Checko

#Southgate4USMNT

Wonderful finish from Watkins. Probably deserved overall as first half Dutch decided not to mark and we were quite dominant, though I can only remember one really clear cut chance. Second half they decided to mark us and largely nothing happened. Overall though we were better than them. Have to say I was very underwhelmed with the Netherhollands. Thought they would have something about them going forward.

Trippier OP

It's the mo-fo's still staring into their phone while celebrating that gets me the most. Deport those fuckers to Rwanda.

newcastle-online doesn't fulfil brummie. Ban that ingrate!

Look at all those fuckers on their phones during the penalty. WATCH THE EVENT YOU SAD FUCKS. No-one cares about your shitty phone footage. Professional camera operators with far better equipmant have filmed it. God I hate smart phones.

Much better performance - this should be our baseline level with the players we have - though I can't remember many clear-cut chances, other than foden's that was cleared off the line. Dutchies have been turbo-gash though. They don't seem to mark people in midfield which has helped.

Netherlands don't seem to have any defensive structure.

Never a penalty

Great strike but Pope saves that. Extra reach OP.

Honestly I find this attitude from Southgate absolutely infuriating. It's grade-A Pardew. 'Oh our team couldn't possibly perform well because they were better than the other team. How can you expect some of the best footballers in the world to cope with the pressure of playing against someone worse than them?' It drives me nuts. How do you expect the team to play well with that mentality? And it's coming from the manager. GAAAAARH!

"You're gonna need a bigger accountancy department."

This is a thread about other clubs' transfers so it doesn't seem totally out of place for people to discuss Man U transfers in it, given they are another club and they have made some transfers at times.

Also, he's a footballer, showing football clips of him is hardly out of context. I want clips of him dropping an ice cream on himself or having elephants steal his lunch at the zoo.

#JusticeforEverton

Gk - Neymar - £198 million RB - Coutinho - £105 million CB - Mbappe - £163 million CB - Felix - £112.9 million LB - Ronaldo - £88 million CM - Kepa £71.7 million CM - Mudryk - £62 million CM - Alisson - £62.2 million LW - Maguire - £80 million RW - Antony - £82 million CF - Lucas Hernandez - £68 million

We should have 2 quality players in each position. Barnes gives us that on the left. And he's definitely the sort of guy you want coming on when you need a goal. I'd say for the price he was a decent to good signing (had he not had his injury he would have scored a few more goals this year and I imagine there'd be a more positive view of him) Also it's easy to wonder why we signed him now, but last summer Gordon hadn't looked a scorching prospect at LW and we sold ASM. Last game of 22/23 vs Chelsea AG was being played through the middle. Gordon made LW his own this year through the quality of his performances. Haven't seen AG much on the right, but in the time he has he's put a few beautiful crosses across (eg. the disallowed goal vs fulham where he just smoked the fullback to the byline). Thought he played some nice balls from there vs spurs as well and got in on goal from that side a couple of times, so I would be comfortable playing him there, though he's still definitely first choice LW.

The plural there excites me!

I think part of the reason we sign a decent number of Premier League players is in a way because of FFP issues. A couple of big misses in the transfer market could really stuff us, so buying PL proven players reduces the chance of a signing flopping. That said, our general strategy the first couple of windows of bringing in a couple of fancy pants signings from abroad and a couple of pragmatic domestic signings worked extremely well in upgrading our squad and team quickly. Also I'd say we've built the majority of a team now, so to take us to the next level a top guy on the RW would be a good signing, even if expensive. Assuming everyone's fit we've got something like below. Bolded players are guys who could be very good long-term starters. Schar and Pope have an asterisk as both are quality but Schar's age and Pope's kicking means we may be planning an upgrade in the next year or two. Gordon Isak Miggy/Murphy Big Joe Bruno Sandro Hall Botman Schar* Tino Pope* Splurging some cash on a top good-to-go RW would seem an obvious way to improve the 1st team and though expensive in its own right, given it's the main area of weakness might actually give a good cost-to-improvement ratio.

Formal and official. Ol' Tax Dodge Jim's signed his name and everything!

Looking at Pickford stats at https://fbref.com/en/players/4806ec67/Jordan-Pickford they're actually surprisingly poor in some measures, at least for most of his Everton career. His first five seasons with them (2017 - 2022) he only had one season where he conceded fewer goals than expected based on xG. And that year was only +1.3 over a season, so not a great year. Last 2 years have been much better mind with +3 and +4.4. His crosses stopped % has always been below average as well. So basically his tiny T-Rex arms appear to have hampered him. Decent sweeping distance though and obviously he's comfortable with the ball at his feet. Feels (just from stats) like he's improved a bit with experience over the last couple of year & probably in his prime now. It is interesting though that England's longstanding No 1 with a big reputation, and who as a ball-playing keeper would seem to be quite a modern-style keeper has been playing in a bottom-half team for the last 5 years.

Southgate might obviously just prefer Eze to him, perhaps he fits the mould of a more patient, posession-based team. But you'd think Gordon's pace and directness would be a nightmare for defenders to be up against, especially when they're in extra time and already tired. Being honest in his interview probably didn't help his case, but he also only had 5 mins of game time anyway and Eze was given first dibs. I do wonder if there's an element of 'Everyone's calling for him to play and I've refused, and we've been underwhelming again, and again, and again. If I put him in now and he does well then I look like a fool for being seemingly the only person not to spot it.' so better not play him.

Makes me think a bit of this George Graham line: "It's just not true I don't like creative players. I do. But, in future, I think we'll stop talking about 'creative midfield players'. All players should be all-rounders." https://www.theguardian.com/football/2000/feb/12/newsstory.sport

They gave Bowen a 7 year deal as well didn't they? Wonder if it's actually something like 5 or 6 years with an optional extension.

Schar vs Burnley as well