aimaad22

Was just going to post that

People can talk about the Saudi owners, players like Isak and Bruno etc all they like, but the biggest factor by far in the clubs transformation on and off the pitch is Eddie Howe. No doubt.

Good find this but have you exhausted all the Youtube content and are now scrolling years back?

A common thing many of the post match analysts/pod casts etc picked up was on how this was different from the Leceister, Wigan etc. cup wins in recent years. Lineker was talking about it I think on his pod with Shearer; this was confident domination of the top team in the country having already done the same to the second best team over two legs. An altogether different feeling. Not a one off fluke (although of course you wouldnt begrudge the fans fully enjoying those, we certainly would have) but a prelude, a beginning. Aye I respect his honesty but when he was talking about us winning duels and going long over their heads Liverpool fans must have been thinking the other manager has found you out what the hell did you do about it in turn?

Tonali, a completely ridiculous athlete by the way, doing this after running himself ragged for 90 minutes:

Bruno gave it a go didnt he in the end leading upto their goal? My God how stupid and unnecessary was that attempted turn. Find it difficult to be angry at any player right now but was seething at the time and you coudn't help but think ah here we go we're self destructing again. Henry on the CBS coverage was furious Made a point of mentioning it to Trippier and Howe too.

Yeah we definitely have the upper hand in trying to keep him this summer. Just need to be careful. I expect we'll be in the CL running till the end but dont expect it to be straight forward. We were incredible on Sunday but we've been inconsistent against mid table sides this season and those are the types of games we need to win now. It's very competitive this year as well and you'd expect the likes of City and Chelsea to string together a few wins and stay in the race. I think we'll need to be at our best and the energy that we rely on to get the results is not guaranteed week in week out as we've seen with the limited squad. Back to Isak, some of the analysis post game (and after the Arsenal semi too actually) trying to figure out why he seems to cause so much bother to the likes of Van Dijk and Saliba/Gabriel who seem to be so comfortable against anyone else. It's because he's got almost no weaknesses for defenders to base their split second decision on in moments when they need to either back off and try to run him to the side or go in for the tackle. Go in for the tackle and there's every chance he'll beat you and maybe another one of your teammates, back off and he'll run at you happily while being able to shoot from anywhere around the box, will also find a cracking pass to his wingers on either side 8 times out of 10. If anyone comes in with 250M we should be telling them to go shove it up their arse. I hope that's the message Yasir left with. You could buy 3 top quality forwards and have little chance of them being this impactful. Any considerations like oh we could rebuild the whole squad with 200M incoming needs to be the absolute last resort.

Jota and Diaz actually used to be very decent for them. They're both only 28 as well. Just shows you regular freshening up of the squad is necessary even if you're doing well. Very few players can keep being successful in the same role year after year.

Even if the worst happens and Isak leaves you'd expect it wouldnt be less than 150M or so which would allow us to strengthen the whole forward line. It shouldnt come to that though hopefully. The final showed what we know but its underlined it to the world again, Isak is priceless. He was relatively quite in terms of touches the whole game but get's one chance and boom, history changing goal. Howe also mentioned in one of the post game interviews, his work off the ball, his movement causes so much trouble and is the starting point of our team press. But that goal instinct, the ability to strike and turn games in seconds; there's maybe only a handful of footballers around the globe that can match it. We've got to do everything possible to keep him. He's easily the biggest asset we've had since Shearer and he could be even more pivotal to the club long term if we keep progressing at this rate. All the noise seems to be about us being able to add to the squad this summer, hopefully that's actually true this year because that would signal the likelihood of regular CL football and more silverwave challenges for the likes of Isak to stay for.

I've been saying (and wishing) for a cup win at the end of what is essentially phase 1 of this project. It's clear this period is coming to an end and players like Trippier, Schar, Wilson, Longstaff and many others will either leave or have limited roles in the future. This cup win is the perfect culmination to what they've done over the last 3.5 years and they deserve to go down as club legends. Upto the club now to back Eddie and bring in the resources for phase 2. A CL finish obviously will be a massive help. We need to channel the euphoria into one big push for a top 5 finish. You can be sure Howe will be on it once everyone has had the chance to celebrate and rest.

Osula

The ownership digs are laughable. Either disconnect politics from all football (which we'd welcome but that's not the world we live in), or apply the same standards to all clubs. It's only an issue with NUFC. I can taste the sour grapes from here.

More favorite highlights

I'm just going over the BBC text feed at work

I think Howe mentioned in one of the interview thought that Big Dan Burn had a huge role in cutting off Salah too.

I've no idea if this is true but the rule today is lap it all up:

First thing waking up today was to head onto Twitter to make sure it was all real Anybody notice Tonali untieing his shoelaces and then sitting down to fix them near the corner flag in stoppage time? Got yellow carded for it too I think. The shithousery near that corner flag at the end was just another highlight.

His physicality is insane, he makes a massive difference. There was moment near the end when Van Dijk tried to chase him down barge him off the ball but just bounced off him then non chalantly went on to beat another man. Just mental

There was a period after we went two nil up when we had them absolutely on the rack. Could have scored a few more easily. Just to be able to do that to the runaway league leaders with all the history of hurt on your shoulders, most teams would have sat back at one nil and definitely at two nil. But we went for the jugular. That's the mentality Howe brings and the confidence he put into players who've won feck all before tonight.

Aye this. Incredible effort. That's down mainly to Eddie magic Howe. Proving once again he's got the ability to make it at the top. Another feck you to the doubters. Difficult to pick out players today since everyone was brilliant. I thought Tonali made a huge difference. The man oozes composure and class and was everywhere. And Livramento man. Spent the West Ham game looking like a fish out of water and tonight turned into freaking Roberto Carlos going past two three players and putting lovely crosses into the box. Not to mention pocketing Salah. Just unreal all around

Gypsy curse breaker at less than 2 months old, get innnnn

Burn motm but Joe and Tino outstanding too as well as Trips. Excellent throughout tbh Still can't believe it

Absolutely bossed it too apart from the Bruno. brain fart at the end Lap it up lads. Into the history books forever