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Getting totally overrun in midfield today. Feels like there is three individuals there instead of unit that would work together. Gunn has been good.

And unfortunately there is huge gap of quality between Greek league and EPL which explains some of the highlights. We likely have many other players as well who would set the league in flames there. I have no doubt he will come good, but I also agree that it seems that Rowe is currently better capable on carrying his weight on this level than Tzolis. Tzolis is young, he is learning, and he has to take couple more development steps to earn his place in the team. Would be surprised if it happens this season already (but take it happily!). But I think he has talent to possibly make it in year or two.

That was shocking news. Like many others, I think we have been better with two up front. Sure we have others who can play up there Tzolis, Rashica, Sargent etc. However, they are very different players to Idah. The partnership in front requires bit different kind of players, and I'd think that Pukki would be best suited with big striker who can also act as target. We soon need to revive the old debate about playing players in wrong positions and try Byram in our forward pairing 😉 In a way, I'm expecting to see Sargent pairing up with Pukki though, as of our current options he seems closest to Idah.

I'll learn from this and leave it for our dedicated specialist in future 😄👍

Richarlison has scored 3 goals this season for team that has scored 28 goals. Pukki has scored 6 goals for team that has scored 14 goals. During our last premier league visit, Richarlison scored 13 for team that scored 44 goals, Pukki scored 11 for team that scored 26. I really think that Pukki is better finisher of the two, even though Richarlison has has other good qualities. In case of Kane, I agree it might be laughable to consider him instead of Pukki as Pukki has been better performer of the two during this season (at least based on the goals). I agree that in their current forms, we should maybe stick with Pukki. In longer term, I'd still likely go with Kane.

True! Was originally planning to respond on of them, but they tend to end up whining threads and yes/no arguments. Therefore decided start a new one that focuses on also really looking what other teams to have instead of getting lost in thread with endless opinions without arguments. And even I have to start new thread every now and then!😉

For two reasons, Salah is not CF and in addition he is in top six teams and as mentioned those were skipped. Would still take Salah for sure!

Every now and then there are posts and comments that Pukki is becoming slow, is not clinical anymore, smells foul or for some other reason should be replaced (and should've already been done year or two ago). Those are really annoying me, especially because those who keep bringing it up never really want to answer who the replacement should be. So, to try to figure out that, I wanted to start considering possible options in the ranks of our dear opponents. I went it through simply by listing forwards by their score in fantasy premier league and started to pick all who had performed to even some level. Might be that some have played in different positions or missing someone, but wanted to quickly get list and think how they match and trying to skip those who have clearly not been playing as CF but more as winger etc. Interesting side note, Pukki has 6th best score of all the forwards in Fantasy Premier League which is of course based stats of the players. But to the list. Who (out of top 6 teams) would be upgrade for Pukki as CF. Dennis - not sure if improvement? Not really proven in longer term, but had good period during this season. Would rather have Pukki currently. Maupay - maybe, could be bit like younger version of Pukki. Currently would be gamble for better or worse. However, younger. Edouard - not been that impressed of him on matches I've seen. Toney - Very different, but has not been able to really have expected impact in Premier League even though Brentford was performing really well in start. Judge is out with this, but currently don't see him as major upgrade. Che Adams - does not seem like upgrade to me. Broja - Nope. King - Nope. Watkins - Has some quality for sure, but don't feel like he would currently be improvement. Vardy - would consider as upgrade, but is always broken and due to that not been on his best anymore. Will not help team when watching from VIP lounge. Jimenez - hard one. I think he is pretty good, but not been scoring that much either this season. Cannot say he would really be improvement currently either. Kane - going through hard patch, but likely would have any case. On the other hand, might not suit to our style of playing. Still, would likely take him. Callum Wilson - I'd rather have Pukki. Ings- always liked him, but haven't been able to perform on expected level this season at Villa. Very different kind of player as well. Wood - Nope. Unless we want to change to just pump the ball into box. Richarlison - could be one option. Has his moments, but not really clinical scorer. Would like to see him supporting Pukki, but if I need to pick only one, I'd keep Pukki as better finisher. Lacazette - Has his moments, but bit average as a scorer. Rather have Pukki. Ayew - Not currently able to make any impact in Palace. Armstrong - Not performing, would be downgrade. Hwang - had good start for season, but faded away and not getting any more minutes. Iheanacho - really haven't been finding net Any I've missed? So, some might disagree with some of those players and rather have them instead of Pukki, but it is hard to see anyone seriously considering any of them as a major upgrade as direct replacement. If we agree that we would not want most of those guys to replace Pukki and don't find any better names to the list, maybe it is time to agree that we are lucky to currently have one of the best forwards in the whole league and be very happy about that.

Young guy, first time moving to abroad to play in league with very different style and tempo. Could be also first time in his career that he has had such major competition to get to play or even to bench. And as stated earlier, he was told to be one for future. Why not loan? Likely so that he gets familiar with club and really learns the level that is demanded to break through here. I'm sure that if he is not ready to compete for starting eleven next summer, he will then get loan and come back better equipped to take his claim. He is not one dimensional speedster, but more technical player so it is harder to use his talent immediately with higher tempo and less space. Maybe he should really be judged only after year or two.

Just out of curiosity. Excluding top 6 clubs, who strikers from other Premier League teams you'd rather take in to replace Pukki and provide us better finishing ability?

Groundskeeper might have earned a valid claim for MOM there, for preparing the penalty spot area just perfectly!

