Dandy Man

Agree 100% that Howe needs to be given more time and resources before we can even start thinking about Rafa as anything close to a serious option. Loved Rafa when he was here and felt we were always in with a shout of getting something off any team, but the football was not exhilarating and the players that played so well under him have all regressed horribly since and doubtful even he could change that. Can't judge him too harshly on what's happened at Everton but it's got to be a concern given we are just as much of a basket case of a club as they are and for all he was Staveley's choice it is not a given that he would fit into long term structure that new owners are supposedly trying to put together.

Lascelles, Clark, Dummett, Ritchie, Hayden, Shelvey, Gayle What makes it worse is nearly all of them have actually regressed since then as well..

Think it is hard to understate difficulty of situation Howe has parachuted himself into, lot of the team clearly know they have an uncertain future but we also aren't going to be signing a whole new starting eleven in January, obviously a glaring need for better standard of player in nearly every position but that needs to be addressed while also keeping the ones who are here onside and that is difficult balance to achieve - just hope what is being said behind closed doors is a bit sterner than what is being said in press conferences. Football has unquestionably been improved for me and there does/did look to be something resembling "a plan" but he's been unable to translate that into improved results, don't want to be too critical given there have been several basically unwinnable matches against top teams and the fuck ups of Clark v Norwich or Darlow v Brentford are impossible to account for, the acid test is what happens in next 2-3 games (presumably with new signings on board). Share others concerns about lack of pragmatism as while he does look to have a plan, we simply do not have the players available to play style of football he wants to implement. ASM is undoubtedly a more effective threat when he can get ball on the break with the game stretched and run at defenders, so Howe's style has tended to nullify our most potent attacking threat and in a side with fuck all other attacking threats that's a pretty big issue. The continued selection of Shelvey in what is basically a redundant role is extremely worrying (it's be worrying in any role tbh) and if that does not get addressed ASAP then I'd start to lose a lot of faith very quickly, but as with most of the team it is hard to find many better options. Just about his biggest fuck up for me was playing a full strength team against Cambridge and giving it the "we are 100% going out to win this because the team needs the confidence" - it backfired miserably, the shite that was served up against Watford yesterday has been done to death but the ghosts of that performance were still haunting them - Wood looked horribly isolated up front to the point that it was reminiscent of Joelinton leading line under Bruce. Maybe he can turn it around (I certainly hope he can) but maybe he is the wrong guy for the job, not sure what to think quite yet tbh - unfortunately we don't have a lot of time to figure these things out if we are serious about avoiding the drop.

Agree with all of above, given way Howe is setting the team up, Shelvey playing in front of defence is an insurmountable handicap. He gets ball played to feet off CBs and nearly always plays it backwards before moving himself into a position where he's not going to get ball again. Contribution without the ball is abysmal, terrible decisions, rash tackles and just generally does a shit impression of someone who is making an effort but is always looking for the easy way out. No amount of loopy lofted passes can change that. In summary, I fucking hate him and we'd improve massively for nearly any other half decent holding midfielder in his place.

More that he just doesn't fancy it imo

Would be much better with someone on left wing who gives it 100%, does basics well and keeps things simple, as Fraser has been doing on the right. ASM our best player but a total momentum killer when he's not hitting teams on the break.

Whatever happens today, I cannot wait for the day that Shelvey fucks off for good

Yeah, prefer Shelvey in a more advanced role than been case recently and there's nobody else who can realistically start ahead of him anyway

In the context of having no competent CMs it's as good as can be expected

Happy enough with that line up, Longstaff offers nothing and Shelvey a liability but we are where we are

Palace been like a team managed by Steve Bruce here

If fans were critical about the signing they'd be portrayed as unrealistic and deluded, whereas fans are being positive about the signing and being portrayed as putting on rose tinted spectacles for the new regime and hailing a bog standard target man as the new messiah. All bullshit and as others have said it is not worth the time of day, if you know the reality of the situation then that's all that matters, never going to get likes of Glendenning on our side, let him go off

Saw Glendenning was unsurprisingly wheeling out the "if Bruce/Ashley had signed him" shite in piece in Guardian today, to be expected from that gobshite but did at least concede it was a "disappointingly shrewd" piece of business

And/or outbid them on any of the strikers they try to get in before the end of the month

Been on Reims forum and general consensus seems to be that deal is too good to turn down but it would be a bad move for the lad's career at this stage. They also think we are rubbish so assuming they are a fairly knowledgeable bunch.

His agent gave us a decent deal for Trippier so only fair that we give a bit back

Will also be off to Oceania WC Qualies at end of March presumably?

Ambivalent about this, certainly not a blood pumper but needs be as needs must etc. 25m obviously high but fact that deal can presumably be finalised quickly when everyone else is seemingly determined to fuck us around and we are weakening a direct rival makes it bit more palatable.

Likely be same team that did well enough against Manure but without Wilson/Manquillo and with addition of Trippier, given Wilson only played 45 mins there and Murphy has looked reasonably lively lately, I don't think things are quite *that bad*, yeah it's not great to be going into it without a recognised ST and really don't want to see Ritchie coming in at LB but a 3-0 defeat is hardly a foregone conclusion either

Be worth it just for ASM to troll Romano on twitter tbh

One of his red cards was for this tasty tackle (also giving away a pen for good measure) https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/football/ligue-1/lens-reims-penalty-et-rouge-pour-ekitike-apres-un-coup-de-pied-au-visage_AV-202110010505.html

Kylian Mradgie, love it

At least ASM might pass to him anyway

Would've been similar levels of bed wetting if he'd signed for 40m+ and looked anything less than world class on debut anyway so at least that's avoided. Zagadou at Dortmund another gigantic left footed CB that was tenuously linked in Germany last week so be interested to see if that one resurfaces now.

Started against Morecambe yesterday anyway, looks painfully lightweight to me