Matchday thread - Toon v Borussia Dortmund

[bodacious benny]

Definitely a disappointing result, and the slow, sloppy play of the first half was especially disappointing. But damn if I won't still take some pride in us putting Borussia effin' Dortmund under pressure for a near entire second half. I refuse to take for granted how satisfying it is watching us go toe-to-toe with Europe's best and coming out again looking like we could have won (not that I'm suggesting others are taking it for granted yet).

Absolutely! Whatever happens over the remaining games I’m just enjoying the experience.

[Slim999]

With regards to injuries- we're having a bad season so far. The number of games and weather/ surfaces isn't helping.

However I'm a glass half full kind of guy - we have Wilson back, Joe back , and Botman about to return.

Hopefully Isak & Murphy aren't too bad and are back by mid Nov . Anderson should be fit then also. Barnes looks more like mid Dec .

We actually just need to get through the next 5 games- and then there is a 2 week break in mid Nov following the game at Bournemouth on 11 Nov

One of those 5 matches is the league Cup Vs ManU - Eddie will likely give many fringe players and youngsters a run out.

Were going to need to see a few of these over the next few games to give the core players a break

[Colly]

I wonder if we'll see Gordon start up top in the cup? He needs a rest too really but I can't see Wilson playing 5 games on the bounce.

[Remember Colo]

I really wish we had a third proper forward. I'm not opposed to Gordon given our lack of other options, but to have nobody else in the squad to play the position, especially given Wilson and Isak's injury histories still strikes me as crazy.

[Colly]

Definitely agree but it's not easy to find a good player willing to be 3rd fiddle when we only play one up top, there aren't many PL sides with 2 let alone 3. The ideal solution would be someone good coming through the youth, but we don't seem to have any strikers pulling up trees.

Could give Carroll ap Amiens a shout?

[bodacious benny]

Definitely agree but it's not easy to find a good player willing to be 3rd fiddle when we only play one up top, there aren't many PL sides with 2 let alone 3. The ideal solution would be someone good coming through the youth, but we don't seem to have any strikers pulling up trees.

Could give Carroll ap Amiens a shout?

True, back in the day when 4-4-2 was the norm then you could have a decent third striker as they’d get plenty of game time but that’s not the case for anyone now really. Having 2 good strikers (at best) is the norm and not much more.

Even City just have the two in Haaland and Alvarez, Liverpool havw Nunez and Jota, Spurs have Son and Richarlison (you could argue that neither are centre forwards in the true sense of the word), Villa only really have Watkins.

Brighton are maybe the only team I can think of as having three good standard forwards (Joao Pedro, Ferguson, Wellbeck).