The College Dropout

It will defo stop him from talking about football with rivals. If they go for multiple targets of ours we could take action. For first teamers we don’t have the same issues though.

Salah injured again. A lot of similarities between Eddie and Klopp. Reintroducing players too quickly post injury is one of them. Similar happened with TAA recently.

Aye. I mean he can leave and have no job if he wants. But he can't join Man U.

That's a CB position. The defensive FB heatmap of White is here: Massive caveat is that even though Arsenal have a defensive FB - and recently been playing 2 CBs by trade at FB (Kiwior at LB) they spend the majority of games attacking. But when it's time to defend they are on business. Edit: Arsenal tend to play with a box midfield which gives them extra defensive security and both CBs have pace so they are more comfortable defending with only 2 at the back on transition. We don't have that privilege so our third CB/FB sits more.

Saliba doesn't play full-back at all. Gomez, Ake, Akanji, White, Tomiyasu, Colwil. I don't think that profile is that hard to find.

It seems he has a v. long notice period/ gardening leave if going to a rival hence the mentions of 2026. That is seemingly what is in the contract he signed as a default. He/Man U can negotiate to break that leave period earlier. I don't think we should budge for the summer unless the fee is incredible. Legally we seem to have him tied up until 2026 if he wants to join a rival. He could quit and probably leave earlier. But he still would need to comply with the non-compete clause he seemingly has. Good work by the leadership to set it up like this btw. He had a tough situation to get him out of at Brighton and we've made it tougher to leave us. Well done. --- I stand by the most important people at the club are the leadership. Saudi + Staveley and co. I think Staveley and co. will be close to this situation and will have a hand in his replacement and I back them to make a good decision for replacement and negotiating Ashworth's release.

Anyone born in the mid 80's up until about 2000 has an unyielding hate for Man U.

I don't agree re: Ashworth @Kid Icarus but let's move on. I don't think he should be allowed to take the job for this summer's window unless the fee is obscene. Like £30m+. Get him for September for the quoted £15m-20m.

Barely training and doing then 90 minutes of football to exhaustion 3x a week is a recipe for disaster. Pushing yourself to perform beyond exhaustion leads to increased injury risk. Part of training is helping to condition your body to perform for 90 minutes - increasing work capacity. But we don't know the intricacies so I'll take it easy. We do know that playing competitive football is the most strenuous element of performance. If you have an ageing injury-prone player - that should be the primary variable that is manipulated to preserve fitness and conditioning and Howe has not done that. To say his fitness has been "carefully managed" is not true. He has been constantly asked to push himself physically this season and he breaks down each time. It's poor management.

Who led us to belive he was down to their success? The narrative on Brighton is that Bloom is one of the best owners in the country. He continually hires top people (for their level) into his club. Ashworth being one of the smart hires. But Ashworth wasn't credited as being the mastermind. A highly competent professional who can refine and implement a strategy.

Our wing options are the weakest in the top 8 by a distance. Massive drop off in quality. This Almiron season was always going to happen & Murphy is not it. There's nothing below them either. It's weak. Gordon (left) Barnes (left) Murphy (right) Almiron (right) Joelinton (back-up left) Ritchie (back-up left and right) It's so weak. Compare that to Brighton even: Mitoma (left) Fati (left) March (right) Adingra (right) Buonanette Enciso March & Enciso have had long-term injuries this season too. But they've got a bit of depth which has helped tremendously. Our top 2 are excellent but there's a big drop-off from there. The depth is poor And the RW is so weak.

I think we are. Livramento, Trippier, Botman, Bruno, Gordon, Isak would all be solid to great signings for Man U at the time they were purchased. A few would start for them now. I think they will move away from the £200k+ wages for new signings in the main.

I would say he's been exhausted/unfit/ carrying an injury for at least 20% of his minutes. He has scored a lot of goals for a player I think hasn't looked fit or has been injured fro large portions of the season. Get him properly conditioned and able to play 34+ league games a season and we have a top top player on our hands.

