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I thought Wilson was top class at Derby. I personally also thought he was their best player too, offensively wise. He was unlucky in the sense that he was going back to a Liverpool team that had many top players in midfield and attack, so despite getting over 15 goals for Derby, Liverpool loaned him to Bournemouth. But yeah, I thought he was that good that Liverpool were going to utilize him. Mount had advantage of being in a team who was unable to buy players so he was awarded a lot of game time and took his chance. That is why I do like the idea of Boehly not going to high on wages and doing incentive based bonuses. Saka is about to sign a new contract worth around £200k p/w who imo is best winger in the league. Could command more, however they have a wage structure there. That being said, as some have said, I think there is more than just simply money with Mount. There is the length issue. He may also himself question his longevity in the team and where he fits in.

For me, he has to play as we need to be quick on the atatck and need fast attackers to attack their fullbacks who like to get forward. I would prefer him playing on the left as well rather than the right. We don't play to his strengths at all when he is on the right. He will defo be starting anyway: https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/potter-keen-to-unleash-sterling-on-dortmund

Yep, my patience has worn thin now. I had offered my support for him to remain in charge to gain some sustainability, however after today, this is just the final nail in the coffin. Enough is enough. Same old. Nice passages of play an link ups but no clear created chances. Aubameyang is not necessarily going to be a miracle to our prayers, but I struggle to see why he has been so ostracized from the team when our attackers have done dog sh*t. In the past few weeks, he only changed up the forward line once against Southampton and then took Fofana off at H/T despite him offering a lot more than other players that game. Decisions don't make sense. We have not looked this dysfunctional for a long, long while. I have actually forgotten what it is like to win. But no excuse for another poor showing. Two sloppy goals too. I don't see how he survives this now and I don't see what excuse can be made for Potter now. Same old crap.

Sterling is 10x better on the left than the right. Bar the goal, he looks really dangerous.

Sterling was always going to start. He was our best player in the second half against Southampton when he came on. No surprise. Koulibaly is a strange one. You can only think that Potter wants to build a rapport between him and Silva by time of our crucial second leg against Dortmund.

He was fantastic. Dominated the middle of the park. Doesn't surprise me. I always have said that I think part of the reasons our wingers struggle here is because of the narrow size of the pitch. Not enough room to stretch the opposition. Martinelli and Saka for example have so much width on the pitch to attack their opposition.

Agreed. I get Boehly is the owner but little concerned when we buy players with little input from the manager. Because buying all these big names is all good but if there is no ideal philosophy in fitting them in, then just defeats the object. Bellingham and Enzo will be good in games where we want to dominate the ball but then there will be games as seen several times this season, where we got overrun on the counter attack and there are so many gaps.

Did everything tonight but score unfortunately. That being said, a lot of positives and I am confident going into the second leg with more players coming back and being more match sharp.

Who are you referring to? Are you aware of what you just wrote because that is an utterly stupid and racist comment to make... 🤦‍♂️

He bossed that game. Completely dominated Odegaard and co in there. Finally an Arsenal loss. Long time coming. I am still gobsmacked at Pep letting Cancelo go. Obviously a rift but just think that is a huge player to lose in this title race. Yes, he has been a sub recently but his quality would have been needed in their packed schedule.

I bought the shirt this season and yes I absolutely love it.

Just keep Ziyech ffs if we can't sell him. He has actually carried his world cup form into us. Has put in some delightful balls in virtually every match he has played in 2023. Keep him on board would be my suggestion. Offers something different to likes of Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke and Pulisic too.

Talent wise, Bellingham is better than all of them. Tchouameni starts in the DM role, but Bellingham is definitely starting in that future midfield as you would say he is better than both Valverde and Camavinga who are very talented. Either way, all of them would get decent amount of minutes anyway. City seems a realistic choice also. Wouldn't surprise me to see them go after Fernandez as alternative though if we don't sign him in January.

