Whitley mag

Agree this will help but suspect we’ll still have problems with teams in a low block until we change something fundamentally with our play. The long term plan for Woltemade when Wissa is fit will tell us much more about where this team is heading.

Don’t think signing Elanga and Ramsey had anything to do with Isak. They were long term targets and completely wrong profile to take us forward.

I enjoyed the win in Belgium and beating Bradford, but let’s not let that fool us into thinking this has been anything but poor in the league.

He realised Tonali needed to start last season and it give us a lift. Its might possibly come with Wissa this month but the team looks well short and predictable in attack currently.

He got it wrong in the summer so I’m not sure we have a fix for some of our problems at the moment.

Fair enough.

Everyone’s beat them since but at the time it was chaos and we caused them problems.

It’s been woeful outside of Benfica and Spurs in the Cup yes. What have been your highlights?

Put simply he needs to fucking sort it. Passing is shite, wingers not creating and he hasn’t found a way to get Woltemade regularly in the game. It’s on him, he spent a fucking fortune in the summer and plenty of clubs have seen churn like Palace, Bournemouth and dare i say it the cunts down the road. His place in history is written but that only goes so far if where languishing in the bottom half of the table turning in shite performances. The club has moved on thanks largely to him, but with increased expectancy comes pressure and he’ll be well aware of that if performances continue as they are in the league. This season has been shite, they’re crap to watch in the main and for the first time in his reign we actually look poorly coached with basic passing problematic. Not sure how this season pans out at this stage, any margin for error in the league has now gone and I don’t buy this shite of writing off the league campaign. I’m sure PIF won’t be seeing it that way and it’ll be a major set back in our progress if we don’t get some kind of European football.

Brighton was a bad day and we recovered. However, the main problem is he doesn’t seem able to fix the away form which is now becoming high profile.

Makes a mockery of paying a premium for PL experience if he doesn’t come good to next year.

Next 2 feel big and fans needs to see a reaction. In many ways I’d be happier if we beat Brentford if it’s a choice, the league performances have been dreadful and the CL feels hollow if where floundering above the relegation zone.

Would love to just see Bruno and Tonali in a pivot. Big Nick is to good to become a rotation striker with Wissa and could solve our creativity problems in 4-2-3-1.

There were other options on the market that we could have explored. We also tried to sign him previously, so not sure it was even desperation, more bad judgement.

Roy Keane always gives off the vibe that he thinks he’s overrated when he’s a pundit for England games and mentions his end product. He’s become way to predictable and needs to make the defender guess more by going on the outside more often.

How he utilises Woltemade when Wissa is fit will also be interesting.

Howe is at his best when he can prep his team all week and they largely remain unchanged each week. It’s no coincidence that in 2 European seasons now he appears to be struggling in the league. I can see us getting something against Bilbao midweek but then Brentford away could be rinse and repeat. We need results in the league or pressure will build on him. I enjoyed our performance against Spurs midweek but I’ve got to say since he went 5 at the back against Everton on the last day, I haven’t enjoyed his football one bit this season. I’m no fan of tippy tap football but we need some composure in the final third and he’s neglected this massively in the summer.

Has he been as good as been made out recently? In my opinion no, looks cumbersome and lucky to have had Thiaw alongside him.

Was never comfortable with him having total control this summer, don’t think any manager should.

Ramsey and Elanga haven’t raised the bar for 100 million. Unfortunately, this is what it comes down to for me, we needed to improve the quality in first 11 and after 10 games it’s not looking like he has.

To many mistakes at this point time for a change.

Partially but there’s big issues that he didn’t address in the summer and it’s coming home to roost.

Criminal.

For the money he’s spent our current form and league position is unacceptable simple as that. Big question marks over at least 100 million of what he’s spent at the moment.

Because we sign athletes not footballers.