HaydnNUFC

The sight of Darren Eales now further infuriates me. Cheers.

He's not.

That some of the international fans that actually witnessed the awful times and are geet passionate about the club such as yourself got passed over for that is either or . Take your pick. Both tbh.

Well, this person's on it.

Will play them twice in a week if we beat Wimbledon. What joy.

Same for me. Finally did the software update on my phone, still didn't work. Then forwarded it to another email address of mine then it worked, oddly.

They never used to, mind. Just thinking back even just 10-14 years ago, PL clubs would hardly ever sell out early League Cup games. When we went to Old Trafford in 2012 there were 30,000 empty seats and we only took 700 fans. Compare that to the game last season. Anfield as well, only got 22,500 in against Northampton in 2010. Interest and the overall prestige of going to matches has gone up massively in the last decade.

I really hope so, mate.

More enjoyable finds than for the reverse fixture.

And rightly so if they did. Its the League Cup 3rd Round against League 2 opposition.

Go on the menu denoted by the three horizontal lines, then My Account. Should be next to your name in square brackets.

Eh? Swear to god you told me it was losing 1-3 to these in 1997. Must've been pissed as always.

Your first ever match was this fixture wasn't it? Warra afternoon that was.

They've been going that way often, and for far too long. And I just don't think Howe has the answers for it. He hasn't for over a year.

We shouldn't have to be constantly chasing games though. What was the plan from the off? How were we set up tactically, different from the previous 2 away league games to enable us to not have to chase the game?

We've only gotten those league results due to luck (Bournemouth) or flashes of individual brilliance (Wolves). At Forest against pretty much their second string with almost our full strength side out, our first touch in their box in the 2nd half was in the 72nd minute. Fulham bullied us and could've been 4 up at HT. All of these sides will likely finish bottom half. I've just seen absolutely nothing to suggest it won't continue, other than hoping it doesn't and law of averages. It's the same set up and same total lack of a semblance of a tactical plan every match. What were we trying to do in the first half yesterday? What was the game plan? At Wolves? At Bournemouth? We have zero identity at the minute and I don't have faith that we'll change that. I hope to dear fucking God I'm wrong. But I've had an ominous feeling about this whole situation since the Bournemouth game.

I know. That's the point I made earlier; Those tweaks were in personnel in the January window and through bringing Isak in and we have no transfer window and no personnel now outside of Botman that can come and improve the starting XI, and Botman's showings before his ACL in the New Year left a lot to be desired. He's not changed system or style for 2 years, and I don't expect him to. And keeping my fingers crossed that we're just going to start playing well again despite us being poor every match, and in nigh on every away match for over a year, is just blind faith to me.

I can't see it changing anytime soon though. I think we're too one dimensional in how we set up & play and don't have the personnel to change that because we didn't sign anyone that allows us to, this summer or last. Like I say I can't see a logical reason why I can be certain we'll improve other than blind faith.

Maybe, but under Howe in the past there were always green shoots that I was able to see when it got somewhat tough; - When he first come in and didn't win in the first 10 games, I saw clear improvements tactically. Some of our fans got jittery about Howe after Watford scored that late equaliser at SJP, but I could see all we needed was to sign a CB and CM to execute what Howe was trying to do. We got those in, and were in top 4 form for the rest of the season. - When the goals started to dry up January - February 2023. All he had to do was drop Wilson and bring in Isak. We did and never looked back. - Last season everyone put down to injuries, fair enough. But in terms of away performances that stem back over a year (plus what we've seen generally this season tbh) I see absolutely nothing that suggests we're going to improve or going to arrest this spiral of poor showings.

It is but I don't think Howe is totally blameless from that mess of a window either. It'll be the 3 of them collectively. And I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an upturn in away showings and we've seen anything but. And nothing to suggest that its going to change.

It's the club themselves that have stated that they expect to be in Europe. And overall Europe is pivotal to holding onto our best players and convincing potential incomings that we do actually mean it when we say we're ambitious and want to be in the best competitions. And for me personally, I don't think it's unrealistic to expect better performances, or an improvement in them. As we've seen a continuation of a total lack of cohesion and tactical nous in away matches from last season two lacklustre home performances and it isn't good enough. The worst part for me is I can't see when or how it improves, which has me losing a lot of faith in the manager as I've said a couple times now.

Europe is a must. The club have stated that on the record in pre season. Think its been generally understated just how important this season is for us as well, this season dictates where this whole thing under PIF is going imo. The transfer window didn't help things obviously, but the team we have are far, far better than they've shown so far this season and for 13 months on the road. That's down to the manager.

Gives us more time to work on a gameplan for Saturday that gets ripped up at half time, I suppose.