentford or has fatigued kicked in already?

So you spend £30 million plus on a young right back yet only give him the chance to play when either Trippier is in poor form or is struggling with fatigue??

That is why you have a squad of players, to rotate them so they remain fresh all season. This is pretty standard stuff.

The game Wednesday is going to be much harder and every bit as crucial, unless we plan on going out of the cup with a whimper. If we don’t feel that we can trust Livramento starting against relegation fodder in Sheffield United then what was the point in having him here this season.

He has been here a month, if a player has been injured for 3 months you don’t need to add an extra month on to that so they can get match fit. He’s also been on the bench the last 2 league games.

I went to the Etihad yesterday to watch Man City vs Forest as me and my boy started working our way through the 92 league grounds at the start of last season with yesterday being the 19th ground. It was the first time visiting for me and I did like the stadium despite it not being traditional; however what did stand out was how appealing the atmosphere was which is probably the worst I’ve been to. City were completely dominant in the first half but there was no songs from the crowd after they joined in with blue moon before kick off, just cheering after the goals and a polite applause if they have a well worked move, in between it was that quiet you can hear random conversations going on around you that have nothing to do with football or the game. The second half they tried to pick it up when City went down to 10 men but apart from a 10 second blast of “City, City, City” “We love you City, we do” “C’mon City” another blast of blue moon when it went in to extra time before a “we shall not be moved” at the end it was completely silent, apart from the Forest fans who gave a good showing. Also, at 2-0 up and 82 minutes gone it was noticeable how many people started to leave the stadium, with the added on time there was 15 minutes still to go. Fans not deserving of the team they have.

If Howe is using his squad properly then Barnes and Livramento should be starting this one. I have no idea what we are doing with Hall at this point.

He hasn’t settled in a position yet, he’s played DM, RW and CF for Southampton.

The worry for me is that he will carry on with the formation rather than looking to change it as part of the team evolving, which will still be enough to get 3 points against the weaker teams which you would expect with the players and money we have spent but leaves us exposed against the better opposition players and managers.

It said on talksport there is issues with communication, that we don’t have anyone that can communicate with him pitch side so we can’t get in game instructions through to him. He is having intensive English lessons to try to rectify this.

I thought it was a nailed on penalty and fair play to Gordon in his determination that won it.

Minteh assist Minteh goal

Quality goal that.

Yeah, he had a pass for a long time due to how strong we were defensively but since that side of our game has gone out of the window then it’s hard to justify his position in the starting eleven.

He did everything Howe wants from a midfielder; worked hard, didn’t give the ball away, alert for turnover in possession, linked up play with the wide man, didn’t make mistakes or take any unnecessary risks. This isn’t necessarily the top priorities I would want in a midfielder but for Howe with our formation and tactics he did what was required of him to a good standard.

Time to get back to winning ways. 3-1.

I will be surprised if we get anyone in January, unless it’s a loan with obligation to buy and we won’t want Sancho under those conditions.

The issue for Isak is that he is completely isolated up top with how we set up in midfield, if he does drop deep then he isn’t playing on the shoulder which is where we try to feed him in quite a bit. We set up kind of like a teardrop shape, with Bruno at the base and then Joelinton and Tonali slightly more advanced but quite wide, then Gordon and Almiron even further forward and wider with Isak isolated all on his own up top. This leaves a huge gap in behind him that is very rarely filled by any of our players. I would look at going with a midfield of Bruno and Tonali as the double pivot and I would be interested in seeing what Barnes would be like in that role behind Isak, as the danger for the opposition would be that if they follow Isak deep he links up with Barnes for the 1-2 overlap, which is how HB gets a high number of his goals. I feel sorry for Isak, if he was in Arsenal’s team he would live up to his potential how they set up to support the striker. I’m not sure he will here apart from the odd moments of magic with how we set up currently.

Hopefully he is starting to find his form, even if it is against a poor standard of opposition.