Mattoon

Thought anything on the sleeve or above wasn't a handball or has that changed again? Or has it just changed for LiVARpool?

Another Sterling performance from captain impotent

Such a fount of positivity in here today I hope the manager and players don't feel the same way as you lot or it'll be a rough evening for us all. We've had time to rest and reset, an extra 2 weeks on the training ground and plenty of time to prepare for this game and we're at home where we tend to be stronger anyway. I'm going for a well deserved draw or a squeaky slim victory. Whatever it is, I think we will play well and look deserving of our result.

Of course we can if he's not fit when they declare their squad for the tournament, they can't call him up after it's been submitted.

This is definitely an attempt to keep him out of DRC's AFCON team, no way he's not ready to come off the bench yet if we actually wanted him to.

The useless sack didn't even get off the bench

We need to be fully switched on for this and they need to be off it if we're hoping for anything here. So long as we go out there and give it everything then I'll take whatever we get from this and move on to more winnable games.

Trent?

Us selling him when we did is really turning out to be shrewd business if this carries on, he's been pathetic. Better the devil you know Alex, something, something, green grass.

3-2 now!

At this point they might as well just charge the other 14 a rental fee as a percentage of income for being allowed the privilege of being in the same league as the Sky 6

Can't wait until we win a couple of games on the bounce and these trauma nonces dissappear back up their own backsides

It has always been the case that form and league position go out the window in a derby, no matter how they're playing you always get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomache before a derby game. Same goes for this one, however they and us are doing come 14th December it won't be a game indicative of form. On paper we should win and I trust Howe to give us our best chance of doing so, but that week is going to be horrific in the build up for us supporters either way.

I think the only teams out of our reach are Arsenal and City, everyone else is really patchy this season and we could easily catch them with a good run, I'm not discounting the possibility of a CL place until its mathematically impossible.

We're in a hole, away from home has been pretty horrendous not just in the way of results but performances too, is it concerning? Yes, but some people are relentlessly negative, anything for a bit of trauma porn. It's not like this is new to us, we've been here before and we always find a way out. I think this international break came at the right time for the team but the wrong time for supporters, the emotional outpouring of panic has set in with no games to rectify it. City is a rough one to come back to also, but the games after that don't look horrific. We're coming back into the Christmas run-in with some important players back in the squad and Eddie has had 2 weeks to put the belief back into them, I think we go on one of our streaks and some posters will be crawling back into their holes, waiting for the next rough patch.

It's been long enough now for the dust to settle on last weekend and the emotions to be replaced by facts. It's been a tumultuous start to the campaign and which ever way you fold it, it's been largely unacceptable. Having said that, there are mitigating factors to our current malaise, a rudderless summer transfer window where we were thwarted at every turn by the cartel, PSR doing some heavy lifting in order to maintain balance and the Isak ordeal really adding damage to our plans. It's not a surprise that we've fallen back, but throw in the injury to Wissa and you can see how we've fallen back so hard. This team was built around maximising Isak's abilities and it's less than surprising that both he and we have struggled now he's gone, he's not as good as we think he is as a player but he was perfect for our system and as good a footballer as Woltemade is, he has potential elite skills, we don't have the ability to maximise his use with the players and tactics we employ, it's a bit of a mismatch, but a player that can be elite in the future for us as we build the squad over time. We are pinning our hopes on Wissa for this season, when he comes back he is the exact type of player that will benefit massively from our style and our style will benefit massively from his inclusion and I think we can still salvage a lot from this season once he returns, he will get goals in this team and those rough draws and late losses will be turned into wins. Having said that, Howe does have some questions to answer also, it was very telling that the majority of the forum was screaming for Burn to be subbed at the weekend as he was targeted by Brentford and it was inevitable what happened, make the Hall sub and we draw that game at worst, Howe either failed to see that or was so blinkered by his love for Burn that it skewed his thinking and cost us the game in the most dramatic way. Howe has a LOT of credit in the bank, he took us from a soft, relegation threatened team into a solid, aggressive side that has gained CL football twice in 3 years and won its first domestic trophy in most of our lifetimes, he deserves patience and time but he has to use it wisely and turn this ship round. I know he wants us to change how we approach games, move away from the intensity and dark arts, but I wonder if its time for that yet, we don't have the players to play possession based football and wear down teams, we don't have the capacity for slick passing and intricate ball play. I'd like to see some of that intensity come back into the team, press higher up the pitch and be more aggressive again. Its hard to pinpoint exactly where we're going wrong as it seems we can't even do the basics right at the moment, but I trust Howe to get it right again, to find a way for us to play that suits our players and ultimately win games again, I think the clock is ticking now though and scrutiny is rising, how he deals with that pressure and the lead up to Christmas will shape the season and ultimately his position at the club also, I want him to succeed and I think and hope that he can.

Dan Burn at CB is a colossus, Dan Burn at LB is a calamity, that's all there is to it really. Thankfully, the option has been taken out of the clubs hands for the City game. Play him at CB or don't play him at all, there's plenty of games across all competitions for him to play a fair share this season.

What a ball by Hall!

Another waste of a Sunday watching this tripe

Proper soft pen, but its been coming and Burn should have been subbed off ages ago, poor by Howe this

Burn has been a liability all half why was he still even on the pitch??

Schade should be booked for that

Get Hall on

Honestly, its not been pretty but we've been solid at the back and we've scored the breakthrough goal, at this point we just need to stop the rot and it looks like we're in a great position to do that.