The College Dropout

(1) at any point really. Rafa Benitez would not have had Trippier, Burn, Schar, Bruno, Gordon etc. play all those minutes. He would’ve played anyone else. I don’t accept that he’s had no choice but to burn out our best players. (2) it doesn’t take £500m worth of players to stop having a massive gap between defence and midfield game after game. I don’t think any other manager in the top 6 gets us to the CL last season. I have not forgotten that. But I don’t think no other manager in the top 6 does as poorly away from home this season or manages fitness so badly from the start of the season.

We were awful against Wolves. For about 30 minutes Wolves looked like Liverpool of today against us.

If not for last season, most on here would have turned on him. Losing 6 out of 7 is awful. Roy Hodgson is under pressure at Palace for similar.

(1) made a proper attempt to keep our players fit and fresh. Use the entire squad just for that purpose. Even if it meant playing Matt Ritchie and co. two or three games straight to give key players much needed rest. (2) change the midfield balance so we aren’t so easy to play through. Whether that’s having someone sit or playing a midfield 4 with 2 sitters. (3) make proactive changes. If we’ve played poorly for 50 minutes straight - change something. Anything. Don’t wait for the opposition to score

To me - it looks like we are doing the same things game after game with the hope that we do it better in the next game. With the cumulative fatigue. I don’t understand why Howe thinks that will happen. I think he’s hopeful more than expectant of it in recent weeks.

This is fair and noted. But it was bad. Same wave after wave of oppo attack we saw at Milan, Paris, Wolves, Chelsea. It’s bad man. And I’m not even counting the ‘no shows’ at Brighton and Bournemouth.

A decent performance would’ve been welcome. Something to build on. I think we had an Xg against of 7+. The highest recorded in the PL since they’ve collected the data. Should we be that bad?

We’ve been fortunate to not have had a serious 5-6 hiding this season. This could’ve been one.

Aye. The midfield setup doesn’t work. The current midfield 3 are too slow / lack athleticism to play the way they’ve been asked to play. Bruno pressing the oppo’s 6 and leaving massive gaps behind him. Why do we keep doing that? If teams can beak our first line of press there’s massive gaps - why?

I do believe fatigue is a major issue in our performances. But Howe is responsible for managing the players fatigue and players conditioning.

I love him but he has. He looks one that’s knackered too.

Aye this is my view. I do think the bar for diving is too high. We’ve had some soft ones too.

It’s still a terrible performance though. We could’ve lost by 5 or 6 and could not complain.

Another dive penalty. This one is worse. But there’s contact so it’s fine. I’m ok with going with the on field referee. But this one is a clear dive. You can see when he decides to dive.

Best set piece delivery in months and it’s from Sean Longstaff. Love that for us.

Oh we’ve been awful. Again. Same midfield issues

This could be 5. Terrible that.

This is as bad as under our previous managers.

Nah it was a shit dive. Again.

There it is.

Agreed.

We’ve not made any stopgap purchases like that since the first January window and it’s hurt us this season.

Agreed.

Tbh we’ve played like this a lot since PSG away. That second half performance has been on repeat for us.

Diogo Jota won’t miss like Nunez.