Every match without fail, Longstaff gets tired at about 55 minutes then falls on the ball hoping for the most softest free kick known to man. It’s rinse and repeat. i’d rather lads from afar with talent in our team than local lads with no talent. This shouldn’t be a “if your from the north east you guarantee to start” side.
They aren't clearing it and we've had this notion they'll get rid for year upon year upon year. I think it's time we realised it'll be the good players that go, the dross stays and they replace the top layer rather than the underbelly of absolute ****e.
His record in his 335 minutes played is better than most of the rest of the team. To be honest I thought he was a bit of a bottler, and not the sort of guy you want when its hard going, but there is no doubt he is a talented player.
My issue is he's lazy, simple as. Never saw anything about him at Leicestee that made me think "yeah we need him" in fact, compared to Maddison I thought we went in to sign a prized horse and came away with a mule. But so far he's had an eye for goal and has looked OK
The season has been underwhelming there's no doubt. We've got a draw in the cup that realistically means we're going out. 12 games in the league and 10 of them are ok fixtures (away to Man Utd and away to Chelsea aren't the terrors they used to be but we'll probably lose both), we're 2 points off 7th. If we finish 7-8th then I can accept the season was just a combination of bad events (the injuries, the cup draws, some bad decision making in tight games) but that we've underperformed. I don't accept that the team is suddenly terrible though - Trippier looks shot compared to 6 months ago and Burn has shown that he had a spell of 18 months of good form rather and has now reverted to bang average. I look at the team though and think we should be able to challange top 6 again next season without too much. For me we have some players good enough for a top 4 challenge: Pope Livramento Botman Tonali Bruno Joelinton Willock Barnes Gordon Isak Wilson We need a new CB and LB/RB (two players) and we'd have a very good first team. Some of the players people are complaining about would be fine squad players imho (Longstaff, Schar, Almiron, etc) it's just that we need 15-20 players better than them and for those to be back ups rather than playing 40+ games a season for us.
I wouldn't want him starting lots of games for us but I think off the bench and against minnows his numbers are excellent, good enough for a team fighting for European qualification. His body lets him down a lot but I think if he was used more sparingly we'd get more out of him, half the time he's rushed back into playing and trying to get match fit and then gets injured again. As regards RW (post above), I would have agree earlier in the season but right now it's our defence that looks like the issue. We're relying too much on Burn, Trippier and Schar and they're either not quite good enough or too old now sadly. I don't think they're going to turn it around next year.
Wilson is good enough for a top 4 challenge next season? Absolutely insane take that man, the guy is shot to pieces. You included Wilson and removed Trippier despite them being similar ages and Wilson having a considerably worse injury record. Trippier should be benched for Tino and Wilson should be let go.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but selling Wood was a bad decision too. Wilson could have been shifted and Wood retained
Still think the defence's biggest problem is lack of cover from midfield - noticeable how much worse we are without someone like Joelinton in midfield to add some tackles and break up play. Striker, RW, LB, DM, CB for me
I think the Wood situation was slightly odd at the time though. When he was sold it was known that both Isak and Wilson had come off some injury-laden times and we unlikely to be regularly available in the next year or two (Wilson in particular). I think most assumed Wood being sold would lead to a replacement and obviously it didn't. If your two strikers are Isak and Wilson you need a 3rd and ideally one who offers something different. If we're relying on Wilson to cover 10 game stretches whilst Isak is out of the team then we're going to be disappointed, for me I'd treat him like a fast bowler in cricket and tell him he has 3-4 games to run his arse off and then rest him up for a few or even just have him as an impact sub.
I think we should as a club be looking to move on from Ashley era players who barely run. We should be signing exciting players to push us in Europe and impress people abroad. We are still thinking small club in my opinion
That's fair enough, I've no real idea how much we'll have to spend this Summer. It would be great to think we'd be able to buy 3-4 players for £40m or so each as I could see that transforming the team. So long as it's not on LB's who don't then play for us. ps. We spent that sort of money last year and it hasn't really worked out as Barnes and Hall haven't played much, Tino has looked great but inexplicably not been given game time and Tonali has been suspended. Still think 3 of them will turn out to be good buys though.
