Holmesy

I'm probably less confident of Eddie turning this around than I have been in the past but i'm obviously hoping he proves me wrong. We just look completely clueless in every department. We're regularly getting turned over by poor teams and it feels like we've been found out. We're able to be more effective in the CL because those teams aren't used to playing us. The removal of Dan Burn at LB improves us instantly, and his continued inclusion is doing Eddie no favours at all. The disgruntled voices will only increase if he refuses to drop him. Beyond that, i don't see how you get the entire team to step up and stop being so easy to play against.

If Eddie has him in there because he wants another tall player in the team, that's really fucking concerning. Both times Burn has had prolonged runs of games at left back, it has coincided in us having a bad run of results. Eddie is too blindly loyal and seemingly obsessed with having tall players in the team, which is very Steve Bruce-esque. Hall earned an England call up playing at LB for us FFS and he sat on the bench watching this nonsense.

This might be the worst I’ve ever seen Gordon play

I knew someone would come back with this . I'm not comparing our own journey to City's, for obvious reasons, but the comment was in direct response to 'some people seem to forget about his past achievements with us (referencing Eddie)'. We all know what his achievements have been - the man has worked wonders! But there are also things that could be improved - better set pieces, more imaginative player recruitment, more impactful substitutions, forgoing player loyalty for better team balance, more flexible tactically (ie a proper plan B,C and D), a better away gameplan etc.

Pellegrini and Mancini both won the title for City. They both got replaced and eventually Pep came in, and the rest is history. I'm sure their fans look back fondly on the other two but I can't imagine any of them are too upset with what has happened since. We can be overly sentimental at times, probably because we've all still got Ashley/Bruce/Carver/Kinnear-PTSD, but this is a new era of NUFC. I'm not Eddie out at all but there are elements of his management and player recruitment I find frustrating. If he was replaced I would be sad like most, but if the new manager kicked us on even further, i'd quickly move on.

That's what we thought about Benitez but we moved on. I'm not saying I want rid of Eddie but you can't realistically think he has a better chance of attracting top talent than someone of Ancelotti's profile? We have money to spend but our biggest problem this summer wasn't spending it, it was attracting and keeping the players we wanted. Just signing someone one of the top managerial names would instantly make us attractive to bigger players, particularly from the continent. Eddie is vitally important to us now because of what he has done to-date. But, if we want to challenge, i'd argue we need someone who has challenged consistently. And ideally someone who can work with a top class sporting director. For where we are now, Eddie is perfect. But the question was 'what do we need in order to challenge?'. If we can't go and spend £1bn on new players, we need to look at everywhere else we can gain an advantage.

Ah, fair enough. I stand corrected

The rules have been set up to stop us from doing exactly that so it won't be easy. This is going to go down like a shit sandwich but I think we would have to swap Eddie for a proven world-class winner - an Ancelotti-type. As much as we love him, Eddie doesn't have the pulling power of some of the bigger names and he can be stubborn and one-dimensional. Attracting top talent goes hand-in-hand with the above. We've signed some cracking players but the cream of the crop consistently turn us down. Alongside attracting top talent (not just from the PL) we also need to adopt a higher risk profile when it comes to squad development. A data-driven Tony Bloom model would enable us to unearth hidden gems who we can either keep or sell on for good money. Develop the commercial side of the business - we're playing catchup here but we need someone who thinks big and outside the box. TB rents out his data team to other sporting clubs, which goes directly into Brighton's P&L. It's a very smart move. We need that kind of thinking

To be honest, it's not that difficult which is the most frustrating thing about the whole situation. It doesn't take elite managerial nous to work it out - put someone with pace up against him, wait until he goes forward and counter down his flank. He did it with Elanga perfectly when he played for them and BDB was playing left back. Sunday league stuff - put the fast guy up against the slow guy.

Problem is he had Hall on the bench before his injury and chose to play Burn at LB. We've been here before and it cost us points then but it took ages for EH to make the change.

Not even sure where to start with this performance. There hasn’t been anything right with it at all. It’s not just one thing, it’s everything.

Dan Burn at left back continuing to be a complete shambles.

Another fucking international break?!

Fair play to him and Forest. Great bit of business by them. I don't know how much of his development has been just his own determination and how much was down to Nuno, but his rise has been so impressive. It must've been heartbreaking to leave his hometown club, but would he have had as much first team action here if he'd stayed?

Burn at LB again ffs! At least Elanga is on our side now.

Very well put. To be honest, i probably fall into this category from time-to-time but at least i'm self-aware

I like what i've seen so far. His passing range is class and his confidence on the ball is impressive. Could be a steal if Eddie/JT work their magic on him

Nick as a 10 with Wissa's pace up top has to be tried at some point. We have so many options now, it's starting to feel very exciting.

Woldemade is mint!

£150m+ worth of talent warming up, just knocking the ball about at half time. How far we’ve come!

Yeah, but you can say that about any football match. Have an actual striker in there and he probably does finish it. But it's all subjective anyway because Woldemade probably would have been in a different position to where Gordon was. So far, we have won 0 of the games this season when Gordon has played up front

Any news on why Woldemade didn't start? Fatigue? If it was tactical, it was a poor choice IMO

Wins without a recognised striker - 0. Wins with one - 1 I guess we're not going for the win.

I for one am going to question our unquestionable manager if this is true. Barnes has been woeful and we actually have a proper striker now.

I’m sure Harvey Barnes used to be quite good.