Yorkie

Yeah, I really believe so; I have done all season. I expect there'll probably be a post from me in like October or something to the effect of: if Wissa comes in and hits the ground running, we'll be sound; if he doesn't, we'll be fucked. (That's not meant as an 'I told you so;' just a demonstration of my belief in this specific point.) If we're not underperforming our xG so badly in the first half of the season - thereby leading to late collapses and setting the psychological tone for the whole season - then it's a different picture. It's not even a lot. Literally just a few goals and the whole season looks different. Regarding your last paragraph - of course, and I did say that the matter doesn't absolve Howe. Wissa was a choice and it turned out to be a bad one.

... Nah, you're alright.

Things are undeniably a bit crap but the crazy thing is, we're only a 'Wissa not being shit' away from having an entirely different outlook imo. Yeah we're 14th but the position isn't particularly relevant beyond optics - what's more important is that we're five points away from European qualification. Having a competent number 9 has us there imo and then we're not discussing a broken manager, a broken squad and a broken club. It's literally a couple of results. Feel like I need to caveat everything by saying this doesn't absolve Howe of the various errors he's made across the season. The point I'm making is that not a lot has to be different for us all to be holding a pretty different view. Wissa's under-performance, alone, has absolutely murdered us.

This is just the nature of penalties but it's absolutely mental how that action from Botman is rewarded with his team losing the game. They're such an insanely disproportionate punishment at times.

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I don't want him to leave either but accept he will do at some point and I'm sure we're more than 50% of the way through his tenure here. So it's important that we're looking to the future. Fuck knows who I'd go for though. For my sins I don't know enough about the wider context. I could happily give a list of names I wouldn't want, like. What I hope we'd find is someone who had different ideas but who carried themselves with the same grace and excellence of Howe. That'll be what I miss the most about the guy when he does eventually go.

Honestly man my post wasn't intended as a defence of Howe. Our lack of goals is as much on him as anybody else, with or without training time. His job is to find solutions and, by and large, he hasn't succeeded in that this season. I think he's been let down very badly by certain individuals but still, it's not amateurs he's working with. Regarding the 'biggest problem' argument, I do accept the opposing view that it boils down to our defensive sloppiness. (Also responding to @Jesse Pinkman). However, my point has always been that goals relieve pressure on the defence and without a slick attacking unit to ensure we get enough of a gap, it's bred defensive errors and psychological weakness. Our record when we've gone (at least) two goals in front: 2022/23: P14 W13 D1 L0 (93% win rate) 2023/24: P12 W12 D0 L0 (100%) 2024/25: P13 W13 D0 L0 (100%) 2025/26: P6(!) W5 D1 L0 (83%) Our record when we've gone to a maximum of one goal in front: 2022/23: P11 W7 D3 L1 (64%) 2023/24: P13 W6 D4 L3 (46%) 2024/25: P10 W7 D2 L1 (70%) 2025/26: P15 W7 D1 L7 (47%) Build on a lead, we win almost every time, even this season. Fail to build on a lead, we're prone to dropping points. We've also already matched our worst record under Howe so far on terms of games where we haven't scored at all (7). Attack is the best form of defence, basically. Once again. None of this is a defence of Howe. I'm just making a case for the biggest issue and it is quite clear to me what's changed compared to previous seasons.

I still think we can have some hope thanks to the preparation time between games. I'm not excusing today's result but it's not like he had three weeks of training with the team, that's a bit overblown. He had like six players to work with for a fair chunk of the break because of international duties. Surely we can hold some hope that we can start working on some patterns between the games now, with the full squad available to work with continuously? Our biggest problem all season has been lack of goals. If we can squeeze half a dozen extra goals from the team - that we would otherwise not have scored with no training time - we could have a strong end to the season.

Incredibly painful watching this bloke, who I admire so much, clearly put every sinew of his being into making things better, fail to do so. Not gonna defend the indefensible, just remarking on how painful it is to watch. What an awful season it's been.

Pain

Oh dear.

Le sigh

Limited to the wireless today and when Razor decides to describe the action it sounds like we're losing our grip on this.

Obviously you'd love to see a good performance but shit, just a win would be huge. Get this run off to a great start and go some way to just putting that awful mackem result to bed. Come on lads, plzzz make it happen.

Yusss. Please God let taking the lead mean something in this final stage of the season.

Match thread

It's a bit of a myth that Woltemade was cruelly jettisoned when Wissa came back from injury. He started the next game at Man Utd and was shite whereas Wissa scored in his first two starts, then they played together in the Bournemouth cup game. Woltemade was back in the side as the striker for the Leeds game immediately following.

Fully expected Gordon through the middle. Great to see Miley back in. Dearly hoping for a good performance.

I disagree but I'm not going to bore everyone again with the reasons why. In the context of this debate specifically I'm contesting the suggestion that not selling these players is poor squad management.

Going to be similarly obtuse and reductive here and say the club can't afford to be sentimental/emotional and hamstring themselves with players due to performances in one game It's not reductive at all, man. You said those players should've been peddled, and in not doing so it was 'poor squad management,' when clearly it wasn't, given last season's output and their specific contribution to it. KI has already said it, but we've squeezed every last drop out of Trippier in terms of value; it outweighs any negative from getting no fee. Just to be on brand for me: it's all from the school of unfair criticism given the real enemy here is PSR. Even if it was poor squad management, it's only poor in the context of these bullshit rules. A team like us - clawing desperately to catch up - can't afford to sell dependable stalwarts like Joelinton. Man Utd are allowed to run Casemiro's contract down without it impacting their ability to massively invest... but if we don't sell Big Jer we're doing a bad job? That doesn't sit right with me at all. If there's any mud to sling about our lack of revenue from sales it should be pointed at the fact our academy generates next to fuck all.

Both absolutely fucking mint in the cup final, if that means anything at all. We also got cash for Miggy, so who cares.

Brentford level on points with Liverpool now. Not sure I could handle them squeaking CL after the Wissa debacle.

What a fucking shit result for us that is.

Agreed. If Sandro goes I'd happily see us invest in what would essentially be a Miley replacement, as he takes the role.

Curious to see how it looks with the fat stripes. As an Adidas perv I don't particularly like the rebrand, but TBF the traditional stripes would probably get lost in that mega stripey kit. The Frankfurt one there shows the fatter ones potentially 'pop' more.