alexf

Not sure what the logic was in taking Gordon off early unless injured. Wasn't his best game but still a bigger threat than Murphy.

Add Beto to that list also. I've noticed the same for awhile. They can't deal with these types or players at all. Other than Thiaw they can't handle any pace either. Bad combination.

Loved him for a period. But his limitations are easy to see. Hall is the diamond in the rough and the one we must hang on to.

Was getting fouled most the of the game and rarely got a decision. Yet two shirt pulls by us got given in and cost us goals.

Pretty bad I think that we throw players straight back in after long injuries. Has happened with Tino, Hall and Joelinton in the past. Throw them straight back in and play full 90s then they get injured again. Could maybe forgive in the past as we normally had no other players available but we had plenty of options to sub Miley off 2nd half and you could see for the build up to the first goal he was struggling to get back.

It's bad when I would have preferred to have Sarr and Mateta coming on then anything we have available. Really helps hit home how badly the money was spent. Our squad is going backwards and quickly.

Fear for him now. Was no excuses not to put in a strong performance really and it was exactly the same as we have seen all season. Season well and truely buried now although realistically it was dead after Sunderland.

I mean, probably way more likely Bournemouth finish ahead of us. Especially as we still have to play them at home and we often struggle against them. Been said a million times, but Arsenal's reliance on set pieces really does irritate.

Ugh hadn't heard "North laandan forevaaa" for a while

He's not the sole reason for the decline no. But are you telling me if we had had the inform version of Isak from last year in the team for those crunch games against man city in the the league cup semi and the fa cup, the Sunderland games, the Barcelona games, we wouldn't have had a better chance? He was a difference maker and helped elevate us from the rest of the pack that we have found ourselves bedded into this year. We had a truly world class striker (atleast at times last season) that helped settle big games like Arsenal in the cup semi, Liverpool in the cup final etc. So there were no guarantees we would have had the same player in peak form for a whole season, and the accumulation of games and fatigue would have still impacted. But not having the turmoil of that summer, not panic buying strikers and having to mess with systems to try and fit them in, not having to move Gordon upfront and having a more settled team. I think we would have done a lot better in moments yes. Moments can make or break seasons. Getting to a final or beating Barcelona would have given people are far different view of this season than they have now.

All that media talk feels like bullshit. The likely outcome is he comes back and has a much better season next year than this and unfortunately Liverpool are probably a force again, especially if they bin the manager. Annoying but probably how it will play out. Still feels sore to think about him and how loved he was here to do what he did to us last summer. Ruined his season this year and ruined ours aswell. If he has just given us one more year, helped us have a good season I think he would have left with everyone's blessing this summer and fond memories could be kept by all. He ruined that with his greed.

I mean I think statistically and to the eye he was probably our best player this season, coupled with the historical bad stats of struggling to win without him and it all adds up to us missing him badly for this big run in we had of important games. Shame he's coming back after we already got eliminated from everything and have very little to play for in the league.

I think Phil Foden's dramatic drop off in form probably has more to do with Phil Foden than Pep Guardiola. He was thriving for many years and even won player of the season a few years ago and has won everything there is to win with his team. So I don't think Pep can be accused of holding him back. Case in point, he was always naff for England even when his club form was strong so that tells you that Pep's system was getting the best out of Foden not hindering him.

If true that tallies with my thoughts and earlier comment when I said away from home it wasn't working but feel at home it was still a better option than Gordon against certain teams.

Guess we will never know how the games would have played out if the injuries didn't happen. I felt like Burn was a miss when he got injured in the first game and we may have defended that corner better if he was there. Same with the weekend. Botman was having a tough game but was still dealing with the aerial stuff well. Was also very unlucky with his header hitting the post and I feel if we had gone 2:0 up we would have been better placed to see out the 2nd half. Never know I guess. He is a walking sick note however. Whether it's his fault or not he still can't be relied on as our first choice defender anymore.

Yeah it's the same finish we kept seeing time and again when he played from the left which is why there was a clamour for Barnes to start because you give Barnes two chances like that and he's scoring one of them or atleast working he keeper. But that's the frustration with Gordon, he showed such composure and accuracy for his goal but then other chances just leans back and doesn't concentrate. You'd think he has done that cut in and shot 1000's of times in training and it should be routine. So to sky it twice in the same way is pretty poor. But as said before. Cannot fault his work rate and he is the least of our problems and probably do well to hang on to him in the summer if other clubs came calling. Just wondered if games like yesterday we need him on the wing more as he gets abit lost amongst a low block and were relying on lesser players around him to creat chances then.

I think we gave up on him as a striker too easily. Yes it certain games, particularly away games it simply doesn't work when he was isolated upfront and getting zero service. But when he first arrived and when we got good crosses into the box he was scoring goals. I know the goal came from us pressing and a mistake but the rest of our play was poor. Yesterday I think would have made more sense to go back to Gordon left, Murphy Right and Nick through the middle. The problem however was the midfield with no Bruno or Tonali or Miley it would have meant Willock starting and as we saw he was horrific when he came on. So yeah, away from home I get going with the fast runners and trying to be counter attack, but we don't have the space at home if teams sit deep.

