clintdempsey

Once again I’m sat here wondering why we didn’t see the need to shake things up in January. We look tired and lack sharpness at the moment.

Given how blatantly we’re missing Bruno it does seem a bit weird that we didn’t secure another midfielder in January it has to be said.

Could be because he’s awful. We do have a history of keepers performing rather well in the national team at the same time as being awful club GK’s (Olsen, Isaksson, Hedman, Ravelli). Sweden don’t do great keepers unfortunately.

I got stuck on this rollercoaster of emotions way back in 1993/94 when my father was working in Newcastle. I was 11 years old and on one of his trips he brought back a 'Toon Army' scarf, hat and a home kit home to Sweden. Having just started playing football myself around a year or so earlier I was hooked from then as I liked being the underdog to all my friends teams. Suffice to say the Keegan and Robson years were fantastic. Naturally Eddie has awakened that certain tingle again after a decade or so of a more troublesome kind of love.

This is probably the worst half of football I’ve seen from us since a year ago. Ref has been poor though and Villa are wasting time like we do when we play away and then some. ?

Much better second half of the first. Feels vital to get the 2nd goal as soon as possible to kill this. A few lovely combinations that could’ve been goals as well. J7 and Longy has been poor though and the less said about Murphy the better. Hopefully we’ll see Anderson and Willock for 25-30 mins.

MIGGY! ?

Thoroughly unimpressive so far. Need to step up a bit further and get the tempo up as well. Give the crowd something to feed on.

Slow, sloppy start from us. Seems like we’re not our usual high pressing selves either.

Surely the correct answer would be a Scottish Aviation Scamp?

Poor start to the 2nd half tbh. Let’s hope we’ll get some subs on and grab a hold of this again. Need to step it up.

Without having all the facts that’s a weird selection. Eddie’s earned our trust though but this does not exactly inspire me tbh. ?

Baffling lack of quality today. Most of our players look lethargic and devoid of any ideas. Piss poor wing play, low tempo and not getting the ball into Isak at all. Can only get better I suppose.

Nah, not good enough that tbh. We had a lot of chances but need to have more killer instinct. Hugely disappointed.

Need to change things up now. Not Murphy FFS.

We’ve been OK. Had most of the attacking incentives and have missed a couple of great chances. We’ll have more chances no doubt and we’ll bury one or two of them. Could do with Anderson on for Willock though since we’ve been rather pedestrian in midfield so far.

Will get a brace today methinks. Fingers crossed.

A win today would be awesome and would set us up for a nice few weeks forward. I’d say we realistically should take around 10 points from the next 5 games but the one thing we know is that Eddie will have us going for 15 from the next 5. Might as well start today. 3-0 with an Isak brace and a Targett mishit cross for the last one.

I’d say it’s probably time for him to get a start today. Has looked really interesting both against Tranmere, Wolves and Liverpool. The one area where I think Howe holds Willock higher is probably pressing. Willock hasn’t been able to get involved in an attacking sense too much but it seems that he’s integral to our defensive shape and press. I personally think that Anderson could do that as well, he seems energetic and gets around well enough. The one thing lacking is probably in a more tactical sense but that should come with experience and opportunities.

That would be absolutely epic. EDIT: Not the Liverpool part.

A good point in the circumstances and we probably should've nicked a win tbh. Still think there was something a bit off with the tempo and quality of our attacking play but that’s understandable missing the players we did. It would be awesome to get a couple of players in this week (a midfielder and a winger) to lighten the burden on some of our key players. If we do we’ve got a real chance at upsetting quite a few of the supposed big boys come May and handle upcoming injuries.

They aren’t half wasting time these. Hate shit like this.

Don’t like this. I know we’re missing a few key players but we do seem a bit lost. No urgency and low tempo. Might as well put Anderson and Fraser on straight after the break for Willock and Wood and see what happens. It’s blatantly obvious that we could do with a few more players though. ?

From the bits of info in regards to a midfielder it seems like Gallagher is EH's first choice and Paqueta is the back-up option. There's still hope!

Spanish media reports that we've had personal terms agreed for a week or two already.