The Fish

Depends, has he ever kissed a badge and/or had a child?

Wolves are actually not playing terribly. We'll be tired/distracted/disappointed from the Dortmund game. Wilson will have played the majority of three games in a row. Can't rotate the midfield too much (unless we throw Hall in?). Away from home. I say again, One - One, sir.

As long as Handsome Pards isn't in town

Also means that he can be the outlet for Pope's long balls, instead of Burn.

One thing with Almiron is that he, Trippier and Bruno have an excellent understanding on that right hand side. I've noticed (and it may be my eyes lying to me) that BRuno is operating more centrally or to the left recently. With Longstaff or Tonali occupying that right hand half space. Because of this we're not seeing as many 1-2s ending up at Miggy's feet in the box. Seeing more from Longstaff as a goal threat instead. I like Miggy, always have, and while he's not as good as Gordon looks to have become, he's still a tireless pressing machine and always an outball on the right hand side in transition. If he could get his confidence of last season back, he'd be more of a goal threat himself. But a disjointed centre of the park and a change to that right hand side has kind of dampened his impact.

1-1

Aye but who've they played? They've played 4 of the bottom 5 and no one in the top 5.

I was asking because going off their performance metrics, they're actually creating a good number of chances and not allowing many either. If they don't go down this season, it's possible they could get 50-52pts next season and stay up on 38-40pts.

Someone more up to speed with the Bundesliga might correct me, but it doesn't look like they've played anyone decent yet. People on podcasts saying Dortmund aren't that good right now. 2-0

If the get the maximum punishment (they won't), would it definitely be applied this season?

Disappointed I missed the opportunity to call Ginolandtonic an easily lead moron over his ridiculous benefits opinion.

It was a good window. We've signed a goal threat, a midfielder that will reduce our reliance on Bruno when he settles, a long term replacement for Trippier and one of the highest rated young players in the league. We've created room in the budget to strengthen further in January, by selling the player who was least integral to the way we play. Y'all are some whiney-ass bitch boys

Fbref for raw data, whoscored for visualisations

Aye there was a pass out to Gordon's feet that made me double check it hadn't been Schar pinging it.

Man Utd, Man City and Tottenham 'ground out' wins against a side we put 8 past without reply. Let the pundits underestimate us if they like. We know we're class, the players know we're class, Eddie and Jason know we're class. Anyone turning up at St James' expecting anything like the football we saw under Bruce or Benitez deserves the Sahara-dry fucking they'll get. And featuring in something from the ever-increasing library of Jacob Murphy gifs.

Never change, CT. Never change

Aye it is the same Bruno who went 5 games without starting, playing a sum total of 44 minutes in those games. Five minutes across his first 3 games. And Isak who didn't play at all until his debut against Liverpool and was only in for that game because Wilson was injured. Those examples work fine, you dink.

Also we have greater depth at fullback. We're not relying on Manquillo, Krafth or Murphy at rightback if Trippier gets injured/suspended.

To be honest I don't have any expectations of signings being an instant impact any more. Isak, Gordon, Bruno all took time to find their feet. Hall and Livramento are both clearly bought for the future, (Minteh and Kuol even further down the line). Barnes and Tonalie were, I think, intended to be slowly brought into the first team. Unfortunately because of injuries to particular players, they've been introduced ahead of schedule.

That Mayor of Kingstown is not shy of being brutal, is it? That third episode of the first season is... well it's something.

Hall isn't just a left back, he can play centrally and further forward. Hall and Livramento haven't been bought for the here and now, but are being gently introduced into the side. They're both young and very highly rated, so I'd expect them to get more and more game time as their contracts progress.

I honestly think it was an effort to recreate the threat we had on the right through Almiron, Trippier and Bruno, but on the left. By that I mean Bruno would post up just outside the left corner of the box and play interlinking passes with Gordon and Burn/Hall, while Tonali develops that understanding on the right. I think we haven't done that because we've not had a settled run of games with Tonali, Bruno and Joelinton all fit. Joelinton being required to do the physical legwork while Bruno and Tonali are freed up to do more attacking work.

My Mrs is from Yorkshire and has that Yorkshirey adoration for the place. I mean, I get it, she grew up in a nice part of Yorkshire, and there are some beautiful parts of the county. But it's not that it's nice, it's that it's nicer than everywhere else. Which I don't get. The pressure to move to Yorkshire is very real. I found that Mancs will be proud of where they're from, despite it's admittedly shit bits. Same with Geordies. But Scousers and Yorkshiremen think their place is flawlessly amazing and everywhere else is shit. One of my wife's school friends went travelling across Australia and on his return earnestly complained that he missed the dry stone walls.

Could only get my flu and COVID boosters at the same time. Nurse was too much of a COWARD to give me anything else.