The College Dropout

ETH is a typical Dutchmen with no ability to galvanise a squad and a fanbase. Hes publicly fallen out with Cristiano, Maguire and Sancho. The squad doesn’t need that type of drama. Ole was not a coach or a tactician. But for a long time he managed to get (nearly) everyone at the club to pull in the same direction. That’s an under rated skill in management. Eddie has it.

Longstaff is always diving these days. When he doesn’t know where to go he’ll just fall down.

I do agree that he makes subtle tweaks. And he does show evolution in approach. But overall - he’s pretty predictable. Line up. Formation. Subs. Timing of the subs. The scenarios of the subs etc.

But that was a move in the plan. We played similarly against Brighton before that and Man U sometime after. Going away to Arsenal - yeh Howe is not daft enough to think we can press them off the pitch for 90 minutes. But we didn’t seem to have a plan to mitigate Wolves wing play…. and that was that. I’ve asked this before. Has Dan Burn ever been subbed in a game that is level or we are having to defend a narrow lead? I love Howe but he is predictable

Also I think Wolves were switching play a lot to isolate the fullbacks. Something Dortmund did pretty well too. We didn’t change anything to stop it. What’s frustrating is that the second half was predictable. They were either going to score or we would nick one on the counter undeservedly. We aren’t a team to put our foot on the ball and see a game out. So we need to be able to be setup defensively to succeed and we weren’t - then didn’t try to fix it.

Even a change in formation. Or defensive setup. Move to a back 5 with Targett. Something. I felt he had to do something. The writing was on the wall and his response was to ride the wave. If it worked, it would’ve been luck. i don’t view Howe as a manager that analyses a game in the moment and makes a lot of decisions in the moment. Neto could’ve ripped Burn 12 times back to back at 2-1 - He wasn’t going to change anything because that wasn’t in his plan. A lot of his moves seem pre-planned or out of a playbook. Maybe we are such a coached team we can’t do anything off plan.

I agree. But my point is - it’s been clear Dan Burn is by far and away the first choice LB and only injury or suspension would have him miss a game of serious consequence.

He’s becoming a scapegoat on here. The punch wasn’t great. But he did punch it fairly far and not into a dangerous area. The actual defending was awful. But it’s Pope that’s getting the stick. But that’s not a mistake. It wasn’t great keeping but he punched it out the danger zone.

I’m still fuming that Mount played so much for England while Maddison couldn’t get in the squad.

I think that’s what he’s been brought to so. To take his man on. I think he over did it just at the end there because a few of the Man U lads had been trying to kick him and he wanted to embarrass them. But a year with Pep he’s going to be amazing. He can already do everything Grealish can.

I like Drury tbh. he said ‘Rodri clarted it’. Do you know how funny that is? The man has accurate Jamaican patois in his repertoire.

Pep’s evolved away from his old blueprint. Old school full backs. Proper number 9. And a genuine tricky winger. They need that. City wide players get 1v1 a lot. Why not get someone who is devastating 1v1?

I agree there’s been no growth. Any attempt at evolution is halted when the going gets tough and they go back to type. For all the good Parish has done he’s yet to extend the stadium or win a trophy to really leave behind a legacy. As you say, they’re just happy to be here. It’s a weird one. OLD POST ALERT.

Brighton are rivals for 6th. Not top 4.

We finished 9 and 10 points ahead of Villa and Brighton. Neither of whom started the season with their managers. A 10% dip from us and a 10% improvement from them and they go ahead. The CL is far more demanding than the EL or Conference even if the number of matches are the same. Spurs have lost their best player but they now have a far better suited manager, a positive atmosphere and a better squad. And they’re playing 6-10 less games at the highest level. Have a week to prepare for every game. I think they could get 80 points this season. I agree that the summer transfer will be looked at. I thought it was a risky one at the time but a lot of it is simply Howe’s style.

What made you think that? I don’t think Howe has not selected Burn for any game of significance. Even when he has that rough spell last season and Targett was fit. He barely ever even gets subbed

Thats really the truth

We should throw this.

And finished 16th. I don’t look at this squad and think ‘top 6 no excuses’. It’s too thin. Not enough quality. Some bad luck with injuries and/or an extended European campaign and we could easily finish behind 6 or 7 other clubs without doing too much wrong.

Would you prefer 6th and finishing last in the CL group. Or 7th/8th but getting to R16 in CL or QF in Europa?

We could do a lot of good things and finish 8th this season. Some bad luck and a loss of confidence and it could be 9th.

Tbf they both had bad games. And we looked leggy in midfield.

They kept getting in behind on the wings. I would’ve gone with a flat midfield shape with wingers helping out fullbacks more. Maybe even move to a back 5. Targett at LWB with Burn on the cover. I don’t know. But something. Targett on at the least. Maybe Livra somewhere. I find it hard to believe there wasn’t anything an elite level manager could do to stop the tidal waves of Wolverhampton Wonderers attacks with that squad.

Has he ever subbed off Burn because of poor performance in a match we aren’t losing? I agree with whoever said we currently have an effective squad of 12.

True. But not doing anything from the 60th minute to the goal was really poor management.