Lush Vlad

What pod was that mate? Might give it a listen.

The comment that was something like 'here we have to get them fit out of the team, before they come back into the team' was an interesting one IMO. Perhaps not on the face of it. But with all the smoke and mirrors and how careful we are with our social media stuff and team news. I wonder how much the likes of Botman, Joelinton, Wilson, Pope etc. Have been doing away from all the cameras. Like you'll see that they're back in training sometimes with the odd photo. But he often keeps his cards close to his chest in press conferences and nothing really leaks from the the training pics unless planned. I don't really buy that Joelinton and Botman would potentially just train with the team for the first time in a good few weeks today and then have a chance of being back on Sunday. They must have been doing some fairly extensive stuff away from the cameras. It was why it took my by surprise that Botman was straight back in and bar a short spell. Didn't look particularly rusty. They had been doing loads with him and was back in full training and behind closed doors matches and more than Howe let on. Either that or he's just bluffing and they're nowhere near Which would be a bit shit from our POV.

I guess it has been how he recovers and the extra stress his already injury prone body is put under. I’m sure he’ll start if all the data clears him to play. Isak on the bench even if he is fit, I reckon. We didn’t have Bunce and his team here before for all this stuff.

Still seems like 'ganning along the Scotswood road' is still being sung twice. So that goes all the way back to the 80's?!

Only ever heard him on Monday Night Club on 5 Live. He tends to be the only journo on there. So the counter argument often comes from the likes of Chris Sutton or another ex-pro. I.e not a lot coming back. I don’t mind Mark Chapman as a host, you know. He’ll often pull them up on stuff and get them to elaborate. You often get more resistance from him than the other so called experts.

Oh yeah. He is always on MNF. Really good listen and a top journo, if a bit of a pretentious fuck at times. The only time I like Chris Sutton is his grumpy old man routine with him But yeah. His passive aggressive digs at NUFC, PSR and the ownership always feels well off. Like he goes from being really reasonable and impartial to a fan engagement account.

Certainly a bit streaky and we have been almost more inconsistent with performances this season compared to last, even. No argument there. I just don’t think we have been that bad of late. Plus we have had certain key players missing in a lot of those games. Namely Big Joe and Botman. Then no Isak last night was obviously a huge miss. Barnes to a lesser degree has meant nothing off the bench in forward areas. I’ve not been very good at it. But I am trying to remind myself that we have an unbalanced squad. With a lot of players now ageing, injury prone or perhaps a bit above their level. And that we’ve gone a bit stale and run out of ideas in some ways. I also need to stop getting so high and low on our players week to week. Most likeable and ‘successful’ bunch we’ve had in my time supporting the club. I feel the same about the manager, too. Despite massively doubting him after Brentford. 2-3 first team additions would do wonders for this squad and hopefully push us up another rung.

Not sure I agree here. We have just been wildly inconsistent. Sometimes from one half to the next. Never mind game to game. Since our mad winning run ended. Where we had a few games that were up and down. But I’d say more ‘game management’ than capitulations. We’ve had: Bournemouth - shite. But they were brilliant. Southampton - N/A. They don’t count we won easily, at least. Fulham - comfortable first half. Then fell apart a bit. But still should have got at least a point. Arsenal - we were superb. Birmingham - much changed, banana skin game. Did well in thecircumstances, I thought. City - dreadful. One of the worst of the season. Forest - first half was as good. As the second half was shit. Liverpool - tame. But nowhere near City levels. Been far worse there over the years. Start of the season through to about the Arsenal 1-0. Were littered with crap performances and games we were lucky to get anything from. Had a quick look and it was 13 games. We were rubbish in a good 7-8 of those, I’d say. City and Liverpool away in this last 8 game stretch and all. Never going to be easy.

My Grandma used to sing me Blaydon Races, Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinny and some others I’ve forgotten. So even as a dirty southerner. I get annoyed that nobody seems to know the words. I remember arguing with a Geordie taxi driver who was adamant ‘Collingwood Street isn’t in the Blaydon Races.’ I suddenly doubted myself and then had to check and show him it on my phone. Good job it’s not still there. His fares would be ending up at Redcar instead. Some cab driver he is

Can’t be starting against Brighton, can he? Isn’t two starts in a week what always ends up fucking him up? Things like that and the wind changing direction.

He has also scored nearly half our goals in the league, I think?

Not sure why they're copping so much flak. Bao buns are fucking delicious, mind

When Dubravka comes back in. They should order their players to shoot to his right.

