The College Dropout

Wouldn't sell Amiron or Wilson.

We'll be unable to consistently challenge until we start selling players for huge profits. Whether that's Kuol type players or academy players. We'll always be heavily curtailed by FFP until then.

I don't think he was significantly worse than he's been usually.

His legs (and mind) are also fatigued.

I don't think the board will care as much about the Sunderland game as the fans will. It might be make or break with some fans but not leadership.

We still have a great attitude imo. It’s one of the reasons we haven’t had the spankings we probably deserve. But I also think players have lost belief in recent weeks. That goes hand in hand with the loss of confidence.

Fatigue impacts top speed, mental sharpness and ability to maintain intensity/pace of running and limits the total running amount. Aye you’re right. There’s no way we could not have massive gaps in midfield without Willock and Tonali. There’s simply nothing Howe could do to stop that. Foden brace and assist coming up.

In any game to game scenario - Gordon is our most dangerous winger. It’s always best in a single game situation to play him. Zoom out a bit. It’s best he gets enough rest to play close to his best for as long as he can. That means NOT playing every single game and taking a short term hit for long term performance. When I say naivety I’m including the transfer committee. I look at Villa and think this is a club that wants to attack the league and Conference. So they prioritised squad. Zaniolo, Lenglet even Tielemans maybe. Not signed to necessarily start but signed with an intention of being important squad members in congested fixtures. We’ve been naive to attack all competitions, with a thin squad with our style of play. The 2 mid 20s players great but Howe was reluctant to use the young boys. And left thin elsewhere. To do all that we needed 3 more bodies and a left back Howe would use.

He could definitely get back sharper than he does now. Or are you suggesting that he’s actually not fatigued? And it keeps happening. Why haven’t we changed our midfield setup?

This I agree with mostly. Except the reason for it was knowing Eddie doesn’t like to rotate if he doesn’t believe in the backups. I also think there was an acceptance that this approach that Eddie was likely to choose would lead to increased fatigue and probably poor performances and results. I think me and @Erikse were saying, if fatigue is our big issue - things would only get worse because Howe wasn’t going to rotate. Where i differ is I think it is has been a choice and a wrong choice. From giving Ritchie, Dummett, Krafth contracts, to signing Hall, to not playing them or youth. These are choices.

And then he played damn near every minute for the rest of November and December. He should’ve sat that game out. He should’ve sat out another game or two. He cannot get around the pitch atm. We are still asking him to press oppositions deepest midfielder. He doesn’t have the legs for it. If he’s going to play every minute we need a gameplan he can actually execute. Opposition midfielders keep running off him and it’s leading to goal after goal.

Maybe in the matches Ritchie plays. But when Gordon comes back and can play full throttle for 90 minutes for a run of games. It pays itself back. Rather than starting him for 11 games straight and getting diminishing returns game after games as fatigue sets in. You back up a little bit, so you can go harder for longer. Aye. My point is.. when players get injured. You still have to rotate. The point of rotation in the first place is to keep your best players performing at a high level. That need is still there even if their immediate backup or rotation partner is injured. You maybe rotate them a little less but you eventually just have to replace them with a much inferior player. That's the cost of having a weak squad. Instead.. we're getting diminishing returns game on game. Without rest, fatigue just makes performances worse and worse. This isn't hindsight from me at all. I advocated resting Bruno & Gordon against Man U in the league cup back in November was it? I advocated resting key players in a few matches in December including the League Cup QF! I'm not against resting players against Sunderland! With my very limited knowledge of sports science, I thought if we continued to throttle our key players our performances and results would get progressively worse until the winter break due to fatigue and a loss of confidence. At this level - with our style of play. The idea of running our best players into the ground is incredibly naive at best and stupid at worst.

If you have injuries - does that mean you do not rotate at all ? You play what you have in the squad to keep your best players sharp.

He’s knackered. Pretty much played 11 games in 35 days.

I don’t think he’s going 4231. But I agree with your post. Second goal again Bruno is struggling to run back. At our best he gets back, or Willock gets back etc. The scary thing is that it happens game after game.

Good post. Seemingly only having a Plan A, only willing to play 16 lads and attacking 4 comps. How was this meant to work with an injury crisis?

Anyways - another week to recover. A couple weeks off coming up.

For me - if Ritchie starts 5 games, I don’t blame Howe. That’s the squad he has. For me - that’s more forgivable than running players into the ground.

You can’t say he could have played youth and then say he’s had his hands tied. He hasn’t - he’s just chosen this path. He knew we would have 11 games in 35 games. Has it been good management for Bruno G to play damn near every minute of it? IMO it’s a massive blunder. It was always going to end with our star man putting in substandard performances. Ditto for most of the lads.

Aye. All of these have been given contract extensions or signed since the takeover. If they’re not going to play during an injury crisis and fixture congestion - why are they here?

This is where I’m at. ‘Anthony Gordon is heavily fatigued so he’s being rested today.’ Could’ve done that 2-3 times over the last 2 months and most would’ve understood. This is where Howe is perhaps naive at this level. He’s treated this run a bit like a football league campaign. You use momentum to get through congested fixtures. At this elite level you need to utilise the squad more at any circumstance. Someone like Klopp will play a kid and then blame the FA and FIFA for fixture congestion and say he has no choice. Mourinho, Rafa and Conte will blame the board for not backing him in the transfer market to compete on all fronts. Howe’s gritting his teeth and trying to powe through it. It doesn’t work like that. He was hoping we pick up a result or two and that momentum could carry us in other games. That’s not how it works at this level.

By not ‘throwing matches’ earlier - we’ve ended up throwing more matches later through fatigue.

(1) no I’m using the fact we have a team incapable of physically doing what he wants and he’s done little to help them do it. (2) is linked to 1. Personally I would have forgiven Howe for not starting or playing Bruno and Gordon in any league cup. And I’m sorry - our midfielders often vacate midfield. Time and again. It’s not impossible to stop that. Bruno is always pressing the oppositions deepest midfielder. He’s not got the legs to do that effectively atm - why do we even try it? They play it around him or just run straight past and then they are running at our defence. Just have him and another midfielder sit in front of that defence for 90 minutes.

It’s that he can’t play at full intensity for 70 minutes. Let alone 90. I love him. But if he improved his stamina he would be close to world class.

Tbf few are calling for him to be sacked. They just want him to do better.