Nine

Not seen anywhere near enough to form an opinion of him yet, but I really wanted that shot to go in off the post. You could see how bad he wanted that goal.

Sit back, soak it up and conserve energy were clearly the half time instructions. I feel like there’s at least a goal in this for Chelsea.

He’d be the only serious option there, but I’m more inclined to think we might actually see something different system wise

No Bruno is going to be interesting

Not good enough for a possession game, but he was a consistently good performer in the press we used before.

The most concerning thing is, and the stats back this up massively - we just play like a poorly coached team. Night and day from the ultra well drilled press we used to know, it’s just all gone very wrong somewhere. There are few encouraging signs that a tweak here or there could have things clicking again, I just don’t see how the current squad we have is capable of deploying the system we are going for. I wonder if Howe starting coaching the side in pre season with this possession based style expecting to have a Guehi in by the end of window, so he’d have two platforms to play off of (Guehi/Bruno).. and then obviously it didn’t happen but he’s stuck to his guns and not reverted system. If so it’s even more of a fuck up than it seemed at first.

Unfortunately that ship has sailed, he’d simply cost to much now. Would be a near perfect signing profile wise though.

It doesn’t matter who they get

I totally agree with this and it’s why that signing was so important, however we should have had a back up plan that wasn’t a desperate bid for Elanga

This change in system won’t get the most out of him, he’s at his best in the full on press we deployed that season. Having said that, he was one of our best performers today.

This is it I think, Stavely let him have the level of control he desired. The issue is one man cannot build a top club in his own vision in this day and age and if that is where PIF really want to take us then Howe won’t be a part of the long term picture. I honestly expect he will be gone after this season if not before.

The argument is Howe is very averse to risk when it comes to recruitment, but then goes and plays a massive risk by all his eggs in the Guehi basket.. it doesn’t make much sense. If it’s true that Howe only wanted Guehi and had no other serious targets then it feels more like a power play than anything else, it’s a ridiculous way to manage a transfer window. He will have known better than anyone the implications of not making that signing.. There was something very wrong after Stavely left in the summer.

Not seen anyone else mention this but the consistent trend has always felt like if we don’t start fast then we never get started at all. I don’t think Howe is very fluid at adapting mid game or he is to stubborn to, we used to start well and score early goals but if neither of those happen we don’t seem to able to grow into a game. I have sympathy for him, the summer was a giant mess and who really knows if he was the one trying to hold out for Guehi without any other options. Doesn’t make a lot of sense really. Started to feel like he’s become burnt out here, which a few of us feared would happen. Last season and summer was tough, he’s got credit in the bank but im just not seeing where it will get better away from home.

Just another predictably poor away performance

The strategy was always pretty clear - minimise risk by targeting PL proven players. In the current FFP climate if we go big on foreign players and miss once or twice it could seriously set us back however.. We then decided to go and play chicken with Crystal Palace over Guehi with no back up plan? Avoiding risk by gambling on one player which did not pay off. Summer was such a mess.

Came here to say the same, pretty incredible atmosphere

Even he gets himself fit again the mental aspect and fear of being injured must be constantly on his mind, Osula will be getting some good minutes sooner rather than later

Longstaff was also a mainstay in the 4th season and was a massive part of the team last year, playing through injury while everyone else was already injured. Longstaff fit in very well with press. All of that is now irrelevant though, as system and style have changed. And we have been poor, you can’t really argue that. But putting that down to Tonali starting over Longstaff is just silly as there is way more going on than that. The sample size of Tonali and the variables with the rest of the team/system changes make this debate a non starter.

It’s to early for this conversation either way, Tonali has been in a team that is generally playing poorly all round. And to make the point, the ball he played for Isak vs Brighton. Not sure I’ve ever seen Longstaff show that.

Been my top RW choice since summer 23 but with our clear change in style I’m not as convinced now. He’d still be a massive upgrade there obviously. Olise would have been the perfect signing.

It’s way too early to say things like Sunderland are definitely going up, so much football left to play and so much that can go wrong for them. They’ve only had this manager since the summer as well havnt they?

As amazing as it would be big signings don’t usually happen in January, I’d take just one quality addition at the moment. I doubt we see the RW we need though.

No, our long term LB future is with Hall. He won’t revert tactics now and ditch Hall, adapting styles to a more possession based game is the next step of the evolution Howe has talked about. Trippier will eventually be phased out and Hall will become the focal point of the build up of our wide attacking play. Although, I’m not convinced we currently have the right squad to execute the new style effectively. But he won’t drop Hall for Burn there now.

I feel he will be, my point was he is not really comparable to Trippier as he is much more of ball carrier. Olise for example in front of him would have been incredible, we need a creative player in front of him on that side now.

Hall was the long term Trippier replacement, I think that’s fairly obvious now. The left side will be our most progressive side going forward, with Livramento being a more defensive full back offering that balance on the right. Signing a new RW will be the key to retaining the danger we offered from the right, but danger in a different way than it was before. Hall is essentially the closest thing we have to Trippier and he will offer the big progressive passing numbers just from the opposite side of the field.