TheBrownBottle

*Fird wownd

Didn’t realise so many would be down about this one. Your best chance of beating Man City is now, not in the later stages when they take it seriously. That’s not to say that they’ll roll over or owt, but it is a home draw. If we get last them then at least Man City & Spurs are already gone.

It’s an open question and he hasn’t had time to prove it - then he isn’t. Yet. Qualifying for the European Cup isn’t elite level. Winning the European Cup is.

While I’m sort of wishing I hadn’t read through some of this, as it is truly depressing, just a point on the Howe ‘elite or non-elite manager’ thing. IMO, Howe is not at the moment an ‘elite’ manager. To be that you win trophies - big ones. But Howe is also the first English manager in decades who I’d be willing to back to become one. The bloke is clearly a top level manager in-waiting. Give him time, lads and lasses - and there will be worse runs than losing back-to-back to Man City & Liverpool down the line.

They’re not comparable. For a start, Robson should have gone - only much earlier than he eventually did. Howe deserves nothing but time at the moment.

Yep. I think the ‘richest club in the world’ bubble just hasn’t popped yet in the minds of some.

We’re three games in ffs. We don’t know what the XI for the season will look like - it may be very different come May

They can not accept it if they want - our turnover will be roughly on par with West Ham for last season. If our ability to spend was on the same footing as the Sky Six, then they’d have a point. Until it is, expectations should be in line with wage bills.

That’s not our call - but I think it would be a poor one by the owners if it occurs.

Probably need more commercial deals to secure that - FFP effectively capped our spend at around £100m. They can talk it up as much as they want - money is what really talks in football

No one is saying ‘aim for 8th’. 8th at a minimum. Anything less than that is a bad season.

Expectations aren’t being managed if you’re aiming to finish higher. This is likely to be a much tougher season than last year. Some players are likely to ‘return to the mean’, other clubs will be used to our players and style of play, there’s more games (tough ones), other clubs now view us as a big game, etc etc.

They should be - it’s about right. Top 8 minimum, then as high as possible above that.

I do find the whining for a new contract more annoying than his form dip tbh - the timing is spectacularly poor. There’s an excellent player there in Bruno, and form dips do occur - hopefully this one ends soon.

Sorry, which trophy were we playing for today? Post-match adrenaline overpowering the other senses a bit here. The trophy drought pisses us all off, but NUFC aren’t winning the PL this season - nor were they likely to before today. Howe’s got us back up amongst it - and while I think today was one of those days where Howe got a few things wrong, I think he’s proven he’ll get the vast majority of things right.

That’s precisely what I was implying

If I had a mild criticism of Howe, rather tactics it would be that I was anticipating exactly those subs at exactly those moments - and if I’m anticipating it, Klopp will definitely anticipate it. Sometimes the subs seemed to be made regardless of what’s happening in front of us. Ah well, one of those days - we’ll win more than we lose this season.

Love how Burn is copping the blame for the Liverpool winner, when it was a brainless half-arsed pass which caught the back line pushing up

Inevitable. Stupid lazy pass by Bruno

Twice you’ve written this now. Keep your wig on. You’re talking about the bloke who has us competing witn this lot

Botman needs to clear his lines like

How much ‘state funding’ have we actually received? There will be a current investment figure. I bet it’s still in the tens of millions. Rather less than when Real Madrid sold its training ground to the Spanish govt to pay for a nine-figure debt.

Yeah, I think that’s right. Wilson is right up there in terms of my favourite no.9s for NUFC, but he was very low risk (other than injury record)

The actual top six, not the Sky Six

Aye, like that Ali Dia bloke at Southampton he looked like a Sunday league player who’d blagged his way into a top flight squad. But unlike Dia, he managed to play reasonably regularly. Pingel is the worst player I’ve seen in B&W bar none. Looking at some of the names being cited on here for centre forwards makes me wish I’d been born ten years later - if Rivière and De Jong are as bad as you’ve seen, you’re a lucky sod