Checko

I always think he's a lot more confident on the ball further forward, where there's less risk if he loses it. Playing out from the back I feel if he does anything other than the simple, obvious pass he struggles a bit and tends to give the ball away a lot trying to pass into midfield.

Fortunately they stopped trying for most of the second half for some reason. Then we stoped trying for the last 15 - 20 mins. Good result. Not a great performance. Fortunately their entire 1st attack was injured. On the ball there's very little quick instinctive interplay between our guys. It feels like everyone's having to conciously think all the time, or just going solo, which slows us down. Very few flowing moves and we absolutely still cannot pass out of defence under any pressure. Thought the CBs, maybe Pope, Tonali and Jow were probably our best players.

No boot, stop the game

"Joelinton's not going to miss from 7 yards out"... Big Joe may be my spirit animal but McManaman hasn't done his homework

Get in Joe!

Unai gomez has such a basque footballer haircut

Yeah I'd like to see Miley holding with Sandro given more licence to go box to box.

Whatever Sunderland's relationship with Bilbao we've totally cucked them since 1994.

Basically we still cannot cope with any kind of pressure on us. If teams press us we're pretty dreadful, we don't seem to have a plan. If teams squeeze up you either pass through with quick one touch or go more direct to use the space they've left higher up the pitch. We just go back and back! And they're so open over the top. For most of that half there was basically no teamwork on the ball, no combinations at all. I think Gordon gets more stick that he deserves usually when he's not at top form, he has little support on the left, but he was absolutely awful that half. It was like 25 minutes before he didn't give the ball away with literally every touch. I think they've tired a big after a bit effort to start and hopefully we'll overpower them, but we really need to buck our ideas up. You can see we're trying a new system with Bruno and Sandro in ye olde double pivote and Big Nick and Joe ahead forming a square a lot of the time. We've been doing that since Fulham, but it isn't there yet.

Gordon didn't give the ball away!

JEsus Christ, we are absolutely shit at passing out from the back. Just boot it long to Bick Nick and Big Joe you dickheads.

Big Joe and Thiaw both on block off the defenders jobs on that free kick as well. Well worked.

Fuck me what a header

Quite the combination of vices there!

Any player can have a bad game. You bollock them for it behind closed doors and move on. If it keeps happening then you drop them. You don't want to be too trigger happy on dropping players or everyone'll get too worried about making mistakes and that's just as bad.

Is that not paqueta?

You'd hope not, but in a low scoring game like football, their biggest attacking threat up against our biggest defensive weakness (a fullback with no acceleration) is still a concerning matchup.

I wonder if we were ever genuinely hoping to sign Ekitike to play with Isak, as we claimed. I imagine not but would have been interesting.

Not hugely looking forward to seeing Bowen vs Burn if I'm honest, but we've gotta be strong favourites here so let's just hope for a good start and a nice comfortable afternoon for once.

Thought his tackle vs Kudus was clumsy more than anything, he kind of ran into him and put his leg round to make the tackle and ended up riding him like a pony. Don't think it was at all dangerous which might be why there was no booking, though he probably couldn't have compained about a booking (nor a second for the handbags). Radge Joelinton is best Joelinton though. I think he needs that degree of aggression to really impose himself. And if you're gonna go a bit radge to boost your reputation why not do it at 2-0 up with a few minutes to go? It's interesting hearing some of the old Man U players from the Fergie era talk about how having those aggressive guys like Keane, Cantona etc. really helped the team. Remember Arsenal post-Viera constantly being accused of lacking that edge as well.

Yeah thought Ekitike looked great from the highlights when we were linked. His finishing last year was quite inefficient, but that's just one year and apart from that you could see a lot of similarities with Isak but more physical presence, seemed much better going shoulder to shoulder and winning aerials. Looked to try and impose himself on games a little more, though obviosuly highlights always make someone look good.

Gary Lineker tells a similar story about him here:

Sounds like you've got a Gameboy now as well!

That's just the league mind, according to wiki 166 appearences and 25 goals all comps. He needs to score more in cups.

With Adam Lallana though you've got to consider the intangibles he offers, like how well his name goes with the 'have a banana' refrain. "Let's all sing in the stand (Adam Lallana)" chanting that couldn't fail to make me happy if he played for us.