STM

Tonali still in DM with Bruno on the pitch. Hallelujah.

Change needed. Perfect for Bruno to get his foot on the ball. Get Miley on too.

I think the next sub will be Murphy for Gordon.

Hopefully Howe sees this as a chance to kill off Chelsea. Get Bruno on for Willock or Longstaff but please leave Sandro there.

Not so good Sandro.

Doesn't need to.

I bit and now regret it..

Swap Bruno for Longstaff in this formation and see how much better we are.

Looks like a free man without Bruno.

Lewis Hall is an outstanding technician. Always impresses me. Especially given his age. Still capable of a howler defensively.

Ambrose

Just in. Where is Tonali playing and how has he done?

I don't think either Bruno or Tonali are old school DMs and that's what we are missing right now but out of the two of them, Tonali has the pace to get back into position, Bruno doesn't. Tonali can press the opposition and then retreat into his shape, Bruno looks like he's running through treacle when back tracking. Not only do we have 2 CBs who have no pace, we have nobody sitting in front of them either. I'm fairly certain a small change in midfield will pay dividends.

Just for example, I don't want Howe to "evolve", I want him to change the shape of the midfield 3. It's too flat and it neither offers anything in support of the striker nor does it protect the back 4. Try Tonali as a more traditional DM or try Bruno and Tonali as 2 slightly more sitting midfielders with either a number 10 or even a second striker.... especially at home. None of the above means we need to be more possession based. We kept the ball perfectly well against Brighton, we did a decent job of it against Chelsea. There's 2 other problems which can only be fixed with transfers: 1. Pace at CB 2. A RW option who offers real class

When you say evolve, exactly what do you want him to evolve into and what are your expectations for this current squad? It's sounds like "evolve" is becoming a buzzword for people that don't actually know what the means or requires at times. For me Eddie Howe turned water into wine in his first 18 months and it's absolutely no surprise we've hit something of a brick wall.

I think there are some workarounds but they involve Isak not leading the line. If we had Wilson available, Isak could slot into the number 10, for the purpose of Wilson pressing the ball. Wouldn't be a popular solution though. We could also try and train Isak to press with more intensity. Right now it feels like he might as well not bother pressing because of how ineffective it is.

I think we win this. It will have a different feel.

I agree. I think Tonali perhaps has that pressing in him. I'd say Barnes and even Hall aren't that type. Isak is the opposite of what we need and it's a problem because he's also world class. If I was a ruthless cunt, I'd sell him and sign someone like Delap. He won't score more goals but the team might function better. We'd also have way more PSR wriggle room. Before anyone jumps on me, I love Isak and don't want to lose him but it's an issue.

Eddie Howe is a manager who's philosophy is pressing, high energy football (I agree we aren't seeing much of it at the moment). Asking him to change (evolve) won't work and isn't necessary. Klopp won loads playing a similar way. Also you don't hire a manager and then ask them to change. Imagine asking Pep to play more direct? Howe could change his formation or his line up and keep the same philosophy. And while I agree that this style is taxing on the players, the answer isn't to change the manager, it's to change the players. If you won't a manager more possession based, that's totally understandable, just don't ask Howe to do it. A complete waste of time IMO.

"I want us to sign young players who we can develop, so we can spread our cost and aid PSR." "Bah none of these players are ready for the first team, what a silly thing to do, now we have gaps in our first team."

I think I just disagree with the time frame. I'd certainly be disappointed if by May we haven't gone on a healthy run, including away from home.

There are plenty of professional outfits out there who have people making horrific decisions at the top though. There's no certainty whatsoever that the people at the top of NUFC will make the right choice and the right choice is massively subjective.

Your talking in absolutes. What if we win all of our home games and pick up a few results on the road? What if we are slightly better away from home? We weren't shit yesterday for example. We weren't great either but we weren't shit. And again. Your solution might be to sack him... but for who?

What I will say, is that some of the talk is simply frustrated fans and not the reality. I think and hope that most are just a bit frustrated, rather than wanting him gone.

Maybe the manager isn't the problem. I'm sure me and you could have a long chat about the last 30 years and come to some pretty obvious conclusions about why we haven't had sustained success.