Paulo Dohdini

No, the sleeve is irrelevant. It's a line drawn across from the armpit to the outside of the arm. The confusion comes from this "non-handball" area being one colour and the rest of the arm being another in the rules/guidance diagram that made it look like a football shirt, and thus a "sleeve line".

"city could expose our midfield frailties" - completely agree with this. Though I'm not convinced the solution is solely a formation change. As long as one is part of a EH masterplan that leads to us at least competing today, I'll be happy. Wouldn't be surprised if I'm in a minority there though!

Our 433 has always struggled vs teams that play with 10s due to the gap between our defence and flat midfield 5. Option we've seen before is 541 with the CBs free to follow their man into midfield. 4231 would also help solve this, but radically changes our patterns. Is it wise to experiment vs City?

I've been muting anyone that consistently displays a lack of ability for nuanced thinking. The hashtag is quieter but definitely better.

There's a lot of "if only Howe would do X thing we'd be better" on here. Whether it's (not fully fit) Hall for Burn; Ramsey for Joelington; Ramsdale for Pope; some alt combination of wingers; or an alt formation.
That there's a really simple quick fix to this that Howe just won't do is absurd.

You keep implying I'm saying something other than I am.
I'm not saying the lack of change was right, I'm saying you can't factually say changing things would definitely have been better.

I'm saying we'll never know, so "not changing things" can't be used as the definitive argument for why we lost.

So because we can't really conclude anything as we don't have the full picture. It comes down to whether we trust that Howe is trying and has the ability to turn this around.
Seeing as there was a tricky period last season that led to rumblings of "Howe out" before CC & 5TH, my answer would be yes.

The fact that we can't prove a counter-factual makes both sides of this a bit hypothetical, but: Firstly, change doesn't mean better, it could mean worse - look at Liverpool. Also, we don't know what's happening in training, maybe none of the non-starters are performing well enough to be considered.

Agreed. Playing with only one fit PL level striker that completely changed the way we need to play while having little time on the training pitch due to the sheer number of games this season. Then add injured fullbacks & illness. Not surprising there's been some poor performances.

Agree with this. It's a necessary step in our evolution, but it comes with growing pains.

I'm still annoyed by the performance v Everton in the last game of last season. We came so close to throwing away CL football and it was only an outside factor that saved our skins.

Frustrating watch from #NUFC today. Clearly miles better than Fulham, but a complacent start to the second half left us needing to up our game. Once we did we made Fulham look like they only had 10 men on the pitch. I feel like this could have been a much easier afternoon than it was.

For the amount of complaints about him you'd think opposition wingers are creating endless chances, when in reality Burn's positioning and tackling make up for his lack of pace.

100% We've now got 3 players (Tonali/Bruno/Miley) that can operate as the 6 at PL/CL level. Miley needs to show he can also contribute as an 8 like Bruno can to get more game time than just as a Tonali replacement.

Completely agree. The thing Miley needed to add to his game is influencing it. Big tackles and incisive passes, not just being neat and tidy all the time. Tonight (and Vs Brighton) he's shown he's a more complete player than he was two seasons ago. Brilliant performance.

Feeling pretty smug for calling this one correctly:
1/ Benfica didn't sit in.
2/ Lukebakio looked dangerous in the 1st half.
3/ Aursnes played left wing and right back.
4/ Silva kept every #NUFC player inside and missed the ball for the 1st Barnes goal.

Yes, they can. This is how they play against teams at around their own ability level.

He's wildly inconsistent at the moment, a right sided Harvey Barnes.

He's wildly inconsistent, even within a single game. He's as likely to not be heard from again as to have a second half just as good.

It's a really technically good midfield for us. Hopefully it leads to us dominating possession and creating opportunities.

bsky.app/profile/mbga...

4/ summer before last, but nothing last summer, he's got a mistake in him and I'm not sure he'll do well against Woltemade.

3/ watch for me are Lukebakio (11) a fast winger who just needs to find consistency to go to the next level; Aursnes (8) is their Jacob Murphy, primarily a winger whose work rate and positional flexibility often overshadow his ability; and Silva (4) who was linked with every big club in Europe the

2/ low blocks. At the same time that squad is expected to keep it tight and counter attack against Champions League opponents with far more resources. That means they have a side that doesn't play one way, they can play *any* way as opposition, opportunity and game state demand.

Their players to

1/ I see a few predicting Benfica will come to SJP at sit in against #NUFC. Having watched them a fair bit I think this is incorrect. Benfica are a side that can do it all, and are this way by necessity. Against smaller teams at home they're expected to dominate games, keep possession and breakdown

He won't want to point at things because of his sausage fingers.

Nonsense. The Bradford defender did excellently with a strong shoulder to shoulder just before Elanga received the ball. With that context Elanga's first touch is great for being unbalanced, but takes him into a difficult angle to do much with.

I thought this was going to conclude with you meeting your now wife on that bus!

How does blocking work here? Would that remedy this situation?