Ellis H

One reassuring thing about today is that this absolutely will not be our last final for another few decades like it would have been before the takeover/Howe. Win or lose, we’ll be back again soon.

Palmer not in the squad. Good for us.

You’ll never get it on Spotify but that’s been a 30 year ear worm for me.

That one is very niche but it takes me right back.

“Eddie Howe's current 24-man Premier League squad contains 46% of the player list he inherited back in 2021”

Win or lose on Sunday, we should give Howe a few months off and get Bruce or Pardew back till the end of the season to remind people what it was like.

81 wins in 162 games for us which is bang on 50%. Only Keegan and Hughton in our entire history of permanent managers have bettered that and any modern manager who could have done better than that would never have taken on the challenge. Like Keegan and Hughton, he was the right man at the right time and hopefully he’ll go one step further on Sunday.

I’d dearly love this squad/manager to win the trophy that ends the curse. Don’t think we’ve had a squad like this that is entirely likeable both on and off the pitch since about 1995. They’ve also really played out of their skins for a good few years now so they do deserve it. It’ll also be the last chance this squad will get since there (presumably) will be a large overhaul in the summer. Howay the lads.

14 wins in 19 with a cup final in a few days “without playing well”. You’d think after decades of being crap and losing we’d actually try and enjoy times like this but apparently not.

Looking at the bigger picture, it’s 13 wins in the last 18. Liverpool and Man City away and the bizarre Bournemouth game are 3 of the 5 defeats. Anyone wanting him gone, as always, is just simply wrong.

Onana needs to be drug tested. Not for performance enhancing drugs though.

If Isak and Gordon miss the final it’ll be hard to put into words just how destructive those few minutes were. The Premier League don’t need to sabotage us, we will always do it ourselves.

Tino is knackered.

It just simply isn’t enough that he’s playing so far above his previously assumed level that he’s got 13 attacking returns in 16.6 league games. It doesn’t matter that he’s saved us at least £50 million, allowed us to sell Almiron for re-investable money and has greatly helped us get to a cup final and be in top 4 contention going into March. He’s the easiest target in the team so we NEED to treat him as such. It’s honestly like moaning about finding £50 in your back pocket. “Why isn’t it £100?!” (Gordon has 12 attacking returns in 22.4 league games and Mbuemo has 19 in 26 league games for comparison, with 5 penalties between them)

Liverpool walking the league with no new signings (Chiesa barely counts) just makes Klopp look really inept so I’m all for it.

How difficult is it to kick it as hard as possible in the bottom corner? I’m convinced most players are fine with missing as long as they get to look proper mint if it actually goes in.

A wins a win etc but we actually had a decent bench today so it’s hard to defend that second half.

He’ll smash Trippier’s previous assist numbers if he stays fit. Trippier got 9 and 10 in the league and Hall is now on 8.

Christian Bale is having a bad game here. Need to keep on him.

The kind of goal you score on Pro Evo when you have it on the lowest level. Embarrassing stuff.

https://www.skysports.com/manchester-united-fixtures.bahsi Their fixtures are beautifully vile. Only Ipswich and Leicester look ok.

Even by the famously elusive Howe’s admission we’ve been bidding for players so it can’t be entirely PSR. The club absolutely shouldn’t publicly explain themselves but it does lead to confusion when there’s mixed messages. He said this about Guehi for example “No, he wasn’t the only target,” he said. “I think a lot goes on into a summer. You never just have one target. That wouldn’t be right. “We went into the summer with several targets. We tried to sign two or three other players. “We didn’t get them. We ended up, ultimately, towards the end of the window, with one target, and we didn’t get him, so that was it.”

The general rule is if Minteh has 2 goals, Murphy would have had 3 goals, 4 assists and hit the woodwork 2 times.