Matt1892

He’s played well in the last few games against us, but those performances have come down the left (I think he played some of the game this season through the middle when they made changes) and he isn’t of the quality we need for a starting player down the right.

He also played an injured Longstaff over Miley, which was a disaster.

When was the last time we won 3 league games in a row? There hasn’t been any sort of consistency in our league performances for well over a year now. European football should be the minimum expected of him to remain as manager here, but if there are doubts about his long term suitability for the role then he shouldn’t have any say on transfers in January. EDIT - Brentford(H) Sheffield United(A) and Burnley(H) in September 2023.

It has been like this for 18 months now and there is no sign of it changing. Move him on and get Iraola in before the January window.

FGR were first to everything in the second half and deserved the 3 points. I think they were having their pitch done at the beginning of the season meaning they have played a few more away games than home games so far, so if anyone can finish above them they will be worthy winners.

0-0 at half time in the Forest Green vs York game, both sides cancelling each other out and a bit of a stinker so far.

Great goal that. Need to keep it tight now, game management is critical here.

Brighton having a good go at City here.

We will beat this lot tomorrow, their home form isn’t anything special and it has been their smash and grab performances on the road that has earned them credit. At home they have lost to Fulham, drew with Wolves and Bournemouth and beaten Palace and West Ham, who had Alvarez sent off in the first half. If we don’t give them space to hit us on the counter then we can outplay this lot quite comfortably.

Break even would still be good business, as any planned amortisation figure would be removed. The problem clubs can have is that with some players they are a depreciating asset, which is what Miggy is, so sometimes you are better off taking less to move them on, compared to having them take a wage when they are filling a space where an upgrade is needed.

I’ve seen some Bournemouth fans on social media saying that Iraola is the best manager they have ever had (obviously Howe is seen as being greater due to his history there). They will do well to keep hold of him beyond the end of the season.

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.