LiquidAK

Ugh, Sandro dead?

Fucking hell. Some hit

Get in Pope, great save

Jesus Sandro

Miley

Elanga's looking sharp tbf

Harvey you fucking babe

That was before Bruno signalled to come off. There was no break between that and him being brought off

Hopefully a good sign that it was even a question of whether he could run it off

Please get Bruno off, my ankle is sore watching this

That's nightmare scenario

Lollll. Have it on good authority we're shit mind

Absolute cunts

God that felt good

I don't solely disagree, I don't think Howe needs to completely abandon his principles to transition us to a team that's better in possession and is a bit savvier about how and when we press rather than all out for 90 minutes. Seems to me that the signs are there that that's what he's aiming for, it's just not there yet

You're misrepresenting my point here, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume it's a genuine misunderstanding and not aimed at strengthening your argument. I didn't say "it always works out" for him, I said he always gets there, as in he always learns from setbacks and comes back a better manager afterwards. He did that after the relegation with Bournemouth, and he's done it multiple times in the 4 years he's been with us. No-one is saying Howe is a perfect manager who never makes any mistakes.

I don't agree with that. Guardiola's Man City doesn't play the same as his Barcelona - similarities for sure but he's evolved over the years. There's maybe even an interesting comparison to be drawn between adapting to a very different style of centre forward in Haaland and what Howe needs to find the solution to with Woltemade. I think we fundamentally disagree that a manager is going to be locked in to a specific way of playing and will struggle to evolve it. Howe is clearly trying to evolve his, time will tell if he's successful - my money is on he will be.

How long would you give Guardiola, or any other manager coming in to adapt our playstyle with this squad? A season of transition? More? Less? A genuine question. I feel like there's an expectation on Howe that because he's been here 4 years that implementing big changes should happen quickly. I don't think that's realistic.

Very good question, I don't know. Our window felt like a scramble and disjointed for sure. I'd hope that Wilson and better infrastructure will give us more direction in future windows. Feels like there have been some big missteps, maybe the likes of Elanga will come good but they don't feel like what we needed in the short-term, and if Howe had the influence that he's meant to have done in our signings he has to take flack for that. I want the club to do whatever it takes to give Howe the tools to do what he's great at, getting the best out of a squad of players and making us competitive in every competition we enter. If that means reducing his influence in the market or sharing some of the load for squad-building with a DoF then I'd absolutely advocate for that.

There it is, the subtle moving of the goalposts. Very cool. Not successful yet I mean this just proves my point. "Ended up getting relegated with Bournemouth" is a super ungenerous view of what happened there. He dragged them into the Premier League, kept them there for a bit, had a pretty big set back but grew from it, improving as a coach. He's having set backs here, thankfully with much lower stakes than relegation, he'll grow from these too. It's about experience of juggling the extra commitments, having fewer days on the training ground between games. It's not solely about developing a new playstyle, it's adapting coaching methods to having less time with the players, all WHILE trying to adapt the playstyle with a different set of tools than he had before (Isak out, Wolte in). I'm not a football manager, but it feels mad to assume that this should happen overnight and not that it could take a bit of time.

I think it's pretty clear he's trying to shift towards a less intense, more possession-based style, I imagine in direct response to the injury crisis we ended up in the last time we were trying to juggle Europe, cups and the league. He's also trying to manage adapting a team to a very different type of no. 9 in Woltemade at the same time, who himself is young and new to the league and needs time to adapt. It's obviously not clicking right now, but I don't think it's a fair criticism to say that he's not trying to evolve our game. Not evolving would mean sticking to the all out press in every game, being hit by injuries even more than we are now, and the cries of "Howe hasn't learned from last time, we knew this would happen, this isn't sustainable 3 times a week" ad nauseum It's pretty likely we'll slip a few places over the next few weeks given our fixtures, but he'll get there, he always does. I can't stress enough that prior to this season he'd managed 6 European games in his entire career, it's just so early to be saying that he'll not crack this with a bit of time

Dunno how much stock I put in the idea that Howe is doomed to be a 1-game-a-week manager. He's relatively young and to date has managed 1.5 seasons with European football. I get that "he never learns" has become a bit of a meme amongst the hard of thinking but I guarantee this is an element of his management he'll be working to improve.

That was obviously pretty terrible as a game, but I'm more frustrated at the players' complete inability to finish than I am the manager after that. Nick had 2 very good chances with his head, Joelinton swung at what should've been a tap-in. Even Bruno at the end completely fluffed his lines and should have at least made the keeper work.

This is where I stop believing you FYI

Using it in the 4th definition down on here: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Reactionary But if it clears it up, let's shake hands on "little piss babies".