Mills and Boon

Our defending has gone to shit no matter who is playing, but Osula does press much better than Nick too. We don't play the way we do to make Osula look good. You've got it arse about face. Osula looks better suited to the way we play

I mean I've seen us win a game with Wolter up top and scoring and we looked shit as an attack

The main reason we create fuck all with him in the team is because he's literally not even a presence up top. We've looked better with Osula in the side, and Osula isn't good either outside of his running giving us options

It doesn't say much? To me it shows Howe has had us overachieving in the league since he's come in. Props to Villa and Brighton too

That's a honking formation seemingly cobbled together just to shoehorn Woltemade into the side. Fuck knows what people have seen from him to make him so important to us

I'm not a fan of Gallagher, but Delap would be better in our side than any of the current lot

Thiaw has come in and been sound. There aren't loads to pick from like

That's how I saw it too. I think the chances they created were better, better final ball and a bit more confidence about them in decent positions. We grafted, huffed and puffed but again our final ball/shot was gash as it has been all season. I didn't see us get completely out played like some are suggesting

It went very quiet in here when we equalized

Winning a trophy will do that

I couldn't get past the school teacher nonsense. Or that they said Howe couldn't have took them to the heights Iraola has taken them when they both share Bournemouth's highest league finish record of 9th place. Odd pair

Levy pulled the plug while they were ahead and had the backing of a minority of Spurs fans who wanted someone who delivers trophies. Enter Jose, then shortly after, Conte. The Spurs fans weren't happy with the brand of football on offer under those winners, so in comes All Out Attack Ange. Levy gave them what they wanted at every turn. He carried the can and was the outlet for the Spurs fan's anger despite being one of best chairmen in the league for me. Look at the clip of them now he's gone

I just like the way Poch built something at Spurs and left the club in a better state than he found it. Progress is not to be sniffed at, if he comes in and cements our position as regular European football achievers over three or four years as he did with Spurs then we'd have broken through this ceiling Howe seems to be stuck at and we'll be a more attractive prospect for better players/managers going forward

Give me Poch or give me death

I don't know how you can say Howe's lost his mojo, then define mojo as his skills, experience, attitude and motivation and somehow not actually be questioning his skills? It's fair enough if the only point you wanted to make was that performances need to improve. Nobody will argue with that. The problem is you said more than that and it was very easy to argue with

Car hit by a train at a level crossing. Horrible

That's a better starting point for him though. It should be an easier task getting the current side back on track than it was sorting out the shit show he inherited from Bruce

Again, I'm not saying he will turn it around with absolutely certainty. You and Bobby are grasping the shitty end of the stick. I'm saying that Howe can turn it around as he's shown he's capable of it. I don't think he needs to change plan A either, but he does need different tools. A striker who isn't as ineffective as Wissa and Woltemade would be a massive help in that regard. A more effective attack = more goals, less pressure on our defence so fewer bollocks being dropped and more points in the bag

No you didn't. You said nobody can say if Howe can turn it around. But we can, because we know he has that specific skill set as we've all seen him do it. That's not to say that he definitely will, as there's an obvious difference between the two without being pedantic about it. What twisted my knickers is your facetious predicting the future crack. We don't need to predict the future to assess the skill set Howe has as a football manager. I know he's got the tools, you apparently don't think he has. I don't think you're as neutral on the matter as you think you are if you think he's suddenly forgot how to manage a football team

Loads of those 25 dropped points from winning positions were down to individual rickets. We're only 5 points or so from our "par" league position based on wage spend. It's very fine margins we're talking about

It's not about predicting the future you donut, it's about whether or not Howe has the skill set to get these players to see out a lead. And we know he has, because we've seen him do it. I'm not going to convince you, I know that. You're into "mojo" and nebulous shite like that doesn't gel well with rational thinking

Why not? We've seen him do it before and we were in a worse state then than we are now

Thinking about Barca though, we were beating them one nowt until Thiaw hung a leg out in the last minute. I blame Thiaw for that, he's too good a player to be making daft mistakes like that and it cost us. I don't point the finger at the manager for it

I mean they're individual errors, what exactly is he supposed to do to mitigate them? It's not a systemic problem, there's not a formation or tactic that he can employ which will prevent Botman from pulling a shirt, Thiaw from falling over or the keepers from letting in a soft goal. It's basic stuff that the players are getting wrong that the manager can't legislate for. I don't think "why doesn't he try playing like Barca?" is a legit strategy mind. We're still limited by the players we have

We were all of those things under Howe though. It was him that instilled that attitude and drive in the squad, because before that under Bruce we genuinely were a clueless, aimless bunch of individuals. Howe made us the team everyone hates to play against, he had Arteta crying his eyes out and Emery rubbing his chin off in confusion and frustration. I've no clue what has happened this season but I doubt he's suddenly started instructing his players to habitually drop a bollock towards the end of matches to throw points away. After a reset this summer and a squad shake up, Howe could drill that grit and determination to hold onto leads back into the lads