Paddywan

Was it one of your pieces that stressed his Saka connection in that season too? Hard to do that when hes not on the pitch and not really fully himself even when he has been. As you said originally its a chance creation issue not a finishing one usually.

Its also very frequently Martinelli and maybe its partly actually his problem but it feels like Arteta saying something too that feels harsh.

NLD win counts as 6 for this i assume?

I don't say this to shit on Gyokeres he is what he is and trying his best but it felt like we started playing with the right amount of players again when Kai came on.

Yeah can help point you in the right direction to sort yourself.

If you ever want to figure out IPTV so you solve that channel problem shoot me a DM, it's pretty easy to do when you know where to look.

I'm slightly concerned given my love for him that there's two questions at issue. "Do we need an 8/10 rather than a 10 with this new midfield?" and if we do "Can he meet the physical level required especially in the league to do that anymore?"

Yeah his game other than when he's causing the ball to go in is so hard to analyse properly. I can sort of point to what's going wrong when it is but beyond that it's tough looking forward to your take. Eze did a lot of things yesterday that we need that Odegaard just isn't near it's worrying.

Any detail coming on Ø in the next piece? I do wonder to what extent we are heading to an inflection point with him. This is a ZubiRice midfield now and it needs built out as one. Eze,Havertz,Merino, all seem to fit better ahead of that than Ø even if I don't quite know why he can't fit better.

Cheers, brain is too small for all the possibilities.

Can we know if it's going to be 1 of the 4 playoff teams or City/Sporting tomorrow or is that not determined until the draw on the 27th?

What are our potential quarter-final opponents? Obviously 2 of the 4 in the City Sporting playoff group and City or Sporting or can it be narrowed down further already?

You aren't wrong at all but it's always bozo mode with a new back 4.

He's been watching him make runs to nowhere all fucking season. That was a frustration through ball.

Very good point, the drop in technical level argument is a better one. I'd actually like to see us temporarily adopt some of the late game passing we used to stop the late equalizers at 1-0 . Whether it would work or not is another thing but we can't concede if we keep the ball fundamentally.

I wonder to what extent being as prepared as the players have consistently claimed to be by the manager is a double edged sword. Sort of an ignorance is bliss thing, if they were running on instinct a bit more would they be less aware of the margins they dont percieve fully themselves.

I try not to get too carried away with Kai yet, its slower than id like ofc. There is no frame of refrence for the benches we have now in the entire modern history of the club. We dont know what returning from a year out looks like in these conditions.

I've wanted someone smarter than me to do a piece on for awhile. Feels like there have been a lot of games this where the press is just played through without really going for it unlike say the recent Chelsea game where it was understandable. Maybe Havertz fixes it but who knows what he is now.

I'm never trusting this team again.

I woke up this morning thinking im ready to trust this team again. Then the tempt fate kicked in, if we manage to make light work of the San Siro but struggle to this United team at home the team needs therapy.

This was something I wondered but it felt a bit niche. I've seen somewhere that Gyokeres' running numbers are really good in terms of pressures and off the ball. I wonder if he needs to conserve energy a bit better. Does he get past Murillo at Forest if he'd forgone a few hopeless runs.

We get to see the kids in the last game if we get a result here hopefully. The selection tonight is all about the outcome at the weekend rather than anything tonight, it will be judged in hindsight based on that.

Thats kinda been the story of the season and we still probably did enough to win it. Maybe the injury crisis not killing us last year has made us stronger at dealing with clunky dynamics.

As much as Havertz will make Odegaard better it also makes sense he will make him less necessary. Without him I don't see Arteta ever playing without Odegaard with the other forward options what they are. Maybe with Merino you could do it too but he clearly doesn't want to do that.

For all the talk of playing with 1 less man because of Gyokeres, Timber on the left offensively is at least as bad if not worse. If it absolutely has to happen Madueke probably needs to play there for balance.

Would expected points matching be hard to get? Would be interesting to see how lucky we did or didnt get in those equivalent fixtures.

4-4-fucking-2?

Further proof he's only called Billy cause he's the goat.

Was Kai really good at cutbacks in that purple patch or am I imagining it?

Today felt like the old fashioned right side bias games abit, but maybe its was just because given the option why wouldnt you just do everything to give Saka the ball on form like that.