Lush Vlad

He started against Spurs and I seem to remember he looked sharp even before scoring. He hasn’t been good from the off overall, I agree. It does seem like the game can pass him by at times. But what’s his longest run of starts for us? 3-4 at most? Seems hard to properly judge him. Like I’ve said numerous times on here. I’m not having Murphy or Almiron starting ahead of him at all like they were earlier in the season and at times last season. Plus it’s not like Gordon has really done much this season, either.

That confirmed? Sounds like he's back this weekend the bit I read this morning.

I'd drop him for Saturday. He's been poor all season bar the odd game, I don't think he's played that well for England, either. I know we lose some of our defensive ability taking him out. But we can't score for shit and we keep leaving Barnes on the bench. Whose goals and assists have been consistently high for the last however many years. I don't understand why he isn't deserving of a bit of a run of games and just gets the odd cameo. When the player/players ahead of him are not contributing at the attacking end of the pitch. I get the impression the injury he is seemingly playing through might be limiting him, a bit. So it's not even like it's dropping him. It's giving him a chance to rest before the Liverpool game. Where I think he'd get a lot more joy than Palace away. He's played for NUFC, England or at least been involved with international squads non-stop since the U21 Euros, hasn't he?

Pep signing a new deal to make sure he gets a bit of compo when he gets the Spanish Archer.

101 in 125 CL games now isn’t it? Outrageous behaviour.

My word. Whatever is going on at City.

I don’t think he’s what he used to be at all and the game has now evolved past what he brings. Not a chance he’s this automatic trophy manager now, either. Didn’t manage it at Spurs and they’re less cursed than us, for example. He’d fuck off all the fans and everyone else involved with the club in no time. The football would be woeful. The transfer dealings terrible and it would set us back long term, not help us. If we are planning on getting rid of Howe should results and the league position not improve from last season. Then I’d hope to fuck we have a better plan than appointing this cunt.

Goonbags running riot. Sporting equally as shit that half as they were against City in the first half. But no let up from Arsenal and they’ll actually defend, unlike City.

Nah. I don't think so. I think maybe he got his angles wrong for the goal, mind. Just another error to cap off the catalogue of fuck ups that proceeded it. I thought he was pretty good otherwise and his kicking was decent (by his standards). I thought Joelinton, Hall and Pope were the only ones to come out with much credit from the game. Despite all making mistakes and having some shaky moments.

Haven’t we drawn 1-1, 0-0 and lost 2-0 under Howe at their placr, though? Playing pretty shit and looking toothless in all 3? Yes squads and managers change. But I can understand people being a bit down on our chances. Especially after the shit show last night fresh in the memory and some pretty tame away performances this season.

I fucking hope not. That would be terrible.

They've had a mini turn around in form. They don't seem to score many or concede many for a team down there. We are sort of similar with the goals for and against on that score. Which is why I think it will be 0-0 or 1-1.

The second goal was a clusterfuck of errors if I remember correctly? Not planning on re-watching it, as I want it expunged from my memory. But Bruno tried a stupid round the corner/over the head flick back to goal which then set them free when we had men up the pitch. We then did our customary backing off, I think Joelinton didn't track his runner, there was ball watching aplenty from defenders and midfielders as Wan Bissaka waltzed into the box. Then perhaps Pope should have got his angles better and/or gone with his usual big boot clearance. Although it was post and in, so perhaps a touch harsh.

But I feel it is a bit of both here. We are not regularly creating enough good chances IMO. Both games mentioned, Gordon and Isak should score, I agree. But time and again we get in good areas and are so wasteful. The passing and creativity around the edge of the box is so often lacking. We’re really static and don’t have that player to unlock defences. The skied chances and the Willock chance you reference are not really ones you expect to see go in I don’t think. They happen at both ends of the pitch every week. That feels like you’re now just listing shots that we’ve had to strengthen your argument. I get that it is fine margins and games are tight at the top level. But our gameplan is too dependent on your last point. We are too reliant on nicking a goal from somewhere and winning by the odd goal on the basis the opposition miss their chances. We rarely score early goals this season and all. Which really nullifies our gameplan. Especially if we concede first like last night. Bar Forest, Wolves and Bournemouth. We have also finished a lot of games tamely after running out of ideas. Weirdly those 3 were away games. We don’t create enough decent quality chances in games is the point I was originally making. Hence why our scoring record is so poor. I don’t think it is just purely down to us pinpointing say 2-3 good chances a week. Other teams fans would say the same every week, I’m sure. They’re not all going to go in and I don’t think I come away from games thinking we’ve been robbed or should have scored a lot more (less than 0 would be a good start)

I thought Bowen was a passenger first half. Totally different 2nd half. Even more so after we went 4-4-2.

