The Fish

Also a solid defence will surely mean we see more from Almiron, ASM, Bruno, Joelinton and Willock as attacking threats. Plus the 1-2 attacking players I'm sure we'll bring in before the window closes.

I know I'll get pelters for this but, every time I play Football Manager, the very first area I strengthen is defence. Sort that out and you're laughing. We've spent £122m on the defence across 2 windows. We've still got money to spend elsewhere and as I've said before, if the right player becomes available at a 'reasonable' price, I'm sure we'll use the fact we've got that wriggle room to take advantage of the opportunity. All the talk from the club is that we're not done, so I'm confident that not only will we sign 1-2 atackers, but they'll be improvements on what we've got.

Him staying. They won't improve the squad properly while he's there.

You are most welcome. Did you write something about Man Utd? It mustn't have either grabbed or held my attention. You should apologise now.

PpDA is Passes per Defensive Action. In other words, how many passes does Team A allow Team B to play before tackling, pressuring, fouling or otherwise. First game of last season was at home to West Ham. We let West Ham knock the ball around 25 times before we applied pressure. First game of this season was at home to Forest. We let Forest play 6 passes on average, before applying pressure. Even when you compare Eddie's 30th game with Bruce's (Sheff Utd in 2020). We let 10 man Sheff Utd play on average 28 passes before putting them under any kind of pressure. Penultimate game of last season, against CL chasing Arsenal, it was 7. The high, relentless press is proof to me that a) Howe knows his onions, b) the players are on board and c) we're not going to go off and sign some mercenary because they're not going to work hard enough.

You prefer your prey untouched, like?

Daft thing is, if they'd committed to an overhaul way back when Ferguson first left, they'd likely not be in this mess now, even if they had gone 3-4 seasons outside the title hunt. Instead they've limped on, lurching from one manager to another with all the additional costs that approach brings.

Seems to be a lot of that going around. Leicester, Wolves, Everton.

Over a pint or two my mate stated, as a fact, that not only would Newcastle finish above them this season, he fully expects a bottom half finish either this season or next. Said that the honest to god best thing would have been to overhaul the playing staff almost entirely, and give Ten Haag a blank chequebook, and three seasons to turn things round. As it stands he think they'll give him a season and throw another 'name' at the side in the hopes that'll fix a very rotten club.

You take that sectarian shit elsewhere!

Tremendous levels of delusion here.

I said this fucking ages ago.

He's going to score a shit load of goals in the PL

Haven't read the thread in its entirety, but has anyone mentioned the Forest corner routine where no fucker was in the box, they all ran in, and Pope calmly collected the ball under little to no pressure? Galaxy brain shit right there

Groats? Sorrel? Sea Grape?

Knowing and saying ain't the same thing. Like, I know I'm a pretty cool guy, but I don't say it. FUCKING SAFETY WINK

Not 3hrs after that post I put this out there for all the world to see; The difference between you and me? I am right and I do want an apology.

If you watch that muted and just watch his eyes, there's real sadness there.

2-1 Wilson and Almiron

Good strong name.

Can we vote on the names for the Dog? I propose; Bruno Dave Diego (I guess)

Sorry Tom.

Right, you, ya knacker, I'll tell you something right here, right now. Saying something's not adding up isn't the same as saying "They've got loads of fringe players on big contracts". So stick that up your bollocks

1. City 2. Liverpool 3. Spurs 4. Chelsea 5. West Ham 6. Man Utd 7. Arsenal 8. Wolves 9. Newcastle 10. Crystal Palace 11. Aston Villa 12. Brentford 13. Brighton 14. Leicester 15. Fulham 16. Southampton 17. Everton 18. Leeds 19. Forest 20 Bournemouth