Erikse

I agree, there are lots of questions around our attacks, I don't mean to say that Wolte is the biggest problem. I just can't understand why he's just jogging there and ends his run early. A faster player could have been in the position to score there, and maybe even Wolte had a small chance if he tried to sprint.

I agree, the fullbacks are a massive handicap. If benching Burn is the last thing he wants to do, and he doesn't want to change formation, then just bench Botman instead and play him at CB with Hall left back. I don't like benching Botman, but if that's what it takes to get Burn away from LB, then I hope it happens. Howe seems worried about having 1 less tall player for set plays, when we would still have one of the tallest lineups in the league.

As good as our last season was, our away record was on par with or worse than Palace, Brounemouth, Fulham, Forest and Brighton. This season we are currently 15th in the away table from 6 games when half the league has played 5, and the strongest team that we have faced so far is Villa (who was far from their best). Only 3 other teams has 0 away wins. I don't know about you, but I expect us to have a better away record than most of the regular mid table teams, given our spending power compared to them. Even mid table teams gets some wins in these "tough" away from home games. No reason to dress it up.

Trafford is losing out on the WC next year by his choice of transfer. Bet he's thrilled.

Should've chosen to play for Norway, we are usually generous enough to rest players when their club wish for it.

I think we will see what we've been missing upfront when Wissa is back and fit. I'd fancy Wolte behind him, though, if Howe dares to try that type of formation.

Imo Villa and Leeds at the start of the season was also there for the taking. Villa was horrible in the first few games, and Leeds aren't great, but we made it easy for them. We can talk about how difficult away games are, but winning some tough away games every now and then should be an expectation.

I agree with most, apart from the point about squad management. He has actually rotated a bit this time around, but now we aren't really pressing much or playing with much intensity. That's part of the problem I feel, because I don't think Howe has ever made his team play in a vastly different way to the high intensity/high pressing one? Certainly not in the context of adapting to managing a high game load atleast. To me it seems like he is struggling to make a new style work with this set of players.

"With Dan's height being pivotal from the set plays and with Joelinton going off, we suddenly would have become very small. So, they're big calls to make. "With hindsight, you'd possibly make a different decision." Not sure about this. Yes, it's hindsight, but how many set pieces will realistically happen in the last 30 min, and what are the chances that having 1 less tall guy in those few really ends up mattering? We still have Botman, Thiaw and Wolte out there. Several teams in the league play with just 2-3 really tall players every game and don't worry too much about it.

https://streamable.com/lsxvwg Here's an example. Drops deep to link up with the midfield. In one way that's what creates this chance. However he is far too slow to be able to get into a dangerous position for a cross. It looks like he's just jogging after releasing the ball to Bruno, and he even stops towards the end of his run, as if it's deliberate to stay back. I guess Barnes is looking for Murphy with his cross here, and Wolte is staying out to catch a rebound or second ball? Other than lack of pace, I don't understand why he wants to stay back here, but maybe that's on me. I also think similar situations are where the pace is a bit of an issue with our style when he drops deep so much.

Yeah, but still nothing compared to playing a 17 year old Miley in midfield alongside Longstaff 90x2 every week, a Trippier who was engulfed in personal problems and consequently gifted away goals east and west, and an Isak who couldn't even jog anymore, with a bench full of random academy players. We've been playing Burn at LB through long runs before this season. Our current lineup is better than most teams player by players, it's just not working. I wouldn't be concerned if we just came out of a rough patch of fixtures and they were about to ease up, but we have several tough fixtures coming up in the next 7 league games.

Yeah, but that was different, 10-13 players out every game, crazy amounts of burnout and fatigue, and the fixtures were even more congested. We've had some key injuries, but only like 3 players out. I bet that period has put some scars in him, which could be some of the reason as to why we are a bit confused as to what we should be doing this time.

Until gameweek 7, then we started winning 5-1, 4-1 and 3-0 almost every game. We allways start slow, but yet we've never started this slow under Eddie. I even think it's the slowest by a margin now.

It was a bit of a freak season, but it's kind of wild to think about how far away we are now from the 22/23 team that would smash most team (except top sides) with some beautiful attacking football starting players like Longstaff, Willock, Almiron, and Burn also back then as a regular left back for the entire season. We were even fighting top 4 and a final before Isak came in and hit form. How did we do it? Just by having a team perfectly suited to high press, no Europe, Trippier as a cheat code, and Wilson on steroids? Was the cohesion in our squad simply better back then? Have teams sussed our style? Are we struggling to adapt to a more sustainable playstyle for balancing the extra games? Probably a mix of everything.

While I agree with what you said about Elanga and Ramsey, a player like Wissa could've made our attack so much better on his own. We desperately need him back.

I also think we should be able to play with more intensity considering we have a bit more depth (atleast better quality of depth). Last time we played the same team all the time with high intensity. Now we are rotating AND our intensity is lowered. Playing with more intensity would be taking advantage of the rotation. It seems to be a balance that we are struggling to find.

Probably instinct. We've had a direct style for years. How often do you hear top footballer explain assists with "I just put the ball in as I thought that he must be in there somewhere"? It's not like making your way towards goal only to have to turn around and pass it back out is an effective way of attacking. In the chances I'm talking about he was so far out that they would've literally had to stop and turn around to dribble away from goal to be able to find him. Instead of playing a simple cross and hoping that your striker is anywhere near goal.

Our wingers put in low crosses right infront of goal on a few occasion. It would have been a tap in, but there was noone there, Wolte was barely inside the box. How many times have we seen Isak score those type of crosses, by getting into that position? Our wingers rightly assumed that our striker would be there, but there was noone there.

Barnes crossed it in for a free goal, but Wolte was way out.

Fantastic goal. Showed Grodon how it's done.

True, I also suspect that he will try 5 at the back again. He has never been particularly keen on benching Burn.

Not annoyed at saving Hall in the last game before the break, it was pretty likely to happen imo, given that he just came back. However if Burn keeps starting at LB over Hall even after the break, I will be pretty furious.

Gives us a good team on paper, but we've looked pretty bad with that formation this season.

A blessing in disguise that he's out imo. I think we're better off starting Barnes currently. Hoping Gordon will be fired up when he's back.