I think we have a lot of poor technicians on the ball, personally. From the team that started. Pope, Tino, Burn, Willock, Murphy, Gordon and Wilson all look clumsy in possession and with their passing in different ways and to varying degrees. Someone lobbed a chaff grenade at Tonali's passing radar last night and all. When not even pressured a lot of the time. Which was annoying. We still have a squad with a lot of athletes and system players and not enough that are willing or able to put their foot on the ball and try and dictate. As I was saying in the Miley thread. You wonder that as we start to get better players across the squad. Whether the midfield and team as a whole will exert more control on games. Which Howe has alluded to in the past. Or if we will carry on with this system. Where it doesn't feel particularly easy to have long spells of sustained pressure and possession. I do sort of also agree with Conjo, mind. For ages, we have seemed to struggle with our build up and how to build an attack. A lot of sideways, slow passing along the back 4 and not too much incisive into the midfield or beyond to build something. How much of that is down to personnel and how much is down to tactics, fuck knows. I'll let Eddie decide there

Eh? Read the whole paragraph next time. Also, I've said he'd be a 7/10 without even playing well. As in, he's one of our better players and he set the bar really high. So got flak when his performance dropped slightly. Not really clear reading it back, TBF. TL;DR - he is a victim of his own success and has set the bar too high. So any drop off and an average game from him suddenly looks crap. When in reality, most the time, it isn't/

Agreed. But after we used it to great success in some of Dubravka's games earlier on, I think Man U was one that really stood out. I don't think we regularly used him in the build up. It was hardly like he was helping bypass the high Bournemouth press, for example. I don't think we've ever looked to play like that since Howe has been here, with him or Pope, for obvious reasons for the latter I still don't get the narrative of "he didn't deserve to be dropped!" He isn't our number one, Pope is. He was playing well, but nothin particularly amazing bar Wolves where he made two amazing saves. Had a bad game at City, Pope had just had a good game in the FA Cup and can only assume was back to full fitness. So it's hardly an outrage that our number one goalkeeper then got back into the side.

I do agree with a lot of this and I know the likes of Bournemouth and Forest would have to do it a bit more consistently to show they're not a flash in the pan. But if they finish above us this season, I think It ruins the argument a bit and even my view on Howe and his abilities would go down a bit. 2 of the traditional Sky 6 are miles behind us and you'd imagine Spurs might figure it out a bit with a new manager and/or once half their squad aren't injured. But this season feels like a good time to be taking advantage of that. A bit like we did under Pardew for 5th and under Howe for 4th. Chelsea have also had a bit of a mid-season wobble. Meaning we're well in touch with them, when it looked unlikely earlier on in the season and when you consider the gazillions they've spent. Obviously plenty of the season to go and I do think we can finish top 5-6. Just hypothetically speaking.

Yep. Said it loads on here since his return to the lineup and him playing well. But he's made me yearn for our new right wing signing to be an actual right footer who. Due to the width he brings and the fact Isak seems to love playing with a genuine winger.

I've often thought his level was basically a 7/10 every week without even playing well. So any slight drop off and he looked crap. When actually he was still fine and often one of our better players. I'd sometimes say it in games myself, massively taking for granted all the good he did. As you'd then watch highlights back and wonder what you were watching live and he looked like the MOTM But recently I think it is more than that. He has looked jaded and as @TheBrownBottle said. Seems to take an age to shift the ball, more so than before. A few times last night he was fortunate to win the foul or genuinely be fouled. As he had just lost it or was about to lose it. He still has that brilliant ability to find a yard of space when he has no right to and that was on show a number of times again last night. Not comparing their ability as players. But it reminds me of Fabregas, who was also a pretty slow player. Just a couple of neat touches and a body feint and he's goal side or away from the man trying to tackle him. There is of course the fact that Big Joe is missing and teams now have plenty of tape on Bruno further forward and Tonali in the old Bruno role. So they will have found out ways to play round/through us. Whilst also nullifying what we're trying to do going forward. Tonali hasn't been anywhere near his previous levels the last few weeks, either.

And the rest.

I think he was always a C+ sort of player. But he has started to drop off a bit this season. His passing has become more lax and loose than usual and his defending even more so. Harsh to say he is now a D. But trending that way. Great thread BTW and has got plenty involved. But it does seem like there is a bit of a no man's land between B and C. Like B makes it sounds like they're one of the best players in the division. Whereas C is just like they're anyone that played for a Pulis Stoke team or every Fulham player for most of their Prem history.

I feel like they rotate quite a bit anyway. So not sure how strong or weak they would look if they make changes. Hit a bit of form. Annoyingly for us. Not sure we should be making wholesale changes. No game until the Monday after and Brighton are top class on their day. If Botman and Joelinton are available. That would be ideal. As they are starters and we need some minutes in their legs. Maybe a few changes elsewhere. But like 4-5 total. Not 9 like the last two rounds.

Agree there. Didn’t give up loads of chances and we were playing against a far better side. I thought there were similarities with how soft and tame it all was, though. No real intensity or belief.

There have been some crap away performances. So sort of makes sense, I guess. But I know plenty saying they’ve been getting worse and they often sound shit on TV. Only been to a couple. Chelsea was crap and London away ends are often a mixed bag. Ipswich was a proper old school away end. Even before the game in the pub and in the concourse it had a different feel. Lots of chants from years gone by, too. Perhaps the time of year and the long boozy journey on a Saturday 3pm helped. I’m one of the ones now locked out. Been going on and off with my mate since I was 16 using one of his family ST’s. So I’m probably biased

Small sample size. But after his early season form. Barnes has rarely impressed IMO and since coming back from injury recently. Defensive work and any speed has been totally missing from his game. I was half calling for it earlier this season and would have been more justified, I think. I wouldn’t want to see that now.