TheBrownBottle

Howe was PIF’s choice. Emery was Staveley’s.

Trippier being dropped is absolutely within his control tbf. And what you’ve described happened a few times in the first half.

It’s 4-5-1 when you’re sitting that deep and being that passive. Almiron and Gordon have not been playing as wide forwards

We’ve effectively been playing 4-5-1 in most of our away games

Though the weird thing is that we might view Howe’s reign as successful to date and we’re calling for patience, because we know what we’ve been in the recent past. It may be that the ownership don’t view it as successful on their own terms, and their expectation is for what they consider success, not us.

Not for me - it’s still results-dependent. If we finish mid table this year and we’re in a similar position around Xmas then I don’t see him being around.

Yep - it was a collective failure. Forwards too knackered to press and some poor decision-making making us vulnerable to counters; a midfield which was crowding towards the ball; and a back line which looked like the offside rule had only been explained via hand signals before kick off and which also seemed to drift towards the ball. All compounded by a goalkeeper who goes to ground far, far too easily.

Shape was the biggest issue today for me. Kept banging on about it in the match thread. It’s got progressively worse in recent weeks.

Agreed, and I think Howe has done an excellent job generally - though as much as I think that he needs to be backed during a difficult spell, I also don’t think what has been performed are miracles or wonders. With signing on fees I’d be willing to bet that the club has sunk half a billion quid on transfers

Christ yes. A pretty poor transfer window in 2000 - and we spent a fair chunk of change - before a season that could only be described as inert.

I agree, but was just caveating that this isn’t one of those sudden surges by a club which returns to the mean after a season. Serious money has been spent

You keep on slagging off our support as being ‘impatient’ - sorry, what’s the barometer to this?

I agree to an extent - though most of those clubs won’t have spent c.£400m on transfers in 18 months.

I really believe we’re about to learn more about PIF than we are about Howe. If we lose those next three league games - and January doesn’t see an uptick in form - and Howe is still around in February, then we know that they are taking a truly long-term view and we have a non-reactive owner. I still think it would be crackers to push Howe out of the door. I want to see what we look like next season under him.

I think most of us agree tbh - but the great unknown is the owners (not Staveley and Reuben). No idea what their thoughts are

I agree - we have to be able to change this up, and the high intensity play was always likely to result in injured / knackered players. Howe needs to have a real think before next season starts (I’m hoping / assuming he gets that time) to start changing things up. The danger is the dressing room turning - if the players are being simply asked to do the same thing again and again despite clearly not having the energy levels to play that way then the players might turn.

I said a few weeks ago that he’d basically need to lose ten games pretty much in a row to be vulnerable. We’ve lost six in the last seven - and the next four games are Man City, Liverpool, Villa and Sunderland. I don’t think he should be vulnerable (pressure is reasonable) but there is a scarily real chance that we lose all of those games at the moment - certainly the next three league games.

I will be. It is 1:25am where I am, mind.

Two mins wasted to take a shite free kick. Glad there’s no reason to be playing with urgency.

Where has this cunt found six mins from?

Hope not. Hate that shite

Sometimes these lads are brainless when trailing

I know there is still that part of my brain which tortures me, though

Anyone else still thinking that if we grab a spawny goal we might nick something? I am. Hope is soul destroying

KK also lost at a shit Blackburn on his final Boxinf Day fixture (first spell). Was at both. We are absolute shite at Xmas