Theregulars

Howe looks exhausted

We’re in a weird spell of not being clinical. Lots of very presentable chances missed, again.

I'd say the fact the Moukoko link from the German journalist mentions signing on fee and salary suggests that (i) it's the journalist doing a favour in return for exclusives / access and (ii) it's not credible, as that isn't how we do business. Very happy to be proved wrong.

For Christ’s sake, man. Have a sit down and a packet of wotsits with Xanax sprinkled on top.

Where’s your pre-match meal General Von Paulus? Expect the heartburn special

I’d imagine it’s an agent planting it.

Would like to hope we’ve been practicing our finishing, it’s been sub-par last 3 matches. I hope Chris wood doesn’t get near the pitch, same re Jacob Murphy but suspect he will sadly pollute the occasion with his subbuteo impressions.

I think they're supposed to have quite a significant injury list. A cursory scan says: Justin, Evans, Ricardo, Maddison, Praet, Dewsbury-Hall, Soumare and Bertrand. That's quite a big list but they have a deep squad. I think they have some players badly out of form as well - I read an article on F365 about Ndidi looking lost, and (I really don't mean to jinx) I think Vardy is slowing down.

Oh Aston Villa - who’s your messiah now? Ings or Mings? Abject bunch of mouth breathers.

Having thought about it far more than I should and discussed with @LFEE, I don’t think he genuinely believes he belongs here. In my view you have to be confident and self-assured to be a striker; and also able to shrug off a miss. He looks like a deer in the headlights in front of our fans. I’m overthinking it but when I saw him celebrate away at Saints this year he looked surprised that he’d scored.

I agree with your sentiment about the excess reaction yesterday but I don’t think he gave his all yesterday.

We desperately missed him today. The gulf in class and usefulness between him and Murphy is incredible.

I’m not convinced about him at the moment; he’s made enough mistakes over the last 18 months to have the jury out. It’s compounded because we’ve been treated to 6 months of a great keeper, and it makes his shortcomings more obvious. I thought the Manchester United move was bizarre and it’s not done any favours to anybody, except loris karius’ bank balance. But yeh, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to include him and make it 16.

There’s no conviction to him whatsoever. I don’t think he sincerely believes he belongs at this level, which compounds it. He’s also benefitted from significant time from 2 great improvers of players and good tactical minds in Rafa and Howe and he still makes such basic errors - not using his pace properly, poor finishing, poor crossing, lamentable decision-making, hiding in tough situations. He belongs to a time which we’ve moved on from, but the frustration is that unlike other players who fit that description, he gets loads of game time. He needs a move away and we need to move away from him, because it’s going to get ugly otherwise.

I think we have 15 players who are up to standard. Pope, Trippier, Botman, Burn, Schär, Targett, Shelvey, Bruno, Willock, Longstaff, Joelinton, Almiron, ASM, Wilson, Isak. Obviously we can’t just bin half a squad off that quickly, so we have to remove and replace over a few years. This is the inevitable price of being taken over from a position of significant weakness. As I said in the match thread, desperately unlucky that ASM, Shelvey and Targett were out, and that Isak was rusty. I’d hope that, sensibly, they add 1-2 players this month capable of filling in / competing for a first team place. It’s hard to find players in January to whom you can’t guarantee a start and whose clubs may not be willing sellers, or who may fully understand our weakness and shaft us on price. It’s just reality and it sucks today because it’s embarrassing to lose to a league 1 club. We’ve just got to rinse it off and focus on the tasks at hand now.

Fraser, 100%. Or bring on Willock earlier and move Joelinton there. You could tell within 30 mins he was having a shitter. Ritchie embarrassed him today, if I was him I’d be asking questions of the manager how Murphy gets minutes ahead of him. He just doesn’t contribute anything positive.

Fair point, I suppose it comes down to how much you wanted to win. Even if it’s just to play 10 mins, 10 mins of him is better than 100 days of Chris wood

We’ve now had enough of a sample size. There’s no point being a striker if you don’t score goals - he doesn’t even look likely to score goals. He looks petrified to be playing for us. Should have netted at least once against Leeds and ridiculous miss tonight. Nice header for the first goal can’t be denied, but on balance he just doesn’t appear able to score goals at this level. Much like Murphy, it’s best for all parties to move on.

It’s time to move on from this guy. He’s had so many chances and been with us for years, his contribution just isn’t what’s required. Don’t give a fuck that he has a big funny mouth and supports Newcastle, he isn’t good enough. Most infuriating aspect of him today was mentality. Looked intimidated and like he didn’t want to be there. When he was out through 1 on 1 he just stood there waiting to be tackled, and the attempted lob was inexplicable. I ask the same question I’ve asked of other players: would he get minutes in another premier league side? I’m not sure he would. Perhaps Bournemouth, Southampton or forest, but even then as a substitute most likely.

I’ve got to be honest I wasn’t sure it was strong enough. League 1 is a bit misleading, they have championship players and are down there more due to financial stupidity and corruption than lack of talent. They’re also playing well and winning a lot. I wasn’t confident in Murphy, Lewis, Anderson or Ritchie (the latter proved me wrong), and I thought it was bonkers to play dubravka after he rocked up unexpectedly last week. I was also not confident in the decision not to have Wilson on the bench when Isak was coming off and there’s no logical argument in favour of Chris wood.

We were unlucky that none of ASM, Shelvey or Targett were fit; and Isak back after ages out. Have largely considered my way to accepting the circumstances but can’t get past Wood and Murphy.

I think he made 2 small mistakes, no Pope and no Wilson. If you know Isak is playing 45 mins only, you’ve to have Wilson on the bench if you need a goal. It’s anti-factual to believe Chris wood will score, he’s largely not done for a year and looked pretty poor in the process. He doesn’t get blamed for (1) how bad Murphy, Lascelles, Anderson, wood and Lewis were; or (2) the 3 missed sitters (Anderson’s was criminal, Wood’s worse). He was right to rotate but he didn’t leave himself enough leeway given how little a lot of those players have played. I hope this focuses his mind away from his FFP/injuries dictating transfer chat, which I know is political, but that was incontrovertible evidence that the squad is shallow beyond the first 11, ASM, Shelvey and Targett (and to be fair we were unlucky with all 3 of those being out; the drop off to Murphy, Anderson and Lewis was savage).

Going to try a reasoned take. The right score was 1-1; their first goal was offside. With that said, they deserved the win. We failed to do so many basic things right, especially passing and finishing. Wood’s miss was unacceptable, there is no way around that. What frustrates me is that they didn’t actually have to play that well to win. The Leeds game and this game reveal how ahead of the game we are - we were naive again, panicked when they scored. Aside from Manquillo and in part Ritchie, none of the reserves did themselves any favours. I just don’t understand what anybody in football sees in Jacob Murphy. I can get past playing poorly, but today he was cowardly. Bullied about, shrunk, head down. I’d really like to see a spell on the sidelines for him now. Going out to L1 opposition twice in succession is really embarrassing, and it hurts tbh. We just don’t need that degree of embarrassment right now with how well this season is going. I hope Howe is tearing into them, but I also hope he learns that he shouldn’t use real football matches as a training exercise and an experiment. Changing 4 of the back 5 wasn’t a good call, and no reason not to play Pope in my view; goalkeeping can’t be that exerting.

Manquillo played really well

Come on man