TRon

Not that curious knowing how reluctant Howe is to trust young lads.

Definitely if it keeps Miley in midfield.

Well at least we can't complain he's not rotating.

We'll go at them all guns blazing tonight, Eddie will have been stung by the criticism of our lame performance against the filth. Fulham will catch the backlash and get a good beating.

Especially if no other club is interested. That said, I still hope he comes good, but you can only judge him on what you are seeing, and so far he looks clumsy and nervous at the same time.

I think he looks far better when we press high, that's where his all action style comes into it's own. I'm sure he can do a job sitting in as well, but then it's on the team as a whole to get the ball beyond the press and releasing the forwards.

Pretty much what I've said in my last few posts.

Also it needs to look like his players are buying into it. They just look confused and unmotivated at the moment.

We seem to be conflicted about it though. We aren't releasing the ball effectively to wide players when they are in space. We are just sitting back and getting caught on the ball ourselves before we can get the ball out to the forwards with pace.

Actually I think this season we are playing more like we did in his first season in charge when defensively we were rock solid and we were playing mainly off Chris Wood and relying on winning quite a few 1-0's from what I remember. The next couple of seasons we progressed to a more high pressing attacking style which has been very successful, but at the same time maybe led to a lot of injuries and maybe burnout. This season we seem to be sitting off a lot more as I said earlier.

Well you could always leave Eddie and his nephew to be in charge of the winter window again.

Especially given the technical deficiencies of sides like Sunderland who will give you the ball if you don't give them time on it. It was a passive performance from the start, and we didn't change it up once it was clear it wasn't working. It's not like they looked a good side, so we really just played into their hands. Dropped down to their level, then they beat us on experience.

Very hard to maintain possession with players who can't control the ball or have a poor first touch. He made sense in a Forest team designed to sit deep then attack open space on the counter.

What I don't understand is this: in games we've struggled badly, it's usually because our technically weak players have struggled to play the ball out when teams press high and cut off the time and space to find a team mate. Why didn't we do that to them considering they were also struggling to hold the ball, even when we weren't pressing them hard? They gave the ball away a few times predominantly because they are poor footballers.

Ironic because I've heard a lot of criticism that Elanga hasn't shown much physicality either. Not really noticed that personally, but seen a few of the NUFC podcasters complaining after Sunday.

Fuck me thought that was the winner.

That makes him borderline mackem in my book. Metrocentre is heaving with them on a bad day.

Thought that was 50/50 tbh, he would have had to come through his own players to claim that, and given his clash with Burn led to him punching weakly for the Spurs equaliser a week ago, I'm not sure it was that clear cut. Thought he did ok yesterday, although I agree he doesn't inspire confidence on the high crosses generally.

It's not really though is it. They went deep into the CL last season and still would have qualified again if it wasn't for getting robbed on the last day by a terrible refereeing decision. They coped with multiple competitions far better than we have. I'm not saying the sun shines out of Emery's arse, but he's got enough honours under his belt to be given some recognition.

Barnes looks quite a bit better technique wise than any of our other wingers. He needs to be the first choice now, the rest can come in when he starts having stinkers. In truth, for all the money we've spent, none of them are great. Kudus looks much better for Spurs, that's the sort of ability you want when you spend that much money.n

Don't really give a shit tbh.

He looked technically the best wide forward comfortably yesterday. His only issue is lack of pace which restricts his danger going outside the full backs and on the counter.

I actually thought he exchanged passes quite well at times in the first half. Yes he gave the ball away, but so did everyone else. He's not what we needed but that's on Howe for me.

They don't play good football, but then what does that say about us? We spent a shitload more, had far more PL experience, but somehow managed to look just as bad as them and handed over the points so they go four points clear with almost half the season gone.

And done it buying players with zero PL experience.