Vaj

Always thought this. The whole team suffers with his absence. The defence either stays as high as they do but have no keeper to sweep and get exposed for pace or they drop deep to compensate for this and the gap between defence and midfield causes us issues. Desperate for him to return

He makes the run but if the ball isn’t perfect he rarely gets on the end of it because he is so slow. Can’t be arsed watching him plod around the pitch, falling over when someone breathes on him and throwing his arms in the air as he loses the ball once again

This has been awful. They’re shit

Is this the worst Longstaff performance yet? Fuck me

Also, Botman must still have an issue with the earlier injury in the season. A shadow of his former self

Awful half. Brillaint finish from Isak to give us a chance to go again. Longstaff shocking again, bring on Miley! Time wasting bookings seem to not be a thing anymore, their keeper has taken an age every time he has had a goal kick

Before making any signings could Joelinton do a job on the right wing? He has shown to be quite effective on the left wing rotating with Willock but I wouldn't say his qualities on the left wing would be reduced by playing on the right as opposed to someone like Harvey Barnes who needs to play that side to cut inside and hit one. Could have a midfield and front three of: Gordon Isak Joelinton Tonali Bruno Willock

For me personally, it isn't that Longstaff can't do a job for us as 5th or 6th in line. It is that, if you can sell Longstaff for say £20m, you can then technically sign two £50m players on five year contracts for the same outlay for FFP for this season. Obviously it is more complicated than that with wages, agent fees, signing on fees and having to ensure you don't breach the rules going forward, but it would definitely give us so much more freedom to make some big signings. The main problem would be finding a suitable buyer for that price!

If possible I would sell Almiron and Murphy to raise some funds and replace them with Minteh and a top class RW. Would also sell Longstaff if we get the chance as that would be pure profit for FFP purposes. On top of the RW we definitely need a younger quicker CB, a new striker (sell Wilson if he isn't happy being third choice) and then a CM to replace Longstaff that can also play deeper to cover Bruno/allow him to play further forward in certain games and then finally a LB. RW - Williams ST - Sesko CM - Kone/Thuram LB - Kelly CB - Adarabioyo or maybe someone younger from Europe with a higher ceiling Doubt we could get Sesko though.

Midfield three of Tino, Schar and Santon for me

The bias from the commentary was horrendous

Honking performance but in the hat which is the main thing. Need to improve but if we can get Leicester, Coventry or the winner of the Wolves game we have a decent chance for Wembley

I have no faith in Dubravka saving any and can see a lot of players missing. Hope I’m wrong!

I would be tempted to go 4-2-3-1 with Gordon in behind Isak and Barnes and Miggy out wide

One of the worst halves of the season for me (considering opposition), pretty much every player looks shit. There’s been no reaction at all, an embarrassing 45 and we are lucky to be level

I assume it’s because they have deemed the defender touch to not be deliberate so doesn’t matter that it came off him. A joke though in my opinion and even more baffling is the original disallowing of the goal!

Wonder if they will get towards our 8 here

Embarrassing that the referee only gave a yellow card at first. Refereeing just keeps getting worse, horrible tackle!

Some baffling decisions but absolutely comical that Senesi wasn’t booked

Hopefully once he has fully settled, Tonali can offer that. He showed signs of it before his ban

Yeah I agree and that’s why I think the central midfielder is less important in the summer when everyone is back but going forward we need more pace at the back and for the rest of this season, Tino has to start for me.

The summer transfer window is so important. Our lack of pace needs to be addressed. A proper left back and a centre back need to be purchased that both have pace. Preferably a central midfielder as well that can be defence minded but also fit into Howe’s style. Howe can’t continue to play a high pressing game with a high line with the lack of pace we have got, teams are figuring it out

Difference is that Trippier has been playing well most of the games but then has had ‘moments’. Burn, when he isn’t playing well, can be awful and you could see it coming

Probably all already said. Great comeback but two points dropped and that was on Howe. Everyone could see that Burn had to come off or get help at half time, reactive not proactive from Howe. Tino is clearly our best option at left back…play him! No coincidence we didn’t concede again when he came on

Tino has to come on. Whether that’s for Burn or to go five at the back because we can’t lose Burn for set pieces I don’t care but we need his pace against their wing back. Got a bad feeling about this but hopefully Wilson and Barnes have enough in the tank to make the difference!