midds

It's the ingrained arrogance and superiority complex they all seem to have that gets me. That every single player will automatically want to join them regardless of who they are and who they're currently playing for. Obnoxious cunts man

Yeah he was really good today. The way the game developed played perfectly for him and allowed him to do all of the things he's good at, the physical stuff, chasing, closing down spaces, energy and just being a nuisance in general is his perfect role. His limitations were never exposed and he was never asked to be creative in possession as the early goal set up the nature and tempo of the last 80 minutes. He was great, fair play, I'm never going to be his biggest fan but he stepped up today and delivered the performance he needed to

That feels like a very significant goal for O'Neill

That was excellent like. Nullified one of the best teams in the country and took one of the chances we created. Thoroughly deserved the win, kept them at arm's length and MotM could have been any one of 6 or 7 of them. He needed a couple of performances after the Chelsea result and he's gone and knocked them out of the Cup and smashed Arsenal's challenge to pieces. Fantastic result AND performance, genuinely thrilled for him personally

Martin Keown's perverted stopwatch

I'll go 9 minutes of injury time

Gordon and Isak both done here. They've both been brilliant but we need some fresh legs right now

Feels like a throwback match from the 22-23 season here

Timeout, Pope

Really good half that, Arsenal haven't clicked yet but I don't think we've allowed them to tbh. They're all putting a shift in and we've got something to hang on to now. Still think we might need another one if we want to win it though

I've just read a few opinions from people far more aware of him and what he's all about. I'll be perfectly honest and say I don't watch the Portuguese League at all so all I can do is form my opinion from those who do, he seems very highly rated but nothing is ever set in stone, we'll just have to wait and see how he does and what brings

There's always going to be big questions posed over any young, inexperienced manager coming from the continent regardless of the club tbh. We'll soon see how he copes but there's plenty of talent in the squad and if he's bringing something different it might just click fairly quickly. It could also unravel even more obviously but if I was a betting man I think he's more likely to get it right than sink without a trace

Not going to pretend that I know an awful lot about Amorim but it appears as if this is pretty much as good as they could have done tbh. He seems very highly rated, already successful and has many many good years ahead of him. Hope he/they crash and burn obviously but the law of averages say they'll get it right eventually, this bloke could be the one

That was much better. Created a bit, pressed a lot higher up the pitch and got instant rewards. Thought Chelsea were poor but we 100% deserved to go through, they had opportunities but couldn't finish (funny how these things sometimes balance out). Just need to take the positives and run with them, Kelly starting for example, Osula coming on and getting involved, Joelinton and Tonali looking better without Bruno on the pitch...

Is it Darren Ambrose?

You do u hun x

Extended his contract in July, sacked him in October. Hope he's absolutely rinsed them on the way out too, it's been on the cards for weeks now though, concerned they may get someone competent now

I also think he could do with mixing things up now and again, his approach to games seems to be constant 'same again lads?' It's the same players in the same formation regardless of opposition or competition. Familiarity is one thing, being too stubborn to consider changing anything is quite another. A good manager should be flexible to tweak things and I don't see enough/any of hat from Howe these days. It's 4-3-3 which often slips into 4-5-1 out of possession, several times today it was Isak central, 10 yards behind him a flat 5, 10 yards behind them a flat back 4. It was static, rigid, very linear and often bypassed. The Arsenal team/formation half an hour later was chalk and cheese, it was much more isometric with players occupying a space and this was both in and out of possession. These are all footballing issues and they're squarely on Howe

I think there's just too many things heading in the wrong direction right now. Things seem to have regressed both on and off the pitch and any momentum that the club had a year ago has essentially vanished, that's not all on Howe obviously, I still think he's done a brilliant job all things considered. However, I'm not sure how much patience his bosses will be willing to have or how much time/money he'll be allowed going forward. ON the pitch we look a shadow of ourselves these days, the aggression has disappeared, the press is so diluted it's often non-existant, the shithousing has vanished and that hunger and desire that was so obvious has also gone imo. We used to be the fixture everyone dreaded but we're back to being a nice opponent again. We look lethargic and predictable, we're easy to nullify and we're carved open several times each week. By Howe's own standards we've clearly taken several steps back and I'd hate to see this current team have to visit SJP in 2022 to play that team, it would be a massacre There's obviously mitigating factors and he's been let down by those off the field too mind, this isn't all on Howe. You expect the off-field management to step up and get shit done and they simply haven't. To go an entire summer and end it weaker is disgraceful. The relationship with Mitchell needs to be solidified/clarified and shit needs to happen in January. The commercial team also need to step up and get every penny they can into the club, don't care how egregious the deals are, get the cash into the club and invest it immediately. Howe's been let down but he's not going to be given as long as we'd like to rectify it. He's ultimately responsible for results and performances and those have been below his own benchmark for a while now. Not sure how much time he has left to turn it around

Some of the goals we're conceding are absolutely fucking shocking like. Either ridiculous individual errors or just carved wide open again and again

Towing a fucking caravan by the look of it

I think a lot of fans and posters have a lot of (justified) faith in Howe and would give him the rest of the season to work out the issues and fix them. I think he deserves that at least. He's had a shitload of external factors that have made his job tougher than it should have been. He's been let down off the pitch, the transfer window was disgraceful, he's lost allies in Staveley and Mehrdad, the appointment of Mitchell and the subsequent 'feud', the PSR shambles at the end of June and the horrible illness to Eales have all contributed to the feelbad factor. At the same time all of this is going on he's now in charge of a stuttering team with longstanding issues. We may all want to give him time but the idea that PIF will 100% give him the same length of time is dangerous. The standards have been raised and I honestly think there's a decent chance he could be in massive trouble unless he turns it around on the pitch and starts climbing the table again. It would be really harsh but I'm not sure any of us can rule it out, we aren't making the decisions, they are. And they'll look at finishes of 4th, 8th and potentially lying 13th(ish) place in the league as not the direction of travel they expect. That's assuming we continue this bad run of form and lose the next 3 or 4. I hope he turns it around but I genuinely worry for him

Expecting Mourinho to make the most of his night in the spotlight tonight. Going to be devastated if there isn't utter carnage on the touchline

Don't want to encourage this behaviour but just checked the odds and Chelsea look huge at 4/5. Chelsea -1 is just over 2/1 and -2 is 11/2. I can only see those odds shortening over the week

Aye, just read that too I thought he'd given it and VAR asked him to look again, didn't realise it was the other way around