TRon

Didn't get to watch the full 90 mins yesterday, but from the 25 min highlights on Sky, one thing which struck me in the first half was that both Joelinton and Bruno were getting caught upfield and Iwobi and Traore were causing havoc in the space they left behind. Joelinton did track back for the first goal, but he was going through the motions, never looked like he really thought he would catch up. Bruno is just too slow if he's caught that far up the field, someone else needs to drop deep when he's pushing forward.

Why would you expect him to finish 4th? Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea and City all have squads far more expensive than ours. I think 6th/7th is probably as good as you could reasonably expect given the squad we've got.

Your feelings might be right, but the transfer window debacle could be blamed on either, depending on whether Howe was willing to accept a lesser CB than Gueyhi. Mitchell's interview could have been more diplomatic, but then so could Howe's when asked about staying at Newcastle once Staveley and Mehrdad went. Point being, there will need to be more than a feeling to make any decision either way. Howe was always going to be judged on this season after failing to qualify for Europe last time round, he wouldn't be judged on that campaign because he was hamstrung by squad deficiencies. Mitchell will be judged on his player recruitment, I doubt anyone is going to fire him after barely getting his feet under the table. Unless Eales has got it massively wrong and there's questions over him which is a bigger issue.

Agree, we need a third option. I think Howe's a great manager, but we do need to get away from 'the manager runs everything' model. At least as long as we are being forced to operate under the current financial restrictions.

Bruno's not making as many slide rule passes as I thought he would when we signed him tbh. But that aside I agree. I always feel our football should be good enough to get someone like Isak in behind more, especially considering he's lethal one on one.

I was a bit relieved, not going to lie.

Yep. Even if it is painful in the short term, we have to move forward, and that means getting the structure right from top to bottom. Howe has done a fabulous job in getting us here, but unless he wants to become the DOF himself, he'll have to learn to work with one. Whether that's Paul Mitchell or someone else.

Might be why Howe was so keen on getting Guehi in tbf.

Funnily enough, I think Diaz having a storming start to the season for Liverpool might shake him out of the doldrums. If the rumours of him having his head turned this summer were true then this might bring him back down to earth and realise he's at the best club for him full stop.

Not sure he's looked any better than the back ups we've already got, that's the problem.

Agree. Obviously there's concerns when we see disjointed football for sustained periods of games, but the hope would be Howe will get things right. He'd be a hard act to follow, but the football has been poor for a while now, you have to call it as you see it.

He's still not good enough if we want CL football. Neither is Miggy.

This is precisely why managers shouldn't get too involved in what goes on at board level. Eales doesn't look anywhere near as likeable as Stevely and Mehrdad, but at the end of the day we needed to sell players in a hurry to comply with PSR. What he's doing needs to be done whether it's popular or not. Same goes for recruitment, again whether Mitchell is the right man, time will only tell. If we could just keep buying great players at peak value, then we wouldn't need to be having this conversation.

Also players who are worth a bit today might not be tomorrow. Gordon has 18 months left on his contract. I have no doubts he's still a very good player, but if he's had his head turned by a move to his boyhood club, then some hard decisions need to be made. Everything has a window, this game doesn't stand still and with this current bunch of players we have to do well this season or players will be leaving, either by their own choice or by the club's.

How could MItchell have pre-planned us playing badly this season? It might well be true that he would prefer someone who will accept his signings more readily, but why would that affect the games match to match? Are players not putting in the effort now? Is Eddie not picking the right sides because he's still pissed off with Mitchell's interview? This is still basically the same squad, we haven't added any Mitchell players yet. I don't think he can carry the can for poor performances.

I think we've gone a long way on just building a fantastic family atmosphere at the club, we've overachieved on the back of it. But that will only get you so far, and we need to be ruthless when it comes to only putting players on the pitch when they are performing, not on the back of their reputations. If they want top contracts then they need to put out top performances. Doesn't matter whether you are Bruno, Gordon or Longstaff.

Doesn't really matter, that would be tantamount to saying Howe is only capable of managing when he is in charge of everything from who replaces Staveley, who is in charge of recruitment, and the scouting team have to be all his guys as well. Otherwise he just can't motivate the players and get them to perform. I honestly think he's not that petty or egotistical.

None of that helps, and blame is not necessarily apportioned to Mitchell on all of it either. I think once it gets to matchday and you get so many poor performances, then you can only look at the manager and the players. If I know Howe - and I haven't heard any interviews yet - he will not be looking for excuses.

Can only be one of two things when you break it down. Technical skill deficiency in the players, or a gameplan which is not suited to them.

I really don't see how he can affect performances on the pitch like.

You will always get gaps in a midfield where your no 6 is noticeably slow. When he pushes up he's never going to have the pace to recover if we lose the ball. Not sure how you fix that other than just don't lose the ball as much.

Tbh it's getting tiresome looking elsewhere for reasons we have no shape. It's not the vultures fault, it's not because Amanda Staveley's gone, and it's not because Paul Mitchell's not a nice man. Eddie's job is to get 11 players on the pitch functioning as a team. It's looked all over the place so far, so he needs to fix it.

I don't understand how he gets to play 90 mins twice in a week for Italy, gets MOTM, then he's not getting in our side. Is he just not suited for the way we play? Which has been shite for the most part this season btw despite the results.

While he gets 90 mins twice in a week for Italy and gets MOTM.