Holmesy

Yeah, that’s exactly what it is pal ?

Just the one today. I suppose we should celebrate any small improvement since he’s going to start every game here until the day he retires

Yeah, that’s nonsense. He’s up to speed a bell of a lot quicker than Burn and if necessary is in touching distance to foul him. But I don’t think it would’ve come to that because his anticipation is better than Burn’s as well. Just a totally avoidable clusterfuck!

I think you’re going be disappointed

True, but small price to pay for financial freedom for the rest of your life. And also, it's very easy to discount how much football fans know about the game of football. Just because we've never played it at professional level doesn't mean we know nothing. There are plenty of professional managers who have never played the game at senior level but have had successful careers. And some that have played at the highest level and know fuck all eg. Steve Bruce. Some lad got a professional manager job after doing well on Football Manager FFS! We’re not talking about rocket science here. Do we know how to set up a training session to best instil a style of play into a team? No. Do we know how to coach individual players to improve certain aspects of their play? Probably not. Eddie Howe 100% knows infinitely more about these things than us. Can we spot certain things that consistently aren't working tactically and personnel that aren't performing? Yes, and they are valid observations. What we generally don't take into account is maybe the manager doesn't want to drop a player to keep his morale high, maybe he wants to play him into form etc. Maybe he just has an ultimate preference for a natural left footer in left sided defensive roles or maybe he just really likes certain players as people. These are the bits we fans generally don't take into consideration, but simply discounting how much we know about the game is generalist lazy bullshit - exactly the kind of crap you’d expect to be peddled by the likes of Ray ‘party’ Parlour and other ‘I played the game, therefore I know more than you’ morons.

Getting paid £5m per year for managing a team playing the game you love. Yeah, sounds wank!

This is spot on re: the points, however, it ignores the things we witnessed with our own eyes. There were clear reasons we were 2-4 down and those reasons have been apparent in other games as well. It was to a large extent self-inflicted. You have to give credit to Luton because they executed a game plan almost perfectly. It was good management on the part of Edwards. But, regardless of the 4 points, we now have a situation where if Forest do a number on us and during that number, Dan Burn in particular has another stinker, dissenting voices will start to grow in numbers and volume. Football has never been a game where fans look at points in isolation. We examine performances in detail, whether the result is positive or otherwise. Nature of the game.

I'm assuming AndyCap and ATB's posts are sarcastic

So what's the answer? Keep playing the system even though we know it doesn't suit the current available personnel, and just accept getting battered at home by Luton? Or change the system and personnel to suit our current circumstances and give ourselves a better chance of winning with a depleted squad?

I'm definitely not condoning criticism from the stands but everyone knows football stands aren't full of Mensa-members and half of them will have had a few, so it kind of goes with the territory. People pay good money to watch the team in person and you could argue that gives them a right to voice. There is literally nothing Eddie can come out with to legitimately defend us being 2-4 down at home to relegation fodder after persisting with a setup that has blatant personnel and tactical issues. When the damage is self-inflicted and you don't heed the warnings from previous games, people will start to question your judgement and suitability.

He never really got a consistent run of games at Chelsea from what I remember. Seems he’s the type of player who thrives from playing regularly. Average is a very harsh assessment. He’s always been a talent. He absolutely ran the show yesterday, surrounded by a lot of very average teammates

Yes, and end product is the reason. His versatility would be a massive plus as well

But he also had an absolute mare against Forest, in similar fashion to yesterday. It’s becoming harder to pick out his decent performances - the Villa one is fresh in the memory because it was recent, and remember he got mullered in the last quarter of that game. It was only Tino coming on that saved his blushes. The more other teams see these things, the more they will focus on exploiting Dan Burn, and the bigger the problem becomes. And it won’t just be ‘run past him’, it will be ‘give him room to come forward then press, steal the ball and run into the space he left, and can’t get back into’.

Tim?

I think we need to hear this full story ?

Sorry folks, I was pissed last night when I wrote that. Not my finest moment.

Christ, are there any lengths people won’t go to, to defend Dan Burn? Livra and Barnes came on and managed to salvage some small rewards from the wreckage of the Dan Burn car crash. Yeah, ultimately, they should’ve put that away and we should’ve lost, but we should never have been in that position in the first place

Has he though, genuinely?! Bruno has been brilliant, Gordon, Botman, Isak, Schar, Trippier mostly. But Burn at his best is useful and at his worst is terrible. He doesn’t have exceptional games, he just doesn’t have that in him. Even last season when we were on the whole excellent, Dan Burn wasn’t standout. He did a mostly good job but folk were still frustrated by him. I do think people are blinkered by the fact he’s a Geordie and a great lad.

I fully expect to see Burn in the starting lineup and Elanga tearing him a new one.

Chill out dude, I thought it would be obvious it was tongue in cheek.

White is a pacey, mobile, creative fullback when he plays at fullback. Ake is a pacey, mobile, creative fullback when he plays at fullback. John Stones is a pacey, mobile, creative fullback when he plays at fullback. There's a reason their managers are able to play them at fullback. Shall I give you a clue? It’s because they are pacey, mobile and creative. Plus, they offer defensive solidity at the same time. It’s about the player playing in the position, not what he’s positionally labelled as on Football Manager.

Read the original post you commented on again, genius. I didn’t even mention that Dan Burn is a CB. The focus of the post was on his size and chronic lack of mobility. Easy mistake to make when you’re a bit simple, and there’s no judgement from me big guy. Might be worth reading things a couple of times in future before you reply though ?

Truly great managers learn from them and tend not to repeat them.

A shit load better than Dan Burn. But I’ don’t think their managers would play them in a game where they would be up against Usain Bolt.

How am I moving the goalposts you knob? ? Nathan Ake plays like a fullback, John Stones is one of the best ball playing CBs in the PL, and highly mobile, and Ben White is basically John Stones mk2. If you think Dan Burn belongs in that category you need to put the bottle down pal.