Gallowgate Toon

Caused today's plight, imo, with his poor on-ball decisions. Team seemed to shit itself after.

Strange game that perfectly encapsulated our season. It felt like we were in control for about 80 minutes of that match, even though we weren't brilliant (first half was pretty positive, imo) - Watford had a spell mid second half after some daft unforced errors but that seemed to level out until they pushed on again last 5 mins. I can see what we're trying to do with pressing and building play, and we play some half decent stuff at times, but the lack of quality in the final third is telling. So many bad passes, poor touches, tepid crosses. Combine that with lapses in defensive concentration and crapping ourselves with dodgy play out from the back and you get a bad mix. We have a very impotent squad. I don't think any manager fixes the current situation without more players in.

Would like to properly see Willock in the midfield 3, tbh. Like pretty much every midfielder at the club, he can't play in a 2 due to huge flaws in his game.

We've got enough in our locker to beat Watford, like, and I think we've now found a more suitable shape for the midfield in the 4-3-3 - it helps to protect mitigate defensive deficiencies in def/mid. I think we're better going forward in a 3-4-3 though.

Will be really interesting to see how we try and utilise Wood. Howe has been trying to build passing out from the back to, let's say, very mixed success. There's now going to be a very, very easy outball for players considering Wood's aerial duel win %age is the highest in the league this season. I'm all for mixing it up, like; I just hope we don't spam the long ball. I do think we'll try and lock it down a bit similar to Burnley and eke the win out. That might not be Howe's intention but I do think that's how the players will ultimately perform.

Having Wood available is making me feel a lot better than I thought it would, tbh. Cambridge was so depressing I think we'll continue to play well but be a bit unsteady at the back. 3-1.

Depends on if he really wants to stay and is using this as an opportunity to get Sevilla to renegotiate his contract. Transfer request would probably sever ties...

Feels like one of the signings we should've made during the Carr days. He could potentially be a very useful impact player for us this season and brings the sometimes excellent quality of being basically unknown.

Is there a timeline on Wilson's injury? Really wouldn't be surprised if we go in for another senior striker, perhaps on loan, in the last week of the window. I think we'll get 6 in in total but 3 of those won't be through the door until the last week of the window.

Longer term question, if in 18 months Wood is our 3rd striker - how would you feel?

In the prior 2 seasons, he had 26 goals in 65 games. Best case scenario is that he's been ground down by Dyche-ball and we can help him recapture some of that form while Wilson is out/others come in.

But his season last year was better than 1 in 3 in the league; this is a stark drop to 1 in 6. Feels like there must be some big factors in that.

Do we have any idea why he's had a poor season? Or is there a trend that he scores in patches? Don't buy that he's finished physically, he should theoretically be in his prime and I don't think he's had any major injuries. Could be a motivational issue? We might just need him to score goals between now and the end of the month, if we've got other players lined up

I mean, you could reverse that argument in favour of Wood too. Rondon's best ever return in a top league is 14 for Malaga, same as Wood's best return in the PL. I think 3x times the player is a bit of a stretch (and I loved Rondon).

His record in the PL is actually better than Rondon's? If he can bring what Rondon brought to us for half a season then that be pretty valuable to the squad, tbh. If it was just Wood coming in this window then that'd be hugely disappointing and very, very Ashley, but I don't think that will be the case at all. I mean, we've already signed Kieran fucking Trippier who is an absolutely quality player.

I don't mind Wood coming in if other signings are genuine quality, like. People are going to go mental about this one but it does make sense on a couple of fronts. Just got to hope his poor form for the season is down to fatigue with Dyche's methods. What is his goalscoring form typically like? Even across the season?

If nobody else comes in then Gayle, if fit, should start up front. He's incredibly limited but he is an actual striker who stays in the right positions and does have a half-decent finish in him against lower level opposition. Other options in that position are ASM, Big Joe or, dare I say it, Joe Willock. I'd take Gayle over any of those as a striker.

Pretty weird the player was liking pictures of himself in our kit if this was never on Oh well, hope we can get Carlos in.

YT scouting and he looks pretty handy, tbf. Good size for this league.

If we can get Carlos in for the weekend I don't mind us continuing to negotiate for Botman longer. Striker is the obvious priority for Watford.

Well, Trippier seems more than happy to be working with him again...

Strikers are hard to come by mid-season and I get the feeling that the ones we really like aren't showing much interest or are locked in at their clubs so are going to take time. Feels like yesterday has created a feeling that someone is better than no-one. Wood's record on the division is decent but his current form doesn't look good at all. If he came in with another higher quality one later in the window then it's palatable. I'd much rather go into Saturday with Wood over Gayle, like, if that's the only genuine option. Christ, yesterday was deflating.

Pretty sure Wood got 30 or very close to in the season we went up?

Our best attacking performance under Howe was Brentford, imo, who are a well drilled side. I think if we get the right players in then 3-4-3 is maybe our best bet.

I miss the old him. Still had a mistake in him but he was confident & vocal. Looks absolutely shot.