Barnes23

It isn't really about meting out blame as such (at least not for me) but more trying to make sense of what actually happened for things to go so badly today. I think the structure of the press from Bournemouth absolutely was a contributing factor to our players looking so poor on the ball i.e. a tactical issue. Dan Burn alluded to as much in his post-match interview - "They set traps with the way they play. Their press is quite different to other teams and we played into it and suffered because of it" Actually looking forward to our next meeting with these because there is very good reason to believe Howe will analyse the game down to the finest detail to work out how to put this right. I remember a similar game we had against Aston Villa in 2023, where it was equally apparent that we were tactically outmanoeuvred on the day and unable to find any answers. We've done very well against them ever since.

Think they had a much better chance of staying up with Cooper, tbh.

Newcastle 2-1 Bournemouth Brentford 2-2 Liverpool Leicester 1-2 Fulham West Ham 1-1 Palace Arsenal 2-1 Villa Everton 1-3 Spurs Man United 2-1 Brighton Forest 3-0 Southampton Ipswich 1-3 Man City Chelsea 2-1 Wolves

Brentford 2-2 Man City Chelsea 2-1 Bournemouth West Ham 1-1 Fulham Forest 1-2 Liverpool Everton 1-2 Villa Leicester 1-2 Palace Newcastle 3-0 Wolves Arsenal 2-1 Spurs Ipswich 1-1 Brighton Man United 3-0 Southampton

Not for me - Debuchy better on a number of counts IMO (especially technically and going forward)

Spurs 1-2 Newcastle Villa 2-1 Leicester Bournemouth 2-1 Everton Palace 1-2 Chelsea Man City 2-1 West Ham Southampton 1-2 Brentford Brighton 1-2 Arsenal Fulham 2-1 Ipswich Liverpool 3-1 Man Utd Wolves 1-2 Forest

Leicester 1-3 Man City Palace 2-1 Southampton Everton 1-1 Forest Fulham 2-1 Bournemouth Spurs 2-2 Wolves West Ham 1-3 Liverpool Villa 3-1 Brighton Ipswich 1-2 Chelsea Man United 1-3 Newcastle Brentford 1-2 Arsenal

Man City 3-1 Everton Bournemouth 2-1 Palace Chelsea 2-1 Fulham Newcastle 2-2 Villa Forest 2-1 Spurs Southampton 1-1 West Ham Wolves 1-2 Man United Liverpool 4-0 Leicester Brighton 2-1 Brentford Arsenal 3-0 Ipswich

Looking like Saka is going to be out for an extended period - bit of a shakeup in terms of the template which has formed in the last couple of months. Anyone have a clear idea in terms of where they're looking in terms of replacements? Personally weighing up B. Fernandes, Diaz and Martinelli. If not, may look to downgrade to one of the cheaper mids and keep the cash for elsewhere/further down the line.

Cooper actually seemed like he was doing an okay job at Leicester from the outside considering the squad/resources at his disposal - certainly showed more on average under him than they have in the last two games.

Villa 2-2 Man City Brentford 2-1 Forest Ipswich 1-2 Newcastle West Ham 1-1 Brighton Palace 1-2 Arsenal Everton 0-2 Chelsea Fulham 3-1 Southampton Leicester 2-1 Wolves Man United 2-1 Bournemouth Spurs 1-3 Liverpool

Some delegation is fine of course but I'm personally suspicious of managers who would neglect coaching to the extent that Gerrard allegedly did (essentially deferring the entire thing to Beale, if reports are to be believed). I would suspect a lot more involvement on the part of the two you mentioned, especially.

Could be a good coach but a poor manager. Agree though that that Beale alone doesn't account for the successful spell with Rangers, just that it's a pretty big caveat to factor in.

From what I've read it's fair to say a great deal of the success Gerrard had with Rangers was due to the work of Michael Beale (who was responsible for much of (all?) of the actual coaching work on the grass).

There's a name I've not heard in a while