Yes, agreed, which is why it was frustrating when I kept hearing people bang on the same thing about us making a mistake letting Lamptey go. We played Brighton last season and Lamptey caused us all sorts of problems and commentators kept saying the same old nonsense about us letting him go, when we did not have a choice. It was either keep him and then lose him on a free. With the 4atb, yes Brighton are using that more but even at early stages of season, they were playing with wing backs and would play March at RWB instead of Lamptey and even Zerbi the odd time he has used the wing backs has started March on the RWB too.

Only way Ziyech is agreeing to that is there is a small fee release clause if they go down. Even then, I think he may not be interested in moving. Let's see.

Ironically, Lamptey is being linked with going to Lyon as possible replacement for Gusto if he comes to us. Ironic as Lamptey is a player who came through our academy and had many fans questioning why we let him go as he was a real livewire when he burst on to scene for Brighton. This season, I think he has managed 1 league start which is really strange. Seemed to have fallen out of favour under Potter and now Zerbi too. Seems the injuries he picked up before have set him back as Brighton prefer playing a CM at RB instead of him.

We bought Badiashile who hopefully is a decent recruit. Colwill is waiting in the wings and looks brilliant and won rave reviews after his performance against Liverpool last week. Hopefully Fofana gets back to his best when he gets back and hopefully stays fit. Silva still has at least another year in him judging by his performances. We should not be overspending on Gvardiol when we have such talented players in his position. Especially if long term goal is to go to 4 at the back, we need to not spend excessively on players where we already have gems from our academy who are tailor made for that position. Save the money and spend elsewhere.

I am not surprised. The team Pep picked is astonishing. Cancelo, Walker, Silva, KDB, Foden all on bench. Almost like he wants to Arteta a favour.

We should be all over this. Top keeper. Brilliant technically, has outstanding reflexes and commands his box wonderfully. Has single-handedly saved Brentford in several matches. He is not a massive presence in terms of height but everytime I see him for Brentford he looks top class.

And that goes to shove it to the Arsenal fans and co who said he went for money. The truth is he cares about football and I understand why he wanted to move to the Gunners initially. They messed about and thought they could low-ball Shakhtar and undermined them in the process and he got sold. If it was about money, he would have pressed for a lot more. Arsenal's failure to get him was there piure dilly-dallying about which allowed us to pounce. Love this.

He got booed towards the end of the game because Palace fans felt he was timewasting. He went down when Palace were looking to resume play and took a while to come up which irritated Palace players who got quite aggressive with him, which was strange considering all the players involved were ones he was with last season and most notably Guehi picked him up quite aggressively then shoved him and both of them grew up together in the same academy for a lot of years. That is when he got booed. Before that they gave him a kind reception. One point he went to take a corner at their end and they were giving him an applause.

He did what he needed to do and made one really good save from Olise I think it was but it is a stretch giving him MOTM. Should have gone to Silva imo. Even Badiashille, Hall and Gallagher imo had solid games and were more deserving. Our defence pretty much kept them at bay.

I feel we are crying out for another explosive winger type player so I am content with the signing but think the price is way too high and risky, but time will tell. If he ends up being like Hazard then worth the money. However, now happy about the constant other players we are being linked with. Madueke option should be binned now we have agreement for Mudryk. He isn't needed for that amount of money and then what message does it send out to likes of Hudson-Odoi if we are going for players of similar age bracket. Just feels we are being linked with all young players around the globe. I just hope there is some kind of strategy. Assuming this Mudryk deal is signed and sealed, he most likely goes straight in the team for Liverpool game.

Yep, I think we should give this a pass. There's no smoke without fire and I have heard too many allegations for me to think that there is reasons to be suspicious. It is a shame this goes on as there are other players I am sure have got away with this.

Mendy made mistakes last season however we can't say categorically that Pope was better than him. A lot of the names you mentioned are not even playing for Newcastle. Isak only scored 6 league goals last season. Wilson is good but again injury prone and has inconsistent patches himself. Basically what is getting Newcastle where they are is not individual quality (bar Almiron asides) but a team spirit.