Erikse

Injuries tends to happen more frequently past a certain age in football. Some players get them earlier than others, but it's not uncommon to have more injuries in the final years of your carreer. This was one of the risks of keeping him. It's just unfortunate that we're not allowed to spend, otherwise getting a replacement would be an option.

I still think just the fact that Napoli and Conte wanted to buy him for that price tells me something though. Not that he is a world beater, but probably better than quite a few players in our startin 11. Obviously we have a few players that are some levels above, but not that many imo. Not that any of this matters, we got Tonali (probably due to the situation he was in), and that seems to turn out well in the end.

You might be right. But I will say me (and seemingly others) who rates him now also rated him enough to not be against the signing back in 2023. So saying "crazy what a couple of games does to your reputation" makes no sense in this case. If you go back some pages you will find that not everyone thought he was bad, even at your club. So it's not based on a couple of games.

You reckon Sancho isn't good enough for a club that wants to compete at the top in the Premier League either? Just curious. I see what you're doing though, basically saying that nomatter how well he does in Napoli, it doesn't matter for anything because it's not the Prem. You say that because you know very well that the performances might (and probably will) continue.

I think McTominay looks better for Scotland than what Lukaku does for Belgium. And to my understanding his spell at Roma wasn't terrible, but it wasn't exactly superb either. His best spell in Italy was years ago, and at that time he could have strengthened most top teams. Not trying to throw more jabs at Longstaff, but people here were saying that McTominay was equal to him. I suppose that this is what Man Utd does to your reputation..

Fair, I forgot that we have been a bit fortunate not to concede more. Cheap defenders are difficult to choose from. I went for van de Ven, but after their Brighton game I already regret. They were lucky to keep a CS against Man Utd..

I wonder if Hall is a reliable option? Going for him at the start didn't really work, but is it safe to assume that he will start most games going forward? It's tempting at 4.3, we're doing okay defensively.

Fair point. He has some qualities that works really well in the right system. Another reason as to why we shouldn't just look at players getting shipped from certain clubs as rejects and dismiss any context.

Mr. "not elite enough", "Man Utd reject" and "crap player" doing well in Italy so far.

Isak wouldn't be as much of a threat, and would run out of gas even earlier. He doesn't have the best stamina, unfortunately.

Exactly. If we're ever going to play 4-2-3-1, it's just going to be very close to a 4-3-3 in practice. Don't think Howe wants to play an offensive midfielder who can barely defend. It would have to be one of the central midfielders in a slightly more offensive role, or someone like Gordon.

Not to be the case that it was "unfairly" targetting? Because it was obviously targeted at us in response to the takeover. That email just confirms it, not that it would be any less obvious without the email.

The media knows how to blow it all up and make it seem 10 times more dramatic than what it really is..

League home losses under Howe: Liverpool x3 (out of 3) City x2 Arsenal x1 Forest x1

That's correct. I think we've only lost to Man City and Liverpool (multiple times) and Arsenal (once) at home, outside of Forest.

Last season we were playing Burn at LB whenever he was fit, nomatter who we were playing. Even against bottom sides. It would be a new thing for us to change fullbacks based on opposition. Usually we do some testing at the start of a season, and then we largely stick to the same players in most games, except for when injuries are forcing us to make changes. This is especially true in defence. We tend to change it up a little bit more in midfield.

I was positive about this signing because I thought that he would be the young third choice striker that we really needed this season. Seems like he is not the third choice though, but rather one for the future, so it seems like we did go into another season too dependant on Isak and Wilson to stay fit..

I think anyone will struggle to impress if all they get is one game here and there, and if they don't perform in that one game they go straight back to the bench. Last year Hall had to outperform Burn by a mile to get another chance the next game. You can't find any form or rhythm that way. What we're seeing with Hall now is that he is finally getting the run of games that me and others have been hoping for, and surprise surprise, he gets gradually better for each game that he is starting consecutively. This has allways been a thing in football.

Our other target was said to be Elanga, who seems to be struggling for minutes at Forest..

Crazy to think about the fact that Villa had 3 seasons in the championship between 2016 and 2019.. They got promoted and finished 17th just 4 years ago.

There's allways this massive hype when Man Utd buy players that Bayern and Real are happy to let go, and they never live up to the hype.

Crazy how different of a team Man City is without Rodri. What a player. Key for club and country.

They could've just kept Andersen instead.. More money and probably would've given them better performances aswell. A bit of hindsight here, but the difference in transfer fee was massive, especially with Guehis contract situation.

From what I've heard, de Ligt wasn't a huge success in Bayern either.