Erikse

I just didn't read the entire discussion at first, looked different out of context.

If we were 16th on the away table, in what way were we not shite away from home? In what way does our home performances change what we did away from home? Edit: I thought the entire discussion was about away form in isolation.

You know, I remember some of our players talking about how funny of a guy Wilson was. I must say, he does make me laugh more than any other player.

We were around 16th in the away table at that point, despite being near top 4. It was only at the end of the season we started picking up points away from home.

I think his confidence was also a bit low aswell when he was here. He came here after a pretty rough patch at Burnley.

I don't think anyone really thinks he did superb for us, I think the discussion is about over the top comments of him as a player.

He's scoring at an unusually high rate yes, might be his best 9 game patch even. But lets not forget that he has scored atleast 10 goals in 5 different seasons before, including 14 last season. I'd say Wellbecks recent scoring form is more of an outlier.

Manager of the month in his first month, and then sacked 2 months later.

He looked pretty good in pre season last season. Would've played most of our games mid season if it wasn't for that back injury.. We will never know how that would've played out, unfortunately.

6 even, if you count Krafth. Not really related to your point, but 4 of them are past 30.. We're going to need atleast 2 more of good quality in the next few years.

I went Son in for Saka thinking Son was just sore, as Ange said on wednesday. Apparently he was injured.

Likewise we can play Gordon on the right and Barnes on the left. It's not ideal, but it's not exactly ideal to play some of the ones you mentioned out of position either, especially when we lack depth in several positions. I suppose the perfect scenario would've been to sign a player who was best at right wing, but could also cover left wing pretty well when needed.

Last season we had a midfield crisis, whenever Joelinton was available we would've had a huge problem if Gordon was also out. Isak can cover LW, but I have never been impressed by him there. He seems wasted there. On top of that Wilson is never fit, so if Gordon is out aswell, Isak can't just cover both. Relying on playing players out of position is only really viable if you can afford to have less depth in other positions.

The problem then becomes depth at LW. Last season Gordon played an incredible amount of minutes, partly due to the Barnes injury, but if Gordon would have been injured we wouldn't have a natural LW to cover. We can use Joelinton there, but then we're just moving the problem to midfield instead. It seemed as if we had to sell ASM to buy anyone, and that left us short in that position. The ideal thing would have been to get a young but ready LW for a cheap price on top of an RW, but we couldn't even get a reasonably priced third choice striker for this season.. Indeed we are weak on the right, but atleast we have a couple of players who are natural right wingers. From a depth perspective an LW made more sense, just not from a first 11 perspective. Added games from CL was definetly a consideration. Maybe we should've tried to find someone cheaper than Barnes for that role, and save the rest of the money instead, as I think Howe still had a lot of faith in Gordon.

Don't forget that he missed a chance last weekend. No way anyone will be in for him now.

Look at it this way. We made some big signings, and they turned out to be a success. But, we end up with an unbalanced team of stars and mediocre players, with not enough depth, and PSR hitting us harder than ever. Our star signings have increased in value by a lot, but that only matters if we're selling one. Currently as a team we rely on players who are being held back by the players around them, and the big increase in value doesn't count for anything atm. If Isak wants to stay, then great, we will not throw him out unless the bid is right. But it's becoming more clear that we can't build a balanced and deep squad by being shit scared of losing someone who can actually play fotball. Some would argue that we should have taken a more depth oriented approach from the beginning. That can still be done, if we take advantage of the success we've had with the bigger signings, by securing that big profit. Gotta love what PSR does to us fans, btw.

I think Tonali still hasn't completely adapted to the PL either. From what I've seen, he often looks better for Italy. Might also be chemistry involved there. He needs to play as much as possible as long as he's playing fine, and then we can judge after some time.

We need players who can give us that little bit extra. Longstaff can do a job, but it's very rare that he does something extraordinary. We have enough of the Longstaff types in the team. Offensively we've been missing players with that little bit extra sometimes (when Isak is not fit and in form), and it's what makes the top teams win games where the opponent tries to defend most of the game. For example, I don't think Longstaff would be well suited for the gamestate of the last 2 games. We would have been even easier to defend against with him in there.

What a performance by Paul Mitchell! Rescuing Gordon from the claws of Liverpool. A true hero. Eddie can't thank him enough!

The one player who didn't let Pardew drag him down, so he had to put him in the stands.

Almost as easy as smashing PSG.

Still have to monitor Sons injury situation now. Son is out tomorrow. Think he will be fine aswell for the weekend though. Edit: apparently just sore, and they didn't plan to have him involved anyways.

Wait, I thought his head was in Liverpool and he couldn't wait to leave?

Sign him up!