tinofbeans

to add to rather than swap. Ndombele is hilariously inconsistent.

no thanks. he's part of the problem for everton. awful keeper. we should get Nick pope in. good cover/ alternate first choice.

FTFY

both have been good in patches. not much else to say really... shelvey is really useful as a non defensively minded pivot, but his weaknesses are his woeful lack of mobility, and his tackling. his passing is still really his only strength. that won't go away in the next 18 months. ASM sometimes tries too hard. still one of the best one on one players i've ever seen. needs to be end product focused now. has the talent, mentality wise and peak fitness he's been a little away from great form for most of the season.

can't have it both ways.

Way better going forward than previously, and defensively less suspect. With him and Trippier and Manquillo also being available we have 1 very good, 1 good and one not bad full back available for the right side of the team. Now all we need in terms of full backs is to get Targett signed and an alternative to him that allows for cover and offers a slightly better cross/ final ball.

i'd suggest that coutinho is a magician, who delivers the final pass, and can score. St max is currently capable of that but is capable of engineering the space for himself, and taking on more than one player (he's excellent at breaking lines). its that final ball and goal attempt, that he then doesn't always (indeed rarely) gets right. Coutinho is on stupid money. he would improve our team if we were built around him for sure. until we know next seasons first 11, and how we plan to play, i'm not sure how we go with this.

unless we replace him with a player that does the hard yards and has a decent final ball/ goalscoring record/attacking threat, which is very difficult to see, i think we should stick with him. no one else in the premiership can do what he does when he is on form, and its down to him and the coaches to maximise his talent. the decision making and especially the final ball side of his brain seems to be quite a way behind the dribbling side....

he needs to go to a proper club. would be a coup for us.

Agree, we need to be a fair few points above the zone of death, as whilst our first team is very good, our back ups are not great, in quite a few positions. a burnley loss is all i care for, but Leicester leak goals....

how can anyone with that face be vain? he's actually a laughing stock, i really wonder what any teams see in him, maybe he is amiable, and fun. he's certainly not a football manager of any ability.

He’s great till he gets found out. 😂

makes the most sense. looks like Bruno can do the number 6 role (think of Verrati/ Jorghinho), so the technical control of the tempo of the game. the next step is to get the other defensive midfield position. he could actually work with Shelvey i think, but Shelveys not got the engine or defensive capability, he has got a decent long pass when he's on form, which recently he has been. Shelvey played well yesterday, but we do need that level of control, which he can't bring.... at least not without changing his game big time which won't happen.

yep, he's a flick on to the other big man up front kind of player. wonder how many assists he'd get with a runner ( willock 10 yards further forwards)... also he gets offside too much for a "static" forward. if he angled his runs he'd be more potent. having said that he did play his part, confidence will come.

Trippier was our best player. Asm is such a threat but he’s v frustrating!

Get in!

Richarlison is proper pound shop rubbish.

Quality goal. Pickford utterly mugged off😂😂😂

Trippier and targett are way way better than the players they replaced. Trippers delivery is top class.

So many silly mistakes….

rumours are we are after carrasco from athletico madrid. proper player. i do hope so...

sadly makes sense. think of all the clubs that signed up to that failed hyperleague, that got called out for what it was, they'll be the people that don't want to deal with us. spurs, arsenal, man red, liverpoo, Juve, real and Barca, to name just a few of them.

Hugo Ekitike, has anyone heard of him?

its all short term. Digne is a talented player but defensively suspect, and clearly doesn't like being told to be a Benitez style left back ( more focus on defensive than offensive). if it were me, i'd go to Villa short term and see how the season pans out then jump ship and join Newcastle when / if they are safe, and have a top 8 challenging team... (2024 onwards perhaps). even then i doubt he is good enough to push on towards a champions league place, or to fit in a side that does that.

any other centre backs/fullbacks/ goalkeepers/ midfielders/forwards of decent quality on our radar. i'm sure we could get an entirely better 1-11 if we had the minerals to do it...