Like others has looked tired recently. Starts off ok in games like against Barca but then fades. Not surprised though. Feel like he's played so many 90mins recently when others were getting rests. But struggled like everyone else today. Seemed to hesitate everytime he made half a yard to cross with his left.

That was in response to a discussion regarding how we spent so much more than teams above us. I was just trying to apply context to why we spend so much in comparison to some of them and why the scenario enable us to panic buy and overspend on crap. But if you're moving the conversation into other problems then absolutely the defense has been an absolute mess. There are some factors to consider. We didnt land a new goalkeeper we needed which meant playing a nick pope post injury who is a shadow of the pope we had previous years and Ramsdale who appears to be a downgrade on our previous back up Dubravka. Then you have not strengthening the depth at full back and CB sufficiently. Livramento and Hall have not played enough football together, especially when both at full fitness. Burn and Schar are getting old as fuck and Botman is just a walking sick note these days and his body is really failing him. Injuries to Bruno recently and Joelinton at times has definitely played a part in us losing our midfield steal we had previous and Tonali form also dropped off this year. But it's clear without the "training time" Eddie seems to have been incapable of coaching his side to defend better as a unit. That Barca implosion is one of the worst self inflicted defensive displays I have ever seen. I still back Eddie to get it right but it shows how important recruitment is. This summer I can't see how the fuck we navigate it and come out stronger. Which is why today is so depressing, it's not just losing to Sunderland again, it's the bleakness of our future

Yeah this is more the Howe I was expecting. He was known for having a pretty leaky defence at Bournemouth. But his first few years here it felt like he'd really learnt how to build a solid defensive side and we often looked like we could really lock down a game when needed. We have been like a sieve this season. So so easy to play through and concede at will.

I find the hatred abit strong? Ok so he got a bad injury, came back, looked bang average and has struggled to get into the team since due to poor form and Gordon being alright upfront. It's not beyond the realms of possibility he could recover some form and fitness and still be a useful player in future if he stayed? Unless there is some stories of really bad attitude or lack of applying himself to get fit or whatever I'm unaware of? If it's the Instagram thing then I'd take it with a pinch of salt. These players don't even run their own social media accounts.

Yeah, it really was a nightmare. We went from having decent money to spend, CL football to hopefully attract higher caliber of player and key players all on decent contract lengths. Within days of the season ending we get the Mitchell news that seemed to throw everything in the air and it seems like they then had to dig out their old lists of targets from the previous year and then Isak threw the grenade in and went on strike. Even then I don't think they anticipated getting rejected by pretty much all their first choice winger and striker targets and the whole thing became desperate as fuck. Agreed the lack of depth at fullback felt inevitable as fuck we'd end up with Trippier and Burn playing there. Felt like our negotiators couldn't do multiple deals and were just getting the piss taken out of them all summer. For all that...I have some sympathy with Eddie and whoever was tasked with that job, they were out of the depth and shouldn't have been put in that position. So if they made mistakes in Elanga, Wissa, Woltemade etc. then it's understandable. For that reason alone I want to give Eddie another season to recover from this.

It's a machine that has proven to work for them now so they will continue to use it. Might have to log off here this summer and just wait and see what our squad looks like when the season comes round. Not sure I can put up with another summer like last year. Especially if they have 3/4 players they want to take off us rather than just one like last year.

How many others were forced into selling their best player for a £120m? Contributing to desperate rushing around trying to sign 4th/5th choices for way over their value because we were desperate. I don't know why context is never applied to last summer. It was an absolute cluster fuck with so many problems. So to try and point to us spending the Isak money and a bit more to try and get in the numbers we needed to compete on 4 fronts this season as a stick to beat Eddie with constantly is abit odd. The players signed ultimately don't look good enough and were likely big mistakes, but it's pretty obvious why that scenario might have happened due to the chaos going on behind the scenes at the time.

I remember being criticised for accusing him of just being a sprinter when we were first reported to be signing him in the summer. But he really hasn't done anything to change my opinion, in fact he's been far worse than I thought he would be. I thought at least he would be a pressing monster like Gordon and would put some good crosses in. But he's not even been that. Just a really underwhelming and I'd even go as far as to say damaging signing. We're out of pocket £50m+ and still need a first choice right winger now for next season. Would love to think he could be "Howe'd" and suddenly turn into a useful player, but I fear the basic footballing fundamentals aren't there. Even his chance today, the rule has always been to atleast hit across the keeper if you take it on yourself to give chance to a tap in for a teammate but he went near post and didn't even hit the target. I remember him talking up his two footedness when he arrived in his interview aswell. God I wish we could go back and have a do over for last summer's transfer window.