Cf

Did I imagine the bit where we had Man Utd pinned back in their own half for the majority of the game at Old Trafford. Granted we lacked the finishing touch but I'd say in terms of overall performance/game flow that was very different to other away games this year.

But he's not the one taking the penalties. Maybe he chooses the right takers, does the necessary research, but on the day the opposition keeper chooses to dive left instead of right like he usually does. Or our best penalty taker hits the woodwork. Whatever. The point is whilst obviously the manager is a highly influential role they're ultimately not fully in control of what happens on the pitch. They can set things up the best they can (like the opposition manager will be trying to do) and at that point sometimes all you can do is see how the chips fall. In that sense I'm not worried. There's an argument that we've been a little stand back at times and lost our aggressive bit but I'll put that down to the sheer volume of fixtures and trying to manage fitness. And outside one or two games I don't think the performances have been bad. We're just not having the chips fall for us. It happens.

Disagree with this. Thought we did quite well actually with our build up play against 6 defenders and carved out some very promising positions. We just couldn't finish or nail the final ball. But breaking down the low block wasn't the problem.

Let's say this did happen. Mid table in the league and through to the FA Cup final. It goes to penalties. If we win the shootout European football awaits and a possible 2nd route into the CL. If we lose then we get nothing and miss out on Europe. I'd wager that most people would say under scenario a) that Howe has done a good job, and under b) that Howe has done a bad job. I'd argue that despite the final result he's done the exact same job in both cases. People say it's a results based business but sometimes you have to look past the results when evaluating is someone the right fit. See also Ange quite rightly getting the boot from Spurs despite winning the EL.

I don't think it is. The words I've heard from Wilson and Hopkinson suggest they know Howe is their man. Their job is to help him sort a squad out with a more big picture view. They'll be well underway with that process and changing the manager because of a bad run of form is a good way to undermine it.

And how well does this go for teams who adopt this philosophy and chop and change their manager after every run of bad results? Is this the club we want to be? Sticking with a manager can massively pay out assuming it's the right manager and I think Howe has done more than enough to show that he's one of the best.

Woltemade can be so clever with some of his touches that a good old fashioned striker partnership between the two of them does seem really attractive.

If you think you have the right man, and I'm confident that we do, you don't throw away years of progress because of some short term bad form.

Usual caveat to stats but to me this shows how tight the PL is this season in terms of quality between teams. In a lot of cases there's not much in it so games are coming down to fie margins. Yesterday we concede a rocket from an unexpected player (keeper maybe could have done better but still) against the run of play. Decent number of chances ourselves not converted and a decent penalty shout turned down. Chelsea we concede an excellent free keep (keeper maybe could have done better - pattern here - we clearly need to strengthen but for now have what we have) from a very soft foul against the run of play, concede a goal where our defender slips, and have a stone wall penalty denied. I could go further back but the point is whilst I think we are a better team overall than many in the league there's not a great deal in it which means many games will come down to these individual moments that can swing either way. In that sense outside of one or two exceptions (City springs to mind) we just haven't had the rub of the green this season. Not to say there aren't things to work on - of course there are. But the fact we're 4th in that table suggests to me there isn't necessarily anything fundamentally wrong. Somethings Maths just gets you. If you flip a coin 18 times looking for heads you can have it land on tails 14 times instead.

Sky raised this in fairness to them and Carragher said they need to work out a way of sorting out players taking advantage of the head rule.

Meh. One of those I have no particular argument whether it's given or not tbh.

Felt like we did a lot of things right in that game. We were just toothless with our end product. Feels like we blow very hot and cold in that regard.

How is Dorgu pulling Tonali's arm into his face a foul from Tonali?

Sesko is gonna score a hat trick isn't he?

Wouldn't be surprised if there's nothing wrong with him but just wants a bit more time on the training pitch with him and to take him out of the limelight a bit.

Which of those players would you take for our team? Cunha and that's it?

Ramsdale for me over Pope. He's transformational to how our defence can play. Obvious deficiencies to his game of course that show how badly we need to strengthen at GK.

We're gonna twat these.

PL I think basically has to at this point. Mostly it's just the shit games no-one would watch anyway that are left for the 3pms. EFL not as sure about.

Still a couple of hours left in fairness.

In hindsight this summer was the time to sell him. Which is a shame as a couple of years ago he looked like an all timer but just seems like the injuries have done for him. I think best for all parties is an extension of a couple of years. Let him string together some games to prove to us he still has the quality or prove to someone else he can at least have a run without injuries.

Footballers get injured all the time. Every footballer will at some point in their career pick up an injury, and most of them at least one serious one. They know this when they sign up for the job. So in that context I have no issue whatsoever in laughing my tits off at the timing/karma of this one.

The festive snow they have dropping down over the image is a nice touch.

On the other hand the thought of him being 3rd choice if he's ever fit again is delicious.

This.