hepphep

Should give some slack for him though. Not long since he had fever and now he played two matches in short time window. No wonder if he is not in his best form. Bit harsh to smite young guy like him who is clearly playing in role that does not suit him. Will cheer for him as long as he pulls on the yellow shirt, even though not happy to his performance so far either.

Dont you think its bit rough on him? Guy is missing over half of his best players (Krul, Pukki, Rashica, Hanley, Normann, Rupp, Aarons and so on). Most players fielded are likely second line subs for him, that should only play small part this season. We cannot afford such depth than many bigger teams and therefore covid hits us really hard.

I'd take Hughes any time. He is actually a player I like a lot, and could be perfect upgrade to our midfield.

Waiting anxiously to see Gunn make a save. Maybe not today yet, but in some future game perhaps...

Hmm.. Do we have anyone in lineup who has scored this season?

Time to give McGovern a start soon..

If Smith and his staff knew that Gilmour was in fever when they put him on the field, they should be sacked immediately and also punished by FA. In no condition, manager or medical staff should risk player with fever to play even though they would want to do so. Thats gambling with their life. However, if it has been more like Gilmour telling that he is not feeling exactly sharp and they noticed fever only after the match, that would be more understandable. That kind of things also end up happening, when players want to belittle health concerns to play. I would expect that this is the case here. Depending on which it was, there should be learning (for player as well) or strict actions.

Picking Martial would likely mean he would be direct competitor for Pukki. However, really rate Pukki currently higher than Martial, so would see no sense in hiring Martial to warm the bench.

Of course he needs to do his part there. Look the space in front of him and how it is used to break our press. I am sure he is willing to do that, but will need some adaptation. And I don't mean he should be pressing next to Pukki, but pressing is full formation effort and cdm plays one of the biggest parts in it. Oh, and I'm on planet Earth. Thanks for asking.

Would like see Todd and Williams off for Idah and Dimi. Todd just looks like he should currently be playing in pub league and Williams just stalls the game, trying to swith to his right feet

Team pressing dire today. Missing Sargent and Rupp big time. Todd just clueless where he should be and Sorensen (even though playing otherwise well) is not stepping up in pressing. Very similar to Southampton. Lets hope we can make similar transformation on half time

Another fine Kabak moment...

1-0 win. With Buendia playing, I'm sure he'll create at least one chance for Pukki to score!

Cantwell was really anonymous when he came in, and seemed to me having negative effect on our midfield control. I'd say he is non-starter and needs to build up match fitness and confidence as a sub first.

Its not easy to do it for anyone anymore in rainy a day at Norwich..😉 But actually, it starts to feel like opponents are starting to take a note that there are no easy points to take from Carrow Road anymore.

Good performance and only separated by De Gea's game saver. Dimi was easily best player on whole park !

I think Gilmour has actually been good. Playing more forward and pacing the game today

Pukki's passing has been really off today. Cannot blame much for not scoring though as the passes he got in box were badly executed. Just hope Rupp had managed bit better with those

At least we need backup that we can get close or offer a real option. And score every now and then. However, I've been playing around with thought that what if we would be ready to spill 30M€ to get other striker. Who other striker we would get who would be level of Pukki? When thinking of proven striker of his level in any world's top 4 leagues, nobody comes into my mind. They are starting strikers of their own team and very expensive to buy. Anyone else has any suggestions of such striker that would be available for that sum? Another option is young talent who is not yet there, but is one of the top talents in big European leagues and are already banging some goals there. But actually, those tend to cost even more. There might be some jewels there which I don't know though, so any ideas who might be such a player? There are promising youngsters for cheaper for sure, but we have already bought such. In both cases, they also should preferably would be able to play other forward positions that CF as well, as we likely would not want to have either them or Pukki sitting on bench for most of the time. Sort of hearing suggestions on getting similar level or better player every now and then, but I see the problem in there that strikers of his level are so ridiculously rare that they are not available or cost massive amount. Therefore I'm really curious if I'm missing someone here.

Had similar thoughts immediately when noticed the lineup. Bit nervous feeling how that plays out and if Smith can build something different out of it. Sitting deep has not really worked for us...

