Erikse

Love this: "But when we would walk out towards training he would be like, 'I'm going to nutmeg you, you and you today,' and he could take the ball and just go past five or six, take it around the 'keeper and have an empty net but take the ball back to go around a defender again. David Meyler reflecting on his time at Hull.

God I wish we played him every game when he was here.. Him constanly sitting on the bench or even in the stands was mad frustrating. I just wanted to see Ben Arfa do his magic. Instead we were stuck with Obertan..

It's actually kind of funny how different they are. It's almost as if Howe just went "I'm sick and tired of these little magic tricks, give me the most direct winger you can find".

I've had this discussion here a couple of times before, but I think he's really underrated in terms of assisting goals. His assist to Gordon looked very much like some of those he did at Leicester, and he can put in good deliveries with his left aswell. It's no coincidence that he has a high assist number throughout his carreer, almost as high as his goal count. But some point to his xA and suggest that those number are lying. Just like Leicester had when he was there, we also have effective attacking players to convert from various situations. Against Bournemouth his xA was 0.31, but his assist was brilliant. If we didn't see the assist and would judge purely based on the numbers, we would assume that he was lucky to get an assist that game, and that the finisher should get most of the credit for the goal. This is small scale, but I'm convinced that this translates to many of his assists at Leicester aswell. And just to add, he will probably also make some weird choices and put in some headless crosses at times, not denying that. But just like with his finishing, he has his moments where he creates a decent chance from a tricky situation.

I really thought that one of the reasons for bringing in Osula would be to take minutes off of Isak when Wilson is out. Like when Isak is getting really tired, and we are up by a goal or so.

They rejected 140m euros for him last summer. Insane.

Oh I actually didn't see it, that's funny. Usually noone bothers to look these things up, so I just assumed that noone had done it.

Yeah I said it in another thread after asking here and checking.

Went from barely missing out on CL a few times with Leicester to miss out on CL even more with Spurs.

Maybe, I'm just observing that we haven't been able to pull it off, and I mentioned the injuries aswell. Last season we were probably missing Pope. Now he is here. Schar will be back next game.

Absolutely, it seems like we are sitting deep rather than pressing high so far this season. Feels like our identity of intense high press died out with the injuries last season, and we have never really managed to pull it off again in the same manner. I also recall there being less high press at the start of last season, but that was probably to preserve a little bit of energy before the european campaign. Was expecting more of it this season without Europe.

He was going very fast, it doesn't take much. Besides, you don't have to break someones leg for there to be a foul.

Just for fun I went to check when the last time we started a season with atleast 7 points was. It was the 11/12 season where we finished 5th. But our goal difference was worse (3-1 vs 4-2), so technically this is the best 3 game start to a PL season since the 95/96 season. I noticed a pattern of slow starts to say the least.

When was the last time we had 7 points from our first 3? Must be a very long time.

I noticed that aswell, I think he tunnel visioned and assumed that he was on his own.

Yes, I know. I thought you were saying that it was expected, as this was an away game. But it's probably not what you meant.

Gotta love how we are pretty much the only ones who knows we should've had a pen. The commentators, producers, referree and VAR all did a great job of brushing it off. Not seeing any talk of it elsewhere. Imagine if it was one of the you know who teams, everyone would be talking about it.

Almost seemed like he didn't even look to his side. Anyone know if he did?

Not sure if that's what you meant, but this wasn't an away game. Could be interpreted both ways.

We have too many players who just can't avoid injuries.. I'm not even convinced that Pope will last. Players coming back will feel like new signings until more players start getting injuries. Willock is not a "new signing" until he proves that he can last more than 3 games. Wilson coming back was never seen as a "new signing", because it never lasts. As for Hall, he is still not really being trusted. Just slightly more than 1 year ago.

I thought the same when it happened. Will say, judging by that assist, it will probably not be his only one for us.

They allways get hyped up like crazy after 1 good game, and then fall back down again next weekend.

Looks pretty sharp before getting tired, but not much help once again. We were sitting pretty deep in large parts of the game.

Worth £70m!

Isak loves playing against Spurs.