Lush Vlad

The defensive line one I mean? Is that not the average position of our line vs theirs? Surely not purely down to winning the ball back? Agree with the last paragraph BTW. The prem has been crap and all about closing space and playing for set pieces. But then I don’t think we’ve adapted and that’s our fault. We seem to play the same way every week and haven’t changed approach much since last season. I suppose the odd switch to 3 at the back. Which I think has probably been better this season than last. In fairness, our corners finally look threatening now and then, at least. One man team after all……

That second one could easily be because teams are happy to sit deep against us, no? The eye test tells us teams do that more and know we won’t break them down. A whole half against the mackems, a whole game against Wolves, most of West Ham, a long time away at Brentford off the top of my head.

Genuinely find that baffling if I am reading it correctly. Of course context is needed and probably a deep dive into somewhere like FBref (lost all their stats I think?). But makes out like we’re sort of 5th’ish and then better than middle of the road on the second graph. As I regularly watch other teams pass through us at ease or sustain possession in our half when we play them. Yet it feels like we rarely do it to them and it is often so laboured and slow when we do. Maybe the issue is actually more with how we are now off the ball and it’s magnified that way, instead. Fuck knows. I just know we’re not a good watch like the previous Howe seasons and I don’t think we look well coached this season, either. Well drilled, yes. But that’s a different thing entirely.

Starting to feel like the same as when Spurs wasted the Bale money. Worse, even.

Wouldn’t even know where to look or how to properly interpret the data. But I really can’t believe how shit we are moving the ball. We must be nearer the bottom than the top in loads of metrics? Do we ever manage to get the ball through the middle of the pitch up towards their box? Do we even look to have players there? It’s always just the 50 yard horseshoe, slowly along the backline, try and work it wide. Then hump in a cross from a shit angle to nobody. Most of our possession feels meaningless. We’re not really getting up the pitch or manipulating the other team’s players and moving them out of position. It’s passing for passing’s sake in safe areas a lot of the while. I really don’t buy that it is because we have loads of athletes who are crap on the ball, either. Plenty of teams in the league have smaller budgets, lesser names and worse squads on paper. Yet we can’t even sustain decent attacking possession in the other team’s half. Said it a few times tonight. But we are regularly miles away from each other. There is rarely quick ball or patterns that move the ball concisely. It’s too many touches and carrying the ball before releasing it. Due to how far apart they all are. The likes of Murphy and Tonali are obviously going to get exposed when we setup like that. They’re often put in a position that doesn’t really suit their style. In fact, all of our attacking players suffer because of it. The front 3 look toothless. Maybe if we weren’t so shit on the ball and only looked threatening when it’s a basketball game. We wouldn’t have such issues with fatigue, injuries and game management. We’ve not improved at all in that regard.

True. Crap all round. Murphy just sprints off and presses on his own. Trippier gives Outarra the freedom of NE1 to get his cross in. He then whips in a beaut, Botman gets under it and yet another midfielder sneaks in unmarked. No midfielder has tracked him, passed him on and seemingly nobody noticed that a midfielder has got inbetween our CB’s?!

I thought he was decent again. One of a few positives. Wins his fair share of headers. They often don’t go anywhere near where he intended, though

Please. Just something away from this wide open 4-3-3. It’s barely worked all season in the league.

Might be a stretch to put blame on him for it. But the counter for the pen came from his terrible passing again. Won the ball up high and got a decent attack from it. Basically our only way to put pressure on. He gets in a great position and with loads of men committed forward. Just tamely cuts it back to a Brentford player. Nowhere near a black and white shirt.

Yep. I wanted Ramsey to start in his place. Yet he was one of the only positives in the first half. In fact, TBF to him. He is one of the only positives from the last 4 games. Granted it’s a low bar.

That Kayode is a beast and I actually thought Barnes did well against him at times. Especially back to goal. Was dominated whenever he tried to go past him, mind. Like most our players these days. They always seem to be miles apart. It felt like plenty of times Barnes got the ball. He had nobody within 20 yards of him. Considering he is all about quick give and goes and trying to work a shooting or crossing opportunity. I would say that’s yet another tactical failure. Why We’re always too far apart and lack any decent passing options. We had a couple of times in the second half with Woltemade as the link man. But few and far between. Anyway, Barnes was crap by his standards. The same as Liverpool. But similar to that game, he still had a couple of good chances. Considering how bad the rest of our team seem to be at finishing and creating. He needs to be in the starting XI most games.

I was willing to give him time. But he looks absolute shite. Bar PSV and a few bright sparks in the Fulham cup game. He has been atrocious. Crap touch, born offside, doesn’t carry the ball with any fluidity, snatches at chances and doesn’t attack space in the box at all. The fact Osula came on and we looked miles better in attack right off the bat. Says it all. I don’t even rate Osula and he has looked nowhere near good enough as a striker in meaningful games.

