duo

**hand up** - I sniffed at Gerrard when he was first mentioned as I saw it as a gamble. But I would have took him over Howe any day of the week.

I also find he slows attacks down as he will only pass when he thinks its his only option left and by that time it's too late - the chance has gone.

Coutinho for sure - in our current position having someone like Emery could have made all the difference.

Just look at Villa to see the difference a manager makes in attracting players.

IMO absolutely - he a winner for a start. So straight away you are bring in a winning mentality to the dressing room. I also think from a recruitment point of view we would be a more attractive proposition to players.

What is Howe 'trying' to do though? I am not seeing it. I am not defending Bruce - God No - but am struggling to see any tactical change under Howe. We're as devoid of ideas as much we were under Bruce. It's like it is a conundrum that neither are able to solve.

We should have had deals lined up like Trippier so as soon as the transfer window opened we sealed the deal. It's too late now imo.

I can't stand Shelvey - Just doesn't graft enough for the team - never looks like he cares. The worst thing is I don't think it is his lack of ability - I just think he's lazy. Rarely makes himself available in attack - he thinks it's enough to try and ping a pass now and again. Does the bare minimum to pick up his wages. If you compare his work rate to that of Joelinton - they are miles apart. I would be curious to see the miles he covered today as he looked stationary for much of the match.

In part that's Ashley's doing - I don't think we had much of a scouting network. Where we've really fallen down is not bringing the right people in to run the club to help ensure we get the right appointment and sign the right players. It all feels a bit amateurish atm from the recruitment of the manger to the signing of players. And it's costing us.

He did I agree - but he should have stopped that cross. Just ran out of gas.

If we had a new CB and LB today we might have won it. I've lost count the number of games we've lost from attacks from the right. Yet our first signing was a RB.

I don't think anyone is blaming the consortium as under Ashley we were down - 100%. It's more a missed opportunity as with better planning and appointments we had a fighting chance of staying up.

100% - worry is I can see Eddie still playing him.

What's cost us all season is throwing away the lead. Got to see games out.

The most worrying thing is since he's come I don't feel much has changed. He's had time now to implement things but I am struggling to see it. He looks totally out of his depth - devoid of ideas - throwing £25Mil on the likes of Wood just shout desperation. We've known for months that the club needed to strengthen in Jan but it feels like they've no plan in place - where Rafa would have a list of 10 players for each position, they seem to only have a couple. Throw bid after bid after bid for the same player when it's clear the club doesn't want to sell. You could argue his hands are tied with the players he got, which is true - the bench today was laughable. But I do think another more competent manager could set us up better, make us harder to beat.

We're down - 100%. We've blown every chance we had of staying up. The only thing we can hope for is that lessons have been learnt and PIF recruit a DOF in to properly run the club and spend out budget a bit more wisely.

One shot on target - against Watford

I wouldn't say ideal but he could do less damage. How the club thought he was the right person to keep us up I have no idea - talked the talk clearly but can't seem to walk the walk.

I think the problem we have is we've people running the club who don't know football. THE first signing should have been a DOF - they should have got one in to help run the club - got them to make the decision on the new Manager, the players. I feel because it's been left to the likes of Amanda they're making mistakes, took too long to sack bruce, took too long getting a new manager then panicked and rushed to get Howe. Took poor advice when looking for a striker and wasted £25Mil on an out of form striker. I don't know how we get out of this mess.

And I for one would back that

Only thing we can judge Howe is on results and so far he's failing miserably. The club have backed him to the tune of £40 Mil and I saw zero improvement today. We had one shot on target today against a team in the bottom half. If we can't attack the likes of Watford what hope have we against the better teams.

Howe was never the man to keep us up though imo and so far it's looking like he won't.

If he was bought at Eddies request you've got to question his judgement. Awful buy.

Never was - he's been awful this season. It's no surprise.

Are you surprised? Utterly desperate buy. We've bought a player bang out of form.