Conjo

Agreed. Coventry or their opponent whos name escapes me at St. James' Park would be great at this point.

Watched him training with the subs at half time yesterday. He didn't shoot at goal like someone else mentioned he did (and buried them all) in the Arsenal match thread(?), but he looks so comfortable with the ball. Really good technique. Looked very happy too. Such a weird loan. Wonder if we'll ever get the full story on this one.

And when challenged it'll be the classic "iT wAs tHe mAnNeR of tHe deFeAt".

Does he still struggle with his old injury? Sat very close to the field today and noticed when he is walking, his right toes stubs the ground very often as if his foot got mobility issues or that he can't feel it properly. Was like that before his injury as well and haven't noticed if that is just how he walks normally.

Ewood park is coooooooooooooooold. Fucking hell

It is in west coast in Norway at least. Don't know about you guys.

Not even close to a "must win" game (implying a loss could seal Howe's fate here). Obviously way more important game than Wolves, and most important game since our CL games.

Based on Tonalis performances bar Villa I'd have Willock at rcm ahead of him with Joelinton at LCM when all are fit.

November through to yesterday, every game my father says "why don't they press like they did last season?" and I try to explain the injury situation and the limitations of the human body. "uhm, ok, but I think they should try harder" Same comment and same explanation again every fucking match Some people just don't want the context. (or are showing early signs of dementia)

I genuinely think he changed his approach after the Liverpool game 1-0 up against 10 men and Howe makes a triple sub in the 72nd minute. ~10 minutes later Liverpool equalise and the rest is history.

It'd do him a world of good to work specifically on his agility, balance and reaction time imo. Turns just as slow as Dan Burn, and reacts to situations so slowly he's rarely in a position to challenge for the ball properly and the game passes him by when we're out of possession. He's too stiff and lumbering to turn his body to make space for himself when being pressed when in possession.

That second goal had proper Papiss Cisse vibes to it thinking about it.

I think you overestimate what he brings to the team. The timing of his injury has severely increased the perception of our dependancy of him imo. We'd still be leaking goals left, right center if he was available the last few months and we'd be very close to (but a bit better off) where we are today regardless.

Man Utd & Sunderland losing only things I didn't hate about this weekend football wise.

Fast, strong, eye for a goal, hard working. Apparently needs to work a bit on his positioning/off the ball work within the Feyenoord managers system which is why he isn't starting regularly every game but definitely seems like a type of player Howe could mould into something great within his own system.

With the exception of our record home loss to Liverpool a few years ago, I have a 100% win rate on matches I've attended, so since I'm sitting with the home fans, together with a Blackburn mate, fully expect us to suffer a record FA cup loss this time around. Just hope to see Miley, Gordon & Isak for the first time in the flesh.

Why are these two teams so incredibly boring to watch? It's a final, and I haven't even considered putting it on, and won't unless it goes to penalties as I know it'll be time wasted I'll never get back.

Amen. It's absolutely crazy to talk about Howe getting sacked. By all means critisize/discuss some of his decisions, but this is our guy. The problem/difference for Howe is he did too well last season in a way Arteta showed progression, while we have regressed this season (in terms of league position) which is optically worse. If Arteta got 4th in his first season, then 8th, I'm not sure he'd necessarily be at Arsenal today (and it would have been a mistake by Arsenal if they did let him go in that scenario).

There's probably more to it, but two things that has contributed to this, I think, is 1. the most obvious one - injuries and 2. other teams raising their intensity against us to counter/nullify our approach (or get revenge? ). There has been quite a few times this season I've been thinking the opposing team out-newcastle'd us, not only yesterday.

Isak was pretty much static alone up top waiting for us to break against Arsenal for the first 30 minutes of the game and got subbed on the 62nd or 63rd minute(?) so basically played ~30 minutes of normal football which should be manageble considering he trained a few days before the game.

Difficult to say with him only playing one game since the LC final if there's any noticable difference in command of box, shot stopping and passing/kicking compared to Dubs, but one thing that was easy to see is that he's better at sweeping than Dubs. Wouldn't mind if he got a few more chances to prove himself, and of course, if he does well, becomes our 2nd choice keeper.

Ah right, gotcha but doesn't that mean that whether he would get a longer sentence (additional time over the current period left to serve or start from 0 once current ban is over) is up to Fifa then, not the FA, meaning bigger likelihood of no additional time, unless bets has been placed after Tonali was notified of the completed investigation by the Italian FA?

When do you think we doubled down on Howeball? All our major signings bar Gordon are someone I'd not typically class as a high intensity/pressing type of player.