Mattoon

The difference is movement off the ball is night and day to us, they're finding so much space.

Big Joe down

I get that but they're no good if he's stumbling over the ball and caving like a wet paper bag under any pressure and also has goal anxiety.

Willock is just an aimless oaf

This is as depressing as I had hoped

Saaave

Ffs Willock just hit it!

Something has to click at some point surely, hopefully its tomorrow and we can go into the break with some hope. Next time we play the window will be shut so this game is massively important for a few reasons.

Draw would have been the best result but that was the second best result we could have had. Still worrying how Nowich put 3 past them when we struggled so hard last week.

Another score draw if we go ahead, if we go behind then a loss, no chance of a 0-0.

On the contrary, I think the argument should be Joe shouldn't be anywhere near the box, he's powder puff in front of goal.

It's the little dink over the defenders foot before he takes the shot that makes it for me, how do you do that at that pace??

Still plenty of points to play for, not cut adrift but what we're seeing on the pitch is worrying, we're circling the drain. Can't really put a number on it until we see what players we're working with in February anything now is reactionary.

I said this a couple of weeks ago, he has a philosophy and the players are the extension of that, that's why their weaknesses are so glaringly obvious. He's too rigid in his ways to his detriment, Rafa (I know, I know) knew how to utilise the strengths of these players while covering their weaknesses, it wasn't pretty but it was functional, people want pretty you get this though.

Bully turns victim turns bully again and now he'll be crying victim again from any backlash he gets. Like the boy that prods the hornets nest with a stick and cries when he gets stung. Prick.

I really want him to succeed, you can see what he's trying to do and with the right players it could be really entertaining to watch. But early signs have been disappointing, that's not entirely his fault but he needs to shoulder some of the blame.

I'm hoping we get, at the very minimum, a CD and a CM before Leeds, we simply cannot go into that game with the same squad.

Proper victim mentality, at no point does he intimate or suggest anyone should be unhappy with Howe.

The miasma of despair has had 14 years to settle over this club, in varying amounts and with the odd beam of sunlight flickering through. However the last 2 years really finished off the last glimmers of hope, don't forget Bruce had over £100m in new players that gave us a bounce until the stench of the place permeated them too. Let's not forget how this season started with Bruce, worse performances and worse results. Howe might not have flipped the script but subtle changes are there, these just aren't the players he needs for how he wants us to play, plain and simple. It's OK to question why he hasn't been able to get a tune out of these players, why he's not managed to fortify their moral to see a game out but also be willing to see the change and give him a chance with his own players. He's turned losses into draws but he needs to turn draws into wins. We have to be ruthless in these next 2 weeks, give him the players to build an identity and then we can judge him.

Makes literally no sense if true, what effect does it have on him when at the end of the loan he gets to go back to warming the Man u bench? He gets an opportunity to prove he can play at this level and either force his way back into the Man u squad or put himself in the shop window. If we stay up he could prove to be part of the revolution or if we go down he gets to walk. SMH.

I mentioned this last week, most of this team need out as much as we need them out, they're brow beaten, shot to pieces, I don't think there's much left to motivate, as soon as they come under pressure they retreat and it inevitably leads to conceding. A blank cheque book is the only thing that can save us now but it's a massive risk that doesn't guarantee rewards.

I said at the beginning of the window we need to shore up that CM to give us some control in the middle of the park, someone to look forward and make those cutting edge decisions that lead to chances and someone to hold the line at the back, break up play and take the pressure off the defence, if he can't see that then there's a big problem. Howe wants us to play football the way he wants us to play and at the moment there's a lot of square pegs being jammed into round holes. He's not a Rafa type manager, he can't create a system that benefits the strengths of the personnel he has whilst covering their weaknesses, you hire a manager like Howe, you get him the players he needs. We pull out a blank cheque book or we're going down because these players aren't good enough for what he wants to do. Some of the blame has to be put on the owners, there should have been a structure in place to facilitate getting the right players, I get they want the right people in the right places but shit or get off the pot. I know we've got 14 years of Ashley shaped cob webs stinking the place up but we don't have the luxury of time to get it perfect, we just need to get it as right as possible and give the club its best chance of survival. We're all frustrated because right now it feels like there's not enough urgency in anything we do, it feels like we either don't understand the seriousness of the situation or are willfully sleepwalking into relegation. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the blame should be shouldered across the club, players, manager and owners. Patience is running thin, but they deserve the world for getting rid of the previous regime, that doesn't mean we can't be frustrated and can only hope that any mistakes are learned from and not repeated.

We've either got to bite the bullet and splash the cash big time or keep filling gaps and accept our fate. No time to worry about being ripped off now.

No backbone in this team at all, losing mentality plain to see, every team will have a period of pressure and we need to learn how to soak that up and come back out on top. As soon as they get the upper hand we give up as if its inevitable. So many sloppy passes, stumbling over the ball, handing over possession with no pressure. Too many players need replacing to salvage this season.

I'm pretty excited for it tbh but can't deny I'm nervous at the same time. Could go any way this.