Heron

Last minute SMB winner incoming. Cue the meltdown...

Howe's lack of tactical ability and considering Murphy as having a lack of technical ability are both highly incorrect statements for me like.

Massive overreaction alert

Yellow highlighter blue felt tip? Must be canny thick pens like.

Don't think that is sufficient to it "making no sense" tbh. Gordon has done jack shit in half a season worth of league games. That is sufficient reason for him to not play the big games. As @Deckysaid he should probably stary vs Bilbao and be dropped for Brentford but not really sure what message that sends other players vying for the same position too - not that they'd have the same attitude towards it like (in my opinion of course).

Agree with you. It's whatever the latest tend is isn't it. But there's a lot to be said for old fashioned getting it to the byline and whipping it in. It worked until the new millennium

Loads of Isaks goals came from Murphy assists. Murphy is our one winger who consistently gets balls in the box and shots off at goal. In fact he's the most important winger we have for breaking teams down in the final third. Especially with someone like Woltemade up top. Gordon never gets balls in the box of any quality and very rarely scores, he's the one who needs more space in behind and is nullified when teams sit in. Barnes would be better as again he has a wicked strike. Both Elanga and Gordon excel with space in behind and when defences are stretched.

Even though right wing is where all of our assists come from? I'd argue the left is far less likely to mitigate this than the right.

How would it make no sense?

Sorry for not fact checking everything I write. They had 9 shots on target and acored 3. One of which was the save for the 3rd goal which was an excellent initial save. The point is simply that it could have been a lot worse without him.

The third goal was an excellent save. You cannot possibly blame him for that.

Bang on.

This is as good as Gordon can get until he ups his game so he's either a) deluded or b) will be lucky if he gets that sort of move. I'm with you. I think for the money you could sell Gordon for you could probably replace him and then some. There's more hype around Gordon than he warrants. Maybe that's just me and my bias though, as I question his application.

He's fucking mint he does nowt daft.

I can think of two that Rod may be alluding to. One won't come as a surprise to most of you given my stance on him but the other is a bit left field.

Oh and you're not wrong in that regard. We're only 6 points away from the top 4 though and there's a long way to go though. FWIW though, I'm personally not expecting us to reach CL again not if we progress in all the cups up until the FA Cup, which is looking likely. I think we're developing strength in depth but given the injuries to our two key full backs it's left us as a bit exposed in terms of attacking (cover) threat from full back which is turns out, seems pretty pivotal for us. Both there and at CF. We really need Tino, Hall and Wissa back and we may become a different animal.

I mean you say that but we're still comfortably in all 4 competitions and looking likely to progress and we still have 28 league games to go...

From comments in various chats I'm in Pope is the one being scapegoated as is often the case. It's perhaps natural as goalkeepers / defenders are typically only remembered in a game when they make mistakes, but how many mistakes did the other 10+ make today?...

I'm not gonna get on the lads case too much. It speaks volumes that he was brought on at half time for me. Woltemade was being alienated in the fixture owing to the complete lack of energy from all those players who would typically supply him and pivot around him. He's played loads recently too and is fresh to the team, the city and the country. When Howe seen that lack of energy then Osula was probably the natural protagonist to try and get all their arses into gear. He is very much a rough diamond and is very much under question if he's right for us at this time (I agree), but wasn't any worse than any other player today.

He wasn't alone in being pretty piss poor today but one thing for certain is his changed attitude and that's been the case for some time now. He's had two or three games recently where he's played more like what he is capable of but frankly over the course of the last year or so that isn't enough. LW is presently our worst performing position and seriously lacking productivity.

Thought he was on a similar/same level to the rest of the side today but looked like the only player who was capable of making something happen (if anything).

If it wasn't for Pope it'd have been about 8-1 today. He made 2 mistakes on the first goal, first he should have attempted to catch it and second he just seemed to try and push it away a bit more than simply stop it. However, the ball did move somewhat in the air...I suspect he'll not be happy with that either. One thing is for certain, he wasn't the reason we lost today.

I am going to be knowingly a little bit harsh on Eddie this evening, despite my love for the man and the manager. I felt there was a bit of a rabbit off today. When one or two players aren't up for it or motivated, you can put that down to the individuals but when it's the whole team the manager must ultimately take the responsibility. To say what...is ultimately the hard part. Tactically - did we do much wrong? Not for me. Was it the personnel - I don't personally feel so, we should have been capable of winning that game with that side. However, I just feel the collective attitude and application weren't there and perhaps some complacency set in and that is for Howe to ensure that, that is right. It is knowingly harsh, as it doesn't escape me that we've played 3 tougher ties this last week at home and won all 3. That he has rotated well to keep players fresh and performing across said three games, but that freshness fell under question today. If not physically then perhaps mentally (or both). That being said, I have absolute faith in the fact we will have taken this result today as a reality check and Eddie will have them right back at it come Wednesday. Let's face it, today we would have probably all liked to have seen us get ahead (as we did) then simply control the game and conserve energy - we never took control and that element is in most part down to the players. Eddie cannot advocate for individual mistakes and too many were simply caught napping. I think everyone needs to look at themselves after today and ensure there are no more repeats across this next week, as we play two fairly pivotal games in the season ahead, in terms of morale and getting a win against both would ultimately ease some of the pressure heading into the next mammoth set of fixtures.

Nailed on that for The Pope.