Theregulars

2 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

Their manager and vast majority of their players are rank bell ends and their fans total creeps. Fully agree.

In my experience always are / have been too. Something about the institution that encourages and rewards cheating, arrogance and bullying. Their fans at school were always unbearable.

Arsenal are incessantly odious IMO. Come on Brentford 

I think a lot of it is football being a game of such fine margins. When your confidence is high and momentum with you, things seem to “go your way” - I reckon there’s a psychology to it: taking risks, feeling energised, truly believing and trusting in something so there’s no doubt about what you’re going to do. It then seems like you’re winning the margins.
 

That momentum and confidence is so easily interrupted by circumstances; it’s so delicate - then you don’t win as much at the margins because you’re not taking risks or believing and don’t have that going energy. 
 

The end outcome is massive because it’s such an intensely competitive game. So I don’t even think it’s “over” or “under” achieving; just more circumstances have favoured and then not favoured us and we’ve had and not had momentum. 

I can therefore only remain of the opinion that there’s so much supervening and extenuating circumstance to this season - not to write it off; I think below 7th and no silverware would be disappointing and below my own ambitions. 
 

The nature of those extenuating circumstances also means their impact is still being felt now. 
 

Maybe it is a flaw in how he trains and plays, maybe other teams have had time to counter and plan, maybe we just really benefitted from few injuries and more coaching time, maybe it’s a bit of everything… I just don’t see much of a plausible argument that he should take more than a small amount of blame.

I think the comparisons with Manchester United are also weird: they have a much larger squad and much more financial resource / pulling power / (IMO) corrupting power. 

1 hour ago, Dokko said:

 

It's performances rather than position. It breeds confidence and feel good. All that's out the window atm. If we're performing well with an optimistic future, then that'll be enough. We've seen he can ride a wave, this is the test of coming back from the crash. He couldn't turn it around at Bournemouth and looked spent. He's not there with us, he's still fighting, but his team doesn't look interested, with zero organisation.

 

Also, sometimes a manager just stops working for a team, leaves and goes on to do well somewhere else. Sometimes clubs and them need a change as do the players.

 

I don't know what the answer is, no one can really say why everything has fell apart so quickly, and no one can safely say he can turn it around or when he'll get it all back on track. We have to remember this is the highest he's been. 1 season of Europe, no trophies. It's all new territory with him, but I expected him to learn on the job, but it's just getting worse.

 

I'm glad we beat the mackems. I said it's the only thing I wanted this season and he can do what he wants and I'm still there, it's just sad now this is still going on and I'm still seeing fatigue from 6 games being used as an excuse.  

I’m not sure how you can watch us play and conclude that the team don’t look interested. 

1 hour ago, The Prophet said:

For various reasons, three of our four summer recruits have barely played this season. The jury is very much out for me.

But how many reasons are within the club or manager’s control?! Hall transfer looks weird but even then maybe it’s genuinely one for the future. 

1 hour ago, OverThere said:

Barnes signing was the one I thought was dodgy. We have Gordon, Anderson, Joelinton all who can play in that position. The money would have been better spent on a proper 6 or a young up and coming striker 

In your view - they might argue that making joelinton full time CM was a good idea because he seems to so specifically fit how we play. If Barnes stays fit and joelinton plays well there this year (both eminently possible), you’d say it’s a good buy. 
 

Way too early to tell re: Barnes, surely? He’s played like 5 matches? 

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

It's not all on Eddie by the way. I think our recent transfer strategy has been dodgy.

It’s so difficult to tell though, surely? If they knew about Tonali in advance then I agree; but otherwise there’s a very reasonable case for signing Tonali, Barnes and Tino. Less of a case for Hall IMO and much less of a case for not signing a striker, but I still think on balance our strategy was logical.

8 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Couldn’t agree more. 
 

We finished 12th, 13th, 13th in three preceding seasons. 2 of them with Bruce as manager.

 

Finishing 11th with Isak, Bruno, Pope, Botman? Crazy.   

I don’t disagree with the sentiment but 3/4 of those players have missed significant time this season with injury. 

8 minutes ago, Dr Jinx said:

It would seem with every passing week more and more people are coming to my way of thinking when it comes to EH.. I’ve thought his goose has been cooked for months now and nothing I’ve seen, even the odd win, has changed my mind. We need a change.

 

I like him though.. maybe not quite as much as Rafa but he’s always represented us very well so I’m annoyed that this will probably drag on long enough that the good memories will be overshadowed by the pure frustration of watching the team at the moment.

Would it, though?

9 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Think that's a fair shout and honestly a good reason why they deserve credit for getting through that tonight. Some brilliant composure in the shootout... probably - all moments considered - the most confident I've ever seen us look at pennos.

Anderson’s was proper Billy Big Bollocks for young man having not played for ages and without much track record. Proper textbook technique.

Fuckin’ Neesy

Even really unlucky with their goal, which was preceded by an incredible save.

7 minutes ago, LiquidAK said:

Yeah what could possibly be causing Howe to select the same midfield every game. Truly one of the games great mysteries 

Stubborn, Stubborn Edward.

Wonder who gets ruled out for the season after this weekend. Like slow-march Battle Royale.

Fifth helping of highlights: just as tasty as the first.

Ah burn to score the winner I reckon

9 hours ago, mofo said:

Pm me the link/seller please matey..

Think it was the one posted a few pages back?

13 hours ago, GeordieDazzler said:

Weyhey! 

 

 

Oh that guy! I was sat next him in the Dolphin watching. Never realised he had a “platform”. 

On 26/01/2024 at 17:22, MrRaspberryJam said:

 

Liverpool fans will have that primed and ready the moment a VAR decision goes against them.

Masterclass from Howe. Absolutely schooled Aston Villa on how to play aggressive football, and gave them the benefit of a bench full of actual contributing players. One Villa fan in the pub piped up mightily when Watkins scored the second that was ruled out, really enjoyed his quiet vigil thereafter 

So boring.

34 minutes ago, jonny1403 said:

 

That does ignore the fact that last year one of those 4 CMs frequently had to play LW, which won't be the case this year.

Good point; although he's still played LW a few times this year I think...? 

Last year, rolling with Bruno, Joelinton, Longstaff, Willock and Anderson for the back end of the season seemed (and was) risky. This year we're going to try again without Joelinton but + Miley, without much information on what's happening with Anderson. Throw in the fact we've literally never won a match without Bruno since he signed... it just doesn't stand up to any real degree of scrutiny. Massive, massive risk from the perspective of returning to Europe in some form.

I know it's de rigeur to dislike him now, but what a colossal contribution he's made to English football in his time here. Fair play.

I see and respect your views, but you're talking about Onana coached by Lampard and Dyche. A post-Howe Onana might be a bONANzA. I'll show myself out.