Matt1892

It is usually Longstaff that makes those passes to be fair.

I only caught the second half as I had to find a bar in Dubrovnik to watch it in, it looked like we did a good job of containing them, but their midfield looked like it had no creativity at all. Good 3 points.

It was a good performance albeit against a weakened Chelsea side, but we have had performances like this in isolation at various points over the last 18 months. We need to put a run together of these performances, hopefully today can be the start of a good run.

From memory, Man City’s was packed with so much stuff it was difficult to manoeuvre around it on match day, like trying to walk around primark the Saturday before Christmas. Liverpool’s is similar in size but more spread out. The 2 club shops that stood out to me are PSG, where you walk through on the astroturf and it was set out like a a changing room, with the personalised shirts of all of the players pre printed. The other was Leicester City, which had various bits scattered around, like the flag Vardy took out with a sliding tackle, as well as having match worn shirts in frames for sale.

The Everton and Brighton games are the only games that we have looked the better team in performance wise. Even in those we noticeably ran out of ideas.

We haven’t had a difficult start to the season either, only 3 of the 9 teams we have played finished in the top 10 in the Premier League last season.

It depends on what sort of football Mitchell wants us to play long term, I would prefer a style similar to Liverpool and Brighton where they are dangerous on the quick counter but also have the ability to retain possession for long periods when waiting for those openings. If you want the style of football we played in 22/23 season, then the obvious choice would be Iraola from Bournemouth, who has them playing a press and counter style similar to what we did, but he plays with a fluid 3 between the double pivot and the striker.

Good spot from the ref.

Awful positioning from Pope.

I don’t understand what you are saying.

Neto was recorded as being the 4th fastest player in the league last season. He does a lot of people for pace when it is a straight forward race.

We need a period of retaining the ball to knock Chelsea out of their flow.

Howe’s tactics working well here, playing the rope-a-dope so Chelsea think we are shite then we hit them on the counter.

It is unlikely that Howe will be gone before Christmas but not impossible, if we don’t win any of the next 3 league games which is a possibility then it will be more than 2 months without a win in the league. The pressure will be on him and the board to salvage the season. All hypothetical of course and we could win the next 3 league games. As for his replacement, the club need to work out what style of play then want the team to play long term, then recruit dependent on that. Although fans rarely have the knowledge of managers compared to players, which is why there was no real talk of Arne Slot before he joined Liverpool.

Because the feeling is that we have moved away from signings from foreign leagues, which the last 2 years demonstrates to be true. Going back further to a time when we did sign more players from foreign leagues doesn’t mean we haven’t moved away from doing so now.

In the last 2 years, we have signed the following players that have appeared in a match day squad… Gordon Ashby Livramento Barnes Hall Kelly Osula Vlachodimos Ruddy Tonali

If you want to make young signings wait 2 full seasons before giving them a new contract then it is best not to give them a 3.5 year contract in the first place, especially if you are paying north of £40 million for them.

Great news, fully deserved too.

I don’t see anything in our football to think that Howe has some sort of long term strategy that we are working towards, or a particular style of football that we might not have all of signings he wants to make it all fall in to place. Our football has regressed massively and we haven’t adapted since our flat midfield 3 has been found out, there are no signs of looking to change this either. If there are doubts amongst the board as to his suitability as manager after this season, then backing him in January as one final throw of the dice would be the wrong move, unless Mitchell is pulling the strings on the transfer.

Is England under 21’s on telly?

I don’t necessarily see it as swings and roundabouts, I don’t think there was many clubs bemoaning FFP and curtailing the free spending of wealthy clubs as they might not be able to sell their players either. Any restriction that impacts our competition but not us should be seen as a significant boost for the club.

If it hits those clubs with financial constraints then it will be a benefit to us, in the same way that FFP benefits other clubs by stopping unlimited spending. it will be up to us as a club to take advantage of that.

A performance where we passed the ball around well in the first half and we bosses the game but as it went on it was clear that we had no plan B.

Presume he meant the second half.

Joelinton is a 9/10 for control and a 4/10 for passing.