Dr Jinx

The second goal wasn’t his fault. Someone in the middle decided to run out to the wing leaving Kudos totally unmarked and open for a pass.. I could see the fucking move about 15 seconds before the goal went in. Tonali was fine. They are a good side and it’s a small pitch. Nobody had time or space to do much. Disappointing that we shrank back after bossing it for most of the half. This will be seen as a good point later in the season.

I just realised that he has that same emotional connection with the club/supporters that Keegan had. Lightning in a bottle. Great news. Onwards and upwards.

I also think for the most part, that women are not funny / lack a sense of humour / make absolutely shit stand up comedians. Prove me wrong.

He's not wrong in his comments but he should know better how that would have been taken up. It's an equality of outcome thing as opposed to equality of opportunity. Every pundit panel must contain a woman regardless if she has the personality of a turnip, or she has to be the presenter.

He makes a mockery of the doubters (including me at times). He'll have surpassed every great manager we've had here by the time he's finished. It's mad that he's young enough to stay here for Fergie/Wenger type timelines and would still be young enough to take the England job to cap off a career.

Another rotten club. It was a failure of a project. When you start paying players obscene amounts of money like what Mbappe is on.. it can only ever lead to the opposite of what we have at our club. Zero togetherness. Enrique isn’t a shit manager but I don’t think he’s ever been the same since his kid died. Who would in fairness. He’s a classy bloke and was very respectful of us before and after the game.

Man you’ve been on this board long enough all through the Ashley years. You should be able to sniff out false dawns easily. The Glazers make too much from the club, or potentially having it as an asset to get cheap credit on from other ventures. I’d be shocked if they sold.

Such a weird club, they have players that can win a match against any club on any given day but they don’t seem to have any interest in being consistent about it. Something rotten there.. the way they’ve handled significant player situations (Greenwood, Sancho) has been appalling, owners that have no sporting interest in the club, no direction, what kind of scouting do they have? You can see clear as day this will continue on and off, season after season. Change a manager, no difference.. ETH has been made to look a mug by his players. His aura of the work he did at Ajax in tatters, he’s been exposed there big time.

The nufc blog is shutting down. Dr. Ed Harrison has stage 4 cancer so unable to keep the site going. Very sad to hear this. Seems like the site has been around forever and definitely a part of my in and off season info gathering over the years. He must be given his dues.. it’s some effort to have kept that going (just as it is here too). Hope he gets to enjoy the club with the time he has left. To those running this site too, you’re appreciated massively. You’ve basically given something that I’ve spent as much time on as Facebook during my adult life.

He’s definitely improved but he’s also playing with better players and he benefits massively from the leadership Trippier has on the pitch. One thing to note was that midweek, Pope had zero confidence to play it short to either Lascelles or Dummett.. they just kept passing us into trouble. At the weekend Schär sort of covered over that as Lascelles would just play it sideways but overall our play from the back becomes more predictable. With Schär and Botman, it’s options and calmness from both sides, that’s why Lascelles can’t get into the team. We build up play much better and are far more comfortable keeping possession with our first choice. For heading he’s as good as anyone at the club, he’s also far from slow. But the things he lacks are sadly things Eddie Howe can’t coach into a player at that age.

It’s really a shame Maxi isn’t part of the squad for this one. He’d have been well up for it.

Good timing before PSG to give the whole squad a lift.

You still need Tripps for the leadership, influence on the pitch but there’s definitely a scenario where both start. Both taking turns going forward and the other covering.

Not the best of debuts. He looks like he’ll need to be eased into things gradually but definitely showed flashes of potential. Howe will know what to do with him.

He’ll never have to work as hard defensively against any other team. It wasn’t his fault, it was just one way traffic. Did his job and we didn’t concede. You can point to Bruno coming on but Gordon for Hall was the bigger upgrade.

We might not see an in form Joe Willock until next season. He’s had no pre season. We should take it that there’ll be 5 in competition for the first team. Bruno, Longstaff, Tonali, Anderson and Joelinton which should be enough to cover most if our games. If we start picking up injuries there may be trouble.

Excellent yesterday but against wank opposition. When he starts performing like that against more competitive teams he’ll definitely have earned his place. But all the right signs. He deserves to be kept in for next game at least. Big Joe coming back will give some selection problems.

Not over the line but a handball. Accidental or not, it directly led to a goal scoring chance so by the rules as I understand them, that shouldn’t have stood.

I’d be fuming if that was against us

Having a squad to cope with these pressures is why we need to start using them. I suspect Tripps and Tino are both going to end up in first team by end of season, with the latter playing more advanced.

The release clause is fairly standard in most other countries so not too worried, does seem a bit low though. I just don’t know why the info would leak quite so easily though.

I'd like to see him as the focal point in attack.. he's rapid enough to get onto some of the balls that he's providing for Isak or Wilson

i noticed a few times where he was open for a pass and it was the pass to make, only for Bruno to sort of do that slow down stand on the ball thing and decide to go down the right side. The team are not involving him enough.. it's obvious he's got passing range and is creative.

A few of our signings under Howe have looked like square pegs. Gordon and Tonali being the obvious ones. The issue is balance. We had a very well balanced side last season and anyone coming from the bench slotted in just fine as well. Trippier, Bruno, Botman and Isak just came in and instantly made us better. It was obvious. I understand we’re not going to do that each time with a transfer but we now have a few Joelinton situations we’re going to be debating these players for a year or more before they come good, or not.

Great point and very hard fought. Both sides were absolutely shot by the end of that. They had the bulk of chances but we probably had the best strike on goal. IMHO if that falls to Barnes or Wilson it goes in. Theyll be hurting in the next league match but a slog like this will do us good for fitness levels. Slight concern about Bruno limping.. the whole midfield aside from Longstaff looked like were running in treacle for the last 15 mins. Thought Isak was a bit off it tonight. Gordon did well again, I think Howe is getting closer as how best to use him.