AyeDubbleYoo

I really think Barnes left and Gordon right is the only way to go with the wide players we have in the squad right now. Unless we're signing a left-footed RW with real goal threat in Jan.

Maybe, but even if we knew that it's not sackable. Elanga could well have been expected to perform much better than he has so far. So would Ramsey. And I'm sure the idea was to rely much more on the proven Wissa and less on Woltemade.

In theory he should work well playing in goal-scoring wide forwards and dropping the ball off to midfielders like Bruno, Tonali and Ramsey etc moving forward. Maybe we need to let him come much deeper and play the wingers much more narrow, so the CBs can't all follow him. I'm not sure he would work well behind another striker because he'd be required to cover a lot of ground defensively as well. That said, he'll lose his place to Wissa soonish anyway if we can't get him more into the game.

You too

We lost our best player very late in the window and none of the attacking signings have really pulled up any trees. I don't think a bad season necessarily means we're 'going backwards'. Nobody can guarantee constantly finishing higher than the previous year without any setbacks. He gets the summer and probably all of next season no matter what for me, barring a ridiculously bad start or player revolt etc.

For me both teams played a low block and therefore neither attack did anything at all. It was a dire game, should've been 0-0.

Yet we know he was PL level until this season.

I think we'll continue to have an up and down season, at least until we're out of the CL. We're just not good enough to be relied on in so many big games every few days.

I can read, but I'm sure you know he just means 'put in a good performance next time'. He can't exactly say "we've lost to Sunderland, nothing can ever make up for that", he's a professional footballer

I think even competing in the PL is a major achievement for Murphy TBH, but I agree.

I mean, I don't think he means we'll literally forget today if we beat Fulham lads.

I just don't think we're pressing as a team, it's not him not being able to do it. He very recently won a pen by pressing the keeper, for example.

Don't think this applied to Gordon, he raised his game noticeably when Barnes was playing well and starting. Not for long admittedly

Weirdly enough I thought he was taken off too early. Just after he’d got past ther fullback and got him booked.

I’m honestly not tactically knowledgable enough to say a completely different approach is needed. Playing well and making our passes instead of playing shit and messing them up, I suppose that is a different approach in its own way.

I don’t think so. Both teams basically played a low block and they offered very little. We just scored on OG. It should’ve been 0-0.

I could understand the signing, someone who runs ahead of Woltemade and carries more attacking threat on the LCM than Joelinton. But I don’t know why he’s offered so little since he got here.

They can't really say much else though, can they?

I don't think we're good enough to suddenly become class or anything, but we have the tools (manager and players) to do much better than we are now and we're still in a respectable position in every competition. Even in the PL, a smallish run of wins is transformational for league position. Of course, I wouldn't expect that to turn into a long run of wins because I just don't think we have what it takes for that at the moment. All of Howe's options have flaws still, because our squad just isn't elite yet. So I'm hopeful for the rest of the season although I admit there's also a chance it continues to go wrong. There's no scenario where I wouldn't give Howe the summer though.

Well that’s not why he’s doing it is it? He’s doing it because there’s an expensive asset in the squad that he wants/needs to improve. I’m not saying it will happen, but it’s not hard to understand why he’s trying.

I hope/think you’re right, just saying if we do get rid of him because of short term results it would be a mistake.

Can you suggest somewhere?

I think my concerns are more short term because it’s so hard to reinvent a team mid-season with so many games and little training time. Long term I’m sure he will sort it out, question is if we’ll get rid of him before he gets the chance.

I don’t think we knew anything of the sort TBH. People are just ultra negative about most of our signings and have mostly been proven completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Very hard one for the management this. Because he’s done it in the PL and we signed him for serious money, we must believe he can do it. Therefore we kind of have to keep playing him and hope he sorts it out.