Mattoon

This speaks volumes to me and why the pressure in the media is ramping up: A Man Utd supporting "friend" of mine (I know!) said, it doesn't look good for Howe, I think he'll be gone by the end of the season. To which I staunchly supported him whilst also admitting by his own standards this season wasn't good enough. His first reply was that he would have him at "yanited" in a hot minute. Even other supporters see how good of a manager he is, he is still revered from afar despite this difficult period. As has already stated, he hasn't gone poor over night, he's not a bad fit for the club or a dud employ, he's got himself stuck in a rut and is struggling to see the forest for the trees. He absolutely has earned the right to put this right, I have the upmost confidence that he can reset and turn this around, maybe not this season but in the long run and I feel like if we jettison him off this one bad season we will regret it and not just in a "be careful what you wish for" kind of way, but when someone else snaps him up and he proves us wrong for letting him go. In a world of instant gratification and the clamour for the next best thing we need to stay rocksteady in our support for a manager that has shown us nothing but respect, commitment and loyalty, he has earned that right with success we could never have imagined 4 short years ago. Yes it's frustrating and emotional going through the motions of turning up for the inevitable and I'm as guilty as anyone else for vocalising the frustration after yet another loss. But let's not be another "City", Chelsea or "United" and buck the trend of the managerial merry-go-round. Howe has earned the right to decide for himself if he has "reached as far as he can go" with us.

The irony is that Eddie has set the level he is being judged on, himself. Our meteoric rise under his tenure is what is measured, had we found ourselves at this point after just surviving relegation and slowly moving up the table, this wouldn't be happening. We can't keep harping on about the past, we're a different team now, but we can't focus solely on the present with a plethora of mitigating circumstances being ignored either. To make an informed view you need to take everything into account, past, present, future and all the disruptions in between. Eddie has been stoic throughout and only now is showing signs it's getting to him, but he's a perfectionist and no one on this planet will be feeling it more than him. This is not the time to turn on our most successful manager in all of our lifetimes, now is the time to buck the PL trend and double down on our support, he will get there, but he'll get there quicker with 52,000 voices behind him, backing him, cheering him on, showing we trust him to get it right.

FYP

We had to sell him early or stick to our guns, the biggest mistake was doing neither, we were weak and we looked weak, we tied up funds we couldn't use then lost any bargaining power by finally letting him go so late in the window. Just a complete mess of a transfer. I do apportion a lot of the blame at Isak's door, but we shoulder a large portion of that blame for how we handled it too. It has definitely been the major catalyst to a tumultuous season and as much as I despise the rat he has been a catastrophic loss for us, he was our leveller, we could beat anyone with him in the side and we'll be extremely hard pressed to replace the danger he imposed on other teams.

Anything but a loss here please, we really need to stop the rot and inject a bit of belief back into the team. There's some big, season defining games coming up and we need to try and limp through it and at least have a last 16 game in the CL to show for it. A good performance wouldn't go amiss too, if it's not too much to ask for.

Hahaha Hahahahahahaha Hahahahahahahahaha Hahaha haha Hahaha HA!

I choose 115 over perpetual victims every day but it still sticks in the throat like cold sick

Loose defensively, soft in midfield and impotent in attack, occasionally we have some prime-barcelona-esque build up play, only to fluff it in the final third, get cut to shreds on the counter and the opposition to score with their first meaningful shot. Its boring, dull and worst of all predictable. There are fundamental issues with the entire setup and personnel and I won't pretend to know the answer, do we need to tweak it until it works or ring wholesale changes through and scrap everything we know? Howe needs some serious time with his players on the training pitch and that won't happen until we're out of the running for everything. Its gonna be a really, really tough few weeks, not only results and performance-wise, but physically and psychologically on the players too. I just hope we all stick together whatever happens because lose to the Scum at home and I think it could get vitriolic.

This holds weight, if that Wissa chance goes in we're flying and probably either see it out or add another when Brentford are chasing the game. As it happened the misses just saw the doubt creep in and after the momentum dropped we looked shattered and I bet that wasn't all physical, mentally we are fatigued too. We've seen it all before but the players have too and probably feel the same impending doom we do.

Really tough watch that, no control in the middle, huge gaps between midfield and attack, soft and slow defence and toothless and shot shy up front, we have no substance, no backbone and no confidence. Really stuck with how we change this now.

Well that was suitably depressing, what joy

Just abysmal

We're gonna win this now, raise the roof!

Thats a penalty alllll day

We're not scoring again here are we? It's becoming a bit of a chore watching us at the moment.

Welp, earlier than I imagined but let the hyperbole commence!

Have we tried turning it off and back on again?

Pathetic joke of a pen

Never a pen that, what a joke

We look rattled now

Like clockwork

Scrappy but gaining a bit of confidence

Not sure how we're not 2-0 up here

Oi oiiii!!!!

I think both points of view are valid, we are held to a higher standard, it's one we've set for ourselves, but it's ok to look at the wider picture too and understand success isn't linear and we've already come a long way. We've stalled a bit and it's frustrating, but much like you, the team isn't on a downward spiral either, just in a rut.