80

That could make sense, but I would've thought that would've made our players more tactically astute if we spent less time on blood and thunder training, and had more time for low intensity positional stuff.

Yep, exactly. We were meant to be over performing... The way I look at it, the fact we're in touching distance despite playing so badly is a sign we've missed a major opportunity.

I think there's something in that. It's starting to look as though back in the hard times at the start, minds were concentrated in a way that meant we were squeezing every last drop out of the players we had to maximise our chances of - initially - survival. It was really clear in-game scenarios were being worked on. I remember someone - maybe Targett - talking after our win at Brentford in '22, where they had a player sent off after 10 minutes, saying we'd previously trained on how to play and win against a 10 man team looking to defend, and that our team defaulted to those patterns when it actually occurred in a match. But for nearly a year now we've looked like our ethos is just "Let's play"... And our performances have been degrading accordingly, as our old patterns gradually fade out.

I can't remember specifics too well because it was that kind of match for us, but there was definitely more than that. There were a couple of times I was surprised to see it was him doing certain things like shimmying past a defender. But a lot of his positive stuff in build up play was killed in the crib by teammates just not making the runs for balls he knocked through or them immediately passing the ball straight to the opposition. I thought he cut a frustrated figure yesterday - he looked particularly pissed off midway through the second half after there were two fuck ups in a row.

It's obviously not his best spot, but I thought he did quite a respectable job on the offensive side. He didn't look totally out of place. Don't get me wrong, I've been banging the RW/our attack is going down the swanny drum for what feels like an eternity.

Thought he was let down quite a lot yesterday by his teammates, particularly Tino. Wasn't a golden performance, as you say, but there were several occasions where he executed good ideas but they weren't read or quickly got fumbled by others.

He doesn't look like he knows what to do...

I could be open-minded to this, but the question is whether Eddie is saying internally that the squad needs to ditch a load of first team players and have a rebuild. Or does he think dropping Schar for Guehi would've had us achieve an extra 6+ points so far this season.

It's a mystery to me too.

I think this might be it. I think they're loyal to him as a man, but I'm not sure they have faith in the system.

That would be on Mitchell, surely... Hopefully he does his job well when the time comes.

Well, subject to the tactical arrangement, we've got what we wanted. Let's hope we do the business. This game feels like it will forecast our future.

I'm interested in him too. I was really impressed with the number they did on us last year, and I like what I've read about him. But I'm aware of people who follow Germany a lot more closely than me saying there were good reasons for getting rid of him.

I agree it looks that way superficially, but there are an array of competent youngish managers out there nowadays. Not saying it's the right thing to do - I'm certainly nervous of a switch - but it's not out of the question the club could bring in someone we've never heard of who turns out great.

I'm resolving to basically ignore everything and only judge the final outcomes... I'm not even sure if I want us to spend anything, in the circumstances.

Yep, VAR changes how referees perform on the pitch. And then VAR respects the already affected on field decision.

Didn't even make the top 10 of important things from last night, but VAR not getting involved on the Wilson penalty was shite once again. Would be far better if it just didn't exist. I knew the game really was dead and buried at that point.

The day we do start getting linked with Eddie replacements will be interesting as in the modern environment, there's a solid chance most of us won't have heard of them. It would almost be a positive indicator re: Mitchell if we hadn't, in fact.

Do we know why he came off? Was it just straight tactics?

I mean... That ended up being dead wrong, didn't it. Joelinton is always wasteful with the ball, in percentage terms, but he gets so much of it and has such physicality he often ends up making something happen, and hems the opposition up in and around their own box, making them claustrophobic in the mean time. Barnes meanwhile... Well, I'm not looking to jump in on him. But whole new oceans definitely opened up for West Ham subsequently.

I certainly agree with most of that. I'm surprised people are so down on our first half performance. We should've been looking to disturb our setup as little as possible, and if Willock had to come off, Tonali on with Bruno moving forwards was the promising way to go.

Oh I agree. It was disturbing how quickly we regressed post-Willock into Horseshoe siege, Isak alone in the middle, followed by our lines being broken and us opting for chaotic progression, fast up the pitch into no man's land, again. Quick diagonal cross, hope for the best, expect the worst and start the cycle again after they get the ball back into our half.

I think the theory was "can we square the circle" and fix RW, have Joelinton's presence, Willock's dynamism and Gordon in his classic LW spot. But it was the wrong call unfortunately. Gordon should've made way for the outcome brothers.

I think they run out of confidence in the patterns. There's only so many times you can headbutt a wall before you start doubting the bricks are gonna start tumbling. And, thanks to experience, we fast forward through that confidence drop now compared to how long it would take a year ago.

Yeah. If we're sticking with Longstaff in the name of not spoiling a winning thing, we should be sticking with JoeJoe.