Matt1892

Ultimately, he is the manager and it is his job to deliver.

It isn’t a shit metric, it shows the resources that we have had compared to those other clubs along with wages and squad cost, which we blow all of those clubs out of the water with too.

The comparison will come at the end of the season with these clubs, but if we fail to qualify for the Champions League when it potentially falls to a 5th place team and both Man Utd and Spurs have imploded, and instead one of the above enters the competition instead, then that is a failure to capitalise on our part and that sits with the manager.

These are the clubs we are competing with for a Champions League spot though, which is why we they are being compared.

Again though, you can make the argument about the state of our squad that Howe inherited if it was about closing the gap with the likes of City, Arsenal and Liverpool, but it doesn’t stack up when we consider the clubs we are battling with, considering 2 of them were in the Championship. Forest Championship squad https://www.espn.co.uk/football/team/squad/_/id/393/league/ENG.2/season/2021 Bournemouth Championship squad https://www.espn.co.uk/football/team/squad/_/id/349/league/ENG.2/season/2021

We can blame PSR for not being able to compete with City, Liverpool and Arsenal, but we have the 5th highest net spend over the last 5 years and have massively outspent the likes of Forest, Bournemouth and Brighton. 5) Newcastle: £-350.18m 24/25: £17.73m 23/24: £-85.79m (7th) 22/23: £-141.69m (4th) 21/22: £-108.17m (11th) 20/21: £-31.47m (12th) 9) Nottingham Forest: £-217.62m 24/25: £-15.58m 23/24: £-37.2m (17th) 22/23: £-160.27m (16th) 21/22: £-5.07m (4th in Championship) 20/21: £500,000 (17th in Championship) 12) Bournemouth: £-135.96m 24/25: £-49.67m 23/24: £-104.27m (12th) 22/23: £-68.88m (15th) 21/22: £10.08m (2nd in Championship) 20/21: £76.96m (6th in Championship) 16) Brighton: £-75.75m 24/25: £-191.58m 23/24: £69.1m (11th) 22/23: £70.82m (6th) 21/22: £3.25m (9th) 20/21: £-29.6m (16th)

All of them are replaceable, apart from Isak.

If we don’t beat Liverpool in the final and fail to qualify for the Champions League, then I think there is a good chance the club move him on, considering us not reaching Champions League will likely mean one of Forest, Bournemouth, Brighton or even Villa have. His football looks every bit as stale as some of our players, it is hard to believe how bad we play at times with the quality of some of our midfield and attack. He needs to freshen it up with what we have, before the season gets away from us.

Bruno sleeping there.

The majority of their spend has been necessary to be fair, Bournemouth and Forest finished 15th and 16th respectively at the end of the 2022/23 season and Forest finished 17th last season. We have a bigger net spend than Forest in the last 2 seasons too. Bournemouth have spent more since then but they also sold their best player to help finance it. If we are going to use financial income, wages and squad cost as a reason as to why we can’t be expected to compete with Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City, then it is fair to question why we are not capable of finishing above both Bournemouth and Forest, should that be the case at the end of the season, considering the financial income, wages and squad cost advantages we have over them.

We can’t blame FFP for all of our woes if we end up finishing behind either Forest or Bournemouth, considering our resources, transfer spend since PIF came in and the size of our wage bill compared to theirs. If we want to close the gap financially on the sky six then we need to take advantage of the seasons that one or a couple of them implode, as they are unlikely to be down there for more than a season or two. If we can’t do that, because Forest or Bournemouth have taken the spot, then that is a failure on our part.

Let’s not advocate for cowardly football.

I’ve just gone through Liverpools home stats in games this season, we managed 3 shots and all were off target which is the worst from any away team at Anfield in the league, even behind Ipswich who only managed 3 shots but all of them were on target. Man City was slightly better, we managed 3 shots and one on target, which is the second worst attacking performance against them after Ipswich who managed one shots that they scored with.

I don’t expect us to pick up points at Man City or Liverpool, but it would be good to watch us turn up and at least look like we are trying to have a go. Over both games we have managed just 6 shots, which is dreadful whatever way you look at it. I doubt they have played many teams at home who are as shot shy and toothless as we line up.

A good point for Forest.

Pope could have let that run in to his box.

Slow motion dive from Pope.

The Brighton vs Bournemouth game was excellent, I don’t think I’ve seen a game played at a tempo that high this season.

Quality goal by Kluivert. This is a great game.

I have only seen the stats for women’s football but I think it is 23% of forward throws retain possession for longer than 5 seconds, compared to 82% of throws that go backwards. It would be interesting to see what ours is compared to the league average.

I think it happened early in the game. He couldn’t have any complaints if he was sent off, he was helped by Murphy being honest and not falling on the floor holding his face. Anderson had a good game though, he looks more controlled in the deeper role.

Nobody from 3rd to 10th is in decent form on paper, a couple of wins on the bounce could see any of that lot take up a strong position for Europe.

The throw-in was fine and was set up for Murphy to either play it back to Burn or to carry centrally, instead Murphy tried to play a blind pass back to Livramento and was caught out. The bad decision making lies with Murphy.

I wonder how much of our struggles is down to Trippier’s decline, as he was a great leader and organiser on the pitch. It wouldn’t be the worst thing bringing in an old head or two in the summer to boost the squad who can organise the rest of them if they are subbed on. It is a shame Brentford have the option of extending Norgaard for another year as he is the sort of squad player you want to bring on, who can slow the game down and is comfortable retaining the ball.