Ronaldo

100% this as well.

Fair play to Scotland. They’ve had a brilliant campaign and thoroughly deserve their place. I’ll look forward to watching them and the energy they’ll bring ahead of some no-mark vorpsrung durch European country there to make the numbers up / be difficult to break down. Hjulmand for Denmark gave one of the most pitiful performances I can ever remember in a game of such magnitude. Wouldn’t like to be him when he gets off the plane.

For quite some time the 3 of them as a unit haven’t given the team nearly enough going forward or dominating games. Tonali gets immunity because it’s not really his job. Bruno has had as many bad games as good, as much as I love him. Joelinton on the other hand has been getting away with murder for ages.

Nothing wrong expect they can’t score goals, create chances or play in cohesive way that maintains possession.

Yeah, sky sports, talksport, and IRL a fair few fans, die hards even, are even starting to say he’s taken us as far as he can. The Elanga signing, poor form of those constantly selected inc Joelinton are the things most cited. It’s sadly only going to get worse this. He’s strong enough to take no notice, obvs.

Bizarre quote when I’ve been defending Howe all day. Yes, I think we’re playing shit, and we are.

ASM wasn’t useful against a low block. Why are we rewriting history like this? He was a better player than Gordon on the counter admittedly because one on one he’d go past players with ease on the outside or inside.

Just don’t really like the insinuation there’s an agenda. I’ve made it clear how I feel about the manager and most of the players. I’m not in favour of the OTT criticism or the denial or how far off it we’ve been.

@Vinny Green Balls Say it as I see it. We’re not playing well and absolutely getting what we deserve in terms of results. We can be honest and say it without advocating wholesale change.

I don’t think we’ve been very good at any point this season or indeed the latter part of last with the exception of that half I’ve mentioned. I don’t think that’s remotely controversial - in fact your head would fall off if you were here to hear what your average fan has said over the past day and a bit. Can only assume your definition of very good is different to mine.

We know we can beat poor teams at home. We’ve done it in the league too. We’ve actually been handed a very favourable first 11 games given the issues a lot of our opposition have faced on and off the field. It’s going to get more difficult now.

Or against good opposition. Spurs had a makeshift team and less said about Benfica the better.

I would also say the criticism of Howe (from our own fans) over the past 24 hours on Sky etc has been unfair. He’s not Bobby / Rafa in that they can see what’s not working in-game and fix it and that’ll likely always be a weakness that will hold him and us back, but the shitshow of a summer (that some fans defended) was always going to be tough to adapt to for any manager, let alone one who prioritises preparation above all else.

When have we been very good? Liverpool second half aside. You’re just making things up now.

Have we had a genuinely good performance in the league against decent opposition since March? We were really good in the second half against Liverpool. After that I’m struggling.

You can’t help but feel for him even if a lot of this is down to his stubbornness and limitations. With the next 2 fixtures it’s likely to get a lot more toxic, too.

Incredible saves when? How can people watch football for decades and not figure out that making saves is the easiest part of goalkeeping and any top flight keeper his size with his wingspan is going to make ‘good saves’ as a reactionary formality.

We’ve beaten two sides in Europe who woudn’t survive in the PL and another (at home) who are currently below Betis and Espanol. I’m not encouraged by it when we then play average to poor PL sides and can’t threaten.

Bit of a red flag that he left Burn on for set piece threat. I get that’s there’s been a shift towards pragmatism throughout the league this season but fucking hell. We’ve spent far, far too much money for us to be banking on Dan Burn from set pieces at the expense of a balanced side able to progress the ball on the left and not be totally exposed as we were. It screams out of ideas.

He should not been anywhere near that tournament given how much we need him and how much his choice of international side has cost us so far.

Clearly it is or we wouldn’t be 2 points above 18th having played a plethora of shit so far.

Oh yeah, that’s the same isn’t it.

We all have. Eddie just won’t do it, it’s not him. I don’t think he could coach such a player.

I’m usually loathe to make this point because it’s a lazy one - not playing for the manager. However, they’re clearly not. Multiple players have either got no faith / understanding in the system or they’re not bothered.

We actually might be in the relegation zone after the next two games.