TheBrownBottle

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).

I’d be fucking astonished tbh. That would suggest he might not see out the week.

I think I saw it in the Howe thread - @Jagten put it up. Our expected goals against is now worse than the Bruce era - so we’re easier to create chances against. I also don’t think Dubravka is always the best at keeping them out. The loss of Pope has the back line so much deeper, as Dubravka is a GK who just seems rooted to his box. So the loss of Pope likely means that we concede more chances, and then also concede more goals.

Funnily enough, if we’d won today our win ratio would pretty much be the same as last season. One of the big differences is that last season we were a nightmare to beat; so we drew shitloads of games. This season draws are a rarity, rather than defeats. The loss of Pope is having a massive bearing on that; Pope was conceding at a rate of one per game; Dubravka concedes at about 2.5 times that rate. It isn’t Dubravka’s fault that he isn’t as good as Pope, nor is it Howe’s fault that Pope is injured, but with Pope missing you can see the collective lack of confidence in the back line, which drops deeper increasing the to gap to the midfield, which in turn is currently the weakest outfield element and is consistently failing to have at least one player drop back to support and close that gap. It’s a perfect storm of shit situations; the question is whether or not Howe could do much to remedy that, or whether we just have to hope that Pope is fit in March

I think this is exactly it. Get to the summer, and get to the drawing board (not as in ‘rip it up and throw it out’, but as in review and reflect). I think Howe should be fully supported this season - if everything is the same this time next year, then my opinion would be that thoughts probably should harden.

£450m in two years isn’t pennies, either.

*glowers at anti-Newburn comment* At least Newburn is in Newcastle *grumble grumble* edit: also, Newburn Industrial Estate isn’t particularly close to Newburn … should really have been Lemington or Bell’s Close Industrial Estate I reckon.

We don’t know that. All I know is that it shouldn’t be under threat.

We don’t know if we have unrealistic owners mate. Seriously we don’t know.