The College Dropout

We were laughing at Villa playing Disasi at fullback for Villa. Our back-up fullbacks have a combined age of 68. They now have to play 3x a week and we wonder why we can't beat Brentford away. Joelinton - love the bloke, he can't play at the level 3x a week. Miley and Ramsey and Willock is such a massive drop-off. Elanga? Jesus wept. Lack of structure at the top has come home to roost. But aye - let's focus on Eddie Howe.

Fairs. I don't think our squad is any stronger than Spurs or Villa and we are in tougher competiton than Villa. I think we have maybe the 8th strong squad with a top 5 most difficult schedule. If Howe finishes top 10 he should keep his job imo. Top 13 for me. Gordon, Elanga, Joelinton, Murphy, Ramsey and others I don't think are as good for another manager as some might think. For me - we need to re-balance the squad as a starter and to do that with Howe. If Howe can't make the best of such a squad - then he goes. That squad should have top young or proven talents from England and then cheaper players abroad. Elanga, Ramsey, Wissa, even Barnes we need to avoid these type of transfers unless the fee is low. Hall, Tino even Gordon we should continue with. Then the Bruno, Tonali, Isak route.

Important case this. I'm sure there are many such examples. It could significantly impact injury rehabilitation in the sport.

That’s cute of them.

People underestimate what a difference playing once a week makes and the impact of losing Isak. Villa did very well to get 65 points last season and go deep in the cups. And that was with a better squad (in the end) than we have. We needed a squad the level of theirs from the start and we didn’t get it. Ramsey was getting 20-45 minutes in that winning team. People want him to start for us. Says it all about the squad.

So yes you do. I don’t think this squad is good enough to compete in 10 CL games and easily qualify for Europe via the league. I said at the start of the season we could finish 8th and I could have no issue. So im still here. When we are down to 1 game a week I expect we’ll finish the season strongly.

We needed 68 points for CL and that looks hard at the moment. 65ish is Europa. We'll see man.

You think another manager would have us in European places?

People are now calling him streaky. But having a striker who scored 44 goals in 64 games was a massive cheat code. And having a player the quality of Tonali to integrate. We don't have those same levers this season. We have Wissa who I think is a massive lever to make us better. Maybe Wolte at 10 will be a gamechanger too. I don't see any other players have the ability to come into the side and give us a new dimension. Maybe being able to rest Big Joe will bring the return of The Shield when we want to wheel it out.

Squad is mediocre and built for Eddie. Buckle up.

Eddie does have an ability to get the best out of most players. But they are who they are at the same time. Murphy has become a creative force in terms of crossing. But he's still not a good all round player. Joelinton has been great but he has technical limitations. I like when we sign technically better players - even if they aren't super technical like Tonali. Because it lifts the entire team. We desperately needed that to improve in 2 areas of the pitch. I think if Wissa comes in for Joelinton and Wolte stays, that helps us build through the middle a lot more while stilll hvaing a runner in behind. Not having anyone of real overall ability at RW is a killer though. We needed a baller.

More than anything I don’t like the profile and that he doesn’t look ready to replace Big Joe in that profile anyway. Signing Ramsey should’ve been contingent on moving on Willock. We’ve got too many CM/LM/LW hybrids on payroll.

So did I. Back when I thought Willock was canny too.

4. Unless we have a genuine hybrid CB like a Levi Colwil One of the 3 we have is 35. C'mon man. I also think we are still a genuine CM light. We've too many of these weird hybrid players like Ramsey, Willock and Big Joe. I advocated for higher level stopgaps - like better than Krafth.

I would start Burn at CB 75-80% of competitive games while they are at this level unless form improves or dips. I don’t think Hall is as good defensively as you’ve suggested. But the team desperately needs more football in it.

We have 3 genuine first choice fullbacks. That isn’t enough and was an obvious weak spot imo. It required Tino being fit all season to work. As soon as Tino gets a medium term injury like he has - we are suddenly wafer thin at FB. If anyone else gets injured - like we have - we are stuffed. We are light at FB and CM still. Lack quality on the wings.

This is in your mind. As of today - Dan Burn would start a final tomorrow if everyone was fit.

I also think Burn offers intangibles and must start tbh. But it’s at CB. Rotate him with Botman to keep Budn fresh enough.

Yeh sure. But the few times they’ve all been fit - Burn starts. It can be argued Botman wasn’t always fully fit when he was benched. Or shall wasn’t fully fit on Sunday. But I don’t think it’s happenstance that Burn always starts. He rarely gets subbed either. Even when he’s having a mare. It took Botman, Lascelles and another fullback to get injured for Hall to get his run at the backend of his first season.

We seem against bringing in a cheap body. A £35m body - sure. But a free elder player to fill in? It's like we have our quota and that is that.

I'm not against this theory. What i know is when Burn is available Burn plays. Someone has to sacrifice and it hasn't been Burn. Howe will sacrifice his 433 before leaving out Burn.

They might not come out and say it but it's what a lot of them mean.. especially those just now piping up. I'm similar. Except this squad is so much for Eddie, he can only really be sacked in my view, once the squad has been pivoted. So he gets this entire season and 10-15 of next for me. Nobody else can do anything meaningful with this squad anyway.

They might not come out and say it but it's what a lot of them mean.. especially those just now piping up

By ‘unpredictable’ Do we mean ‘can beat a man’? None of our wingers are good at that. And that’s the one thing ASM, N’Diaye and Doku have in common

I’m not fussed about ‘rotating’ CBs. Midfield the issue for me is we lack quality. Mileys a kid. Ramsey I’m not sure he’s an improvement on Big Joe. I agree we needed someone to be able to come in and play at a high level. Likewise wingers we lack quality.