Was expecting different lineup and us giving them some pressure higher up. First thought is that with that lineup we are trying to defend in deep and not counterpress. Lets see, will be interesting to see what the gameplan is

This is a real risk for sure. On the other hand, getting experienced player who could likely compete with Pukki would likely cost more than 25M€ and their salaries requests are likely higher that what we pay for Pukki. Getting that kind of player with that sum and convincing them to join us to be primarily used as backup for Pukki would seem a hard thing to achieve, both to get agreement from player and justify pouring so much money for backup player. The other option is to get non-proven players there and hope that they break through. However, for younger guys this is pretty bad situation as they likely would not get much minutes there. That is sort of happening for Idah (in addition to his injuries and sickness that really ruined his last season). Likely due to that we have resorted to third option earlier, which is getting championship level journeymen (like Hugill or Drmic) in hope that they can come and fill in if the worst happens. What we likely should do is to have player who can play multiple positions, like mostly winger or attacking midfielder but can also cover as forward. That is actually what we are likely trying to do at the moment having players like Sargent, Rashica and Tzolis. If I'm correct all of those also have experienced playing as CF. But once again, getting such player who can play multiple positions and provide and is proven to compete near the same level as Pukki in CF position would be extremely expensive. Liverpool is apparently looking for one promising guy that could play in such role from Porto with 80m€ release clause. Therefore I think that reality is that we just have to keep praying that Pukki does not get injured and if the worst happen, some of our wingers can succeed in central position.

I am bit curious when reading these wishes of getting quality striker. Is it due thinking that Pukki should be replaced or that we should play with two strikers? Getting another quality EPL striker to sit on bench behind Pukki sounds like hard buy to justify. When thinking other EPL teams and their main strikers, I'd say that Pukki would be number one striker in most of the clubs. So therefore I see it as it would be someone to hire to warm bench and sub in when we are trailing and switch to two up front. Of course, I'd love to see Salah here but he is more wing forward than striker as well.

If all are available, I'd expect us to have same starting lineup that we had against Wolves, which I think is our best option for high counter pressing style that I think we will aim for. So.. Pukki Rashica, Gilmour, Sargent McLean, Normann Williams, Gibson, Hanley, Aarons Krul

I have to actually disagree. I think many will come good, but as EPL is likely the highest tempo league of all the top leagues, it really takes some time to learn its tricks. Kabak - Good taking ball forward, and we need ball playing defenders. However, can also take some unnecessary risks due to that. Would not write him off yet, but have to compete really hard for his spot. Of course, question is if we need four central defenders now as Omobamidele has shown he could do it in this level as well. However, we are only one injury away from being in trouble if he would not be here. Sargent - Having real trouble with finishing and the first touch can be awful. However, his work rate is really important when we are pressing high (which we have often seen lately). He is actually pretty good finding positions off the ball. Currently he is a role player. Sort of improved version of Stiepi and we do need him in team (hard to think who would replace him in pressing if we would not have him). Also in his age, there is good chance that he will improve his weaknesses in years to come as well. Tzolis - I think Farke was right when he told that he is one that is more to future. He has some flair and eagerness to get to the scoring positions. However, currently it seems that he cannot keep up with tempo that is required in this level. I expect that he was bought more for development and to play some part as sub already and might well fill that slot during season. Gilmour - I was quite strong critic of his early this season, mainly due to the fact that he didn't seem to be willing to put himself into the game and do backtracking and such. However, my opinion has changed some amount. However, he is not that defensive midfielder that we have in Normann and now that he has to cover that position, he is clearly not playing with his strengths. I think he might prove very useful player when he has Normann to support him. Rashica - Had a slow start. Once again, adjusting to tempo and requirements of EPL is something that takes time. Good in pressing, very hard working. Now also starts to look real threat when challenging opponents in attacking zone. Main complaint of him is his bad final decision making, often throwing totally useless balls in the box. However, this happens most often when he becomes tired, so I think it is something he is now learning to change in his game and keeps on reverting mostly to it when tired. I think he is already really important player. Normann - Excellent. One of the most important players we have already. Great long range passing and really excellent defensive positioning. Not just decent EPL player, but really good one. If we can keep him for permanent, it's a steal. Gunn - Not really impressed of what I've seen from him. Difficulties playing with feet and not very convincing otherwise either. Would be worried how he can manage if Krul would get injured. On the other hand, we have been in same situation before with McGovern so time will tell. PLM - Not really sure what I think of him. He is sort of all around midfielder who has his moments but not really standing out with anything. I consider him as decent squad player, which is likely what he is meant to be. Does not do much wrong when playing so good in filling the position when required. Even though failed to score from his chance against Newcastle, he did so well to create the chance for himself. Williams - Young guy who has good and bad days. I think they are quite evenly competing that position with Giannoulis at the moment. I really like his attitude and his fearless thrusts forward. However, he seems pretty limited when we control the ball. But I think quite often we will give possession to opponents and counter press, in which case he is likely better choice than Giannoulis so in that sense he is best option to that position. Most of them are not some top level EPL players (at least for now) that is for sure. However, most of them have earned their position in starting lineup for a reason. It is really hard to see who would take their position if we would not have them (in most cases). Hiring ready made EPL player who could be considered someone who could step into starting eleven of top 10 teams is extremely hard and expensive. So expensive that it just is out of our budget. We would likely need to pay similar prices for them than what we got for selling Emi. I actually think that mostly the summer window seems like pretty promising for both short and long term. Yes, there are weaknesses on most of the signings, but they are improving and there is reason why most of them is getting big minutes.