Dr Jinx

It’s not being unfair to say he hasn’t really contributed since signing. But Howe sees it and at some point we will too. Was far more annoyed by Maxi today so not really sure why AG is getting so much hate.

How is this threads page count so high?

I’d be all for teams being able to have a challenge.. similar to tennis, maybe 3 a match, up to the captain to decide when to use them. VAR can be generally used for violent conduct or dangerous tackles but goal related incidents are either used as a challenge by a team who think they’ve been wronged or by a team who think they should have a penalty. Linesmen flag like they used to. But also goals will stand like they used to too unless challenged. That would sort the flow of games out.

That was a disaster today. I’m annoyed, not necessarily at losing but more how we fell for their time wasting and antics. Any time we got some momentum they had an “injury” - by far the worst I’ve seen all season including some of our less sporting moments. We had chances but were so wasteful. Not going to name some underperformers but we had a few notable ones today.

What was Botman and then Schär doing there?

I agree, we have created plenty of chances and been wasteful. We’ll create more. Id like to see Isak get a few minutes in the centre.. Wilson has been decent but we have options so why not switch around. Our midfield has been the weak link today. Giving little protection to the back line and falling for their shithousing. Eddie needs to read them the riot act at half time and I think he will.

We didn’t have much off the bench the last time we played them.. honestly think we’re way stronger now. Playing at home could be all the difference this time as well. Am not massively confident but I think they’ll be coming here not to lose so it will be tight.

We already have this though. Big Joe and Longstaff adequately fulfill that role and we can see a dip in how we press (and how effective it is) when he doesn’t play. Big Joe is more for personal battles, he’s someone who won’t just let like the likes of Declan Rice dominate a game.

I’m not sure he’s a great fit for our side either. For all of his creativity and damage he can do with the ball, I think he makes us more vulnerable. If we stay the course and qualify for Champions League, we can go for a player who has all his attributes plus power, pace and athleticism. Now if we go for him I’ll be all in as have full trust in the clubs vision, but I just have my doubts.. I think he’s one of what will be many many options.

We look awful in the middle without Longstaff. That boy is due some apologies from a lot of us, included me. He’s a vital cog in there.

Funny that there were some who were genuinely angry that we let him leave with no replacement coming in ?

Issue with the journos is that while all the takeover shite was happening and the years of angst around the previous ownership, club generated clicks were sky high, the journos didn’t need to embellish anything. Now that the club is finally being run well. We see all we need to really from either club media accounts or by the football on the pitch. So either side of a transfer window, they’re in a full on drought when it comes to their usual clicks. Eddie Howe has said before he sees a future here for Maxi and unless Maxi isn’t happy to play a squad game, I don’t see any reason for him to leave. Why would he abandon CL football?

Such a glorious clip that goal, but one gripe.. the BT punditry. Whoever that woman was on commentary.. somehow has less personality than Michael Owen.

Yeah we could have kept going but the rest of the game was easy, we were able to rest Bruno and Tripps and look towards another busy week or fixtures. Honestly think if we were absolutely ruthless we could have scored 8 or 9.

The only things he’s done since signing for us, that through ball for Wilson in his debut. And two tackles, then giving it to a midfielder (Bruno) which then led to a goal. It’s still early days but like posted above, say we make top 4, we will spend. Who has him in the starting 11 then? The elephant in the room isn't his ability to be a squad player, it’s his price tag.

Could probably buy foreign players who are just as good but having a core of an England team also gives a lot of sway with the FA. Being influential off the pitch is nearly as important as having success on it.

He got spanked tactically today and he was let down by a few very sub par performances. We didn’t give them the respect they were due and approached the game like any other. When that didn’t work out we looked stunned. Now if I thought he wasn’t going to learn from this I’d be concerned, but he’ll hate what happened and will analyse the fuck out of what went wrong. It’s also hopefully a lesson into what he needs to bring in this summer I’m terms of midfield, we were overrun today.

Easy to say we’ve been shite but Villa have shown up from the very start. I did detect from about 40 mins they started to run out of steam a bit. They were happier to see end of half than we were.

I don’t care if he turned us down, he was being advised by a clown to do that. Reality will bite here and he’ll begin to start thinking “ooh.. time to start taking this seriously if the career is going to go anywhere” PSG was a shiny trophy of a move, a dream for any French kid who probably didn’t or couldn’t see that it’s an absolute poison bowl of overpaid egos. It was a move that was never going to work out, especially when Neymar decided to dig in and stay. If he gets rid of said clown and surrounds himself with serious people, his career will turn around am fairly sure and I wouldn’t be opposed to him joining. Would also give Maxi someone to play big brother to

Thankfully I don’t think Eddie Howe is as spiteful as we are ? He does second chances as proved with Ryan Fraser, but fuck about and find out as he did a second time. He won’t hold that grudge against Ekitike, the kid was badly advised and chose a bad move, it was never going to work out given what they already have there. If he still fits the overall plan we’ll try again at some point. Ekitike, Isak, Gordon could be the fastest front 3 in world football?

He’s already wheeled out several pfm bullshit bingo lines.. “I didn’t expect to solve everything in one day” , “Wednesday will be a completely different game” ? It’s almost like they all go on the same Poundland media training course.

Declan Rice and Joelinton in the same midfield would scare the bejesus out of most teams. You can tell the last few games we’ve played them that there’s a massive respect between the two as well. Although they sort of play the same position.. maybe Rice a bit deeper. He’s definitely got the engine and work rate for Howe. Imagine even discussing this a year or so ago….

Starboy Malfoy ?

Absolutely, but that goes for any manager at any club. It has to be a right fit or they simply have to have more cop on not to join clubs at certain times. Pep could have taken this job in the middle of the Mike Ashley debacle and we’d have been no better off.. all that would have happened is that his stock would have lowered. Rafa polished that turd as much as possible but I don’t think he’d have improved us with another season. Too toxic. When it really works like Howe has here, it’s lightning in a bottle and it must be looked after.

He’s done a great job overall but picking the squad up after a bit of a blip has been very impressive. Season could have easily fizzled out but we’re right in it again now, we look like the 3rd best team in the league right now.