TRon

He was pretty competitive I thought. Looked up for the scrap from the first minute to the last where a lot of our players seemed to wilt after the first half.

Looking at their line up before the game, Mbuemo and Wissa looked like they would cause the most problems. I was surprised that we didn't seem to have any plans to counter Mbuemo in particular. He had a field day against Hall, who got left 1 v 1 too often for my liking. I thought we might have doubled up on Mbuemo considering he was such a key player for them.

" I telt yers all alaang but no won wanted ta listen!"

Howe's not going to get sacked this season, and I have said enough times that shouldn't happen. Even the CL spots are still up for grabs at this stage so in theory it can still all turn around. But in my opinion with every shit team we drop points to, it becomes harder and harder to make Europe. We had a relatively easy start to the season, but we've performed badly. I expected us to be competing with Villa and Spurs for those European places, at this moment it looks like we are competing with Brentford, Bournemouth, Fulham and Brighton as well. Then to make matters worse, when we play them we don't look better either.

I'm not sure we are finishing 7th/8th though, that's the problem. A month ago I would have thought that finishing in those positions was a pessimistic take, now I watch us being outplayed by Fulhams and Brentfords and I'm not convinced we are significantly better.

When you say you are concerned, what is the point of that? If you don't like a player, you replace that player. If you don't like a manager, you replace that manager. I suppose if you don't like the leadership then...you guess where this is going. Who would you want instead?

Might also be that we picked up 2 points from the last four games and only Liverpool was against a fancied side.

There's definitely been more bad performances than good ones. The league table tells it's own story.

Howe will see the season out, and that's for the best. There's still enough points to play for to get into Europe with everyone beating everyone, but that's also part of the problem. We don't look any better than two thirds of the sides in the PL. I thought we were nailed on to finish 7/8th at worst, now I'm thinking 10th might be an achievement.

I think the scary think is that I'm not even sure what a midtable side looks like any more. We got outplayed by Brentford today, Howe got outmanaged by Frank. Eddie doesn't look that special in this company, not sure he's any better than the Bournemouth or Fulham manager either.

The miss was terrible, but his close control was a level above everyone else. He's one of the few who looked switched on today, too many others were losing the ball or miscontrolling under a bit of pressure.

Agree. Our substitutions look like panic more than anything else over the last few games. It just ends up in chaos.

Not sure about Bruno but Isak is starting to feel inevitable. Europe is looking a long way off now.

Today was a bit weird but there's been a pattern all season. Previously we used to press the shit out of the oppositon, now they seem to be doing it back, and more effectively. It's almost as if they have cottoned on and adapted to our game plan.

He's been at fault for too many goals, that's for sure.

We got overrun basically. They just hunted us down and finished us.

Said it in the pre-match thread, that if we are going to rest players, he should have been considered first considering he's played every game and has cost us late goals in both previous games. I think rotation is the right way to go, just don't always understand how we are doing it.

It's weird, both him and Murphy provided end product, but they felt fairly useless the rest of the time.

Haven't kept up with the thread, but Isak was the one truly class performer today. Is anyone blaming him for the loss?

Might struggle to finish 10th tbh.

Been overpowered in this second half. Hanging on to stay in it never mind equalise.

Murphy has been the opposite of Almiron. His general football a bit sloppy down the right, but he's got two assists.

Don't like him putting his hands behind his back when Mbuemo is running at him. Restricts his movement to actually defend.

We just keep handing their dangerous players the ball.

Hall's going to need plenty of help down the left against Mbuemo.