The College Dropout

We aren't Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. You're doing this thing that I've seen here where people conveniently compare us to a top 6 side when the argument suits them. But will compare us to Wolves, West Ham & Brighton when the narrative better suits. People on this forum discounted Liverpool but sensible people knew Liverpool would qualify for the CL this season (and with a backwind, challenge for the title) and probably win the Europa. Look at Klopp's record over the years, he has the odd bad season. Not to mention, Liverpool pays the second-highest wages in the league. Arsenal rebuilt their side. Spend top dollar and have high revenues. Chelsea are shit. We've had 1 European campaign in a decade and face FFP issues. Most of us and the club itself would accept not qualifying for the CL next season too. Our "right" level isn't the CL and we are years away from that being a reality.

He's been pretty bullet-proof this season. He's not really had the rest he's been due so everyone kind of thinks he'll keep going.

UEFA are yet to confirm. The assumption has always been it will be an extra place total.

Brighton & West Ham going out also gives them a better chance of finishing ahead of us. Their squads can't cope with a deep Europa run. I expected us to go on a run of like 5 wins in 7. 7 wins in 10. Something like that. That would get us into the top 7/8 most likely. I'm not so sure anymore. We can't seem to build any momentum, confidence or back-to-back performances. We are the definition of midtable.

It was aggressive. I'm hoping for a little bit of a knee twist. 2 weeks rest.

My point is that I don’t think k Arsenal have the composure to beat a top side in the CL. Porto are perennial R16 side. It doesn’t get discussed but Arsenal should’ve done way better in the Europa last season.

They lost to Sporting in the Europa. They’ve started getting nervy already. I think Arsenal are a tremendous PL side. But I wouldn’t fancy them to turnover a better side than Porto in the CL.

Arsenal going life and death with Porto. They’ll go out in the QFs.

Tonali was the first domino it felt. News broke shortly before the Sheff U game. Then Barnes. Then Isak/Wilson.

Maybe the midfield was different (Longstaff, Bruno) but the back 5 was that.

We'll learn a lot about the leadership if we finish 11th.

Nah we scored goals. And maybe we should get back to all-out defence if that was the previous startegy. It yielded better results. The tactics yesterday didn't make any sense. Chelsea are bad when forced to be on the front foot. We tried to press them, badly. For the entire game. Didn't make sense. And when we got into a low-block. It was awful. No composure. Couldn't track runners.

Barnes transfer doesn’t make sense.

Crazy to think we had a pretty solid defence of: Dubravka Krafth Schar Burn Targett Willock Shelvey Joelinton

The whole back line is slow. His sweeping covers for our first choice back line. Each one of them. Burn has been bad 1v1 since he moved to LB. But the Forest Elanga goal doesn’t happen with Pope. I agree it’s not just down to Pope or Joelinton or the combo.

We are incredibly vulnerable to that ball in behind the defence. Not just in terms of goals but general confidence and composure. The 1-2 injuries of Pope and Joelinton have broken our defensive setup.

If he’s a dozen games away from the sack I’d rather he go.

I expected us to go on a run at some point. Losing hope.

Aye but Barnes is quick. Tonali is more technical than anyone except Bruno but his physicality marks him out imo.

More technical than what we have excluding Bruno. But his physical profile is greater.

Longstaff and Almiron have had contract extensions since Howe arrived. If he prioritised technical he wouldn’t have bought Tonali or Barnes.

His lack of pace is a big problem without Pope.

These are his players. His style of play isn’t technical anyway.

The defensive record is worrying. And is a return to his biggest criticism when he got the job. We look a bit like his old Bournemouth sides. Good for a goal. And good to concede a fair amount we don’t look like we know how to defend if we aren’t pressing. And we pressed poorly.

Pressing is our defence. Whenevr I’ve watched our low block. It’s been bad.