ExiledGeordie

He looks almost as jaded as the players on the sidelines at the moment. As you say I think the extra training time now will be vital to work on things going wrong. If they can beat the Mackems, give everyone a lift, get a few Jan signings in and some players back things will turn I’m confident.

It is mental that anyone could honestly seriously think he needs moving on right now in probably his first real crisis point with a severe dip in form coupled with a load of injuries. He’ll get the rest of this season at absolutely the very least and probably next season. That being said some of the stuff yesterday was odd in terms of how the game was managed with tactics, the mismatch of Burn v Elanga, how open our midfield was, playing such a high line against Forest when we were getting done for pace. We also look devoid of ideas in the final 3rd at the moment and it’s like he’s struggling to find a plan B to manage the situation. The midfield needs sorting particular as the defence looks so shaky. If they’re not going to buy a defensive midfielder someone needs to do that role more obviously for me. We’re getting completely overrun in misfield at the moment. I do think January is very important to freshen things up a bit and give him some more options as well as keeping the other players on their toes particular as injured players don’t look like they’re back until well into or the end of next month. It looks like the Derby is now becoming a key fixture because if he loses that it really could bring the mood of the club right down for the rest of the season which might mean a grim hangover. He's absolutely earned the right for patience from the fans and board given what he’s done already but constructive criticism is also perfectly fair looking at recent results.

I think he’ll be here this season at the very least unless it completely and utterly falls apart. He’ll get the rest of this season but depending on how we do I’d imagine they may look at other options. A long way to go this season still but it’s been a really bad run for Howe and the players. We’ve capitulated really.

The constant cutting back onto his left is infuriating

His final ball, finishing and decision making in the final 3rd is absolutely woeful at times, my god

Woeful defending too

He just has to better there, that’s fucking hopeless

Just get the win today, just get through Pool then regroup for the scum away and tough fixtures later next month.

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As predictable as Miggy is, both him and Gordon have run themselves into the ground due to injuries. If Murphy and Barnes had been rotating in Gordon and Miggy wouldn’t have been so burnt out and we’d probably have seen more end product recently.

We really do to shake things up

Really important match, need a response before come tough games upcoming.

Until there’s something concrete that comes out it seems like it’s all noise. We’ll know soon enough though with Ratcliffe getting his % of Man U

Id rather we were proactive rather than reactive but I get your point about re-evaluating at the end of this month in terms of injuries to the squad

Well said ?

Yeah losing ALL of them has completely knackered us. My West ham mate actually mentioned this yesterday when we were talking about it funnily enough

Might add our lack of rotation on the wings means we’re not stretching teams away from home and don’t carry as much of a threat. Teams are pushing up more against us. We’re weak in the middle of the park too, too easy to play against away from home for whatever reason.

Our progression after the takeover was always going to have some sticky patches, it was never going to be a linear upward curve. I’m sure Howe accepts there’s probably things they could’ve done better, it’s all a learning experience as we progress. I mean I was with some mates in London last night who support London teams and they were saying how well they thought we’d done given just how many players are out. But Howe is going to have to get us back on track away from home. Injuries have killed us this first half of the season and that has definitely affected our away form.

We’re also far too open in midfield, opposition players just strolling through acres of space. I think the whole side away from home has lost its edge a bit, teams aren’t afraid of us - because they know we’ve got such limited options at the moment that we can’t play with the same intensity. The one positive, Dubravk looked much sharper.

Yes I don’t think we can get away from the fact last season we had full weeks of prep for games. That helps prep time and helps prevent injuries. This season has been night and day in that respect. I’m sure Howe and the board will acknowledge they could do some things better and make note of that.

? well said. I wasn’t confident today, yes very disappointed, Howe will no doubt be very critical of himself. We’re still learning as you point out, manager, players and fans.

Nope, too far off and horrific away form. I actually think if we get the bulk of our injured lot back and a couple of signings we’ll be really strong 2nd half of the season but I think top four will be a bridge too far

Get the reinforcements in to give everyone a lift, we’re shot to pieces.

The weird thing is as much as I was lacking confidence in a really today I’m really confident we’ll beat Forest at home. The combination of injuries and being awful away from home is really effecting us though.

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