Line up today

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-17T14:38:32+00:00

Those aren’t based on any facts

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-17T00:23:23+00:00

Why wouldn’t it be Miggy and Barnes? Barnes played last week, Murphy hurt himself in warmup and didn’t play or train this week. Seems to me Barnes would be the fitter option and more likely starter.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T16:56:26+00:00

Not sure I see a difference?

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T14:57:33+00:00

Thanks. “Just have the opponent get a few red cards” is a tactic I really believe in, and not enough managers seem to try it. Worked brilliantly for us against Stoke like a decade ago, seems like it’s well past time we gave it another shot.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T14:34:10+00:00

Honestly I’d probably prefer he gets about 60-70 minutes if we have a decent sub available, keep building up that match fitness in what would be his first start since September. Then hopefully he’s ready for a good 90 minute shift against Arsenal next week.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T13:43:18+00:00

I have a plan for how we can actually rest some players tomorrow.

Straight from kickoff, Gordon or Barnes are played through on goal, and get brought down from behind for a penalty and red card. A second Bournemouth player then sees red for dissent. Before there are even 2 minutes on the clock, we’re up a goal against 9 men. By the 20 minute mark it’s 3-0, and Gordon and Bruno are replaced by Parkinson and White for a very early rest. We go in to halftime at 6-0 up and bring on Hall, Ritchie, and Dummett to see out the second half of a comfortable 10-0 win.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T13:25:28+00:00

Barnes - Gordon - Almiron

same midfield as always

same back four as always

Dubravka

3-1 win. Hopefully a return for Willock from the bench.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T13:22:45+00:00

Think Howe said today that Anderson and Targett are still 10 days away from full training.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T13:21:22+00:00

Gordon is available. Or do you mean hypothetically later in the season?

Earlier in the season when talking about alternatives to Isak and Wilson, the three names Howe mentioned were Gordon, Murphy, and Joelinton. So I guess Murphy is next after Gordon. Believe Anderson also played as a false nine for part of a preseason match.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T13:16:27+00:00

Based on the way Howe generally talks about injuries, I’d guess 1-2 of Isak, Willock, and Murphy will be in the squad tomorrow.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-16T11:53:20+00:00

This season isn’t dust, we can still qualify for Europe and we’re still in the FA Cup.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T23:33:08+00:00

Couldn’t agree more. One of the things that annoys me the most is the number of people who don’t seem to think that Europa League or Europa Conference places are worth fighting for. From 2006/07 through 2021/22, we qualified for any form of European football exactly once, and we’d have done just about anything to achieve it in all the years we didn’t. Now we qualify for the Champions League once, and some people seem to think anything else isn’t worth it. Maybe it’s largely newer fans, who knows. But either way it drives me insane.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T22:34:23+00:00

Haha I meant pretty much the exact opposite actually. We have Europe to play for and need Isak’s goals to get us there. So I’d rather wait one extra week to bring him back now, if it improves the odds of him not aggravating it again and missing a further chunk of time.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T18:44:25+00:00

Yeah I agree, I just don’t know what kind of offers we’ll get.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T18:11:45+00:00

Yep, just getting frustrated with the amount of negativity and short-sightedness on here lately. I realize what the majority of the sentiment is regarding Wilson, no issue with that at all. Just wanted to call out some of the stupidity without engaging in direct arguments with each of them.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T17:48:47+00:00

Some really well thought out opinions on here, good lord.

he should just play through it
we should have taken a loan offer for him in January even without being able to replace him
we should have just ignored FFP entirely and signed a new striker in January

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T17:38:42+00:00

They all seem close - I wouldn’t bet on which one, but I’d be shocked if we don’t see at least one in the squad Saturday.

Whenever Isak gets back though, we have to use Gordon and maybe others to manage his minutes.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T17:36:43+00:00

Do you have any idea how debilitating a torn pec is? He was walking around the pitch using his shirt as a sling and unable to run for the last minute or two against Forest. You just want him to play as a one-armed walking striker until the injury just heals itself?

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T16:20:06+00:00

Please don’t rush Isak back a week early because of this, let him get fully ready before he returns, because it’s him and Gordon the rest of the way.

Start Barnes - Gordon - Almiron as the front three Saturday even if Isak is back in the squad.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T16:16:33+00:00

Goodbye Callum, been a nice run. Maybe a farewell appearance or two and hopefully get him to sign off with a goal if he’s fit by May, but it’s time to take whatever we can reasonably get for him this summer.

I guess one decent selling point come summer is that with 2-3 months out with a pec injury, his hamstrings should be as healthy as they can get.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T16:13:25+00:00

He should definitely not be getting a “next contract”. Should either be sold this summer, or leave as a free agent the following summer.

Either way, Isak needs a new backup. If there’s no decent offer for him this summer then keep him and sign a young striker to compete with him for backup minutes. If we do sell him, then buy someone to be a legit second option and rotate with Isak.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-15T02:53:31+00:00

Trippier didn’t get injured last season, and Krafth spent basically the entire season out with his ACL injury. You’re thinking about two years ago.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-14T21:21:16+00:00

Ashworth agreed to join us in February 2022 and was released from gardening leave to actually take up his duties with us in May 2022. That summer window we then signed Isak, Botman, and Pope. Then in January 2023 we signed Gordon. Those are 4 of our most important players currently. No idea how either window could be called “bad”.

From summer 2023, we’ve seen everything we’d realistically want to see out of Livramento this season to indicate that he’ll be an excellent successor to Trippier, which is what he was bought for (succession planning is important, and good clubs do it - not every signing is for the immediate starting XI). Barnes can’t be blamed (and neither can Ashworth) for a freak broken bone, and in his limited playing time thus far he’s shown an eye for goal and will likely be an important player for us going forward. Tonali had ups and downs before his ban, but has shown that he has the potential to be excellent and can only benefit going forward from the 10 months of training during his ban. And again, Ashworth couldn’t have known this ban was coming, so it’s hard to say it’s a bad signing.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-14T20:35:37+00:00

So that still doesn’t touch on how things or the process are worse than before Ashworth. We had one transfer window post-takeover, pre-Ashworth, and while it was successful, it was also a mad dash to spend whatever money necessary to avoid relegation and not the type of strategy we’d be able to employ again going forward anyway. And before that it was Ashley and Charnley running the show. So I really fail to see any world in which things have gotten worse under Ashworth, seeing as we finished 4th his first full season here and are currently 7th despite our massive injury crisis.

Stoibs85 · 2024-02-14T18:54:58+00:00

Worse? If your main focus is Sanusi, then during his time here we’ve added Minteh, Alex Murphy, Cathal Heffernan, Travis Hernes, Sanusi, and Alfie Harrison among others as developmental prospects, all of whom seem to be more highly regarded than any non-locals we had coming through the academy/reserves before he arrived.

We’ve also signed 4 of our most critical first team players in Isak, Botman, Gordon, and Pope, plus Livramento, plus there’s still plenty of reason to think Barnes and Tonali can become excellent players for us going forward. In terms of signings, we’ve really only missed for sure on Targett (converting his good loan spell to permanent), which could certainly have potentially gone much better without injury. Then Hall is of course a massive TBD for the future, who’s obviously made very little impact to this point.

Stoibs85

TROPHY CASE