TheBrownBottle

Genuinely burst out laughing reading that bit

Yep, completely understandable - makes perfect sense re your position on not being managed by a (successful) bastard.

Agreed, sadly. We swapped a workers’ rights abuser for a human rights’ abuser - and at least one of those two descriptions can be levelled at pretty much the entirety of the PL owners. I struggle with it because I think that I can’t justify it ethically - a bit like how I feel about eating meat (I don’t think I should, but I haven’t even attempted to stop). Football is now the plaything of a small group of people who are collectively responsible for making the planet much, much shitter than it should be.

We’re owned by some of the biggest cunts of all. Even the most cunty of managers would pale into insignificance in their level of cuntitude next to them. Of course I’d rather the manager isn’t a cunt, but trophies override that sentiment for me. Again of course I’m happy that Howe is our manager and that he isn’t a cunt

You’ve still got it 😁 - I did just want to add the context though. I don’t want Howe sacked at all - and I have my doubts that someone else coming in based on the current squad etc could do better. But if I thought there was someone out there who could come in and win the CL for us then fuck yes I’d made that switch

Agreed - I’m just saying that I couldn’t give a shite about sentiment re managers if it is the right thing for the club. I don’t think sacking Howe would be the right thing for the club.

Yes; I would. Provided it was guaranteed! Which it isn’t. I’m very much ‘Howe in’.

Yes, I also think we should avoid the potential for days like we had last year, the best day of my life as a fan, to ensure that we’re at 100% for matches against the likes of Qarabag

I’d happily sack managers regularly if I thought we’d achieve what Chelsea has. They’re the most successful English club side this century.

I do wonder if some of the squad have the footballing intelligence if they need to be drilled so bloody much.

Not for me - I’m not going to criticise an NUFC manager for having a crack in the cups. We spent enough years not trying. You do have to carefully manage the squad when doing that, though.

We didn’t do that last summer though - they weren’t under the radar players. They were just poorly scouted.

GK should be the priority - and I suspect we’ll need to sell at least one of the CFs and replace them.

You can’t whine about PSR and also think that it’s good scouting to go after well-known players who are likely to join bigger / wealthier clubs. We know we can’t offer more money nor offer a better chance of trophies. It is poor scouting - which isn’t just a case of ‘he’s a good player’.

Agreed - I think any assessment of that nature has to be at the end of the season. It has to be done ‘in the round’. At present we have no indication of where we’ll finish, nor how far into the cups we’ll go. I am worried about the away performances generally, though - that needs fixing irrespective of wider context.

Always thought he was a cunt

He’s been like this for some time now, too - pushing high up against good sides and leaving us exposed. He was doing tonight when we were a goal up - and again of course when we’ve just conceded but are still level. It’s brain dead play.

Ekitike’s second was as much to do with Trippier doing his standard ‘shit I’m high up the pitch for no reason and don’t have the legs to get back’ leaving the RCB exposed as it was on Thiaw

Sure, and we absolutely can’t go into those matches with a ‘we’re getting nowt here’ attitude. I also think we’re capable of doing it - but we’ve made life tougher for ourselves than it needed to be.

One of the quarters of his body was sent to be displayed in Newcastle - sometimes it is good for history to repeat itself

It’ll be a tennis match in this thread today For me, set-up was fine, first 30 mins really good, rest of the match was poor and our performance got worse as the match went on. Howe’s job shouldn’t be in doubt, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have similar criticisms to other matches re game management and performance (particularly our constant post-HT drop-offs). It was Liverpool away, too - hardly a shoo-in, even if they haven’t been great this season.

Yep, a couple of mins of focus dropped and the game was turned on its head. It just seem to be a big problem this season - we make unforced errors or have brain farts on a regular basis. I’m not even sure how it gets arrested, but it needs to be. I agree re the set-up - no issues on that front. But our heads drop very, very easily at the moment. It feels like we need a ‘statement win’ away from home to get things kick-started.

I don’t expect us to compete with Liverpool, and they aren’t our rivals. The problem is we’ve pissed away so many points away from home against far weaker opposition so we now need to nick some points in these sort of games, as unlikely as that is. I’m reading folks saying that ‘we’re only X points from Xth’ - but look at the coming fixtures …

Yeah, I was there for that one - and you’re right we weren’t, but there was enough fight in us to pull the game back. Didn’t see anything like that during this match. I was there for the second 4-3 - which was similar to the above. The first 4-3 we were superb. The draw a couple of years later (1-1) we played reasonably well. I thought we played well there under Pardew when Cabaye scored - a game I thought we could have won. This was our second-heaviest loss there, and we’ve played better Liverpool sides (and had considerably cheaper NUFC ones). That was a really poor performance from all concerned - manager, coaching staff and players. Just passive shite. I can’t get angry about it, it is pointless, but fuck me we are dire away from home and look like an unfocused (and uncoached) mess in most of the away games.

I’ve reached the point where I’m not even emotive in any way after these games - I’m becoming indifferent when we’re away from home in the PL. I don’t expect a half decent performance any more, never mind a result.