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More like for like. The ‘system’ though. Maybe some extra energy and a better bench will see us take a shot.

I’d kind of hoped the 4231 against Bournemouth was the sign of a bright new exciting period, but no. Deep wide Gordon, deep Woltemade and zero creativity in midfield. IF we win, I’m not really bothered, but it’s pretty boring this.

He’s quite clearly a number 10. Anyone thinking he should be a target man is lazily just looking at his height.

Aye it was poor. Maybe due to a lack of confidence tonight and the number of home games in a row. As soon as ‘Eddie Howes Black and White Army’ starts, you know it’s because the atmosphere is struggling. It’s the go to song.

He’s just an OK Premier League striker. He may be the Wilson replacement, but I don’t think he’s as good as Wilson was a few seasons ago for us. I don’t think our ‘system’ is kind on whoever we’re putting up top though given the wingers are usually line hugging.

Played well against Fulham and Chelsea tbf.

Chances of Gordon turning up on a night like tonight has to be pretty low. Hattrick then.

We’ve hardly been sparkling at home either mind. Two last minute winners against Fulham, 1-0 against the worst team up to Christmas the league has ever seen, a late win against a flagging Ange Forest and nearly throwing it away against 10 man Burnley. Everton away and City apart, it’s been very average.

Just listened to the Caulkin/Edwards podcast re last night. I know their default mode seems to be to defend the manager, but I still find it baffling that there seems to be no considering that we can play any other system. Amorim has rightly been getting pellets for being rigid, where as our journalists first port of call seems to be to criticise the signing of Woltemade because he doesn’t ’fit our system’. Sorry, but most managers in the league would love to be given a player like Woltemade. I gave Howe the benefit of the doubt when Wissa was out as there wasn’t really much option but to play him as a number 9, but last night especially we were crying out to have them both on together. It was hardly a surprise that Wissa came on and barely touched the ball either. Woltemade basically has to come deep to get it anyway. The criticism of only wanting to sign ‘athletes’ for the system while neglecting technical players is a good one. As is the flat midfield, which we didn’t have most of last season. We just seem to be plugging away with pure hope that luck will change or that it’ll click. They could have easily gone 4231 when we were going for a goal last night, but the like for like subs just played into their hands, happy to sit and watch us fail. Things need to change very soon.

Doesn’t change anything. Same dull formation/system and makes like for like subs when we clearly can’t break a team down. That was an awful Man Utd team who ended with the kids on and we didn’t test the keeper. Utterly horrendous. How many of these does he get away with?

Yeah, there’s a lot of rewriting history from around that time. I see I joined this forum in July 2005, so it must have been on another one, but the general consensus from what I remember was that he should have gone at the end of the season before. We were about on par with Liverpool around that time and there certainly wasn’t the gulf in finances. It wasn’t good enough for them and they replaced Houllier with Benitez. We hung on, sacked Bobby at a ridiculous time and appointed Souness to get a grip of the dressing room. It destroyed us a challenging team and in reality, we’ve probably never recovered. The situation now is nothing like what it was then.

I don’t want him sacked, but that situation has nothing to do with any decision being made now. That was more about the timing and the utter state of the replacement. I’d like to think the current lot have more about them if they were after a replacement.

Could have done with Osula yesterday tbh.

You win the internet today. Honestly 🙄

They should. That doesn’t mean they have to act on it. It would depend on how we’re doing at the time and the quality of the available alternative.

Of course I don’t mean you should be always looking to change the manager. Haha. You should always have a list of alternatives, not starting from scratch when a manager goes. Apologies, I thought that was fairly obvious.

It’s literally their job, at all times. The good and the bad.

I’m not having this ‘give him to the end of the season’ talk. I personally don’t want him to go now, but you assess as you go along. We can’t just throw away months if something isn’t working. He needs to get a grip and improve things very soon. It feels like a Pardew season at the moment where you wonder how we’ve even got the results we’ve got and we just keep ploughing on regardless. If Hopkinson and Wilson aren’t looking for alternatives yet, they’re not doing their job properly. We don’t want to do a Spurs and just start looking after a sacking or at the end of the season. You don’t know when the suitable candidate becomes available. Eddie has to prove he’s still up to it.

I’ve no idea what you mean. I’m questioning why you think this is a transition season. It isn’t.

Bruno, Hall and the CBs were the only ones who really get much credit from me today. He has every right to be annoyed.

Transition season? What are we transitioning into? We needed Thiaw as the other defenders were heading towards their mid-30s and he seems to have no idea how to use Woltemade. If Elanga and Ramsey are the future, then god help us.

Of course he’s under pressure now. He needs to find a way to sort this out. Today is the worst moment of the season, but the whole thing has been poor. We’re nearly half the season in and it’s rinse repeat over and over. 0 points from losing positions and lost 11 from winning positions, not counting Marseille and Leverkusen. Bar Everton and City, we’ve not performed above the bare minimum in any other game and more often than not, well below it. We scraped past Burnley, Fulham and Wolves, and were slightly more comfortable against a Forest team flagging under the leadership of Ange in his last game. That’s basically the wins. Awful at Sunderland, Brighton, West Ham and Brentford. Toothless at Villa (who were shocking), Bournemouth and Leeds. We’ve barely played any of the top clubs away yet. It can’t keep on going on like this. It’s so far off what we’ve seen the last few seasons, and it’s not just Isak as he missed half the fuckin games.

Seems like a good guy and didn’t sign himself. But I can’t for the life of me understand why we chased him for so long and paid so much for him. RW is still our weakest position after spewing £55m on this guy.

The Town Moor is a quick walk through the uni from the top of Northumberland Street. It’s hardly strenuous. We usually park around Claremont Road for a night game coming from the north.

Got the first set of subs spot on, then the Miley/Schar sub totally wrong. Ramsey was ready to come on before the second, then we did the same thing again and went all defensive. We’ve dropped points to West Ham, Brentford, Marseille and now Spurs with a similar mentality. We’re better than all of them but continue to make decisions that invite them on. If it worked, I wouldn’t care.