Gallowgate Toon

At the very least, he's shown this season he can be a Longstaff (with a far higher technical ceiling). He can be a lot more than that but his tactical discipline whenever he's played this year has been fairly impressive for an attack-minded player imo. Howe must love it, especially as he's a good athlete with a decent engine too. Let's just hope he can stay relatively injury free from now on.

Howe explicitly said early this season that he thought we had 3 players capable of playing the DM role, including Bruno. I'm assuming he was considering Tonali and Longstaff as this was a presser comment pre-Miley. Maybe he meant Joelinton over Longstaff though. Bruno Tonali Joelinton Longstaff Anderson Willock Miley + a couple of stand-in options. That's a decent number of players for 3 spots, and I also think we'll see some more variations of 2 men midfields next year as well. Personally, I think we need another reliable, quality addition in there but something has to give while we have to be efficient squad builders, imo.

I can't see anyone gambling on Wilson this window after such a bad run of injuries this season so if we bring in another forward it'll probs have to be another versatile one who can play across the frontline to a good level. I'm expecting one of Miggy/Murphy to go (probably the former), Minteh stays if we're in Europe + said versatile forward. We have to find more solutions to protect Isak if we're in for another busy schedule. I'm hoping we at least get one of Tosin/Kelly in to bolster defence for a relatively modest outlay. Tosin ticks a lot of boxes, Kelly looks a bit of a risk with his injuries. Hall will be much more in the first XI frame next season imo. That then leaves CM and GK. I feel like we've seen this season how important another strong goalie is. Pope has dislocated his shoulder more than once now iirc so it's a concern. CM feels relatively well stacked in terms of numbers, like, especially with Tonali back. Just can't see us getting another one in until someone else goes. Maybe Miley going on loan would trigger something, or someone going for Longstaff/Willock - this feels unlikely. Alternatively, we sign someone like MGW who can play in midfield or on the wing, should we need to move Gordon in the middle to help rotate Isak, but that feels far from ideal really.

The promising stuff with him on the right in recent weeks has been that he's done multiple good things there and not just one. Gone on the outside and delivered class crosses, picked up half spaces to build combinations, running behind between CB and FB to get into goal scoring positions. It's not predictable stuff. We need forwards who can be adaptable to changing situations through a season and having some attackers who can do great jobs in multiple positions is a must. I don't think it's a case of Barnes = left, Gordon = right forever more. It looks like a good solution for the time being but there are other workable options going forward too should we need to do that.

He can play anywhere along the frontline and be a threat. Tremendously intelligent footballer.

Spurs have an absolutely horrific run-in, we might just catch them... Villa will get 4th imo.

Played some lovely passes today. He's definitely a good footballer.

Feels like anything and everything gets blamed in these circumstances. There's absolutely no way anybody at NUFC was thinking 'that bloody preseason tour!' in October, I'm sure.

Quite a few Feyenoord fans did appear to be absolutely slating him over the winter despite some decent output. However, it's Twitter, and some of our fans on there are the stupidest lot going.

Miley and Jo to return over the next couple of weeks? Feels like we'll try to keep Willock going until we get more back.

Barnes spent a good amount of years playing with Vardy so I don't think it's a surprise he's looking good foil for Isak. He'll know the importance of passes into space.

Clutch and a great lad to boot. Can't be arsed to worry about him leaving, he's a joy to watch every week.

He's very young and new to professional football. He'll have variability for a while yet imo. He felt a little hung out to dry by Willock and Gordon, for me, when they could see he was struggling. Anderson coming on was much better for him.

Howe said on NUFCTV that it wasn't pain but some discomfort. Hoping that's still true and it was more precautionary. Either way, this feels like a worrying injury for his career in how persistent it seems in such a good athlete. Not even sure how he picked this up while being out injured with a hammy?