Andy

I think this is absolutely the case. Pope is very good at "sweeper keeping", and it's definitely one of Dubravka's weaknesses. In his first few games back in the team, it was exploited massively, and since then we have visibly played with a deeper line.

Obviously this kind of thing can happen against a team like City. I understand some of the frustration at the second half performance though, the issue is that it's a continuation of what we've done all season - get into a good position then just try to to dig in, and ultimately fail to hold on. Our ball retention is seriously poor, it's no wonder we're knackered when we're constantly chasing the ball and being moved across the pitch. We need to pull something out of the hat this month in the transfer market, even if it's a couple of loans. We are absolutely desperate for a midfielder who can actually plug gaps on transition and has a bit composure on the ball.

Gordon was back on the pitch strolling around in the centre, he had ages to get back into position. The issue was that Burn got sucked inside despite us having plenty of bodies in the centre. Actually watch the replay back instead of being condescending, maybe.

It's a free kick for me, but there was plenty of football played afterwards like, defending was extremely poor and that should be the narrative.

PIF won't want to weaken their own league. Unless a player is actively pushing for a move, I don't think it's just an open market for us.

Has that been confirmed or just conjecture? The first two points I mean

How can we reject bids for Bruno if he has a release clause?

They were shite. We came into the game rattled, nervy, fatigued, on our worst run of form for ages, and yet they let us play at walking pace for most of the 90. Derby aside, you'd expect a lower league team to have given us a real working today and got the crowd behind them.

The "foul" wasn't a free kick imo. Would be annoyed if that was given against one of our defenders, it's just on the right side side of strong defending for me.

I've never really understood what Ashworth does to get the credit he receives. Brighton already had much of their framework in place before he went there, and have coped fine in his absence. And as was mentioned above, most of our best signings were also either made or already being pursued prior to his arrival. Not saying he's shite and I'm sure the hype is there for a reason, but in terms of our success last season, his input can only have been absolutely fractional at best.

This is something Howe will have to adapt to though if he is to take the club a level further. You don't get much time on the training ground once you're fighting on all fronts, so the limited coaching time you do get has to stick. Obviously it helps if you also have better/more intelligent players who need less coaching.

Fair enough the Bournemouth game we had injuries, but the team we had out was more than good enough to do a job against them like. The only other team they had beaten to that point was Burnley. The other games (Milan, Brighton, Wolves) are subjective, but we were backs to the wall in two of them and the wolves game turned on its head when their best player went off, before that we were under the cosh too. The point is, Shef United aside we have obviously been unconvincing away from home. We have 5 points on the road and have conceded 20+ goals, it's not some outlandish statement and not all of this can be attributed to the injury crisis given that the home form hasn't mirrored it.

Were they though? Milan, Brighton, Bournemouth, Wolves (until Neto went off), Dortmund were all very poor performances before the injury crisis really kicked in. Can only remember us playing well against Shef Utd (obviously) and we were "okay" against West Ham who mainly sat back. We've set up differently on the road to how we do at home all season - we're much deeper, more passive, the full backs don't push on, the striker is isolated, there is no intensity etc. Could just be a mentality thing since we don't have the crowd behind us I guess, but I think it's at least partially instructional.

I think that's partially true, but the away form in particular this season is worthy of criticism, taken in isolation and disregarding what happened last season. We have 5 points away from home, second worst in the league, and one or two games aside, the performances on the road since August have been shocking - that is obviously not good enough and needs solving, but we are just taking the same approach every week. We may be limited in player choices but we don't have to be backs to the wall for 90 minutes struggling to keep a hold of the ball - that just adds to the fatigue if anything. Anyone who's played football knows how difficult it is chasing the ball constantly. I don't think he should be under pressure, but he definitely shouldn't be immune from criticism.

That's probably the worst decision I've ever seen, how can you review that and not see that it's a dive?

More by luck than judgement like they literally should have scored ten.

You can go back further than that, Milan away and Brighton away were similar too. Wolves, Bournemouth...

There is no way Lewis Hall is worse than this version of Dan Burn at full back like, it's literally impossible

Where is Burn going there man, absolute schoolboy ball-chasing

The amount of times we go from a promising set piece to the other team cutting through us like butter at the other end is ridiculous

Not for me. ASM wasn't really a huge factor in our performances last season. Obviously it would be handy to have him as a pair of legs though. The intensity is the big issue for me, it's been the case all season, PSG and Man Utd aside.

Massive let off but it's still only a matter of time. We continue to look an absolute shadow of last season's team, no organisation or intensity whatsoever.

It was a penalty imo like. It's one of those where if he stays up you immediately say "why didn't he go down?"

We've shown we're capable of doing that while riding the wave of positivity, it'll be a different task if we lose the next few though, especially the Sunderland game. There's already a big change in mood and slipping down towards mid table will solidify that in large chunks of the fanbase. People underestimate the value of mood and momentum in football. Ourselves and Villa are examples of what it can do for the better when it's going your way, Chelsea and Spurs (last season), the opposite. We're obviously capable of top six but it's definitely hanging in the balance and will be a bigger task than a lot of people think. There needs to be patience and an acceptance that it may be beyond us IMO. The best bet is probably to get a few players in during January to try and shift the mood back in our favour a bit.

It will be hard to shift the momentum though. We could be 9th tonight. If we lose the next 3, which is definitely realistic, we could be sitting 10th or 11th. It's not easy to suddenly turn that around into a good run of form. Unless we pull something out the bag from this tough run over the next month, we will definitely have our work cut out to finish top 6.