Sibierski

Liverpool are a bad side, so won't be a shock for me if they struggle against Sunderland defence and lose.

Emery to get European football for the 4th season in a row ffs.

Wolves might be the worse side I’ve seen in premier league this season. Absolutely nothing to them. Do well to get to 10 points.

Can rest one against Leverkusen and one against Fulham. That should suffice IMO.

Even Sylvain Marvauex was more exciting.

I long for the day we have someone who can get us off our seats when they have the ball. All our wingers don’t for me. Barnes / Gordon good in their own right, but not a ‘got ball 40 yards out, could jinx past 3 players and get a shot away’ type, Murphy is just pure crossing and Elanga is … so far.

He’s going to get a prolong run as Pope out for a while, so he needs to ensure yesterday isn’t the norm for facing shots or he’s just holding fort till Pope is back and we won’t be activating the buy option.

Pope: Tino, Thaiw, Burn, Hall: Ramsey, Bruno, Tonali: Barnes, Wolte, Elanga

Not just a win, a convincing win please. Can't let this slip into yet another hard fought win like Wolves/Fulham were at home.

Always said that was the thing Isak brought that will be hardest to replace, the fear in opposition. He hit a level/consistency, where defenders were mentally beaten early on so when we scored once it was a case of 'ah shit, here we go' and they'd crumble either directly from the Isak pressure or indirectly where others had more joy because of the nerves spread across the back line. This was a guy that bullied Saliba / VVD every time who are held likely amongst their peers, as the best CBs in the league. All that said, we need to get better outwide because none of our current strikers will ever reach that same profile, so we won't ever get back to same like for like.

For me it’s more it then loses the ability to change it up on LW for fresh legs / different approach. If both are having a meh game, then only one can come off unless we are going to play Ramsey LW. I’m not sold on Elanga right now, but at some point over this period Howe has to pick him and run with him for 3-4 starts like he’s done plenty of times with Gordon and see if he clicks into something because the approach right now isn’t good for him or us.

I mean, even in the Everton game we sat off away after scoring early on, then had a spell where thankfully Pickford palmed in Miley back pass and we then ramped it up for the kill. We struggle to take momentum from scoring 1st to 2nd this season. Just always dialling it back, like we want to be a counter attacking side. It’s as if we’re caught between two minds of how we want to play.

Punches it better it’s all avoided, but then there’s loads of players in between who then can deal with things better to not allow a CB to shin it on a bicycle kick inside the box.

He was good coming on, but Barnes wasn’t poor and can’t be dropped straight away. Barnes has earned the right to still start LW and Gordon will hopefully continually get angry to prove a point when he comes on. Serves us no good moving either of them RW.

Feels like ever since Semenyo release clause became known, they have nose dived form wise Like everyone at that club knows the season is over because he’s 100% off in January so any European hopes are gone. They’ll be a bit weird where they’ll hook up some wins then be like this for rest of season and finish 13th. Iraola contract up too so will naturally want to leave whilst he’s done what he can with a side like Bournemouth.

Been a common theme that we need to improve on though. So he can’t really act shocked / disappointed by it as it comes from the training ground and overall signing better players who can play the ball. We all know and keep saying, we lack players like that. Our selves of the past would win the headers then break up time by slowing things down and timewaste. It’s that latter part we seem to no longer do and leads to more frantic closing out of games. Said it in the game, we are so bad at allowing sides to get up the pitch from shit passages of play. Late in the half we had a throw in deep in their third, could waste so much time up there instead we took it towards our goal, ended up being a 50/50 battle, they won and ball went high and Tino panicked slashed the ball and it went further backwards towards our goal and out of play inside our half 22/23 we would have kept that in their half and conned a free kick etc.

May well have been the case, but if Willock is now hooking it up in training where Howe is back to liking him, then what does that mean for Ramsey? He’s 6th choice CM until Willock goes (Willock may even get a new deal). We really need this guy to come good as much as Wissa and Elanga because we can’t afford to have money tied up in players that are not moving the dial for us.

Really good battle against Kudus. Think he was only beaten once and that was what led to the Bergvel flick, then he sat off a couple of times in 2nd half when in similar situations where you expect your defenders to be able to win the balls in but didn’t happen. Needs to improve his corners for the ability he has. Got took off them for Miley which isn’t ideal. Overall, he’s making the LWs perform even better because of the balls he can play into them / overlap.

Good on defensive side, but with ball / as an attacking outlet, poor yet again. First half we had a shape where Tonali / Miley were double pivot with Joelinton further forward, but it then means using him as an attacking outlet which he’s been poor at for a while. Only not started 5 of the 19 games he’s been available for in all competitions. Played in all but one game. Ramsey on other hand, started 4 of 13 games he’s been available and didn’t play at all in 3 of them. That needs to shift in next month if we are to see if Ramsey was worth it.

Lewis Hall / Dan Burn / Sven Botman our only left footers in the whole 25 man squad?

Didn’t get the signing at the time, still don’t. Another player that will have moments, but for the fee, it’s really not sensible business.

Issue with that, Murphy has come good but it’s not in a way we need to go to next level. We don’t need Elanga to do what Murphy does and cross well, we need someone that can take players on in tight spaces, makes the full back end up doing what Hall did today (scared to get tight / question themselves). Elanga reaching Murphy levels doesn’t take us forward, we needed something else from our RW and so far it looks like we literally have a pace merchant that’s useful in very few situations.

The only worry I have, if they had more shots on goal, they maybe score more. We’re just not looking solid consistently this season, or looking joined up in attack. Everton was a real positive result and this feels a kick in the balls. Need to smash Burnley by 3+ to get something meaningful going into the Derby. It’s nearly there, we just need to ensure we don’t let it slip.

He’ll have his moments, but £55m for him. Christ. We have fuck all technical ability on that right side. He’s going to be here for like 6 seasons without doing much isn’t he? Basically a meh squad player.

Guess that’s why Southampton shipped loads in.