janpawel

I agree, a while ago I used to want him as an 8, however I think it's more clear that we need high levels of athleticism in our 8s which Bruno doesn't have, instead being better at other things and orchestrating play from the middle I do often wish we had someone more athletic in the middle, especially for protecting against transitions/counters etc, but if you mix Bruno and someone like Kante you'd probably have the best midfielder ever so its unlikely someone exists like that ?

Very true, also forgot they beat Tottenham just over a week ago ?

As good as Villa have been and I think they've been great, have they beaten a good team? I can only think of Chelsea and Brighton, whereas we've beaten Man City, Arsenal, PSG etc Not that it matters in a way, points on the board are more important of which they have a few more than us Be interesting how they do against City and Arsenal, should be fun games

Would love to see us with a bernardo silva/barella in midfield...Though we seem to prefer pace and power in our midfield looking at our options, though that could change in future windows

Yeah I hate to go along with the conspiracy stuff, but even the fact VAR is only supposed to intervene when a mistake had been made, not re-ref every decision... I think it's even more clear in slow motion that it isn't a pen. You could understand if he had a poor view and awarded the pen (which he correctly didn't) But how on earth he ended up changing it... I thought other than that he reffed the game well, and remember in the world cup final he was great.. This just stands out so much to he incompetence

Yeah I think to play in our midfield 3 requires a huge amount of intelligence and each position seems to be unique, ie Longstaff and his relationship with tripper/Miggy is totally different to joelinton and burn/Gordon... It's not a case at all of just slotting in and winging it Amazing he can fill in as effectively away at a European superclub. Wonder what we will do next season with him, a loan at some point I'd have thought would be the plan but he looks good enough to genuinely be a key part of our squad

They remind me of us last season, I think they could get 4th

If they play like today, and we have a better bench than yesterday, id favour us for 3 points. Then again our away form is crap and we'll probably have more injuries by then ? Villa weren't exactly good and they managed to get the 3 points. Was a great game to watch. I think a full strength Spurs are the better side but Villa have a better squad and seem to have managed the season brilliantly so far and don't have the injury issues like us I hope we have some luck with injuries and our away form picks up so we can continue to compete with them for 4th

Only if Milan don't beat Dortmund I think?

Does anyone actually know any specifics of city's 100+ charges? Not asking for a list, but surely not all these will be specific X amount over FFP threshold like Everton Just seeing a lot of stuff on social media about how the charges city may get need to be directly in proportion to the Everton deduction, when you can't be over the FFP threshold 117 times in a handful of years...

Really hope this guy isn't going to be someone who is frequently injured ala Wilson. Not certain, but pretty sure he had an excellent injury record while in Spain. We could really do with a guy we can rely on for season

Man u always are there or thereabouts, even if they are playing terrible, I always feel when we go on a losing streak the table massively swings against us ?

Totally agree! Though I do think Willock has such a high ceiling and unique skillset, if he could do the great work he does on the left chanel also in the middle of the pitch, we'd have our own Bellingham

I know what you mean, and whilst Gordon pretty 2 footed, his right is definitely stronger, and livramento/tripper both like to put a cross in so I can't imagine this being best for Gordon Not saying it might not be the plan, otherwise Barnes and Gordon is means a pretty strong LW spot with 2 40m singing there ?

Surely we can raise this as collusion of some sort? Even if the 3 things put in place in spite of us have a reasonable argument, it just seems extremely targeted?

I agree

I kind of feel they beat us the way we beat arsenal, player for player arsenal are clearly superior, but we nullified them and played to our strengths, won it physically etc Feel the reverse is true for dortmund

Dortmund aren't near the best team we've played the last year, but we seem to struggle against them the most.... Sure Howe will get lots out of this no matter how the tie goes F'ing hope we do something this half mind

So excited for this, it's one of those games where a draw massively suits them as it gives them the advantage h2h, essentially giving them a 1 point advantage I'd certainly go all out as we don't want to be in a position where we rely on them to drop points over the last 2 games, or us to win in Paris etc

For those who think we will definitely make signings, do you think it will be stop gap singing (which we don't appear to do) Or the 'bringing forward' of long term targets. Like we did with Gordon, who was apparently supposed to be a summer singing

Yeah has a bit of the van dijk aura from a few year ago about him, strong, fast, always making the right decision and calm as out Thought he handled Wilson easily, other than when they had the tussle from on the half way line and Wilson took him out the game, think it ass the chance that gordon could have taken after Miggy played him through

Still don't understand how the tackle on Longstaff wasn't even reviewed on VAR? Like I thought it checks everything where there is even a remote chance of a different decision?

Whilst I think he is brilliant and has a unique role in our team, I certainly think his ceiling is lower than the likes of Willock, Tonali (presumably) and Bruno. I loved the big Joe / little Joe rotation we had last season, but the fact we now have Gordon and Barnes for the LW suggests this won't be the plan going forwards

Good point! I made a post about us having him, him him etc in midfield that you refer to, my line of thinking is that it is our strongest area (providing they are fit and not suspended) with RW, Keeper, CB and probably another striker a more urgent priority next window But it is an interesting question, which midfielder or midfielders are we most likely to sell in future so we can make such progress?

Do you really think we'd sign a Neves or other 40/50m midfielder, with tonali coming back in summer? That'd give us Bruno, Tonali, Neves(eg), Joelinton, Willock, Longstaff, Anderson, and Miley coming through Seems overkill to me imo, I could see us doing a loan for him or someone else which enables us to stick to the 'plan' that the club clearly has