The College Dropout

He can’t move his feet.

There something reassuringly familiar about Dan Burn being the defensive weak link against a pacy wide forward.

3 minutes is the start no? Sloppy corner routine. Sloppy play around the box to gift them a good chance. Been better since.

Been a slow start.

Would’ve started Sheff U which was October iirc

The allegations were the first domino in our crisis. Then it was the Barnes injury. Botman injury same game iirc but it sounded precautionary at first. Then the bad news kept rolling.

PIF ruthless fanfic. They want PIF to be ruthless.

In those games we are just sitting back, absorbing attack after attack. Having a player of Botmans quality and composure makes a huge difference.

Back to PIF fanfic. Great.

Arsenal in particular look really good off the ball defensively. Quite often they just need a goal to win and they can rely on talent and options in forward areas to get it. Where it’s easy to get onto our back 4. So we look bad defensively and offensively. Earlier in the season we were clinical away from home but that’s gone recently too. Definitely we pick up more points with a fully fit squad. But there are definitely systemic issues at hand too.

Aye. But there are some noticeable differences. That team was at the end of its cycle. A aging midfield in particular. When they were out of all cups and had injuries back - they relied on strong fire power to fire them up the league. The prevailing thought was they needed an entire new midfield. And they’ve done just that - buying 3-4 new central midfielders.

He’s a system player for us. He facilitates Bruno especially well. But he’s limited. If Tonali can learn the system and adjust to the PL and Bruno - he’s going to be a massive upgrade. I don’t consider Tonali a Bruno level technician. But I’m sure he’s technically solid enough to take the midfield up an entire level.

He does it because he lacks ability.

No they won’t.

Playing 90 minutes 3x a week isn’t good for him. We need Isak fully fit so we can limit Callum to 60-70 mins per game to keep him fresh.

This is a pathetic approach. The Gerrard point is weak. And this… it’s not even a point you’re just being a poor WUM. But no I’m happy with Howe. I just don’t think he’s infallible and he has weaknesses as a football manager. He’ll have more successes than failures in this game. But he did have a failure at the end of his Bournemouth spell which he can admit too so why can’t you?

Agree with this. We’ll get more points in the last 17 games than we have got in the first 17.

I’m not necessarily saying he’s streaky, the Bournemouth fan said that. I think he’s a bit rigid and doubles down on his plan rather than switching things up or trying to find other answers. There’s been number of games I’ve hoped he makes a sub, changes shape, does something and he keeps doing what he’s doing. For most of his time here, he’s had more options anyway and that approach has worked nearly all the time. This season, away from home, it hasn’t worked. Howe hasn’t done much different in both outcomes.

You’re being sensitive. I’ve not said he’s a bad manager or anything like that.

Ok fair enough if you don’t like the wording. ‘I can see how Howe was the manager of a team that got relegated from the PL having kept them up for 2-3 seasons prior.’ Better?

If we finish top 8 he should be fine imo. Unless we could get Xabi Alonso or someone. From a distance he looks like the next big thing. Otherwise there’s no justification to sack him and I don’t think we could bring in a better manager

The 1 in 9 away games. Having not gone to any of the toughest away grounds bar Etihad.

Did I say that?

Point me to where I said Steven Gerrard would be a categorical success as Newcastle manager. I never said that. I never watched Rangers play so I know i could not have emphatically been in favour of him getting the job. Because I do not speak in the absolutes that you claim I do. I’ve not even said anything particular disparaging about Howe. You just don’t like it. Edit: didn’t see the image. Yeh that’s hardly a ringing endorsement. I think he could’ve got a new manager boost at the least. That’s it. We didn’t win for some time when Howe started (hired in Nov, didn’t win until late Jan iirc) so that’s where that came from. We spent some money, Howe found his feet and we’ve not looked back.

He was the manager for the entire season Bournemouth were relegated. That was his squad in full. If it was another manager - we would say that manager relegated the team. I don’t put a whole lot of stock in that. As others have said. He took them all the way up the football pyramid playing good football too. How can such a talented manager get relegated from the PL with a side that had been up for 2 or 3 seasons? I can see how with a little bad luck it could spiral. That Bournemouth fan said he was ‘streaky’ and i see it. There’s a fair amount of hard running and ‘sticking in there’ when the going is tough in Howe-ball that works when the chips are up, but won’t work when the chips are down.