HawK

Howe is great if he has no decisions to make

Maybe all the lads on the bench are tossing it off in training ? All I can think that Howe doesn't want to bring players on that can't be arsed.

It looks like he was going to be Sadly no

It's 2023-2024 all over again

Go on Rammers make the position your own

Pardew levels of conflict in me atm, get the point today or maybe don't get the point to hopefully force a better correction for the long term

Barnes has to read that

Forget to set his alarm for 60 mins on his casio

don't think any of our midfielders escape criticism either today, it's generally a poor performance from our whole team

Woltemade our best centre mid today

Anyone else feeling completely conflicted about being happy it's not a pen, but at the same time unhappy it isn't because it might hopefully get Howe to wake up and smell the coffee.

Aye not good, difference is that Pope's done that 3 times already this game I think.

but he's really good and commanding in the box, that's why we're choosing him over Ramsdale right?

Miley on would once again inject some calmness and patience on the ball

I think Howe tends to be results-driven rather than performance - if we're winning then we're playing well.

Tends to happen, when you're having a poor game you foul a lot more

Pope again in the right place, perfect positioning

Collectively, another subpar performance in an increasingly long line of poor performances. A piece of quality link up from Murphy into Woltemade into Barnes got us the goal and you can't say that was a training ground move, that was the lads playing on instinct using their ability. We look jaded and constrained into patterns of play that are running stale. They might work when you're full of beans and are the plucky underdogs, but the players don't seem to have the freedom to express themselves and are looking for pre-determined moves. We're 1-0 up, but over the course of an entire season, these sorts of performances aren't going to win you many games. Have I become entitled? I don't think so, I've followed us since the mid 90s, but there is a level of expectation of performance now at least when you look at some of the players that are gracing our team right now. Do we need to be the 'intensity is our identity' team when we've got some great technical players in Bruno, Tonali, Woltemade ? The way we sit in our defensive shape we don't really press in our own half apart from a token move out from the lines by one of the middle three to close down the space for the opponent on the ball. Then when we get the ball we're 100mph and trying to force things and it doesn't come off as we favour the transition more than anything else. When there isn't a transition, we're back to quarterbacking the long passes to players that struggle to control a ball. I think we need to be more like ravenous dogs out of possession but patient in possession.

All I want for Christmas, is Ramsale in goal

We might be tall but collectively we're about as effective at heading as these lot would be

Who shouts 'away' on a corner coming in, I mean, what do you think they defence is going to do

Woltemade trying to tell people to slow down

This should have been on Sky Sports Golf maybe