The Fish

Even looking at the respective shot maps show that a lot of ours were in the box and fairly central. They had to make 11 blocks. The heatmaps show our play was stretched across the length and breadth of the pitch, whereas theirs was in isolated pockets and the hottest part of the map was in their own box. Bruno, Wilson or Isak start that game and we win it by a couple of goals.

We were much the better side; more possession, more touches, more shots, more shots on target, better xG. Neves can fuck off, and anyone complaining about that game can get aboard the FuckOff bus and all.

Their thread on him quickly goes from own brand instant delusional 'we should get him', to artisanally roasted, double shot, chocolate covered, delusional ' he's too inexperienced for us'.

I'd like this Ashby kid from West Ham (RB), I still think we're in for some more quality up at the business end of the pitch too. Edson Alvarez has been mentioned and he's a good DM, but I'm not sure that's a priority area right now. When it's Bruno, Joelinton and Longstaff/Willock, there's plenty of disruption going on so I'm not sure we need a specialist DM right now. We definitely need a threat from the right hand side and personally think we could do with some more depth up front. Some young striker who'd be happy to pick up 10 minutes here and there, but who is an upgrade on Wood. Chris Wood is quickly becoming my scapegoat. I understand why we signed him, and he's done the job we've asked of him, but he was a stop gap and we've now covered that gap.

Yeah, Crystal Palace have 1 more point than Bournemouth and have had the same fixtures, it can't be the results, it has to be the comments. He'll be back in a job soon enough.

Too harsh, for me. Yes they've lost 3,4 and 9-0. But that's against Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool. They've beaten Villa and progressed in the League Cup. Maybe they should get Tony Mowbray in?

It grumpily did. Wood wasn't a blip, it was a needs must transfer at a time we were without our 1st choice, in a relegation scrap, without a DoF, CEO and our manager had only had his feet under the desk for a comparatively short time. We unsettled a relegation rival and his contributions definitely helped us stay up, even if there weren't a lot of goals.

Stop trying to make a podcast happen.

Apparently Neil is leaving 5th placed Sunderland, for 21st placed, transfer embargoed Stoke City.

Stay in your lane, hombre.

Badonka Donk

De Gea can warm a bench.

Reckon they could persuade Sewpa Kev to leave South Shields?

Imagine, the day you win the lottery and your neighbour switches internet provider. Same vibes.

Whoever he chooses to manage, the other one is going to look fucking stupid.

Listened to Caulkin's podcast earlier and they were talking about how Eddie isn't the same character as Keegan or Robson, that larger than life, exuberant, lightning rod for change. He reminds me a lot, in specific ways, of Hughton. There was a quiet, composed affable if fairly vanilla bloke who oversaw a seismic shift at the football club. The players and fans got behind him, he executed his plan on the pitch with little fanfare. We needed a steady Eddie for that period, and hoo boy do we need one now. Too much ego may have unsettled the existing players and put a wrinkle in the capes of our new heroes. Would Joelinton have been reborn under Emery as he is under Howe? Would we have signed the personalities we did or gone for flashier names? Howe has professionally made us professional. It ain't sexy but it's a fucking fillip

I thought this was just that percycola lad on the wind up, but if this has got legs well... that's just fucking hilarious.

It'll take a while to get the partnerships right. Bear in mind this is largely a new defence. If we think our first choice defence is; Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Targett, none of these players played with each other 10 months ago. Relationships and partnerships will take time. For Botman he's also got to grow accustomed to the league, and he's only a young player too.

There's a few on there who post chiefly in the NUFC thread. Whipping themselves into a lather about the latest imagined conspiracy/crime/failure of NUFC. You have to wonder if it helps them? Like, is that how they exorcise their demons?

Well, this came immediately after their goal, And no mention of Targett at all. So I'm sorry, I made an assumption.

True enough. JDT being asked to lead the line was foolish, at least with Isak he's used to playing up top on his own. Still think there's a way to play Wilson and Isak and ASM.

Yeah, probably and I wouldn't be one of the crowd frothing at the mouth if Isak is introduced more slowly. However, given the fact Wood doesn't really fit the way we're looking to play (he thrives on balls into the box and frankly we don't cross the ball) and Isak is far better running with the ball and dropping deeper to collect it, I would expect Isak to replace the big plank sooner rather than later. If Wilson was fit, I'd expect Isak to replace Almiron rather than our top goal scorer.

Would have been better for Isak to have been eased into the side, rather than Jon Dahl Tomassoned. Although we could play with ASM, Wood and Isak, Wood just isn't the kind of striker we want to be building our attack around.

For what it's worth, it was Targett at fault for their goal, not Longstaff. Caught out of position and didn't bother to get back at all. I'll forgive him because he's coming back from injury and we won, but to be clear; Targett's fault, not Longstaff.