fox_up_north

Trying to avoid politics here but this is just another one of those things where allowing Brexit (in whatever form and for both supporters and adversaries) to just pass into no deal without long-term thinking and planning can impact massively on sport. It begs too many questions. Does it impact on our transfer targets? What counts as an important nation? What if a player already over here moves to another English club - does that mean it's a new set of rules?

I'd go as full strength as possible, really. Got extra 24 hours to prepare for the Leeds game. Out of interest - given our slightly depleted squad and the fact we bagged 3 points against Arsenal - would we be happy to focus on getting the EL group sewn up as quickly as possible or should league still be priority? My feeling is that we can, realistically, get the EL group done and dusted by this time next month, with 2 games to spare. Athens away, then both Braga fixtures. That takes us to 26th November. In that time, we'll have had Leeds, Wolves and Liverpool. I'd like

Errrm...I mean...what does that say to both Slim and Nacho? "can we play today, boss, as our main striker is out and we want to step up" "Nah you're alright lads, I'll just whack a midfielder up top"

But then there's competition from lots of places in June

Literally just turned away to get my cuppa and missed it. Comical defending.

I mean...I have heard him speak in press conferences. But on that point - it's fair to say that Klopp (and others) who have a style that relies on having certain types of players, with little flexibility, are guilty of being arrogant in the sense that they can't admit that their style only works in certain set ups. I still think one of the best achievements of the last few years in Mourinho getting a fairly rubbish (by their standards) Man United team to 2nd and win the Europa League. It's one thing to try and instil a style onto your team and players but there comes a point

Any manager of any team (football or otherwise) should aim to make the most out of what they've got available. If his winning style only works with X players and he has Y then he has to change it. I don't want this to be another Brendan pile on cause I like the guy and think he's good at what he does, but those kind of comments expose his fatal flaw - arrogance and ego.

I live near Manchester (but don't fall under its lockdown rules) and work in the GM area. There's real anger all over the place at how it's been handled. I think fair enough for Burnham for trying to get payment because it is about 3 million people. But I don't get why they don't just say full lockdown for the area/ north for 2 weeks. The 10pm curfew was a complete joke in practice. They should have had staggered closing times across the city. Though, I should mention, I haven't ventured to a pub in months.

When I was a youth, we played a game with a Ouija board and a shot glass. We moved it round and every time it moved towards someone, they took a shot. Let me just say that the messages we got were very, VERY difficult to understand.

How the Arsenal board have handled Ozil is absolutely ridiculous. I'm not particularly a fan of either but he was a marquee signing from Real Madrid who has extended his contract and, crucially, played a role for the club. Nobody comes out of this looking good. Up there with the Bale and Messi nonsense.

I've got a soft spot for the lad BUT he's at that age where he does need to be ki kicking on. He needs to be sat down and reminded of what the CDM role is. It's not always about amazing tackles but helping defence. He should be shielding, cutting off options for opposing players or marking their threat.

These last two performances have been REALLY concerning. After West Ham, I thought it was one of those things. But Brendan knew for a while we had injuries and it's his job to set up a way to deal with that. I didn't see much here to show me he adapted, in the way he adapted against Man City. It looked like "ok, here's a half fit team let's not lose" and that is a poor attitude. Happy to be proven wrong but I have real concerns if that's what we're putting out.

I think we've been found out...

The one good thing to come out of this game is it will put anyone off paying £15

Gotta be time for subs and seriously the Vardy succession plan needs to be well under way now. They should have identified targets for next year and be working towards them