Carlito

What's his yelling like when he's chasing the opposition back to his own goal after losing the ball near the halfway line? The compilation didn't show any of that stuff.

He was figured out that day and I stand by that comment, because as I said we slowly became worse over the next 3 seasons. Isak becoming a star striker and Gordon hitting form, plus the signing of Barnes added a lot of goals to our team in 2023-24 but you have to look at the games in isolation as well such as Villa at home, Sheff Utd away, Palace at home, Luton at home, West Ham at home, Spurs at home. That's 29 goals in 6 games. Also look at the amount of times we were caught out pressing too high up the pitch. The midfield was being played through then and it still is now, with more ease than before. Not even Bruno being on the pitch is saving us anymore whereas it got us out of a lot of bad results in prior seasons. Us conceding so many on the break was/is a direct result of us not being able to break down low blocks. Look at our center backs this season, part of the press and caught too high up the pitch (Burn more often than I can count). Bruno has been the only player who will try anything through the middle until we signed Woltemade. The difference with other teams is their manager will often take a more proactive approach to combat the problem. Howe just generally makes like-for-like changes and hopes something happens after we've conceded. Too much reliance on individual brilliance rather than actually adapting to situations.

I said it's slowly gotten worse, which it has. In 22/23 we conceded 33 goals. 62 conceded the following season. For the first half of last season (24/25) we were honking.

So breaking down teams that utilize a low block hasn't been an issue for us in your opinion?

Leeds at home. That was when Howe's system was first found out. Since that game we haven't been able to break down low blocks and teams know to set up that way

Can't remember if it was him or Stuart Pearce last summer said on Talksport we'd win the league this season Hopefully they keep him away from the predictions this summer just to be safe.

Think he's wanted away since he got stick off the fans for liking Isak's post last summer. It's been clear all season, particularly in the league.

How not though? We've been playing like a relegation side since January, that's not an exaggeration. If it wasn't for Woltemade's early form we could easily be in West Ham's shoes right now. It's been clear for months that certain players aren't wanting to play for the manager. There are too many parallels with how things were under Bruce, right down to the league position and painful football. The problems started long before Isak left as well (2022-23 to be exact), which is why I don't like seeing the excuse of Isak leaving being peddled out in Howe's defense.

Lee Ryder is saying we're in talks with Ewen Jaouen's reps and Reims so it looks like those early links were true.

There was news of it a couple of months back all over twitter. It was a certainty.

Considering the players he trusts the most are the main ones who have under-performed the most this season, his judgement has been poor. The thirties club have all been extremely poor and should be moved on this summer. Murphy should have gone last summer while his stock was at its highest. Pope needs to go. Burn is the only one that we might still get anything out of next season as a backup but even then he too often gets caught out too high up the pitch. He should not be starting at left back over Hall given how our team is set up to play.

Probably not with new rules coming into play but I think 80-90 would be a fair range for an England international. I don't think we should be selling him for less than 80.

If Grealish can go for £100m we can demand a lot more than £60-80m for Gordon who will likely be starting at the world cup. £60m would be laughable considering Everton will get a percentage. We need to become better sellers than what we have been on the whole since the takeover.

Literally explained why it's set us back that far. We can't spend without selling thanks to wasting so much money on players he wouldn't even give a consistent run in the team (this would actually be the one difference but that's on Howe), we have a manager that has shown no signs of turning it around because he's too stubborn, we have players wanting out and clearly not playing for the manager and defensively we are a total mess. We ended this season in relegation form. Ironically we got battered by West Ham at their worst earlier this season as well and were lucky to only concede 3 that day. We've gone full-circle under Howe. Do you really think giving him more money to spend on players he wants will turn things around if we keep playing the exact same way? Let's say even if we do perform well next season and somehow get back into Europe after selling a couple of our best players, then what? We'll be right back where we are now the season after next because we'll continue to play the same way, end up with too many injuries and see aging players started when their form doesn't justify it.