Would've hoped him to finish better in that case as well, but actually I'd also give credit to that defender coming behind him with great pace to make the interception. That clearly surprised Pukki while he was looking for better angle to get shot past other defenders and keeper. The same defender also took care of saving that good headed chance earlier. In both cases he backtracked the situation with amazing pace and was able to get himself on the ball just in time. If it would have happened in other end of the field, we would now be praising the defender. But all in all, Pukki had two chances inside the box and scored one of them. 50% conversion rate is not bad at all and having two chances in a game is improvement from most of the other games during this season. I can't wait for us to keep on improving and maybe starting to provide him for example four chances per game.

Really have to give all the credit to him for his shot stopping. Two really great saves today!

Draw or Everton to win. Even though Newcastle are trying to buy their way out to survival, it's not usually that straight forward to start getting results immediately. Therefore I still think that Newcastle might be fighting against the relegation in the final rounds and be one of our main opponents. Somehow I still feel it more likely that Everton will sail clear from relegation battle earlier.

"over physical Norwich".. now that is something I've not heard in last couple of years!

I think Gilmour had his best performance earlier this season when he was playing together with Normann. Can't recall which match it was though, maybe against Wolves.. They've not had chance to play much together though. Don't really know if that is actually the only time so far.

This is hard one. In a way I was hoping that we could get one incoming that would surprise as all and give us clear boost. However, with our experience on earlier windows and how hard it has been to get those players up to speed with us, I think that it would have been quite a gamble. Or it should have been someone who would've improved us with when performing in 80% of his top level. Of those that moved in this window, Christian Eriksen would've likely been one such. Getting player whose 80% performance level is enough to improve us and who would not cost totally silly sum just feels like something that is near to impossible deal to get done during January window. Therefore, I feel that in the long term it was most reasonable thing to not to try to invest into such a gamble. Of course loans are bit different beast, but mostly available loan players are really expensive to get during January or massive gamble as they are likely available only due to having failed in their earlier loan stint and being called back due to that.

Not a hater. Actually really liked him and certain flair he has brought to team. However, I am also really happy to see him gone for now. It seems like he had become unnecessary disturbance for rest of the team with all this drama nonsense going on. I also truly hope that he can get his act together and his loan trip will be wakeup call that gets his mind and career back to right track.

If they just would have done the list when we still had Farke... on the horse!

That was likely partially his reasoning. He puts the hand on the back of defender when he sees that ball comes in such trajectory that he needs to quickly stop. While doing that, he also makes himself more room with that push and makes it impossible for defender to stop there. Defender tries to also stop there, but is met with push on his lower back. I see it so that Kane got clear advantage in the situation by pushing defender away from him. Without the push, the defender would've stopped in front of him and would likely have been able to block the shot. So, it is clearly intentional that he makes more room for himself and try to force the defender out of the situation by pushing his back. I can't say for sure if defender was over dramatic while falling, likely so. However, that is what often is needed to point the clear foul for referee to ensure it is taken in account. Hanley does it really often for us as well. I would think it likely that in this case he got out of balance due to push happening on his lower back while he was trying to stop his movement and started falling due to that, but also added bit of acting during the fall to make it more clear. In any case, I think it is pretty clear that there was intent to push defender either to make more space or to stop the movement to be able to receive the pass in shooting position. In both cases it was due to the foul Kane made that he got that chance. Without the push he would not have received the ball at all. And this is not to justify acting as part of falling or anything such. Just to state that not depending the actions that defender took, the foul was clear.

It is contact sport, but pushing back is far from what the contact is supposed to be. Kane put his hand on the back when there was no ball in situation yet and when opponent was moving away from him. Push was very mild, but he had no other reason to put his hand there than get unfair advantage by pushing defender. Dirty trick that you see very often these days. I'd be much more tolerant if they were fighting the ball shoulder to shoulder.

Clear foul. Why else would Kane had put his hand on back of Silva than to shove him. Tactical foul to get opponen off the balance.

Heh, got a laugh for that. But to be honest with VAR picture though, it is actually not as bad it seems. Hand is not counted so it takes most of it off and the rules were changed so that the thick line should be used and comparing to that the head likely is counted in. So in that sense, seems like a right call by the rules. Just as a comparison with thicker line and line that is actually drawn straight.

We've been really lucky lately with opponents scoring own goals! Or have we? The old wisdom in sports say that you often create your own luck, and I think we are doing it here now. When watching both own goals and other goals we have scored in last two games, it actually brings me fond memories from Farke's first promotion season. Back then, Aarons was often having runs very high up and causing havoc on positions where Pukki passed the first goal and where the own goals were created. That is something that I've missed ever since and we haven't been able to get into such situations for ages. For a very long time, we have always been outnumbered inside opponent's box. Usually it has been lone Pukki against two central defenders there. Now that we have changed to two forwards and our wingers have become much more determined to run into box, we are either outnumbering their defenders or at least have equal numbers and getting upper hand due to the fact that we are moving towards their goal. First goal yesterday was prime example of that. When Pukki won the ball, there were two players already rushing towards the goal. When they were forced for own goal, Rashica was wide open, and would have likely scored without the own goal leading interception. In addition, we do get to those places due to the fact that we are bit more direct and move faster in possession, instead of letting them setup their defensive unit inside the box while slowing moving the ball outside the danger zone. Yes, there is always luck involved with own goals, but currently we are creating lots of that luck by our own actions. And I love it.

Now just everything turns for our favor. Woah! All those piled moments of bad luck getting paid back