OTF

Of course he didn't fit the mould, never said he did. ASM had his best game for us under Howe (3-3 against Man City with effectively three assists and terrorised their defense). Howe was working with him and ASM was changing the way he played to try to be a more effective distributor. He'd start on the bench but would see plenty of game time when fit. If FFP wasn't in play Howe would have kept him and comtinued to work on his deficiencies. He's only 26 years old, so potentially had his best footballing years ahead of him.

If Howe could have he would have kept ASM as a wildcard impact player to use off the bench. As it were he was the only noteable saleable asset that could be shifted to help shape the core of the team.

Athletic Bilbo Non-Athletic Bilbo

Fleshbacks Flashbacks to earlyish days of the internet there @sammynb 🍻

They're better than championship quality it's the fact that they're both being played together. I'd love to see Miley play alongside Bruno and Joelinton, I think it would really help his development.

We'd have absolutely battered them 0-5 if Burn was out there the entire time, what a colossal f-up Howe.

It will take some time to adjust to not having an extra giant CB in our set pieces, but you have to play the best team for football rather than the best team for set pieces.

He's been the one silver lining from this flogging. Deserves to have a run in the side.

I don't think that's entirely correct from what we have seen of Howe, he does care what others think but will never ever ever show any obvious signs of it. That's core to his public identity. Behind closed doors/in his head that will not be the case. He doesn't like to do what everyone is expecting, the obvious decision, he wants to do everything in his own way. It's also why he reveals so little in press conferences. Most of the time that has worked out well, not rushing new signings into the team etc, but sometimes there's an underlying stubbornness that can be damaging. I do like it about him, but in the Burn scenario he took the "I know better" way too far.

Nice cross BDB and quality header that. Time to bring Joey Barton on?

Great to have Joe Willock back. Super happy for him.

It ultimately depends whether Howe tries to use this result to reinstate Burn or whether he gives Livramento a proper run. We've missed Burn's presence on set pieces, but whether we lose 2-0 or 4-0 it ulitmately doesn't matter. Burn categorically would not have changed the outcome and Livramento has been no worse than anyone else out there and has not been exposed for pace.

I know right, there's a touch of vindictive "you'll get what you asked for" from Howe here with the timing of Burn's dropping. Doesn't bother me because half a dozen straight games of him being targeted and exposed didn't do it, so any trigger is fine by me.

Yep. Deserve to be getting comprehensively beat still. Still, no yellows for Bruno, we weren't expecting anything here. Give some players some time on the pitch.

Lewis Hall? We've got noone taller in the squad mate.

Two O.Gs?

Harsh, both he and Schär need an active mobile midfield presence because neither have pace. FFS, ordinary this.

That looked like an attempted pass the jammy bastard.

He definitely has a good range of passing, and releases it quickly too. What he will need to add to step up a level is some degree of attacking flair/an unexpected element. I expect as he continues to fill out he'll also become better at shielding the ball and otherwise using his body.

At his age it's when you substitute meat and two veg for a healthy dose of dates to help you stay regular.

Better than decent I'd say. I guess the only thing you could say is that he could have come out to claim the ball on the corner they scored from.

Almiron had that on his left, surely had to shoot (even though he was apparently offside).

It'a a great question, did they make many changes from their midweek squad?

Saka complaining there, geez.