When we went on that mad winning streak or one defeat in 10 and 9 wins or whatever it was last season? Some of those games were actually really tight. It was fine margins that we were coming out the right side of. Better to be lucky than good might be a bit harsh. But we found ways to win and hang onto results. Which has been a strong point of Howe’s since joining. The fact we regularly come out the wrong side now, get worse when we score a goal and can’t see out a game for shit. Makes me wonder what is going on. Surely it stops becoming luck/variance and there is a big, fundamental flaw with the setup and/or our mentality? We’ve not looked like stringing a sequence of decent results/performances together for most of this season. How many games have we actually won comfortably and been decent over most of the 90 minutes in the league? Forest, Everton, Palace (weren’t great, but we were always winning that one). Not many more, like…?! Burnley at home, maybe at a push? Had it won at half time and was only the last 5-10 we fucked up a bit. Rotated for that one too and felt like a fairly professional ‘job done’ type of result. The crap, disjointed performances aren’t really a recent revelation and I can’t agree with those blaming injuries, fatigue and the fixture pile up. They’ve just amplified what we’ve already been seeing and we now understandably look even worse.

More chance of getting dragged into a relegation scrap than a battle for a European place of some sort.

Shambolic defending and Outarra had all the time in the world, plus it was a good hit. But Pope’s main strength is saves with his feet. Should not be getting beaten like that from there. Our squad needs upgrades in A LOT of positions and we have wasted so much money last summer to get worse.

Stayed off here all week. To try and break the doom loop and constant negativity. It was exhausting. But the football is getting worse and we’re looking more and more clueless. Yes he has excuses and there are reasons. But he has to shoulder plenty of the blame, too. These performances and results are miles away from where they need to be. Of course he gets until the end of the season to see if he can turn our fortunes around. So I’m not ‘Howe out’. I don’t see what the point of that would be, who would come in and suddenly improve us for a few months and we are still in a couple of cups. Where we have usually performed admirably under Howe. But I don’t really see where the improvements are coming from? Not even sure what the tactics are meant to be now?! Slowly work it across the pitch to get a terrible cross in, with nobody really in the box. Have all our players stand 20-30 yards apart. Give the ball to Hall and hope he can build something on his own? Hope Bruno drags us out the shit again? All whilst suddenly being wide open at the back most weeks. Injuries and the number of games isn’t as much of a factor as the last CL season. We have a bigger and better squad and have often had options on the bench. We have just rotated badly and usually waited until it’s enforced. Not getting defensive cover in the January window looks negligent as fuck now. I guess that falls more on the owners. But Howe was never complaining in pressers about it. Trippier is so far past it it’s almost hard to believe. Hall will get flogged until he’s crocked. Thiaw has played about 700 games in a row. We are an absolute shower from top to bottom at the minute and it’s only getting worse.

Yes and no. The manager needs to be proactive as much as the players do. Not just ‘this is the gameplan’ and that’s that. Did we adjust at all after falling behind? What was said at half time to make us collectively shit the bed like that? More subs that were too late and made us worse and a disjointed mess. I think we were far too gung ho for the second half when the game was still in the balance, too. We knew 3-1 would be game over. But never looked to sit in that low-mid block that we actually do quite well as a 4-5-1. As for how bad we are with a lead. Howe has to shoulder some of the responsibility there. It’s been a running theme throughout the whole season.

Wasn’t on about the box stuff for Konate. It was how he read everything, was physical and showed a lot of pace and confidence second half when we tried to run in behind or carry the ball up the pitch.

We could stop playing the tried and failed 4-3-3 and get him or someone in a more advanced midfield role. IMO, he has looked at his best playing a bit deeper and trying to build play. It’s the bit after that where maybe he could improve a bit and the team in general don’t help. It’s hardly like he has loads of great options when he’s played out of trouble and he’s in our half.

I thought Konate and Szob actually played really well. Covered how bad VVD was and how bad Kerkez is in general.

I mean. I’m 36. So can’t say I remember all of them well. Other than we are almost always shite there and lose by 2 or 3. But I still think this is such a strange argument. Plenty of seasons we would have gone there as total dogs and often in a relegation scrap. Our away form has been patchy at best even in the good seasons under the likes of SBR. The gap in class would have been huge in terms of wages, squad cost, ability, expectations etc. We went there last night and we could have gone above them with a win. They’ve had some shocking results at home and in general. Does that get totally ignored when comparing the performances? How you can watch a game where we were great for 35 minutes and then mainly our usual toothless selves away from home and crap defensively outside of that. In a game where we lost 4-1 and had them in cruise control for the last half an hour and say ‘comfortably’ our best performance, is absolutely mental. The game is not 35 minutes long.

I think so. I think there will be mitigating circumstances. Like massively improved performances without getting the results. Big improvements from the summer signings. A deep cup run in the CL or FA or maybe something similar to the City v Man U cup final. Meaning we are a touch unlucky to miss out. If we carry on as we are and finish between 9th and 13th. I think I’d struggle to defend that and I’d find it hard to argue against it. It’s the performances and predictability/same mistakes that worry me more than the actual results.

Another quality half time team talk and inspired subs in a league game

Oh 100%. I quite like Woltemade. But the fact we have just chucked him in, like a plug and play replacement for Isak and not adapted much as a side. Is absolutely baffling.

Elanga’s purple patch lasted two seasons? He’s been crap and it does look like he just fitted really well into that system. Where it is the polar opposite for him here. But it’s not some Miggy or Cisse 10-15 game run of scoring worldies and form he didn’t maintain. The argument should surely be on what our scouts and Howe were seeing in him. To go after him twice and spend so much money on him. When he now looks totally ill suited to our team and like Howe has no clue how to get the best out of him.