Gallowgate Toon

Yup, don't feel selection was wrong today but the gameplan seemed lost. It's a shame as he showed in 21/22 that he can coach a really good sit deep and counter team but we're not seeing it anymore. It came out a bit last season when we needed it but, PSG aside, we always seem to try and stick to our core plan at the moment. I think he wants to see us control situations with possession now but that requires good movement and stamina as well. Felt like it might've been prudent to try starting deeper today as Spurs always start fast. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though.

After some immense performances last week, he's been canny tragic this week. Nature of the beast with him. Likely due to the situation but I've found his tracking back the last 2 games to be very poor.

Anderson started 4 league games in a row before getting injured. Don't disagree about the defence, made that very clear already.

2 such un-Howe performances. We'll have the last laugh over Spurs at the end of the season.

I really think the rotation think is massively overplayed. Defence aside, we rotated plenty when a decent amount of the squad were available. Isak-Wilson, all 4 wingers getting starts, pretty much all of our midfield options apart from Miley (understandable) and Willock (injured) were used too despite there being some preseason hangover.

Really disappointing today, I'm not really sure what our plan was meant to be in the first half which is ultimately where the game was lost, but this is kinda classic Howe. A couple of poor results usually culminate in fairly class winning run. Wouldn't be surprised at all if we win the next 4 in considerable style. It is mad that we went from playing that fantastic football against Man U to the last 2 pitiful performances. Just so worryingly open at times. Getting a few back this week will be huge.

Expected a lot more from him today with Wilson on the bench. Thought he'd go pelters for 60 minutes knowing he'd likely come off. He's not a luxury player, imo, but he can be annoyingly inactive when things aren't going our way. Pretty sure one of Spurs' CBs today was a full back which makes it even more frustrating.

Midfield have almost impressively been absolutely nowhere defensively while contributing nothing going forward.

Just not even done the fucking basics while we have the energy. Piss weak off the ball, not tracking runners, taking too many touches. Fucking up relatively easy chances doesn't help.

Have we actually done any research on Spurs?

Been a genuinely disgraceful performance, tbh.

If we go for another central midfielder, we'd need someone like Odegaard who can handle the hard work in that area while being more creative. Failing that, a playmaker who will sit in from out wide. Our current tactics see loads of tucking in from those players and they often take up AM positions while full backs and/or centre mids overlap.

Miggy is a very useful tactical player, especially against the harder sides with our current style. He's far too hit-and-miss in the final third against the 'lesser' teams to be a regular starter though.

Phwoar, Wilson being a bench option would be fucking dreamy even for a 20 minute run-out. You'd hope we can maybe get Barnes and Willock on the bench for Milan too.

I think it's fair to say the next 2 games are likely going to be a battle for us and we'll do exceptionally well to put together complete performances in such a short turnaround against good quality opposition. Doesn't mean we can't get positive results perhaps with changed up gameplans and potentially some luck. Spurs are looking brittle and have injuries themselves - could be smash & grab territory for us but I don't think we'll outplay them. Milan is a slightly different kettle as it's at home, crowd adrenaline should be high as it's high stakes, and we may have 1 or 2 back for the bench. Must be hard for the players during this run because the next game and maintaining a physical level must be on the brain while playing. Likely exacerbated with the CL being a crunch match.

Brentford. Barnes started left, Gordon started right.

That clip from Burn the other day was so interesting. He felt like he'd played an entire season, mentally, when it came to one of the international breaks.

I think the best we can do is aim for ~70 points again if we're going to continue on multiple fronts and see where we land. If we can sneak 2 more wins from the next 4, we'll only be a few points from 35 at the halfway mark. Feels like we can easily close that gap in the second half of the season if we have better luck with injuries + some new recruits.

Have thought for a while that the second half of the season will be much more for him and I still BELIEVE.

Isak has a good supply line, it's the exact reason Wilson has so many goals for us this year too when available. Contrary to opinion, we're generally a creative side and good for our forwards. Iirc, Isak has 17 league goals for us in the equivalent of 25 90s. There are very few attackers in the world with as good a record. I think he's pretty much in-line with his xg too for any stats nerds.

His fitness is evidently a struggle at the moment. We've seen far less of the individual brilliance we saw from him last season - the explosiveness and gliding past players has been far less, as well as less general inventiveness. It's there in flashes but his touch is less consistent and he can dawdle on the ball.

Howe said it himself on NUFCTV that we'd had a decent break since Man U. You really expect us to come out and try kill the game in the first 60 but it's easier said than done. Fatigue is a fair excuse today from 70 mins on. I wonder if we're struggling more with the mentality of our current situation at the moment. We've had so many 'big games' to mentally prepare for over the last few months, I wonder if the 'lesser' matches are proving tricky to be as up for and deliver max work off the ball.

Getting a little bit worried we're seeing some early signs of natural decline for him. It feels like the last 6 weeks or so, he's either been class or fairly shit. I feel like he's had as many bad games this year as the entirety of last season.

If we had a relatively normal level of injuries, our away record wouldn't be anywhere near as bad. Not saying it'd be great but it seems obvious that we'd at least be doing a bit better. Going on about rotation being the cause of our injury problems that started only 2 months into the season feels short-sighted. To recap: - 2 dislocated shoulders - 2 back injuries, one not even in a game - 1 broken toe or whatever it is - 1 rolled ankle from a tackle - 1 gambling addiction There are a few muscle-y ones, sure, but they're at a normal level. You'd also say that a lot of these injuries have happened to our rotation players too rather than nailed on starters at the time who are 'fatigued'.

They are really boring. They looked scared to take risks tonight, fearful of Villa's threat on the break. Didn't seem to want to turn over possession and kept looking for the perfect space to appear. They actually had some decent looking opportunities with longer balls but decided not to play them much. Ended up doing nowt while simultaneously leaving massive gaps in the middle. Villa were very smart tactically.