Whitley mag

Where crying out for a centre half, I don’t think Thiaw looks anywhere near as good alongside Schar in recent games. The answer is not Ake though at 30 years of age and we should be spending our money on a young hybrid defender, like the French lad we’ve been linked with.

I don’t think we’ve got the players currently to do it. For all Joelinton and Tonali have qualities, passing and retaining possession isn’t their strengths. There’s a huge rebuild job needed, we consistently give the ball away and Bruno despite being by far our best player, is also guilty of forcing passes. Quite often when we’ve got a chance to build play we’ll bypass it with an aimless ball forward, ironically it was a shite forced ball from Tonali that the 3rd goal came from.

Should be banging the door down to get a left back signed. Not a chance Hall can play the majority of games between now and end of the season with zero cover.

Great 3 points and to be fair nobody has blown Burnley away at their place this season. The 2 young lads Miley and Hall take the plaudits again absolutely outstanding. Suspect this result is just papering over the cracks though and doubt we have the PSR headroom in January to fix some glaring issues. Where absolutely bereft of quality in wide areas and that’s going to involve some big decisions in the summer to fix. Midfield is a huge issue and we are crying out for someone like Odegaard who can play through the lines.

Currently en route to Burnley town centre for a couple of shandy’s. Must win, or Howe out and Keegan in. Howay The Lads

Dayaan Methalie probably makes the most sense for January. He can give Hall a rest and cover LCB as well, ticks all the boxes including age profile.

It’s all relative, he’ll do ok for Palace but Johnson is certainly not what we need.

Be a risky punt at that sort of money for a player from the Eredivisie.

Wonder who will write the first article saying Kees Smit is a no go and Howe wants a midfielder with PL experience this January. Chris Waugh and Luke Edwards odds on, with Connor Gallagher being the player Eddie would love.

Aye, I often sing less when Dan Burn is not playing as well.

Don’t think they’ve lost interest just very process driven and the decision making process is to slow. Probably the major flaw in being owned by a sovereign wealth fund, where accountability is everything.

Fair, but I think they are showing signs of evolution this season, albeit in entirely different circumstances I agree. Their league position alone suggests improvement and think with Cunha, Mbeumo and Fernandes they’ve got some good attacking threat. They were garbage on Boxing Day but last season they would have lost that. Can many say we would have held out in similar circumstances this season, with so many players missing and youth players on the pitch? Maybe not the best example but ask any of their hardcore fans and I think they’d agree they are improving under Amorim.

Exactly and look what they paid for him, as opposed to what we did for Elanga.

We’ve been linked with a couple in this article. Think Rayan with Wilson’s links in Brazil would be an interesting one. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cn7k3kpxkl8o

To compete at the very top in all competitions we need to evolve into a possession based team as Arsenal have done. Klopp played high intense football but they didn’t cough up possession like we do. It’s very difficult to evolve when you double down and sign physical/running power in Elanga and Ramsey instead of technically better players.

That t shirt looks a belter and would make a great strip with the trefoil.

If you see evolution then you give Howe more time and next season. I see evolution at Man U for example with the signings they’ve made and they’re giving Amorim time to get it right. So far this season i see regression under Howe and his buys have taken us backwards at great cost. I can understand why people think he should be given time, nowt wrong with that and he’s probably earned the benefit of doubt. However, it’s a results based business and it’ll require some strong holding of nerve if we don’t win at Burnley and Wolves in upcoming away games. We’ve got some tricky home fixtures against Leeds and Palace that people will expect us to win as well. The question nobody knows the answer to at the moment is, has Howe ran his course as he did at Bournemouth, some of his recent comments re Elanga and progress just don’t stack up with what we are seeing on the pitch. Personally think the football is turgid currently and don’t think we’ll ever evolve into a true possession based team under him. I’m not wanting tippy tappy football but would like movement, incisive passing in final third and the ability not to constantly cough up possession of the ball. I don’t want him sacked currently as it would be a bad look and knee jerk. Need to see some evolution though and think even the signing of a technician like Smit in January might be transformative for him and the team.

I think they backed Howe in the summer and let him have the transfer window after the debacle of Mitchell. In hindsight it’s been an unmitigated disaster and no manager should have power like he did in the summer. PIF undoubtedly move at a glacial pace and a lot is riding on Hopkinson and Wilson being the right appointments. The recent comments from Howe re infrastructure undoubtedly are a nudge to show some ambition. Is it a coincidence there’s rumours about Tonali and Tino? I suspect players are now also questioning the ambition. I’ve backed the owners and think they’ve backed Howe as much as they can under PSR, however we need to see announcements on the infrastructure projects in the first half of next year. The takeover was also touted to also bring investment to Tyneside which we are yet to see. We keep getting told it’s a long term investment which is fair enough, but that doesn’t really tie in with Hopkinson’s 5-year pledge. Mixed messages and actions will speak louder than words.

Couldn’t agree more he’s not the answer long term as a starter.

From 20 minutes pretty much nails the situation for me and Howe doesn’t believe there is a lack of creativity in team, which doesn’t bode well at all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SAnhxQQSQM

Sometimes an individual can make a team greater than the sum total of their parts. One example being Maradona at the 86 World Cup, Argentina were nowt special and without him would not have won it. No manager gets weeks on the training ground these days to adapt due to internationals and glamour friendlies. By all accounts in the media Isak was never playing for us again after the end of last season. We could never replace Isak and if Howe did know he was probably going, he should have made sure we signed technical players instead of Elanga and Ramsey to make up for the loss of brilliance/unpredictability he gave us around the oppositions penalty area. He doesn’t currently have an answer within the current squad due to our lack of creativity in the final third and he must take a large part of the blame for this due to his signings in the summer.

Don’t disagree but the away performances in particular just don’t suggest lessons are being learnt quickly enough. I won’t deny he can attack the ball much better with balls across the box, but we are setting him up to fail with starting positions of wide men and lack of runners beyond him.

Not moving any goal posts, stick by my point that the brilliance of Isak has maybe masked the fact that where just not that great of an attacking team under Howe. Think the evidence of this season pretty much supports this.

They’re still contributing of course but look what’s happened with the main man missing. Does the League Cup or Champions League qualifications happen without him, on this seasons evidence the answer is no which is my point.

The same is happening on the right hand side though it’s not just down to Gordon. The two wide forwards are nowhere near the main striker away from home, at times they to run beyond and play narrower.