Infinitely Content

I feel like there's still more to be unlocked from Tonali's game. He's an immense footballer, and one we shouldn't be in any hurry to sell.

Basically a limited version of Kai Havertz - so a profile so far away from what has brought us success these last 3-4 years. Not really convinced it will happen for him here or in this league tbh.

Fuck man, so much love for Eddie, I pray he gets time and turns it around. No man I'd rather have leading the club than him. Give him all the time possible, too early still imo and this coming from someone of the opinion that we've been dreadful all season and I've struggled to keep my eyes open watching the boring, tedious football served up.

Beautiful goal, one King Hatem would be proud of.

I'm not sure I'm on board with the "get players around him" and "build the system around him" comments, there's times in a game for every striker where they're alone and need to hold the ball, keep defenders at bay and find a bit of space until the midfield moves up in support. Haaland, Thiago, Watkins etc all experience this and find ways to protect the ball. For me before there's any thought of a team being built around him, he needs to just be better. His physical game is painfully, alarmingly lacking at the moment, and whilst he is good technically, he's not so good that it compensates for his other deficiencies. He plays with his head down (maybe a confidence thing) and doesn't pose any threat to the opposition. I think he's probably the easiest striker to play against in the league at the moment.

Perhaps, but I don't think we have the midfield today to do anything other than either sit back and pray, or push up and press searching for an early goal or two which nearly came. Anything in between we just get outplayed with a midfield including Willock and Ramsey against these. With the two Brazilians he may have approached it differently.

Not overly upset really, I get what Howe set out to do, he had to either go for it with a hint of reckless abandon to try and get an early lead, or sit back for 70 minutes and make it a 20 minute game at the end. We had great chances falling to the wrong players in Willock and Gordon - with Barnes in those positions it would likely have been a different outcome and a vindicated approach.

Tempted by a road trip from Tbilisi to Baku like, and a home section ticket. Edit: Mr Aliyev closed the borders so perhaps not. Glory to Hayastan.

Eddie Howe's cousin and next door neighbour

Really enjoyed his performance that first half

Was reading on a PSG forum that they don't deal particularly well with crosses into the box, citing Chevalier's poor anticipation and command of his area, and their defenders being weak in the air as concerns ahead of this. Maybe today is the day spamming crosses into the box actually gives us the best chance of getting something.

It's a bit different though, whilst I do think the wing play, however boring has kind of been working to an extent, it's not deployed in the same way as it was in previous seasons. We used to be a lot more intricate around the box to release Longstaff, Almiron, Murphy, Trippier etc into the box to cut back and create far more high value opportunities. It felt more calculated, detailed and disruptive to the opposition's defensive shape than it currently does this season. It's unimaginative for the most part. I wasn't bored of the previous method as it was exciting, incisive and would cut the opposition open, nowadays it feels more aimless and unstructured.

When I look across the often loose cannon managers across the footballing landscape, I am so grateful we have someone like Howe as ours. He's unwavering in his class, professionalism and composure in highly pressurised situations and I think he's largely unmatched in this sense. Whilst for the most part I really haven't enjoyed watching us this season, and found our football too often tediously boring I can see that he's trying to transition our style of play from all-action pressing to a more endurable approach, and is still searching as far as I can tell. Having little time to drill the players on the training ground is surely a big factor for such a detailed coach. I still feel we have a team of players built on his pressing system, and wish the departure from that mentality and plan wasn't so stark. I recall even at our brilliant best it's not like we pressed relentlessly for 90 minutes, oftentimes we would blow teams away in 20-30 minute spells. I wish we could see more of that but for whatever reason it just hasn't happened and that's where my questions lie: what does a functioning Howe team look like without the relentless, high intensity approach of running opposition off the pitch and essentially applying so much pressure that they cave and want nothing to do with us? I loved that style.

It's not luck like, we're a poor side at present. Villa haven't even bothered in the second half, they've just sat back like everyone does against us knowing that all they will be tasked with is having their centre backs head away pointless crosses.

Fucking hated everything about this performance. Absolutely shit. Boring, uninspiring team & tactics.

So fucking bored of watching us throw thoughtless, aimless crosses into the box. It's the same as the last 200 of them lads, there's never any fucker there. Can we not be a bit more considered than this? Anything else?

Has to keep being said due to the maddening persistence from Howe that Barnes on the right to accommodate Gordon is fucking stupid. Nullifies Barnes' strengths and highlights Gordon's deficiencies, and that's before you mention who has actually earned the right to play on his favoured side.

I agree, the tactics are unimaginative and we could be so much more entertaining to watch with the players we have. However, to a certain extent, the tactics which appear to be a strong emphasis on wing play have been working at home at least hence our league position. But those same tactics certainly don't get the most out of Woltemade who I do think is a wonderful, gifted footballer.

What I mean is that strikers in this league tend to have either strength or speed as key attributes. You could say he has quick feet, but I don't think he's a quick player who is going to worry defenders in behind or threaten to knock the ball past them. I think that's pretty self-evident and isn't even a criticism really.

Regarding shaping the team to suit him, I agree, but there's only so far that can go imo. I struggle to recall a striker who is both slow and physically weak make it in this league, especially nowadays as the physicality of the league has only increased. He's never going to be quick, so he needs a Joelinton-esque transformation in physicality imo. I don't think it's reasonable to expect us to always have players close to him, there's moments for all strikers where they're alone and either need to protect the ball better or use their skill and speed to beat defenders (Isak). He's not going to do the latter, so he needs to learn to protect the ball, and needs to be stronger to do so.

Put 6 past Napoli, 4 past Liverpool at Anfield.

Particularly unfortunate given that I believe Burn is still our best CB defensively, and Schar is the best all-rounder at the club. We miss them both immensely, certainly for their ability, but perhaps even more so for their personalities. When I think of Howe's Newcastle at their best, Schar's long range passes into the wide areas, behind the opposition full back were such a huge facet of our game. Thiaw and Botman just don't have that ability.

Bring back Ketsbaia in the 10 for this one imo, get Woltemade some support.

Shoot him f1.8 ISO 6400, Mike. Light him up.

We're paying the price for a highly dysfunctional and disorganised summer. I like Woltemade but I don't think we really wanted him, and thus we didn't really have a plan for him. We wanted Pedro, Delap, Ekitike. All technical players like Woltemade, but also have real aggression, physicality and a threat in behind to their game too. Other than Chelsea for 45 minutes, I genuinely struggle to remember a game where I felt like it was really working and felt coherent with him. Maybe USG/Everton away but that's about it. Not really his fault like, but he's such a departure from the type of player this team was built to provide service to.