TheBrownBottle

Yeah do that. I can’t think of anything funnier than Man Utd being the ones who end up wrecking the very things that entrench their own position

Ahahahahha

That’s impossible to predict - they could well do. They’re a bigger club than Bournemouth, for example. The majority of their fans will be able to remember Luton being a solid top flight club - one that they’ve seen win a major trophy.

ASM and Almiron have as many goals and assists as each other this season - but I know who is playing in the harder league

Richard Masters referring to Everton as a ‘small club’ was a fucking disgrace, mind.

He’s a more effective PL player than ASM. I don’t think he’s a particularly good PL player, but he’d be in my side ahead of ASM every week

He’s a bottom six PL / top six second tier GK for me, which is perfectly fine as a reserve under normal circumstances. This being NUFC 23/24, we’re not living in normal times, so he’s playing far more than we’d like

Yeah, I take your point - though I do think social media is more ‘white noise’ than the stadium. When the crowd turns it’s hard to win them back - it’s much harder for the clubs to resist than a bunch of wallies on Twitter

I don’t remember it being any different at any time of my watching football tbh. One of my earliest memories at SJP was a bloke next to me and my dad calling for Willie McFaul’s head during a match. You can’t sack the players, and you can’t choose the board - the manager is the sponge for venting those frustrations.

I don’t necessarily think he’ll get the whole of next season if it goes like this one - and I don’t know if he should get it, either. It would be crazy to sack him this season, though. I know we don’t necessarily know the target for the season, but when the owners took over there was talk of five-year and ten-year plans.

Yep, the fact that we seem to average one injury per game isn’t helping like. It’s more hope than expectation for me - you never know with the cup if it’s taken seriously

I agree re Longstaff and Burn, as it’s entirely down to the manager and his selections. Less the case with Dubravka - the only other option is Karius. I don’t think Howe has much of a choice in terms of the keeper atm

It is hard and low, but it was from just outside the box and close to the angle of it; it was also close enough to Dubravka where you’d expect him to stop it:

You’re right, but there’s nowt worse in football than the feeling of watching pointless matches. Still plenty to play for, a third of the season left.

I think a fit Wilson is a better centre forward than Solanke tbh, but we definitely can’t go on with two injury prone CFs

Honestly mate, that’s just my view - it suggests no ignorance on your behalf

My memory was this was when fatigue was being blamed for performances - Trippier’s altercation with a fan etc.

Solako might have been more useful after January to be completely frank. We had to sign Shearer otherwise Man Utd would’ve, and we could not have got near them. We should have sold Asprilla that summer - even if it was just a few months after signing him - and bought a top goalkeeper. Our centre backs were perfectly fine.

That is crazy mind. They’re in contention for European football, he’s won them what was only the fifth major trophy in their entire history last season, and in the two seasons before that Europe-impacted campaign they finished 6th and 7th - West Ham has finished higher than 6th only twice in its entire history. Only Ron Greenwood and John Lyall would be in with a real shout of being better managers for the club in its entire history.

He should be saving the second. It’s not hit that well and it’s also not into the corner of the goal either. It is noticeable just how little trust the back four has in him - they’re dropping deeper and deeper game by game.

I’d snap Kelly up if he’s available and happy to come. Solanke I would as an Isak back-up, but I don’t think he’d be available for the sort of fee you comfortably pay for a back up centre forward

It depends on how you spend your private recreation time. For some, it’s a daily danger

I’ve got it myself. I don’t understand the ‘season is a write off’ crack when we’re a couple of games from Wembley and still comfortably in contention for a Euro spot via the league. I can’t think of many circumstances where the season would be less of a write-off. This could yet be the best season of my lifetime.

Centre forward. You have to play with your back both to and away from goal; you’re the player the opposition defence will watch and foul more than any other; you need to create space for yourself rather than finding it as a result of your position; you play the game on a few moments and have to make instant choices and decisions; you’re responsible more than anyone else for the hardest and most important function in football - scoring goals, which ramps up pressure, and gives an easy tool to determine whether you’re any good in your position or not more than any other position (well, alongside GK on this one).