Checko

Thought he was excellent today, even without the goal: good defensive work, looked like he was causing a threat all game. Feel his understanding with Hall is coming along nicely as well. Man, if those two can build a really good understanding...

Yeah - regardless of it being accidental/hand position it's handball if it goes straight in off your arm, or you score after it hits your arm (eg Wilson vs Brentford away a couple of years ago). Looked from the final replay that it was going wide and went in off the Villa defender though, in which case goal should have stood as an OG I believe. Haven't seen it again though to double check.

Love seeing our best playmaker freed up to be a playmaker.

I like Targett, he's been unlucky here but always been solid. Nice to see him back.

Great start, lovely goal from Gordon, then I thought they got on top though we were dangerous when we got forward. The one issue really was our ongoing struggles passing out from the back under any kind of pressure, Eddie still hasn't solved this. Still think he should just drop Bruno back at times so he and Sandro can double pivot the fuck out of teams in those situations. We brought a lot of pressure on ourselves and that let them dominate things for a while. Still, after the red card it was one way traffic unsurprisingly. Up to 5th, feels the exact opposite of how things were a year ago. Couple of tough away games to come so fingers crossed. If we can get something from them we're in a really good spot.

Feel more tense vs 10 than vs 11. Villa are too good a side not to have 1 or two decent chances. Really want that second. & throwing a game like this would be a proper kick in the nads. Their plan will be the usual 10 men plan... try and keep it to 1 goal and hit back in the last 10 mins when everything's ours to lose and we go defensive.

Bring him home!

Chronicle says Tino has an illness, so doesn't sound serious.

He played on the left under Rafa, we had him left, Rondon up top and Perez on the right and it was an effective front three. I remember when he arrived he had about twice the energy of any of our other players and was the only player who consistently wanted to try and make runs and get behind and made something happen. From memory he was moved onto the right when ASM arrived.

Would be worth a try just to see the inevitable FTMcoin tank.

Feel Osimhen is the striker Arsenal need and they're the top prem team who really needs a top CF. Maybe Liverpool too. Man U already have a £75 million CF already, plus Zirkzee as backup. Spuds have Solanke, Man C Haaland, Chelsea have Jackson and Nkunku (though it must have been about three months since they last bought someone so they must be getting desperate). Liverpool have Nunez who I really like as a player, but he isn't clinical, though Jota's a consistent scorer.

In terms of a single moment - Barnes' winner vs West Ham felt like it turned our season around then. More recently Sandro's 1st goal against Brentford. It felt like a release for him, for the team. It just felt like the club had finally got its mojo back after a fairly, shall we say inconsistent year.

Feel like this game could be anything. They play a high line, which suits us, but they're also good at moving it forward through the middle of the pitch, which is where we can get caught out. They've just beaten Man City and we've had three good performances, so both teams will be full of confidence. Will be interesting to see how our updated set-up performs against one of the better teams.

Craig Hope was saying they're prepared to let him go this window if he wants to (and it sounds like he will) but he thinks it'll be nearer the end of Jan so Pope can come back first.

Reported in the Daily Mail as well: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-14222339/Sporting-Lisbon-set-sack-head-coach-Vitor-Pereira-just-one-month-replaced-Man-United-boss-Ruben-Amorim-following-Old-Trafford.html Though given Vitor Pereira is the new manager of Wolves and Joao Pereira is the manager of Sporting I have my doubts.

The fact he managed to piss off miggy makes me think we should sign him just to get opponents sent off.

If we bump the Roflham Lolspurs thread it could be The Other 17.

Yeah, particularly strikers who are more reliant on the rest of the team to give them service and get them in the game. Top teams are generally gonna make more chances so helps a lot.

Reminds me of when I was young and would sign Uwe Rosler on CM2/3 whatever year it was, because he had 20 for shooting and heading & I didn't care about anything else. That said Haaland's such a physical beast as well I'm sure he could fit into just about any team.

Crazy compared to Haaland's stats. He seems to be brilliant at shooting and in the air (as if we didn't know), and does actually fuck all else. He's in the 4th% for passes completed and 1st% (bottom) for passes attempted... in a Guardiola team.

Had a little look at his stats on FB Ref. Vs strikers in top 5 leagues he's in the 92nd percentile for dead ball passes and 89th percentile for throw ins taken. Also he's really good at shooting, passing and dribbling.

Watford have Italian owners and I think they own Udinese too (and Malaga?) and they just sack their manager one or two times a year or it seems. Checked it the other day actually as I noticed Tom Cleverley's manging Watford now. When players you bought as a hot prospect in Football Manager are managing teams themselves it makes you feel old! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Watford_F.C._managers Looks like they're on their 10th permanent manager since December 2019. Just bonkers.

Yeah fair point, no idea how the new rules will work, though it would still minimise this year's PSR spend and give Soton extra income for next years accounts. However it works. Anyway, it's assuming we want him, they're willing to sell, we can agree a fee, he wants to come here, no-one else he'd rather go to bids as well.

-10 potential on FM 2008. What a waste.

Why would anyone get anything else?