oldtype

Imagine how screwed we would be if we actually sold more of the players we thought we didn't need in the summer.

Are we not allowed to make injury replacements to the CL squad? I vaguely remember doing something like that on Football Manager a decade ago...

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

 

The crazy thing about that season is that I never even thought about getting relegated because I just assumed it couldn't happen to us.

In retrospect, finishing 13th was basically a miracle given what we had to work with.

1 minute ago, wormy said:

 

This is a big thing. I think it got mentioned a few times but as good as Tino was individually, Miggy looked a bit lost at times without Trippier controlling things behind him, and you have to assume Trippier won't look quite so potent himself.

 

I'm sure Howe will have been working on it if it's the route he goes but it does make me fear some disjointed play going forward while everyone gets used to it.

We should just throw Livramento on the left and see how it works. Too much runs through Trippier to start playing him out of position.

Are we even able to make signings for money in January, or does FFP mean loans only?

Apologize for being negative, but I'm more or less ready to throw the Champions League at this point.

We're very unlikely to progress anyway with two out of three remaining games being away and it's getting to the point where we can barely field an XI.

This reminds me of that season under Roeder where everybody was injured all the time and the matchday squad was Peter Ramage, David Edgar, Shola Ameobi, and eight randomly selected fans.

Except we're somehow still good, I guess.

Just now, black_n_white said:

With Targett out injured this is not great news. We are quite well stocked at left back though.

"I want to see more of Livramento and Hall. How come we spent 60 million pound on two fullbacks who never get to play?"

(monkeys paw curls)

It will all come full circle when literally all of our players are injured and Eddie Howe himself will have to kit up and come onto the pitch.

Howe, Howe thyself.

Every time even a hint of negativity starts creeping into the discourse the team immediately bounces back with two or three crazy results on the trot. It’s unbelievable.

3 minutes ago, LiquidAK said:

Fair play to Krafth and Dummett who have played basically no football in a year and have just glided through this game like a seasoned CB pairing. Never even looked in danger 

Howe's ability to get buy-in from players who don't even make the matchday bench might be his greatest superpower. These aren't even young prospects, they are players who clearly have no long-term future at the club.

Not only do they somehow stay happy and match-fit, their skills  actually improve, which is something I've honestly never seen in the context of any sport.

Just now, mikejaxer said:

No need. Judging from how our draws have gone this season, we'll be getting Liverpool at Anfield.

Looking forward to Matt Richie scoring a hat trick against them.

Any chance they can sack Ten Hag mid-game? Like, have some security guards drag him off the pitch?

On some level I suspect Howe actually has more fun with these cup games where he has to concoct a coherent gameplan based on various scraps from our bench. 

Just now, GEFAFWISP said:

I can't believe we've time wasted to a 2-0 goal lead. Erik must be fuming at our cheating ways.

Too many goal celebrations reduce our ball in play time, clearly.

Just now, David Edgar said:

Chelsea are really, really, really dumb to have allowed us to have possible the best young English full back pairing  

We are what, about 24 hours removed from a bunch of people on here complaining about how we spent 60 million this summer on two fullbacks who couldn't play?

Just now, cubaricho said:

Didn’t we get like two or three managers sacked last season?  

I wasn't keeping track. But it would of course be extra special to do it to Manchester United.

Would be hilarious if we were the ones to get Ten Hag sacked

We are preposterously injured and while that’s somehow not affecting the quality of the first team, it is beginning to affect their stamina.

Hate it when Koreans score against us. 

8 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

The owners (as you see them) aren’t running the club. Just enjoy it.

Mike Ashley wasn't running the club either but he bothered me a lot more than Derek Llambias did.

It bothers me all the time and actively impairs my enjoyment of our (admittedly fantastic) results on the pitch. (To be fair, I'm no a regular match-goer so who cares what I think really.)

I'm not saying I don't have fun supporting the club, it's just that my enjoyment is somewhere around a 8/10 where it would be 10/10 if we just had normal competent owners who tried, even if they weren't as wealthy.

What on Earth happened here

Yet another reason to wish we were owned by someone else, I suppose.

At a minimum, we should be able to amortize both his wages and a portion of his transfer fees for FFP purposes, but I realize that none of these rules are designed to make sense so who knows really.

As far as I'm concerned, the fact that the team is still even remotely functional despite a ridiculous amount of injuries and our top summer signing getting suspended for he entire season is a testament to the fact that we have a strong squad built on good transfer business, not the other way around. 

You can only prepare so much for contingencies. It's no reasonable to have expect a whole XI of top-quality starters waiting in the wings when our first team starts going down.