His reckless spending last summer (£34m+ per signing) on players he's refused to give a consistent run in the team has set us back five years. We're back to square one. No European football, no star striker, no attacking creative outlet, no ability to spend without selling first and a manager who doesn't look like he's able to stop the downturn in form. It'll be a disaster if he's allowed to spend even more money to fix the problems he caused due to panic buying and tactical stubbornness. Quarter of a billion spent in one window to lose the same number of games as relegation-threatened Spurs and more than relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest, who had 4 different managers this season. This won't just magically fix itself next season, especially with us having to sell to buy. He has to go if we want to grow into a bigger club. Any new manager coming in has their work cut out for them.

2/10. The cups were papering over the cracks.

It's not BS at all. While his movement does need some work, he generally has to come deep to get the ball because none of the wide players are looking to pass it to him and it's conditioning him to play deeper so he's not isolated the entire match. There have been a number of occasions where both Woltemade and Wissa have been through on goal and the likes of Hall or the central midfielders won't play them through. Instead they play it wide, then overlap and the opportunity is gone. He's scored 3 headers in the box this season as well as getting on the end of a cross against Chelsea, and 2 back heel flicks in the box. Pretty sure he's had about 3 cleared off the line as well.

It would help if our wide players weren't an absolute disgrace when it comes to providing our strikers with service. Woltemade got little to none after November and he's been scapegoated since.

He has to go, asap. Sick of all the excuses I'm seeing made for him. He can't moan about PSR when he's spent quarter of a billion in a single window. PSR doesn't dictate his stubbornness, or the fact that we've lost more than 20 points from winning positions this season, or that we've conceded 3 or more goals 8 times in 2026. You could probably count on one hand how many times we've performed well in both halves of a game this season. He won us a trophy and we'll never forget that, but we're regressing big time and that falls on the manager.

For me, the system has to change, even if only temporarily until we can regain some confidence. 3 goals in our last 8 league games and we've struggled to test the keeper in most. We need to stop playing right footers on the left and left footers on the right as they're extremely one-footed players. They will run to the byline only to turn back onto their stronger foot and by then the attack is pretty much gone and we play it backwards or in to Bruno. ASM gets doubled up on down the left more often than not now and we aren't getting Almiron through on goal anymore down the right. Teams have sussed our style of play and we aren't adapting. There's something very Southgate about it in my opinion with the lack of a plan B. Over the next couple of games I would say play Isak or one of ASM/Gordon in a 10 role, Almiron wide left with Targett overlapping and one of Gordon/ASM on the right, with Longstaff and Bruno sitting behind while Joelinton serves his suspension.

Will probably end with 6 players sent off and 3 goals disallowed.

Was thinking about this last night watching MOTD and came to the conclusion that there needs to be some kind of points system in place to hold the poor officiating accountable. For example: - Wrongful decision on goals = 3 points - Wrongful decision on set-pieces = 2 points - Wrongful decision on bookings = 1 point If a referee accumulates 5 points in a game then they are automatically relegated to the lower leagues for the following week. If it happens a 2nd time they face a fine, and suspension for a 3rd time. Set up an independent panel consisting of ex-players, managers and referees to review each game. Don't get me wrong it's not perfect but I think it would at least go some way towards holding the poor standard of refereeing to account. If a manager's job is constantly at risk based on results then the officials making poor decisions that could cost that manager his job need to be held accountable. To me it's wrong that Jesse Marsch will be suspended for Leeds' next game, simply because he showed his frustration at the officials in that game making some ridiculous decisions which have probably cost them the game. Moyes will probably be fined for his post-match interview, Rice will probably be fined for his tweet, and yet the referees will continue on making the same mistakes at the highest level next week. Clearly Howe in his post-match interview has thought "why bother?".

Fair enough. No worries

If that's aimed at me, I'm not saying he's shit ffs It was a shit finish though, no getting around that. Exactly the same as what Murphy did last season.

Should have won it, regardless of the garbage ref. That Isak 1 v 1 chance man