80

Yes, it's all about the prediction of how things will turn out in the longer term - that dictates whether you want to take an action or not. Then reality eventually comes along and supports or demolishes your expectations.

So much better.

Seems like 2+2=bullshit to me. Edit: Joel Bland, that is.

Unfortunately our identity for the past twenty years has been "loser idolators"

Pretty bloody good is a bit strong - he says himself nowadays he was physically past it when he joined us - but there was an argument for that, yeah. Not least from Bellamy himself.

From memory, I'd actually argue our displays in the first 45 minutes of matches in December were better in many ways than they have been in the last few weeks. The killer then was that we would essentially evaporate in the second half, whereas, as you say, we're more competitive through the 90 minutes now.

Playing along with the idea... If we won in the final against Liverpool, we NEED a massive pitch invasion after the final whistle. It's the only thing that would prevent Klopp turning it into a goodbye fistpump-athon to drag all attention onto himself. Would like his farewell to be him scurrying down the tunnel.

Practice makes perfect. I think he'll be a great finisher in years to come.

They do, especially lately. Howe just gives absolutely zilch away on it.

That bits always interesting to me. He seems to chat away happily with younger first team players like Gordon. He doesn't look upset that his career's disintegrating. So there's a chance it isn't, I guess.

Definitely some truth in that.

Certainly my player of the season. Only vague competition I can think of would be Bruno (can you imagine where we'd be without him in our midfield three?) and Schar at a push.

I'm glad Tino's getting rested to keep him fit for the league tonight. *Crickets*

Partially, although I think it broadens out to not basing our approach on a successful aggressive press. Plus how much emphasis is placed upon dominating every opponent from the first minute. There's something to be said for flooding and stifling an opponent until they get frustrated, exhausted and make mistakes, sometimes. But we've never done that under Eddie, even when there have been opportunities (Liverpool at home in 22/23 is my standard example of this).

That's the thing - imagine we put November 2021 Eddie in a time machine and brought him to now, and he was preparing his slide deck for his interview, giving detailed presentations on each individual player in the way that so impressed Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Do we think he'd propose implementing the system and approach we have now, and damn the consequences? I don't. So I think there's been a shift in emphasis from tailoring around the players we have to making them fit what he thinks is the best tactic, without due respect to whether they're capable of it. I give Howe a lot of leeway with his press conferences. He's very secretive about methods and thoughts, and will straight lie about something if he thinks it's necessary, which is fine. Bearing that in mind therefore, he does concern me sometimes in the way he analyses our match performances, which pretty much boil down to "the players worked very hard and stuck to the plan to fight hard, which was good", or "the players didn't/couldn't work hard enough and didn't defend hard enough, which was bad". As I say, I appreciate he is probably holding back more developed thoughts and doesn't just say these same things to the players, but sometimes he does a very good acting performance of actually thinking this way. It does bother me because there definitely is more to football than being the hardest runner, and I don't think that's a secret he needs to keep.

I would disagree on that bit as I think it's a mistake to see results and form as the same thing. Otherwise we really were a wonderful operation in Pardew's 5th placed season, and I thought it was obvious we were just a freak outfit at the time.

Hypothetical question - if Eddie switches us to a 5-3-2 or a 5-4-1 system and we suddenly go on one of his winning runs for a couple of months putting us right in the mix for 6th, does this make him a genius or a doofus for not looking at doing it earlier? I feel like there are some who would take it as proof he's the man for us even though there have been people proposing it on here for nearly 3 months due to our injury problems. I think that's what some people take issue with - positive confirmation bias. Yes, there are absolutely people on here who get some sort of psycho-sexual stimulation from the idea we'll have to sack him, but there are also a few for whom it's eternally sunshine and lollipops. That thanks to Eddie we live in the best of all possible world, and this season is as good as it ever could have been once you factor in gambling bans and freak injuries. That's the bit I don't think is true. It certainly doesn't mean I want him sacked or am overreacting. But it's ridiculous to catch a lot of shit for slagging off the Fulham performance just because our opponents had Jacob Murphy's finishing instincts, when it turned out to be near enough the exact same disorderly performance we gave against Forest, Luton and Bournemouth. We've never looked so uncoordinated and naive as we have in the past month, even in December when we had near enough the same players, far more fatigue and far less training time. That's what's concerning and makes me think "we could probably be doing something better here".

No, wrong window. His permanent salary would've been set in the summer after our desperation window.

It's also associated things like when we fuck up and sky a shot high into the stands. We used to get pissed off with Miggy's simpering grin when he ruined an attack, but it's contagious now. People like Gordon, Burn and Longstaff do it regularly. Again, I believe they're trying to come from the perspective of not letting frustration put them off their game and trusting that the result will come if they remain positive and stick to the plan. I can respect that. But there's a risk of that morphing into complacency - of treating attacks like a hobby rather than a hunt.

I think we're well and truly through the looking glass when it comes to reducing money's influence in football. Rules tend to favour vested interests. It's worth remembering how influential all the 'other 14' owners are, when it comes to readily complying with regulations and just slyly sucking money out of the game from less high profile clubs. The rules have left the game nicely poised for an American commieball takeover, with drafts, no relegation and associated shite. I've never known football to be such a rigged market in my lifetime. Maybe there's something comparable if you go back to the player wage cap days over half a century ago.

To be fair he's probably having a dig at anyone who wants a slice of credit for the way his son was looked after here in the past, rather than today's NUFC. He might make a good consultant for us on what we need to do to revamp our academy.

I take the point on personnel absences, but there's clearly been a policy choice in reducing it. Howe said as much in the last press conference, that he thinks rule changes make it a less viable option this season. Personally, I think we've been playing with too many smiles all season. It's understandable in many ways, especially when you look at individual circumstances like Gordon who is still learning to control himself and looking to shake his old reputation. But the sum total has meant we've looked like softies a lot of the time.

I think that's the gist of it, yes. Hopefully it isn't necessary, but it feels totally in keeping with this season for something like that to eventually happen.

I don't know if that helps

If there's any chance the knee isn't fully up to scratch and is causing his troubles, I think I'd rather just bite the bullet, get the op done and say see you next season. Hopefully our new physio has closely reviewed the situation.