goodrobotusses

I see what you did there.

I still expect him to be sold/loaned out if we sign Isak. With a note pinned to him by stone cold Arne reading “thanks for Bournemouth”.

Yes, it’s his special move. Like Ryu with the dragon punch.

Like a puppydog. He could be like our version of Win the dog at Arsenal, but useful to a football team. His celebration on Friday was great, pointing at himself like, “Me?? Yeah, me!”

Don't think Guehi or any other CB solves our defensive issue. Just need to sort the balance of the team and stop giving the ball away in stupid areas that leave us open to the counter.

Imagine the reaction if Slot had thrown an attacking midfielder to RB, essentially untried in the position beyond a couple of pre-season games, instead of a defensive player, and we had then conceded down that side. We’d all be saying, “Why didn’t he use Gomez or even Endo?” If Szobo at RB is actually going to be a thing, it’ll surely be in games in which we’re dominating against a stubborn low block. Bournemouth were threatening us a lot on the counter and Szobo isn’t exactly a guarantee on the ball in sensitive positions right now.

Think Slot bringing Jones on and shoving Szobo up front was an acknowledgement that one is much better than the other at looking after the ball in deeper areas, even if Jones can chew it a bit. Early days, they'll all get better. Think Bournemouth are a bit of a nightmare opponent for your first PL outing.

Kerkez looked all at sea vs Semenyo. Frimpong okay, went off injured. Wirtz looked a bit overawed by the pace of the game but didn't disgrace himself. Ekitike was boss. Szobo gave the ball away with a stupid flick leading to a goal again.

Guessing Endo getting on at RB ahead of Gomez probably has more to do with the relative fitness levels of the players. Gomez only came back to training a couple of days ago.

Commentator on the international broadcast said it was for an alleged racist comment at Semenyo, no other details. It come from the crowd then?

Don't think Wirtz has ever played a game at this speed before. First 20, he was getting caught on the ball on the few occasions he could get on it. But as the half wore on he seemed to be starting to get to grips with it a bit more. Kerkez… let's just hope he is a rough diamond or is maybe a bit too wound up in these first couple of games. Early days, and obviously not being given the early months' grace Robbo got under Klopp, but yeah… not great, Bob.

Was probably Bayern’s best player. They love him there.

On Guehi, I’m wondering if a deal now or next summer will come down to Konate signing a new deal this month or not. That or some last minute interest in Joe Gomez. It’s mad they sold him and then spent £55m on Elanga.

No idea if this is a thing but would be exciting, yeah. My prediction is that Minteh is gonna keep improving and we’ll be in for him next summer or in 2027.

I’ll make a start on the effigy. I’ve still got the conceptual sketches from last year.

My Summer of Indy Kaila theory is that at least one real journalist is feeding him/them stuff that can’t be published, because there’s only one source or club relationships to maintain etc, basically to cut Fabrizio Romano off at the knees, knowing that guy has no standards and will tweet whatever any agent tells him without needing to go through boring verification etc. At least that’s what I hope Ornstein etc are doing.

s*** just got real

Maybe we can offer them £110m plus Damien Comolli and Jen Chang.

Haha, can imagine Wor Dan Burn prowling the training ground topless with black and white face paint on, flanked by Jimmy Five Bellies and Jimmy Nail, all hellbent on showing Isak "what it means to play for this club". Probably what finally put him off staying.

"Darling, I know you want to leave me, but can't you just stick around for a year and then leave me?"

Knowing Newcastle's hit rate this summer, they'll eventually try to sell him and fail at that too.

I have a solution for that uncertainty, lads: sell him to us. Now you know where you stand.

From that it reads more that he doesn't have quick acceleration but can cover the ground once he's in his stride. You'd assume, given how we play, we wouldn't be spending this sort of money on a teenager if we didn't think he had the sort of minimum speed it takes to be a CB in our system.

Would guess this was organised by Pedro Neto. Think he and Diogo were close.