I'm going to research Giles. From what has been described here - he's far closer to a transfer / data-led architect at Brentford than what Ashworth was at Brighton. I also agree that a transfer man is not necessarily the primary remit of our role.

Limited player. Don't think the transfer speculation will have done him any good mentally. it is what it is with the lad, I just laugh at those that think he's a good player at this level. Watching football with your brain disengaged. Signing a RW should've been a top 3 priority last summer and we are paying the price now.

Of course, you can. You have to know your players and work around their limitations. You can't demand something of someone that they have proven they literally can't do. That's basic management. Isak wasn't injury-prone before he joined. So there's likely something in the demands of the player that is causing injury. I've said for a long time, Isak isn't physically capable of playing Howeball for 90 minutes 3x a week. He gasses by 60 minutes so often to the point he can barely move. I think Isak needs to improve his conditioning. Until that happens, Howe has to reduce the physical demands on him one way or another or else the cycle will continue.

Well we've had Gordon, Ritchie + 1 the entire time so that would be the first route. As I've said.. the alternative is not having Wilson at all for a longer period. Which is what we have now. This is basic logic and risk management. You suffer a little in the short term to the benefit of the medium long-term. Not doing that is what we've done and we're stuffed for the entire season based on a high-risk short-term approach to injury management.

You have to manage injury-prone players minutes - you can't opt-out because they will get injured again. As has happened with Wilson (and Isak tbf). If you try and play Wilson 3x a week for 90 it won't be long until he breaks down. Even if it's a kid because it keeps Wilson fit for another week.

No he hasn't. This is not true at all. + 90 minutes on 12/19 (keeping the format used here) against Chelsea in the league cup. A month injured, 26 minutes off the bench then completed 270+ minutes in 8 days then tried to go again 3 days later. Broke down. This is not how you manage an injury-prone 32-year-old coming back from a month's layoff. "Managed very carefully" - nonsense. Likewise this latest injury - he wasn't match-fit for 90 minutes but Howe played him through exhaustion and then he got injured again. The same thing happened to Isak. He returned too early when clearly not match fit. Played through exhaustion several times. Then injured again. And Isak is the one that is meant to be able to play close to 90 minutes back-to-back and he's nowhere near it. Howe has to change how he manages Isak and Wilson. Neither has the physical capacity to play Howe-ball 3x a week for 90 minutes. Isak's long-term injury record will go the same way as Wilson's if Howe does not change his approach. It's already a mirror after 18 months. It's not bad luck, if it keeps happening to several players.

I don’t think he was signed with the idea he would be 4th choice LB. Rather he needs more development than initially thought but ‘the club’ still have faith in him. I’ve said it before. I don’t think Eddie really wanted him (for this season). Same with Tino.

Agreed. He is partly responsible. The big worry is the performances. Being 7th is good. We won’t stay 7th if we play like we have recently.

Not enough discussion of the most likely scenario imo. A lot of wishful thinking in here.

We’re over performing our attacking Xg over the last 6. Suggesting we’ve had quality finishers. Suggesting we are scoring due to the quality of finish rather than the quality of chances/ attacking play. Certainly against Forest we were clinical and they wasted chances. Nothing in the Xg data against opponents suggests if we carry on as we are results will improve. We’ve already got more than we probably deserve.

No. I mean since that tie we’ve become the worst defence in the league. That is a fact. I agree with you it’s a part of the story but Howe’s job is to manage and coach. He needs to tighten us up or I think it could cost him his job.

No. We’ve conceded the most goals in the league since Joelintons injury. That’s a fact. By every Xg against model I’ve seen we’re the worst in the league since that injury. We’ve conceded 2 or more goals in 6 out of the last 7. It’s awful. I watch some FPL content. A lot of people have Areola and Dubravka. Over the last 6 games Newcastle and West Ham have been the worst defences in the league (prior to this GW).