Pilko

Think I counted 5 chances Burnley had to clear that before it hit the net they're absolutely fucking chod. Great to see Wissa getting the sort of scrappy goal we seldom seem to score too.

Now please, please, please build on that great start and don't drop back.

That's a great take by Big Jow. Get in.

He's got better and better every game Ramsdale has played. Think it's the right call putting him back in tbf.

One of those where we just need to win, performance doesn't really matter.

I'd like to see some technical players come in soon, rather than strong brutes or pace merchants. I do think he's trying to play a better brand of football that relies on running all over the opposition to a much lesser degree, but we don't have the players for it yet. How much of that is down to Howe's own choices, it's hard to pin down. Where these players come from I'm not arsed in the slightest, although I do think it's hard to sign the better technicians out of the PL as we'll be priced out.

The "we don't sign players from abroad" thing. Obviously that's not true. I think it stems from big fees for Elanga, Ramsey and Wissa who all for one reason or another haven't done it yet. People think we could have spent half the money on an equivalent from abroad who might have been better, or at least if they weren't any good were half the cost. And we've basically not missed on a signing from abroad so far, whereas the more dubious signings we've made (the three above, Targett, Ramsdale, Wood maybe) come from the UK. Obviously this narrative ignores how good Hall, Tino, Burn, Barnes, Pope have been. I also think people see Brighton, Forest etc making signings from places like Africa, South America etc where we don't seem to operate across, for low fees and a good amount of those end up either fetching megabucks or being serviceable players who probably at worst wash their face when sold to somewhere on the continent. Seems like we're beefing up scouting in these areas which you'd expect with Wilson coming in from Forest. Maybe the manager is not as convinced these players will adapt to the PL/distance move as quickly and that's why we never seem to buy from there? Hard to say, but I think it influences the narrative that he just wants British lads. Whether by briefing or by lazy 2+2 journalism we seem to get linked with about half the PL when the window is opened, too. It definitely adds to the feeling that we want to shop in the one expensive market even though lots of that will be bullshit and the "list" will include options from abroad too.

no open play league goal or assist in 20 matches spanning nearly a year & two stupid red cards and six games out banned, but it's the deluded fans fault for calling him shit.

I was in there briefly yesterday didn't see him like.

Deserved equaliser that.

plenty, but you must know that wasn't a serious comment.

He is, but he's tall and runs about a bit so we'll be sticking a £40m offer in come January.

They're going to finish above us aren't they.

Our supply line in open play comes exclusively from the wingers as there's no creativity in the middle of the park. The three wingers who are supposed to supply are bang out of form and the one who tends to add goals can't get on the pitch in his favoured position because the manager won't remove Gordon. That's the two issues and until we either get some creativity into our midfield, wait for our wide men to come into form or buy better ones it'll be the same frustrations every week.

A frequent defence of Howe is that he learns from his mistakes, tends not to make the same mistakes twice etc. The difference this season to the last difficult patch we encountered is it doesn't feel like this is happening. This season, whilst there are many mitigating factors like key injuries & Isak/the summer as two huge ones, I feel like it's a lot of the same stale stuff over and over and a lot of "we'll look at that and learn from it" interviews afterwards, before the same thing happens within days. Eddie really could do with seeing some progress on some of the longer term issues - not pissing away winning positions all the time & creating jack shit away from home particularly, quite quickly. Then there's the flat midfield three that teams run through at will and have been on a fairly regular basis for a few years now. A calendar year of Gordon doing nowt in the league but still being #1 pick and talked up by the manager. The lack of footballing plan when "run hard all over them" isn't a viable game plan due to PSR not allowing us a squad size/quality to keep that going. Other managers making early, proactive subs to impact games while he sits on his hands and waits for us to concede before summoning a bunch of subs to the touchline. There's a lot of clear patterns or things that are frustrating or worrying that don't seem to be going away. I did read a lot of "it was this time last season when it clicked!" posts a month or so ago and still see a lot of "we're still x points off y position" posts. Both of which are valid arguments, but as the season ekes on longer and longer without a clear upturn in performance both gradually start to lose clout. Ultimately if he wins another league cup or has a deep run in one of the other two it's hard to argue that he can potentially bring success like that in any given season. I just wish he could iron out some of these problems a bit faster. I wouldn't sack him and I really hope he delivers a successful season, which is still very possible, but I feel like the powers that be can't be far from starting to have at very least a tentative look around the manager market. Not that one game makes a season but imagine we roll out the same insipid shite away dross at Burnley and lose? The knives will start to come out then and being one game away from that situation isn't good for him or us.

Agree with this. We've barely been linked with any for years - Maddison a bit and then El Khannouss tentatively. I don't think he wants one, and it fits with the theory that he prefers tall, fast run-about-a-lot types to actual technicians.

Loss. It's away.

He was, I've said it before but him getting virtually 1-in-2 in that stinking Bruce side doesn't get the credit it deserves. However, his final 12-15 appearances for us were someone who was completely and utterly off the pace and just not cut out for it anymore; a sad shadow of what he was. The loyalty Howe showed by wanting to retain that version of Wilson is as admirable as it is downright alarming.

The Wissa thing rumbled on for ages without progress and other than some late panic bids for Strand Larsen, we didn't seem to have an alternative. We were briefed that they were Wilson replacements and the others we were linked with were the Isak replacement. I also would think that everyone involved in the summer transfer business should have known that a deal isn't done until it's done. The naivety if we thought Pedro (and Trafford) were done deals until the bigger boys came along and gazumped us is not befitting of people who've been in football and around top level transfers for a while.

The Wilson replacement needed to happen regardless of whether Isak stayed or went. We chose to sit and wait for Wissa who we knew was unfit and lacking a pre-season. The Isak situation kicked off and that didn't prompt us to try and act any quicker.

We quite clearly needed 2 strikers but Howe wanted to try and retain a blatantly finished Wilson. He then waited the whole window to get a specific replacement despite knowing he lacked match fitness and a pre-season, and we still allowed him to go run round some scrubland in Mozambique or wherever and get injured. The Isak situation was only half of the puzzle and we totally bungled the other half too.

he's lost the fucking plot if he believes that. Genuinely very worrying.

I know he can't say the opposite, but I genuinely believe he thinks that. He falls over himself to get him in the side despite his complete lack of effort and virtually zero output for nearly a year now.

I for one am shocked that last week was a flash in the pan and he reverted to his ineffective shit true self, I totally didn't expect that to happen at all. The continual selection of this gimp from the manager is an absolute fucking disgrace, especially when you consider how well Barnes has done when he actually got a run in the side.

Might benefit from a little Kieron Dyer syndrome where he gets better every game you don't see him because the alternatives are just as chronically useless.