He’s playing very well. But I feel Longstaff doesn’t get the credit he deserves. For example Tonali lost the ball in the 42 minute and they nearly scored. If that was Longstaff he would have had his Knuts cut off.
No longstaff doesn't get the credit he deserves. Apparently he hasn't improved Uber Eddie Howe. He's playing well this game though his booking was awful.
Best two performances have been against bigger clubs. We are screwing up when we need to have the ball and make stuff happen. We’re not qualifying for Europe by doing ok against the top 6 the being awful against the rest.
I think we are more harsh on our own players sometimes because they don’t have a foreign name. If it was longstadinio he wouldn’t get the grief he gets. I am also guilty of this so I hold my hands up. Tonali is a better player than Bruno. Our best midfield 3 is Longstaff Bruno and Tonali. Joelinton is a work horse but strategically it doesn’t work.
It’s interesting that when we play Longstaff we win more games. It’s statistically a fact. We know Bruno is class and we can see that Tonali is also. Maybe the Joelinton experiment is coming to an end. At the higher end of the PL you don’t need a destroyer which is what he is. We need coherent technical symmetry within that midfield at the highest levels. Willock and Joelinton can add to that when we need a sledgehammer.
Still think it will be a tough ask and definitely would not have said it after the summer window BUT fair play to Eddie he has managed to ride out an early season start where we struggled to find a rhythm and still managed to pick up points and now has us looking like a well oiled unit and picking up good wins again. And that's with our best defender in Botman still to come back as well. Will be very interesting to see what happens in January this year, do we try and get some decent acquisitions in to chase down what is going to be a tight race for ANY of the European places this year or keep our powder dry, try and see off another year of PSR and see what happens in regards to the regulations before next summer?
No Europe should see us finish ahead of Spurs, Villa and Man Utd, Chelsea have that big a squad and the weakest european competition that injuries/fatigue probably won't play a part in their season, i think they are the biggest challengers to 4th. Forest and Fulham will obviously fall away, and i think Brighton will a bit further into the season. Sign some quality in Jan and we can compete for 4th, we already are.
