Sibierski

Jo Willock is mustard. Him, Tonali and Bruno in the midfield three next season when all fit.

Need some positive results and importantly performances over next few months otherwise it’s going to be grim. Need something to give momentum into next season. Bruno getting slapped, then going into international duty with Vini Jr hearing about life in Real Madrid, or Marquinhos in PSG

I would not be surprised if he’s not fully recovered from knee injury, and he has surgery before season ends.

Think I’d trust Miley more than Longstaff deeper to get on the ball and not make a mess of it. Then have Almiron off Gordon (Get Isak off before we break him) and Murphy on the wing. Best of a bad situation. Would even say Hall as CM is probably our 2nd best player after Bruno for taking ball in tight areas and moving it.

On top of our defence, it’s such a slow unit Not even great moving ball around as a unit, so can’t mitigate it by playing around teams. Not ideal when Arsenal are pumped up and got Rice/Saliba.

One positive how recent months have gone and likely next few months, there’s no pussy footing about how we need to get rid of a lot of players, even ones starting. Howe got most out of some guys, but their natural levels are below where we need and want to go so need to be ruthless in waving them on.

Ah, so that excuses rocking up with little plan and unable to string couple of balls about.

The whole chat in recent months has been going back to one game a week, more time on training ground, and if anything, we’ve looked worse for it over past month

All predictable unfortunately. Get main guys off and focus on Wednesday, no point running half broken players down further for lost causes.

Game over. We’ll do well to string 5 passes together, another game where we look crap on the ball.

Really hope Isak is fit enough. Need him more for midweek.

Hopefully spiral further downwards, appoint another bad manager, then get relegated next season.

Doesn’t matter if it’s a back 4 or 5 for me in this game, the key is to shut off the space in front of the defence. Probably can see Trossard or Havertz starting up top, as they’re more natural to drop off, and with Odegaard in that area too, we can’t afford to be naive and leave that space totally empty. Need someone to sit in there and just break/block things off. Last season we had Joelinton LW, with normal CMs. So it meant we could squeeze that space more. This time we won’t. Also, crucially last season when we put up a dogged display, we had three subs of legs coming off bench, after a strong near first choice XI started. Today, we won’t have neither first choice, and legs off bench. Probably Murphy and Tino only ones? Think we need to go at them first 30, risk it and see if we can take the lead and rattle them before dropping off. Can’t see us shutting up shop for full 90.

Just bringing over from Hall thread to stay on topic. One thing I don’t get with Howe, what the bar would be to get a start. Tino only came in because Burn was injured, then moved to RB when Trippier was out and Burn was back, when both were then available, he’s gone. He’s not started when both have been available. We’re too rigid in who starts in the back line IMO, which is overall reflective to our continued same set up/style. When it works, it works great, when it doesn’t, it’s just double down persistence. When we get more people back over next month, hopefully we see some more flexibility in our approach, with the original set up the default because it is great and fun when it works.

I can see both Isak and Willock being in the match day squad tomorrow. Even if neither feature at all, I could see Howe viewing having them being involved in the warm up/changing room environment worth the impact alone to get things closer to being back to normal with more senior 1st team players involved in the mix.

Even if he's not featured much (if anything meaningful at all) this season, I'm still happy we made the move to get him. I personally rate him highly, and believe there's a strong market for making more signings like him whilst we're in our position of not being a regular top 4, so can (and should) be able to play younger players more. There's so much strong English talent out there, which can save so much money further down the line, and if they're not seeing a break through at the big clubs but are at us, we should be taking advantage whilst that's there. Likewise outside the top sides, the English pool is strong and rest of this decade will show that.

I assume any compromise would be reduced compo (like £10m mark) and he takes up position 1st September. So it mitigates our transfer business in summer and means Man Utd have to wait out a crucial summer window.

Yea, I don’t get it either. Overall, he’s average league finishes for West Ham have been good. I can only assume, there’s a feeling both with Moyes and club, that this season is a natural end, and they don’t want to miss out on the right manager by not looking at alternatives in case Moyes turns around end of season and says he’s off. Have a reasonable chance of going far again in Europe if they get a favourable draw. 21-22, Europa SFs, 22-23, win Conference League, 23-24, should go deep in Europa again. Don’t think West Ham will have a run like this again for sometime.

Wayne Rooney to step in please.

Top 7 was the aim before the season, and despite the mess we've endured, it's still a viable chance (with an outside shot of domestic success). Europe disappointing with how it ended, but on face of it the group we had and first experience, it's produced some great memories and our level wasn't far off sides that will go into QFs. Just main concern, despite still being close to 7th place finish, our performances have not indicated that we look like finishing there. After Arsenal, we go on a run of 6 games where there's no reason we can't be going into games fancying a win. Need to get the fear back, as sides at the moment enjoy playing us because they know they'll have a fair amount of chances and back themselves to get a result as a result. Last season, it was barely a sniff and sides had to be clinical to get a result. Mood will flicker game by game, but don't think a true feeling will be known till the March Internationals. Could be FA Cup SFs and 7th going into that break (or just within 1-2 points of 7th), or out of FA Cup and bottom half.

Cheering on Liverpool next weekend to ensure European spot drops to 6th, and hope someone in top 6 wins FA Cup if we don’t. Then it keeps Europa Conference leagues hopes alive.

Well Bruno didn’t get booked, so not quite worse case. But messy draw and likely Schar injured.

Be interesting to see what the transfer approach is in summer. Felt like last summer, Howe rightly had sway over certain business, which meant getting someone like Barnes over others. But this summer, would board back him the same way?

Ritchie White on over Hall in midfield. That's 100% the Hall deal cancelled.

I get Dubravka arguably should do better, but he's getting peppered regularly. Not like we're making sides have to take difficult chances, they're unopposed in our box. Just too easy to play against. Fun of you attack, we attack, but we've got no striker and Almiron in our attack