ArabFC

I mean, that was pretty fundamental to it. Most Championship winning teams have a goalscorer banging them in.

Having signed a new long-term deal in the summer. Bet Arteta didn't tell him he was planning to replace him when he committed to that. 25yo and displaying the form that could've seen him displace Pickford in the international setup, now reduced to a bit part piece for the next few years - will be raging!

Not much to clip, but not really his fault - Liverpool as a whole were stinking that first half. They’ve got themselves a hell of a player in Szoboszlai though - he looks like a marathon running variant of De Bruyne.

It very obviously didn't.

This.

Yup. Can't see Gordon getting his place back.

I wish there were. Back when England had their 'golden generation', they had a very very good team, but the English pundits were blind to the quality of the opposition. Like Scholes (I think) said recently (and I paraphrase), "yeah we were good, but I was playing against the likes of Zidane and Xavi". Germany are pretty meh, these days, so are Italy, so are Holland, so are Spain as we showed and Belgium have past their peak. France are the one big European team that seems to keep producing exceptional talent (and Portugal to a lesser extent). England have as good a chance to win a major trophy in the next few tournaments as they've had in many a year. Reasons to be fearful.

He wasn’t. He was saying Bellingham could play as an 8 with Maddison as the 10.

Felt like a carbon copy to the defeat to them back at Celtic Park. For some reason England turned up wanting it more. Yes, they’ve got better players, but ours just had no ambition at all. Which is weird.

He's been turning up for Scotland at previous age grades, so I doubt he's now suddenly thought 'these jocks are a bit weird'. If he wants to play for them, fair fcuks, albeit he's probably competing for the same spot as Jude Bellingham, so good luck with that.

I watch Liverpool a lot (basically because of Robbo) but the problem is TAA isn't actually a very good midfielder. He's great on the ball - obvz - but the basics, such as receiving the ball with your back to the oppo etc, not so much. Liverpool seemed to adapt his role in their last game so that he basically played as a libero when they had the ball.

Apparently Southgate said very recently that Phil Foden couldn't play in midfield for England because he'd need to work on the defensive side of his game. I'm not telling him how to do his job but a Foden/Bellingham double8 pairing with a protector like Rice behind them is a worryingly good prospect. Then they've got talent like Rashford, Saka, Grealish and Sterling fighting for the wide roles with Kane through the middle... but somehow they keep playing folk like Henderson or Phillips. Baffling.

Good enough? No such thing. Should always be striving for better.

Yup. Germany's greatest forward partnership of recent years (imho) were both born in Poland... Klose and Podolski. Grab who you can get - once they've got the shirt on they'll play for it!

The England team is weird, because as you say they have lots of quality, but every time I see their team listed, its pretty underwhelming... Maguire and Guehi at the back and Henderson somehow still playing. But they've got outstanding players that can't get into their First XI like Foden, Grealish and Alexander-Arnold. The opposite to us - less than the sum of their parts.

Indeed. Maloney was only born in Malaysia because his parents had a job there and lived in Scotland since he was 5. As Scottish as the next guy. Same goes for others listed.

Two down, two to go?

The Scottish rugby team is probably the best it has ever been and half the team are 'granny qualifiers' or equivalent. McTominay has lived his entire life in Lancashire - only thing we'd be losing without him is his goals.

We (can) play a back four when either Robby or Tierney are unavailable. Otherwise it’s as per always.

Watching (the start) of the Old Firm game, they were introducing it (as ever) as a game with the best atmosphere in World Football. When Celtic scored you could hear a pin drop. That's not an 'atmosphere', and I kinda feel the same about drums and megaphones. It's just a monotonous noise to me. An atmosphere is when supporters are reacting to the game and the opposition fans. Singing organically. But each to their own.

I don't think they are... https://forum.pinkun.com/index.php?/topic/151859-billy-gilmour-out-of-favour-at-brighton/&do=findComment&comment=2937530

While I might be biased, having long banged the drum for this kid, he’s been simply brilliant in the first half against Newcastle - Tonali, Bruno and Joelinton can’t get near him. I think the days of him warming the bench in Brighton are over.

He's played every minute in the league thus far - why would he need a loan? Nice assist today.