Cf

I often wonder at times how much of this is down to the player, or if they've just got really unlucky. A bit like the 40 year old who gets lung cancer despite having never smoked in their life vs the chain smoker who dies peacefully at 90.

That sounds mental. Who comes up with this stuff.

I mainly agree with you but do think the current card system struggles to deal with intentional/cynical fouls. It feels like it's much more a part of the game these days where the punishment is preferable to letting play continue. Yellow card isn't discouraging this stuff, and a red card is over the top. I don't know if sin bins are the solution, but i'd argue that with how prevalent it's become that something should be done about it.

For what feels like the first time this season we've been able to ease someone back into it. Feels like he should be starting next week though with Gordon moved over to the right?

I feel like I bring this up often but what exactly has de Zerbi achieved apart from having Brighton at or about where Potter left them?

Has the window slammed shut yet? Assumed it ended yesterday.

Livramento for Burn here surely?

Ref's been good.

We've been doing this far too much. Need to try and get a foothold in this. Lack of a bench once again.

Anyone else still nervous?

There's lots of unhappy Traitors players in here at the moment.

Had Liverpool on TV the other night. The camera cut to him every 2 minutes. Didn't realise he had his own personal 4th official.

That's the sort of games I don't think Howe should be or is playing with the board.

Would have been interesting if he'd gone end of last season. Don't think Liverpool would be as strong as they are if he had.

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.