The Prophet

He shouldn't need the pressure taking off him really.

The squad is alright, perhaps barring a spare full back. It's been made to look worse by Joelinton, Gordon and Elanga being out of nick.

Started more often than not when he was fit for Villa mind.

This is the mad thing. Champions League qualification and going deep in the cups might not be even on the radar if it wasn't for Howe. He's effectively moved the first team forward about five years of where it should be.

7th along with going deep in the cups would be decent.

Wouldn't be remotely surprising if we play well and get something v City, but follow it up with a below par showing v Everton. There's at least a kernel of truth in the idea that we've been a "big game" side for a while.

What might be best for the club?

Are we now at the "downplaying his achievements" phase?

Like much of the team, he's been well below his best in the last couple of games.

Weirdly while I've read OTT criticism of almost every player, Woltemade isn't one of them. Not sure where that's come from.

LCM. Pretty sure he'll be phased in for Big Joe.

I've never got this take. It's an Internet forum, nothing prevents anyone from posting an opinion, but the more out there, different or daft an it is, naturally the more commentary it'll draw. No idea why folk go on like they're being cancelled at times

One start, four sub appearances in case anyone was wondering.

I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel. Hall in for Burn and Ramsey or Miley in for Joelinton would be a start. I think the issues away from home are as much about mentality as they are tactical.

You said we have no know how of how to play anymore. We clearly do, we're just in a shitty run of form away from home in the league at the moment.

Apart from the comfortable win v Bilbao last Wednesday?

We're just being silly now.

We have to accept that we won't be in the Champions League every season. Pretty much only City, Liverpool and Arsenal have that guarantee at the moment.

22/23 was class, but as ever we're only ever a bad run away from fans beginning to turn on him.

Putting aside the transfer window and subsequent injuries. There's absolutely no excuse for the likes of Trippier, Tonali and Bruno to be playing like they haven't seen a football before.

Granted there's always been a minority like that, do you not think it's becoming more polarised? It feels like social media chat has bled into regular discourse. That's not exclusive football either.

Is this true this season?

Yes and no. Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of Fab, he's an incredible servant but he was genuinely poor for spells last season. I thought Botman was excellent early doors next to Thiaw, he's had a couple poor showings where the whole team has been pretty woeful and he's been dragged over the shop, but he's still the least of our problems really. But then after Brighton he was getting pelters for a goal that came about from rubbish play from Tonali, with some bizarre suggestions that he thinks he's too good for the club. He's certainly on the shit list with some.

Good post. Creeping polarisation. I jest with the "hound them out" nonsense, but football fans often forget these lads are human, capable of mistakes or a bad day at the office. Take Elanga for example, he seems like a good lad who blatantly wants to do well for the club, but his confidence is shot. Surely we've all been there in some form of life? An element of entitlement has certainly crept into the fanbase following the takeover, but I do think commoditisation has come in across the board. Fans don't support or back their team, they're customers who attend to be entertained, winning is the expectation. This almost certainly links into the first point about the dehumanisation of players too. Sadly, I think it's just the direction the game is going in. Capitalism has grubby hands on the working man's game and they aren't getting it back any time soon.

It feels like his performances are viewed through the prism of backing Isak at times. Schar put in some absolute stinkers last season and didn't receive this level of criticism.