Yep. Tino is outstanding 1 v 1 and at winning the ball back. Nearly as good as Joelinton on that score. But every time he gets near the box. He looks like he’s panicking and rushed or worse. He just doesn’t make a decision and carries on running with the ball, straight into an opposition player. Difficult balance with how strong he is defensively compared to Trippier vs the attacking output the latter brings. It is sort of a similar argument for Barnes starting on the left. As he would bring more goals/chances. But isn’t anywhere near as good at covering the left back as others.

Isak should have scored the left footed chance, granted. Gordon missed a snap shot that fell to him because a West Ham player decided to put it on a plate for him. Still should be scoring, but his finishing has been crap all season. We had 2 shots on target all night and outside of that and some decent early runs from Isak. We were wasteful and didn’t create decent chances. We’ve basically created one really good chance all night. The Isak half volley. We always look like that in the final third. All a bit slow and clueless. Probably why people are complaining as it isn’t like Fabianski has had a MOTM performance or we were regularly creating. It was the Brighton game all over again. Chances to score. But overall a big lack of quality in and around the box.

0-0 or 1-1. We’re one of the lowest scorers in the league for a reason and I have it in my mind we often struggle here. Expecting Burn back in and no other changes unless we have injuries. I’d start Tonali and possibly even Barnes, TBH. Has to be a trade off at some point from the high press and our solidity. We need goals on the pitch.

Modern football seems to be against crossing the ball. I think someone put stats up a while back showing we are one of the least frequent crossers since Howe has been here and all. That may have changed over time, of course. But we don’t seem like we cross it much or do it with any real success when we do.

Much like with Tonali. It is hard to form a proper opinion on him and if he should be starting. As we only ever see him for half an hour or so. Then when he does start, he is often hauled, sometimes rightly so. Sometimes it seems like it’s the easy choice. He’s never been afforded a run of games from the start. Not sure he really suits Howe’s high pressing style and he won’t cover the left back the same way Gordon or Joelinton/Willock do. But he does bring more FRET.

Nice one. Cheers. Not sure if he had it pre-game. But he looked even slower than usual. Still some of his usual quality moments on the ball, mind.

This. Risky. But as others have said. I’d like to see him take a punt and make a few changes Saturday. It’ll be another game where we will be afforded more of the ball and the usual team will struggle to create chances. Not all on Howe. Because he isn’t the only one scouting or asking for certain players. Plus we have PSR issues. But the fact that after 3 years. We still don’t have any decent technical passing quality high up the pitch, is a black mark against his name. 3 of our 4 best passers are defenders. One has only just become a regular and is 20 years old. One seems to be on the decline this season and his passing has been sloppy. Then we have Trippier. Who is always injured/wants away/doesn’t always start. Then Bruno plays deep and isn’t impacting games in the final third as much as he could be. Joelinton and Isak have great feet. But don’t really create or assist. The team is full of try hards and athletes outside of that. It has worked really well and still does up to a point. But a few games this season it has really magnified how poor we are on the ball. The build up and attempts to break teams down is often predictable and laborious.

Is he injured then or no word from Howe post-game on that?

Any word on his injury? Not on Twitter any more and fuck watching/reading match reports and comments from Howe after that

Same. Nothing still quite ruins my mood like a totally abject Toon performance and a loss. Slept like shit and our 6 month old decided to wake up 4-5 times as well. Feel like I’ve not been to bed. First half wasn’t really that bad save for that criminal defending off the corner. Just wasteful in good areas with our finishing, passing and crossing. Which has been a theme for quite a while. Second half was atrocious. 5 minutes of looking like we’d score. Then effectively game over after 53 minutes. Subs and the change to 4-4-2 before that even. Absolutely killed us. Felt a bit desperate when prior to that. We had actually had a lot of control over the game and Bowen was largely anonymous first half. Then ran the show in the second and we were lucky to only lose 2-0.