TRon

I usually take squad quality as the main factor as to how high you finish. For us that would be 7/8th as it stands. Any higher than that and you have to give credit to the manager. It might well be other highly rated clubs have a car crash season, but that's nothing to do with us, we can only judge our manager on our squad and our results. Expectations should be set accordingly.

Yep. I am getting tired of reading that this whole supposed rift kicked off with Mitchell's interview. Howe's interview perplexed a few in the hierarchy from some reports, but if it caused ructions, it wasn't expressed openly.

Yep. Made this point yesterday somewhere as well. I get kind of fed up of people telling us we can aim for top 5 because Chelsea or Man U are a shambles. Eevn if they are, they still have a much deeper squad of more expensive players, so they can usually handle playing in Europe, and are capable of going on long winning streaks even when they aren't clicking. Quality players win matches regardless of what's going on above. Our rivals should be considered teams like Spurs, Villa and Brighton. Finishing above the others should be taken as a bonus.

Agree on that. Just not sure I share your opinion on who's to blame for it.

Crap. Was looking forward to seeing Osula getting a start.

I thought the narrative was that unless we got the CB we wanted, we weren't prepared to buy 3rd or 4th choice. I think that came from Howe as he is very wary of bringing in players unless they fit his criteria. Unless there's something out there that makes you think it was the board who were refusing to look at alternatives.

Take it up in the PIF thread.

The Forest LB has mostly had his number so far, but he's put in a couple of dangerous deliveries.

What a shite decision, he got the ball.

He definitely needs to do something about the shape because that gap between midfield and defence keeps getting exploited. We can't put that at Paul Mitchell's door, these are Howe's players, he needs to find a way to get them to fit his system better. Or change the system to fit the players.

Need Brighton to drop points while Pedro has been unavailable even if he is on now.

A similar defence splitting pass from deep by MGW like he did against us last season.

Get in!

How would we know this early in the season?

I think they would be prepared to do all of that if they could spend the money on the squad at the same time. Otherwise there's loads of investment with no demonstrable return for them with being associated with the club. I am also like a broken record, but all this can be hashed out in the FFP or PIF ownership thread.

I've questioned whether PIF are motivated to spend, but not because they are bothered about the profit, they could probably realise a lot more by winning stuff. But PSR has basically tied their hands so we can't really know just how invested they are. They won't mind being forced to make a profit, let's be honest, but if the route to winning is closed off through FFP/PSR, they won't exactly be that fussed about doing more with no demonstrable return.

Not convinced we are better than them over a season like. We need our first 11 operating at top level game in game out, if a few of them are below par we look pretty bad.

I mean obviously there will be some contact, but that's what the ref is there for, he can decide if the player is diving or if the challenging player is pushing to nudge the player off balance. The guy with the ball has possession so it's up to the challenger to get it without going through the player.

Willock is not really a defensive midfielder tbh, he does track back but it doesn't come naturally. I was more disappointed in Joelinton and Bruno in that regard. But you make a good point about lack of interest in our players. I think that's the issue when you buy at peak value.

We still have to see how Villa cope with a CL campaign yet.

I'm not going to vote on it anyway. I prefer the DoF approach, but I know far more about Howe than I do about Mitchell.

I think then just be careful not to push him in the back before getting to the ball.

You could say the same about Trippier, Wilson and Almiron tbh.

Disagree tbh, I think the slightest contact is often all it needs to upset the balance of a player in full flow. Yes sometimes players make the most of it, but it's annoying as hell when you see one of your players lose possession under a heavy challenge then they go up the other end and score. Get the ball first and not the man is the safest call IMO.

Gravenbach looks miles better than anything we've got in midfield.