Mattoon

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Hall, Bruno and Miley

I have mostly kept my head down in the aftermath of yesterday, while I let the emotions settle. It feels like this whole season has been waiting for something, waiting for Wissa to come back, waiting for Livramento and Hall to come back, waiting for the games to slow down, waiting for Bruno to come back, when ultimately it's just fundamentally not working. I have backed Howe to the hilt from day one, unwavering, he has proven time and time again he can turn it around, he has given me my best ever day as an NUFC supporter which brought a grown man to tears, he's overachieved time and time again and squeezed every last ounce of talent out of remarkably talentless players. But this feels slightly different, we have too many players playing well below their own standards, be that from aging, injury or just what appears to be checking out. The issues are obvious on the pitch, they've been discussed to death, but it is immediately worrying that they continue to happen week after week and even more so after a 3 week break and two humiliating defeats in a row, if there was a time for the players to be up for it, it was yesterday. I do think if we get rid of Howe now then we will regret it, for me he still has a lot of credit in the bank and deserves a full preseason and a solid transfer window conducted by people who get paid to do just that, but it's going to have to be a busy transfer window for us to move forward I think, we've been stagnant for too long and too many players are past their sell by date or overstayed their welcome, there's only 3 players for me that are untouchable this summer, anyone else I am happy to see moved on in the interest of progression. I think Howe is finding it hard to see the forest for the trees right now and perhaps himself needs the season to end to wipe the slate and go again.

We're gonna win this today and catapult our season into the European places, 21 from 21.

As if this season wasn't horrific enough, he has been and will continue to be a huge loss for us, crap news this, really crappy

Huge psychological hit being in the bottom 3, players will be well on edge dropping this late in the season, cannot underestimate how much of a negative this will be for their confidence.

This is where I am, I think we've held back to conserve energy and been knackered after all those games, 3 weeks rest and no more packed schedule, I think the shackles are off and we are relentless.

How come Barcelona are fair game for deserved cards now? Annoying.

The guy is a stamina machine, how many gut busting sprints have we seen him do in the 93rd minute to catch a break away play and stop an attack? That's a tough profile to replace.

We were on plan J due to the cartel flexing their collective financial muscle unfortunately, the only thing I think can be levelled at Howe's door is perhaps the manner in which we got to plan J so late in the window and panic bought to fill gaps, for example, by the time we got down the ST list to Sesko it was immediately obvious he wasn't coming to us, we should have pulled out on moved on quicker.

They aren't the usual team we struggle against, they've been completely asset stripped, we should be winning this and I think we will, first game on the road to redemption.

I love a good FM South American regen wonder kid

We all just need to be a bit Kinder to each other tbh

Its been no Picnic reading through this thread like

On the contrary, I feel like the league season is about to kick on for us, Howe will be training every last inch out of our players in the big gaps between games and our energy levels will be much better with the break under our belts. I'm expecting a real reaction to the last few games and with some important players back.

That was far too easy for Japan

Looks to be playing as the lone striker for England tonight, good luck Anthony!

So it is beyond the realms of possibility that something that can be seen from some random (Sorry @Mike @AyeDubbleYoo) posters on an internet forum, would be too far fetched for a PL manager to see/implement? Woltemade is filling a hole in the squad, whilst also learning how to play in one of the fastest leagues in the world in the busiest position on the pitch. It is not implausible that Howe is bringing him up to "speed" on the fly, he doesn't have to be "Mr Miyagi" to know how best to build his players.

All it says to me, is what I can't get my head around with fans as a whole, how we should judge the season at the end of the season, let's see how the last 7 games go before we step back and look at the big picture, getting dumped out of the League Cup, FA Cup and CL in quick succession, followed by losing to the morlocks for the second time this season, all within a few weeks is bound to leave a bitter taste in the mouth, but the season is so much more than that short period of time and ultimately the success of this season is still not finalised.

I keep hearing this too and the notion that they'll get Howe too. I don't know why they don't just become proper United supporters seen as how they want everything we have.

Can't believe I settled in to watch this as a distraction from how bad we've been to witness that rubbish, it's like there's no reprieve from pony football.

This is the bottom line really and what I was getting at with Howe being the architect of his own downfall. Every time we have a successful season, thats the benchmark at which every following season should be measured upon and if we fall short. Success is not linear, especially in a PSR age and I think if we jettison Howe, we will live to regret it.

I think Howe is the author of his own downfall, had he not catapulted us to success in such a short space of time fans would not be so jaded that he's proven himself to be human. Without repeating ad nausea, this season is a perfect storm of poor choices by the club and somewhat Howe himself. Having said that it has been a ride and just because we're in a dip on the ride, it doesn't mean I want off yet. He's brought us such a long way in such a short space of time, he deserves the time to turn it around.

This whole "losing Isak doesn't explain why we're so poor defensively" does my nut in, of course it has a knock on effect, you don't think the opposition play differently, more cautiously when they have a world class striker to worry about? It doesn't explain it all but it absolutely does have a knock on effect. Losing a player of Isak's quality also has a knock on effect to the confidence of the rest of the team, especially as the replacements look nowhere near it.