HaydnNUFC

Howeh, its mendacious to suggest our success last season was solely Howe running players into the ground and getting lucky with injuries. There's going to be a difference in intensity between playing Zrinjski, Legia Warsaw & AZ Alkmaar and playing PSG, Dortmund and Milan, like. The difference in quality of teams in the Conference League and the Champions League is polarising. I agree with possibly the thought of adjusting how we play or manage games slightly this season and reduce the intensity with the added games by signing first team ready players that look after the ball in midfield a lot more than our current lot can, which we didn't do in the summer.

Yep. If we were to lose that'll be 3 consecutive seasons under Howe we've been knocked out in the 3rd Round by a team from a lower league.

He's top class yet I don't think we're getting the best out of him. Especially away from home, he's been so isolated it's painful.

Whilst I largely agree with what you're saying Lascelles and Ritchie are the only players from the Championship that have regularly appeared for us this season, the latter appearing with fleeting sub appearances.

Would make my 2024 if Peter Drury was involved in a chip pan fire.

Diving fucking rat.

All 3 goals have come from our left.

He's so poor, man.

What a finish.

How's he got so much space at the back stick?

A load of decisions going our way. Grasp this opportunity lads, pls.

Could tell what was going to happen as soon as we committed to pressing them there. Hopefully it's off.

Never a red in the Sheff Wed Hull game imo.

Missed out Forest away on St Patrick's Day.

I'm aware. He'll just make it that touch more unbearable.

We're going to get Drury for our game aren't we

Rashford's body language is shocking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRWnktYqawk

Unsure what thread to put this question in, but are there a few similarities between this season and 1994-95? Finished top 4 season before, start the new season playing some outrageous stuff at times (Villa 5-1, Sheff Utd 8-0, PSG 4-1, Palace 4-0) before going through a slump over Christmas and exiting Europe relatively early. We also only won 1 away game after October in 1994-95, at Ipswich who went down, after winning the first 5 on the bounce. We went on this run over Christmas. Obviously not losing as many games as we have been this current run but still; 2 wins in 13 is poor. Fan expectations have risen which in turn can be argued has negatively impacted the atmosphere at matches. Keegan here also, obviously won't be to the extent of this season but:

Plus the Adidas deal, money from Sela and money from playing Champions League group stage football so how the hell would we need to sell to buy.

If we were to sell one of those in the summer the money would show on the following years' accounts, so that doesn't make sense as we'd still go over the current accounts if we're as hamstrung as Baldwards makes out. Even still we lose every game Bruno misses pretty much, Isak is our best attacker by miles and our only other striker turns 32 in February and we still need a CB on top of Botman, Schär and Lascelles.

Athletic said we opted to look elsewhere which I too find mad. Think he'd have come here had we gone in for him in the summer.

31 G+A in 81 games as a LW as opposed to 10 G+A in 44 games as a RW. Also seems that Howe likes inverted wingers regardless. Worded the Tonali point badly, my bad, didn't mean he was meant to be a rotational player but a player of his quality coming in would've taken the pressure off of Bruno a bit given our reliance upon his presence (not won in which he hasn't started since March 2022).

I do, yeah. Both Gordon and Barnes have played on the left the majority of the careers at their previous clubs and in the 7 matches Barnes has been available for he has only started with Gordon once and has only shared the pitch with him for 98 minutes out of 630. I thought Tonali was a signing to take pressure off Bruno and rotate with him with the extra games that came with the CL. I'll have big qualms about them if they don't tbh.

Howe has more than enough credit in the bank to avoid serious talk about him losing his job. (even if there is any) What he did here not just last season but in 2021-22 when he kept us up should give him plenty of time to navigate this sticky patch. And it is a sticky patch; 6 defeats in 7, the only win in the last 7 being against 10 men, out of Europe altogether before Christmas and running on fumes. The one thing that is troubling me however is there doesn’t seem to be a coherent tactical plan or pattern in our play defensively or offensively. I remember back in January 2022 when we just drew 1-1 at home to Watford and had 1 win in 21 games or something but I still was fully behind Howe even as the shadow of Benitez loomed. The reason for that is you could see clear improvements in individuals and clear tactical plans and patterns being implemented but the playing staff he had at his disposal then were simply just not good enough hence the constant individual howlers and lapses in concentration that cost us back then. Alas, we signed improvements in January and the team improved exponentially. I can’t see those patterns or improvements this time however. And I think this leads onto the next point. To put it bluntly, imo the summer window was a failure. Really easy to say now with 20-20 hindsight but we did not sign the personnel required to improve the first XI; the way Howe tries to get us playing is intense, pressing football that baits the opposition into a game of chaos in which we can kill teams, even the top ones, on transitions. But that can’t be the way a team plays over 38 league games plus 6 European games on top of the already existing cup games due to the physical exertion it demands and the schedule that comes with it. Our pressing game papers/papered over the fact that many of our players do not possess great individual quality that is required for a top 6 side; players like Longstaff, Almiron, Burn. So when the team is tired, the level of quality seeps through and shows and it either gets you through gritty matches or costs you as seen today. The players we should have went for in the summer were players that possess similar levels of quality that Isak, Bruno and Botman have. Tonali potentially was/is one, but we have a large outlay on 2 young full backs that so far have only got game time because of injuries and despite performing better than the players they are replacing (certainly in Livramento’s case) they are dropped as soon as the injured players they replaced have returned. ~£40m on Barnes despite us needing a right sided wide man since imo even before the takeover. The sides around us improved their first choice XIs, we didn't. I think the worse thing I can say from probably a selfish POV is I’m just not enjoying watching us this season. We’re incredibly easy to play through and hit on the break plus there’s no real pattern in our attacking play. I don’t think Howe has done himself favours these last few games but he absolutely deserves the time to see this sticky patch through. Time for him to earn his salt, and for the owners to give him and the team the help they need in the transfer market.