A big part of yesterday's success was two things for me. 1. A settled back four with four players in their actual positions. This not only made us better defensively but we played out from the back better. Koch and Llorente both look assured on the ball and Ayling/Firpo both looked good going forward. 2. Roberts should have scored yesterday but his biggest contribution was his running and pressing. During Bamfords lean spells we all defend him by talking about his work rate. In previous games but especially yesterday Roberts was excellent at that. He pressed hard and won so many balls. He was an integral part of what we do when we are at our best.
Whatever we played ( looked like two wing backs at times) it worked. Bielsa adapted. Not bad for someone slated as stubborn.
Burnley aren't that bad - they drew with Chelsea and Leicester and leaked relatively few goals v Man City and Man U.
The point is Burnley finished 17th last season and are currently 18th this season. They are what they are and for what it's worth personally I don't think they'll go down. Guess that depends on what Newcastle do though. There's no escaping the fact that we've been poor in some matches this season, although the home form has been pretty solid to be fair. We need to be winning some of the matches against mid table teams like Leicester, Brighton, Wolves etc to show we're back on track. So far, we've lost to all the top 7, drawn against 8, 9 & 10th and the highest team we've beaten are Palace in 11th. For now though, I'll just take beating Newcastle on the 22nd Jan.
Lots is going to depend on this window. If we do nothing we have to hope we get everyone back soon, even though Phillips and Cooper is another 10-12 weeks. We have to hope the team we put out starts doing Bielsaball again and taking chances. We then have to hope the players that Newcastle Norwich, Burnley, Everton and Watford buy dont jell and work, because all those clubs are deffo spending and Everton have already spent £30m on 2 players. As we saw with Cornet the players we may be looking at are also being chased by them lot
Left field don't snap my head off Phil Jones has had 2 years off, played 167 times for Man Utd, 28 times for England. Plays CB and DM In the shop window tonight and we dont get Phillips back until March. Will be going for next to nothing and he needs to get his career back on line
Yep it's a good shout Doc. Apparently he's been flying in training according to some scum mates. Not watching their match until later as still busy at the moment but he's one I'll be keeping an eye on.
Love it on here at times just watched the first hakf and Jones is the best scum player on the pitch ffs
So you think we should buy anyone based on 45 minutes of football (I note you don’t say he’s good, just their best on the pitch).
No thanks. His wages are probably more than Llorente, Koch and Struijk combined, and they’re all younger and better players than he is.
Agreed, I can’t see what we’d gain, we have more than enough CBs and the last thing I want is yet another CB “who can play DM”. I thought many on here were fed up with square pegs and round holes, why sign another who will turn 30 in February and who’s knee could go again at any time
