gbandit

Frighteningly shite performance from Bellingham

Cannot stand Bellingham’s attitude on the pitch. Either moaning at the ref, asking for free kicks or shaking his head when players don’t pass to him. Doesnt help that he’s nowhere near as good as he thinks he is

Been extremely poor quality. Constantly passing it to the opposition or out of play, heavy touches etc. Nobbs has been shite

Pivas, Neave, Seung-Soo, Heffernan. Howay lads, sort yourselves out tonight

There ain’t no doubt, the greatest

Respect for not losing your love for him but you need to remember that we’ve played some amazing football during Howe’s time here. Change the full backs (Hall and Tino as soon as he’s fit), take Jow out, put Ramsdale in so that we retain possession more. Play Barnes over Gordon. All things that I think could well happen now. Get Wissa in and we’ll look a completely different side. Defensively we’re fine, we’ve shipped stupid goals in the last few weeks that won’t happen often again this season. Our main problem is sorting out the team in possession of the ball and cutting teams open. The full backs are the answer, and Jow being out is the answer

Don’t see how we improve? Do you genuinely look at what Howe has achieved here and how he’s come back from poor spells and think, “ah, we’re just shit now and that’s it”. You’re just making stuff up now to make yourself feel shit, take a break

There’s criticism and then there’s diarrhoea running down your legs until your shoes fill up. Unfortunately the useful criticism gets lost in the mess of people completely losing their heads

Not Chelsea pls

You can see that Robbie Fowler wants to smash his head in here

There’s something about riding a wave upwards after being mired in shit for over a decade that can’t be beaten. The optimism and joy that comes from that sort of turnaround can’t be matched by consistent success. Very easy to get entitled

Disagree, he’s shown himself to be excellent at providing goals and assists at Aston Villa in the past. His issue wasn’t ability, it was staying injury free. He links play well, he has good movement and he has excellent technique on the ball. He may not have assisted or scored yet at us but he’s played 190 minutes in the premier league and had an injury. Give him some time. The only issue we face with him is whet he his body can stay fit

His touch, carrying ability, close control and trickery is better than our wingers and most of our midfielders. What a footballer

Can’t believe the shit I’m reading here. This lad has pulled several rabbits out of the hat playing in a new team with wingers producing nowt and full backs who can’t advance up the pitch and stretch the play. We’ve been static as fuck and he’s been one of the few positives we’ve had all season. It would be nice to have more movement to stretch teams however, it’s other people’s failings mainly that have meant teams have been very comfortable defending behind the ball

He fucked it, but he’ll be fuming more than anyone else

Let’s settle for winning the league cup again or the Champions League for our route into Europe. I’ll take the latter. Fuck the league off good and early while prioritising some international silverware

For me, it’s not even the punching. I could cope with his kicking if it was neutral but to lose the ball more than half the time when he kicks it is awful for us as a team. Ramsdale not only keeps it in play but it’s an actual weapon for us when attacking. Ramsdale can make the spot his own very quickly if he stays rick free

Indeed, but it means dropping Pope for Ramsdale, playing Hall and Tino at full back and dropping Jow for Ramsey. It also means dipping into the winger market, which I can’t see happening

I don’t think I’d ever stop backing Howe to get it right. He’s perfect for us and an absolutely class act. He’ll show after the international break that he’s learnt from this, just got to evolve the team into one which takes care of the ball. That’s the easiest criticism to level against him and one which he needs to focus on sorting out. If we’re not a balls-to-the-wall pressing team anymore then it’s not about physically running over opponents anymore, it’s about outplaying them with the ball and then using our physical attributes to apply the finishing touches. At the moment we’re one-paced and not really able to make use of the traits that Howe wants the team to play to

Think he started slowly and then improved, his ability to hold onto a football under pressure and work space is fairly invaluable in a team where our midfield largely lacks the ability to play out of tight spaces. He’s going to be excellent for us

I do think Howe’s fetish for physical attributes is an issue. Wingers = speed, midfielders = endurance, defenders = height. He loves all of those attributes and will try to work players in with those traits if possible but he sometimes prioritises those traits above footballing ability on the pitch and we can see the impact of that. Awful ball retention, awful transitions and facing waves of attacks from the opposition

Trippier’s passing from defensive positions while under minimal pressure has been very poor this season

It’s plain to see that Burn and Trippier as full backs is absolutely killing us in possession and beating the press. It’s our biggest problem in my opinion, followed by our wingers not being technically gifted footballers on the ball

He’s going to have to drop Burn from LB, Pope from GK and Joelinton from Midfield otherwise this will keep happening. We were lucky Jow had to go off. His persistence with Burn at LB left us extremely vulnerable and his choice of Pope continually leaves us in a position where we’re facing attack after attack. We could hope with the latter if we were good at retaining possession but we’re probably the worst side in the league at retaining possession against a press