TRon

Burn would look fine in a Steve Bruce line up where there is no space in behind him because we are sat deep. In a back 3 where those around him are pushing up, he's just never going to be able to cope if the man he's up again has space to run against him one on one. It's easy to forget that when Howe first took over Bruce's team we didn't try to dominate possession as much because of the players we had, and we had a very mean defence for about a year.

Yep. Look at the players we are missing, they are all really influential when it comes to the difference between winning and losing games. Both strikers, Pope and not least, Joelinton. Willock might be back soon, he might stay fit once he is, who knows. I haven't even included Tonali in all of this. Statements like "we are 7th" don't really mean much in that context, it's quite clear at the moment, our current fit first 11 can't be guaranteed to win any games.

It's because while we are playing with a severely depleted side it's hard to feel confidence how this season can pan out well. For instance, I never really fancied yesterday's fixture much without a striker. Yes Willock and Isak might be back soon, but both are quite fragile, and it's a lot of games to hang your hat on them staying fit for the rest of it.

There are some question marks tbh, I didn't like how he handled the games against Dortmund, thought we got thouroughly outwitted in both legs, but we would have still been on course for a great season without the injuries IMO.

Agree. Miley has flaws defensively, but his use of the ball was very good.

Honestly they'd be crazy to even be considering it given the circumstances. The Dan Ashworth farce has shown just how important character and integrity are at this club, every time I see Howe giving an interview I feel immense pride. That's not to say he's infallible, but he has to be judged on when we have a near enough full squad available.

Best part of the whole game for me.

The crowd were singing that song after he scored weren't they? It did put a smile on my face, not gonna lie.

I think he'll not be judged on this season tbh, he'll be given a clean slate next time round. I'm not sure I agree with having one set way of playing, personally I think you have to adapt according to the players you have available, but when he's got a mostly fit squad, we do play some fantastic football.

Said before the game that he needed to turn up today, mostly because I knew he wouldn't. Not for lack of trying, he's just not a finisher.

That's literally impossible with our current first 11.

It's not fitness, it's lack of confidence in his own ability. He's got limited ability on the ball so as a result he doesn't really want it that much.

Not his fault but we probably lost out on his abilities out wide with us having to play him as a striker today.

He's like too many others we've got playing at the moment. Him, Almiron and Murphy are support players, they are always going to struggle when the onus is on them to win games when the actual match winners are missing.

Not without key players, we are dropping far too many points against shit teams.

One where he's playing to lower expectations, maybe for a lower prem team.

When he was slipped through in the second half he should have just chipped the keeper, instead he tried to go round and his poor touch closed the distance and allowed the goalie to block.

If he was a natural goal scorer yes.

Nothing surprising about this tbh, too many 2nd tier players trying to replace top tier ones.

Yep just seen that.

Cracking pen that.

It is tbh.

I said at half time maybe Bournemouth would make a mistake and we'd get a goal, well that was the sort of mistake I was talking about.

It's not been a terrible performance, just look a bit toothless up front without a recognised striker.

Anyway, it's 0-0, all it takes is a mistake from their end and we could end up with a winner from nowhere. We haven't really looked like creating chances other than a couple of long balls which have almost got us in,