Tiresias

It is harsh but also our main captain probably should be on the pitch most the time and trippier is definitely being eased away from automatic starting (even if he will start a lot). It's well harsh but long term I don't think it will diminish his standing internally, we have been a club with a lot of good leaders internally, which stemmed from Rafa instilling it somewhat and then Bruce era when the players had to step up cos the coach was sure as hell not going to bother

Pffft the cold pensioners could stay warm in the stadium! 2 birds one stone!

I did get a bit of respect for gary neville saying he didnt sing the national anthem at least initially purely to spite an FA suit who angrily sought him out after his first cap to demand he sing the national anthem

The fixture list can be unkind by piling difficult games close together and at start of season, or christmas time or in the final run. I don't quite buy that if they are clustered together at anytime that makes it unkind, in fact the opposite, the trick is surely to make sure your run of good form coincides with the run of difficult games, if the difficult games are spread completely evenly out it is impossible to do this. A big area of concern for me is making sure our poor away form from last season is arrested. We are clearly undercooked, Howe said himself Gordon was playing himself back to fitness which is less than ideal. Once the squad is fit St James will remain a fearsome place for any squad in the league to visit and we will earn decent points throughout the season, the unkind away fixtures pilling together will risk momentum, if such a thing really exists anyway.

He's good like its just when we buy him for a fraction of what they think he's worth will be hilarious

Odd player really, I don't know if he's really a winger, he feels more like a striker but he's not going to hold up play, and he's quick but not lightning quick. He's not super skillful to get past players either, he's just smart in getting into right place right time like an old fashioned poacher. I do think back in the days of 4-4-2 he would be upfront alongside a big man who would take it down for him. Anyway really excited if he keeps playing like this does ease my concerns on our sharpness this season.

Ok i get that to some degree, and the low wages I guess does reduce the risk of people just sitting taking a wage and refusing transfers but I still think there will be fair bit of that. I think a) it will have negative impact on the pitch which we have already seen, maybe once the spending settles down it will improve a lot especially if they stick with a manager, but I kinda think if a club is a basketcase they don't fix themselves overnight. b) you're right the academy is probably the get out of jail free card but I also think the incentivising of selling home grown players is the most obviously outrageous aspects of the FFP regulations which I can see being changed relatively soon(albeit clubs wont vote for that without something else to make things easier to comply coming in, but a lot are pissed at chelsea so think there will be support). If that changes will screw them over a lot.

I get that, but sometimes there is decision making mistakes going on, i was getting wound up when we seemed to be passing into congested areas a lot which can work if we are our best but when sitting back a bit? There's a little bit of work can be done there to get players to judge better to make the pass out of trouble.

But what i don't get if what value does a player who say hasn't played in first team for 2 years hold? Who is going to bid large amounts when football transfers are always based on who was good in last 6 months. Not saying that is reasonable but also reasonable not to value a player who hasn't played in ages. To try and keep value they will have to keep rotating and playing the players managers don't want, but even then if the team isn't good that again hurts the value. I just think they reckon that if 1 in 5 of theirs players can be sold for huge profit it becomes worth while but i just doubt it

I do think the Howe high intensity style does mean basically if you are off it by 5% you look like shit cos suddenly you're not winning the ball back you've missed it and the ball is past you. I do wish though when we can't do the press so much we could pass it around better. If we can't win it back in the press so well we should be better at keeping it. It's like in full flow we will go for the high risk high reward passes because we know we will get the ball back soon if it goes astray. The players should know we aren't pressing so go for that less. I don't mind it around their box or like when Joelinton fed Murphy in build up, I do mind it when we are risky passing it in our own half and we rarely just try and slow the game down, which we should do if we ourselves aren't going for the press as we normally are.

Get in! Ft

Gordon hauled off (lol)

Ffs Gordon

Get in

Get. Gordon. Off. Absolutely abysmal

Why give away posession like that at least make them try ffs

Better.

Just a shadow of ourselves. Hopefully international break wakes up some of them, We look like a lower half of midtable team.

Why fucking take off barnes rather than gordon. Howe's myopia is mad sometimes

We look just worse in every area than we know these players are capable of.

Sigh, deserved

Wild not given did not get ball. Sigh

Get in!

Kelly completely done there

Awful