Cf

Potter had them up to 9th and they were 4th when he left (albeit early in the season). They were on an upward trajectory. Not to knock on the job De Zerbi is doing but don't think it's out of the question Potter gets them to 6th last season as well. He really did choose a bad time to leave though I can see why he did.

Why do Bayern want Trippier btw? Desperately short of a RB or something?

I can sort of see the logic in this one. Livramento is our future. Trippier must be nearing the end of his career and it seems like due to FPP we need the money and should be taking opportunities like this. On the other hand it weakens our squad in the short term, especially at LB if Livramento can no longer cover there. And I worry about the image of having one of our headline players leave in what has been not a great season so far. It could potentially open narratives we could do without.

You don't just throw the reserves under the bus with "All right lads you're gonna be up so the real players can have a rest. You're gonna get spanked but don't worry about it. Better to lose this game you're playing in than other games the first teamers will play".

Collectively we all mostly agree that Howe is the right man for the job and that this season has very much had mitigating circumstances so far. We also agree that whilst Mourinho has had previous success he's well last his best and would be a laughably short term appointment with no guarantee of success. Given our owners current actions and appointments what makes us think they don't see it like the above too? I'm not saying the direction won't change but so far they've viewed it as a long term project. Part of that is if you think you're on the right track you ride out periods like the one we're going through. There'll have been questions asked of him I'm sure but I don't think he's in any danger.

Well of course he shouldn't be but we have 10 years of Ashley that doesn't get undone overnight

You'd think he played the same 11 every game and never subbed by the way people go on in here. Villa - 5 subs https://www.nufc.com/2023-24html/2023-08-12aston-villa-h.html Man City - 5 subs https://www.nufc.com/2023-24html/2023-08-19man-city-a.html Liverpool - 5 subs https://www.nufc.com/2023-24html/2023-08-27liverpool-h.html Brighton - 5 subs https://www.nufc.com/2023-24html/2023-09-02brighton-a.html Brentford - Only 1 with Isak and Tonali notable non-starters ready for... https://www.nufc.com/2023-24html/2023-09-16brentford-h.html AC Milan - 4 subs https://www.nufc.com/2023-24html/2023-09-19ac-milan-a.html I mean I could go on. There was clearly an effort to rotate but we have to remember he doesn't really have the squad for it. Our best starting 11 on its day can give anyone a game but there's a big drop off in quality after that. So he's trying to keep players fit whilst trying to compete as a top 4 team and our squad simply isn't one of a top 4 team. Add to that the freak injuries/suspensions and I dare while say there's some lessons to be learned speculation around "he should have done this", "he should of done that" given the shit hand he was dealt is to miss the point. If people think we should have been playing Ritchie and the like then we're at the level of argument of who was worse out of Bruce and Pardew. Such are the fine margins the game operates at: no penalty against PSG and we're potentially still in Europe. No freak mistake from Trippier and we're still in the League Cup. To have got that close with what he's had available for the last few months is pretty good going in my book.

Should hopefully go without saying but this isn't because Sky Bet think this is going to happen. They just think people are stupid enough to bet on it.

There's a difference between suboptimal and what we had available. Also worth bearing in mind how badly our seasons started with Rafa.

Given the ridiculous level of injuries we had and the amount of games we had in December if we only played fully fit players we'd have been putting the reserves out.

I think blaming Trippier for the goal is really harsh like. It was an exquisite pass from De Bruyne. The fact they get to bring him on in the second time is frankly not fair.

Can't really complain. Undone by a very very good team. The gulf in squad quality is clear to see.

Illness.

Hall nearly cost us a goal there just from being mentioned he was about to come on.

When you look at their bench vs ours I still think they're favourites but ok glad to see the effort the team have put into this.

He blew exactly on the 8 minutes...

WTF

That's probably better than their goal tbf

What a fucking player we have.

Isn't this just called playing football?

I've really liked this aspect about the league this season. It's a shame about the gulf in quality between the PL and Championship and that the promoted teams are basically fodder. But it feels like anyone could be up there in a way that's not been the case before.

Wasn't even fucking managing us at the time.

You can question the original foul sure. But the notion of "players were involved in handbags, book both of them" doesn't hold up. It wasn't that bad from Gordon but a bit more experience and you hope he doesn't react there. We're so far ahead of them that we don't need to drag the game into that level.

Not sure I buy this when it was Gordon who instigated the hand bags.

We needed that. Next couple of games are going to be tough so hopefully a nice confidence boost. I don't think long term the result really mattered but I can see how a loss would have brought a lot of pressure on the club so it's nice to see that scenario avoided.