Barnes23

Fuck off starting Clark

Not with Fernandez on the bench and a midfield two of Shelvey and Willock.

Have to agree. People will defend it on the basis of some kind of pragmatism (Lascelles being captain etc) but ultimately our best CB is not being picked to play.

He should be dropped for sure, but he's also being played in the wrong position. No way is he a functional CM as part of a 2.

I can support the new era of the club under Howe and retain a love and respect for everything Rafa did. Don't think there would be a takeover without him. It would have been a very small number of people on here who would have picked Howe over Rafa when the takeover went through. Seems daft to overturn my opinion on the basis of a handful of games and press conferences. I understand wanting the feeling of renewed hope and optimism to override all other judgements, though, and it's really awesome just to have those kinds of emotions associated with our club again.

Rafa for me. Howe deserves our full support and may go on to achieve great things, but Rafa's connection to the club, CV, holistic approach and standing in the game is simply on another level.

If he was the mole I only have a greater appreciation for him tbh, and Jones should too if he has anything about him.

Formidable tonight. Simply has to be in the team going forward.

Really quite impressed with him. Will be disappointed, but not altogether surprised, to see Ritchie back in next game.

One of the most basic fundamentals a manager will be judged on is selecting the best XI. Fernandez is the best defender at the club, the likes of Clark have no business starting ahead of him.

Great decision playing Clark over Fede, fucking hell

You definitely can when Clark is being chosen over Fernandez.

In the grand scheme of things it's obviously not that important, I'll be judging him over the course of the rest of the season as we all will. As much a reflection of my dislike for post-match managerial BS as much as anything else. Positivity is fine, I don't like misrepresentation though. Even if all managers do it to an extent. The positives of the game were the workrate/effort of the team and the organisation and discipline seen in the first half, and a few individual performances. Not much more can be said except for the areas where we need to work and bring about improvements.

Not going to read too much into press conference waffle but managers talking about isolated moments and incidents has always been a bit of a red flag for me, especially if it becomes a consistent pattern. We were never going to win that game, our problems are much deeper lying than any single refereeing decision. We didn't create many chances, either.

Lmao

Matterface sending a tweet by mistake instead of using twitter's DM function, back in the day. Think I've only remembered because I dislike him so much

This is how he did it:

Same. Just don't think ASM is anywhere near as effective in the middle.

Guardiola, Tuchel, Klopp, Conte in some order followed by Rafa and Bielsa is the obvious top six, imo. The rest is much more up for debate.

5 is about right. There's a long way to go yet.

Remember us being linked with him under Rafa.

Never forget

What's ultimately going to decide our fate this season is whether they make the right appointment - not whether they have someone in before Brighton or not.

Gerrard shouldn't be anywhere near the list.

The defensive organisation was a lot better, which is about all you could realistically ask for in terms of improvements within the timeframe after Bruce's exit.