OTF

I'm more upset about this than the score, yes I am a petty petty man.

We completely fell asleep, there was another man unmarked at the back post as well. Our midfield and defense should not be allowing that much space when we're playing the game in our half.

Ouch.

Unlucky there, quality save Karius.

Who was Burn marking there!?

Baptism of fire of Karius

Into them Scott

Dubravka has actually made quite a lot of good saves in the last month including two in this game, but when he does it's more of a shock than anything. Really don't have any confidence in him, I think it's his positioning that is most suspect as sometimes he's beaten like he's not there at all. Slipping over in this one was more unfortunate than anything, it was a questionable backpass combined with a slippery pitch. Karius has looked ok in the limited times he has played, but I feel like Howe won't want to risk destroying Dubravka's confidence by dropping him when Karius is far from a sure thing. He's got to be taking advice and observing in training as well, but not every player who trains well plays well in games and the same can be true in reverse.

It's not Miley, but it is the type of players that aren't there. Either Joelinton or Willock have the pace to get back and cover in defense after pressing high. With Longstaff, Miley and Bruno we don't have that. Hopefully Miley can add some more speed as he develops. He's not slow as it is but hasn't shown any explosiveness. He already has a good physical presence as a 17 year old. He was battling and beating midfielder 10+ years his senior tonight.

At what point does it become insanity to keep selecting him?

Between you, Gemmill and Michael Owen's PR team I'm sure a very convincing pamphlet could be distributed.....

If you bring everyone back in, including Tonali, and get out of signing Hall all we really need to do urgently is get a quality non injury prone striker in. I was going to say someone of the Joao Pedro mould, but he's had hamstring problems this season. We also need to retain Joelinton.

Use Burn as an option for CB the days of him being a LB are over. We push too high up the pitch to carry someone as slow as him in a position where defensive agility and speed are two of the key requirements. Longstaff works well depending who his partners are. Miley looks like he will be the much better player but he hasn't shown a lot in terms of making attacking runs into the box and getting himself into scoring positions. We're stuck with Wilson as noone will be interested in him due to his age and horrendous injury record but we obviously need more than two first team strikers so he becomes a quality substitute option forthe 15 minutes of the year where he's fully fit. Miggy has gone off the boil, doesn't want to leave but once we have at least one option up front then we could play Barnes and Gordon in the wide positions.

It was a strange game, the referee helped them out a lot by allowing them to press and foul without repercussions but we couldn't handle it, even when we broke their press we lacked the presence up front to take advantage. That's down to personnel. Miley and Bruno were our best, Longstaff doesn't do well in higher tempo games. Obviously we're extremely limited with player selection but the one spot that is consistently costing us goals where we do have cover not being changd is baffling. Sure Burn is a leader on and off the pitch but he's being relentlessly targeted by player much faster and more agile than him. It's being used to great effect and is the same in every single game and yet there's not even an attempt to do anything about it.

Being a very physical game (thanks ref) he wasn't well suited, but no other options.

We'll never have a full squad available. If he wants a central defender to play there he could give Krafth a run?

I agree, IF you're at least putting a little bit of pressure on the striker.

We've become the hyperbolic Newcastle United Entertainers.

I can do this all morning. Burn didn't want to be beat for pace so was less than useless as a defender (blocked Dubravka's view). Burn wasn't even ready to block the shot as he was thinking that this guy is going to try to go around me for sure. RITCHIE!!!

Howe won't do it, he'll double down on putting his trust in Dubravka.

Wrong. Burn should not be shitting himself about someone running past him.

Yeah as a GK you expect your defender to be some sort of impediment. It wasn't like he had anyone to pass to, it was entirely down to Burn being patently afraid of being beat for pace. Something that has been called out by every man and their dog for the past year.

Schär by TKO with snap kick to the ribs.

Fuck sake, Murphy too lightweight had to commit to getting that ball and should have been a goal.

Shite is a bit harsh, but otherwise totally correct. Pope is miles better, hope he comes back well from his injury.