ponsaelius

Has he? He's been very consistent on his opinion on FFP for years.

Howe has been unlucky with injuries and suspensions, there is no doubt. We banked in the summer on adding depth at fullback, making sure we had four hard working wingers who we could run into the ground, and a midfielder who could cover both #8 as well as Bruno's role (in theory). Clearly the idea was to maximise the resources, facilitated in part by actually selling our one wild card, to double down on our style of play and make sure we had the depth to push it across multiple competitions. Ultimately we have tried to reinforce what worked last year - rather than look to enhance/augment what we've got and give us something different to win games. Whether that was signing a number 10/wide attacker who can play between the lines, a designated defensive midfielder to give us more control in transition, another striker who could offer more out of possession than Wilson etc etc - these were options that were available to us and we chose not to go for. I think it's not unreasonable to say at this point that it has backfired. This is partly through sheer bad luck in the case of Tonali and Barnes in particular. But our inability to change it up or find other ways to win games has made this season's crash far worse and also I'm afraid made Howe look increasingly naive. We've ran players into the ground and made injuries worse, which has increasingly made our fundsmental style of play ineffective, which has now increasingly made players devoid of confidence. Confidence that has been rattled further by crashing out of the cups and leaving the season effectively over by January. It is a vicious spiral and I think, mitigating factors accepted, Howe has to take blame and be questioned for it. Both for his input in transfer decisions (we know he will have had some) and how we have adapted this season to very different circumstances.

I'd agree with that. Some of his best play comes from carrying the ball infield. This has also been the case when he has been on the right (thinking of the Man United assist). So if kind if makes sense that he's looked better over on the left in this system.

The season is a write off and we're financially hamstring with FFP. I personally don't see us doing anything this window - with exception of maybe a loan deal.

The derby is undoubtedly huge even if it wasn't the derby. The FA Cup is all that is left of this season to play for.

Last few games have been genuinely worrying, tbf. There's something not quite right at all and we don't look like turning it around any time soon.

We all know there's been mitigating circumstances but the last three games have been atrocious. Really starting to worry tbh.

I'm worried for him tbh now. Wasn't up until today, but we looked desperate there. Players suffering from a combination of being physically ruined, mentally destroyed by the recent set backs, and now completely bereft of confidence. Unfortunately our style of play depends massively on physical intensity and Howe's coaching depends on motivation. Now we're in a situation where either tactical structure or technical creativity would pull us out of the mire and we lack both. He still needs to be given the season and to go again next year, but for the first time I'm actually quite worried he won't get it.

Feel for him tbh. He's playing with some shite.

I've been pretty diplomatic about this season and the way things have gone against Howe, but that was really worrying.

Very worrying this tbh.

I don't necessarily disagree in an ideal world, but in theory we've already gone big on Isak as marquee CF signing but we're struggling to get the best our of him due to lack of rotation options. Having somebody physically robust, with a good all round game, hungry and finally seemingly fulfilling his potential would be a huge help to this current squad. The main issue is that it's a different Bournemouth to when we signed Wilson and they'd be wanting daft money.

I think this is underrating Solanke a fair bit, tbh. He's genuinely looked really good this season in terms of all-round game and is on track for a 20 goal league campaign. His current career arc in terms of age and performance going from Champ to PL is extremely similar to Ivan Toney. Both appear to be late bloomers - only that because Solanke was in and around PL clubs from a very young age and had that rough first season at Bournemouth replacing Wilson he probably gets more unfairly disparaged.

I've said it before but one of Eddie's biggest strengths is that he's a Plan A coach. Set style of play, impose it on the opposition, stick to it and try to win on your terms. He has his system and 90% of the time he sticks to it. I like that and think it's generally the sign of a good manager with conviction in his training ground coaching and ability to motivate players. However - this season we could have done with being slightly more flexible. Both in terms of system and in terms of approach game to game. We clearly have not been able to go hell for leather every games, and sometimes moving away from 4-3-3 might have been preferable given the personnel to grind out results. Similarly some of the in-game management has ranged from naive to completely ineffective. There's a lot for him to work on, but unless we have a complete meltdown second half of the season he needs to be given the chance to see it through this season and next. It does feel like he's had some absolutely rotten luck to compound some of the decision making and mistakes.

The new format was just a sop to the sewpa league. If they're abandoning it they know it's dead in the water.

This might be the stupidest thing ever posted on here, fair play if trolling.

Dummett has been OK the two games he's played, and we got clean sheets against Man U and Man City. I don't have an issue with him as 25th squad member this season and you can get away with him filling in last resort defensively - particularly if he's got a decent rest of the back four around him. You can't get away with carrying players in forward areas of the pitch though. It's just so brutal especially considering our usually high intensity style of play. Ritchie has looked like a competition winner when he's got on. From what I've seen of him this year I don't think he's even Championship level anymore. He's utterly finished physically.

The thing is this isn't the first time in his career he's had a spell like this. The last 6-12 months at Spurs was the same - constant mistake after mistake. It was why Spurs sold him to Atletico.

Cameron Archer - £20 million Aaron Ramsey - £14 million Chukwuemeka - £15 million Jaden Philogene - £5 million Along with Grealish that is £150 million of pure profit for FFP. We need to get to the point where our academy is churning out regular lower PL/Championship players like this.

It's not just the blue chip players like Grealish and J. Ramsey - they accumulated decent sales from the likes of Archer, A. Ramsey, Chukwuemeka, Philogene over last couple of years. It's why developing the likes of Elliot Anderson in and around our squad is so worthwhile, even if ultimately they end up moving on.

In the age of FFP Villa will continue to be right up there. Their infrastructure and academy will allow them to keep spending at a high level. They were a few years ahead of us prior to the takeover - they just made a horrendous appointment in Gerrard.

Crocked until March, so he'd fit in well.

Looking at that Arsenal team and it's basically their first choice XI. What I'd give to be able to have us have even close to that luxury.

He's matured a lot as a player last 2 years. Wouldn't be a top drawer signing but would be a good option if we needed another CB option. Out of contract again in the summer.

Thought looking at the stats that our XG was disproportionately high as I don't think we made huge amount of chances despite dominating the game against 10 men. Noticed that we got 0.54 for Burn's saved header then another 0.62 for his follow up finish on the line. It seems weird to me to accumulate this when it's effectively a single chance.