Sibierski

There’s no way we’re getting another striker unless Howe is 100% going 4-2-3-1. That for me would be a reason to then get another striker because Wolte will effectively be playing loads as a 10, so need someone to ease work load off Wissa. But it then requires a CM that can progress the ball from deep. Also for me, it would mean Ramsey long term being a back up LW, because Miley is the ideal player to play the 10 as the option to Wolte rather than Ramsey, and Ramsey is not suited for a 2. We really need Gordon to find the net again and based on above the squad looking like this next season. Pope / GK Tino / Murphy Hall / LB Botman / Thaiw / Burn / CB Bruno / Tonali / Joelinton /CM Wolte / Miley Gordon / Ramsey Elanga / RW Wissa / ST Would mean Barnes leaving which would be harsh, but medium term you have to bank on Gordon over him. Murphy more than capable back up RB in his final year of deal and it allows us to correct the RW situation. Would also mean we can keep Joelinton for one more year as a back up CM destroyer and not rock the boat too much by losing too many of the OGs (seeing Trippier / Schar / Lascelles will all be off).

Ange was fortunate to get to final of Europa and even win it. When you lose loads in league, it will be same in the cups eventually. You can’t just write off games, but you can certainly try different things in league with pressure off to a degree to see what may click.

I think he will, but I suppose it comes down to trade offs. If it’s a ‘we will sign the players, you work with them’ then sure, but if it’s Howe wanting the sway/say over the players, he will have less leeway surely if things don’t improve? We all said last season he may not hold cards in a power battle, but then he won the cup and gave him the killer card. Think same will be again this summer giving what’s required to the squad. Any competent DoF will realise the squad lacks a balance across the ages and different technical ability. So sales are needed for players that are well regarded and different types brought in.

The real alarm bells for me will be if he reverts even more to type in coming weeks to try and get something going. Someone mentioned Wissa starting over Wolte for example, because Wissa can be more like Isak. If that happened, then we saw Joelinton in at LCM with Gordon / Murphy on wings, that’s a red flag. Would be a massive omission that Howe is out of ideas for me and is trying to get the blueprint from last season going again. When managers slink back to previous ways in a time of crisis when those ways had their issues, it’s never a good sign. I just hope he is willing to reinvent the attack because that’s the area where we don’t have injuries (yet). Defence he’s forced into and that’s not his fault.

With Hopkinson, it’s a time will tell appointment. Has he been brought in as ‘you are the elite guy, here’s the keys, make us number 1 and we will back you in every decision. Just pick up the phone and let us know’. If come end of next summer it’s more of the same, I think we can all safely confirm what the intentions are. Trot along, do what we can as 7-8 richest in league. Will mean losing more players to prem rivals which will be tough to take as we all were not expecting that 4 years ago, but mentality may require shifting if so. And new signings brought in with a different focus. Agents will know what the score is, which is may why we missed out on targets, Isak had no intention of ever renewing and similar is coming up for Tino / Tonali.

In all honesty, the next 4 league games should be 12 points. Theres no excuses for it not to be. It’s two home games against sides we should be winning and 2 away games against the worst sides in the league. Think we will have to roll out a heavily rotated side against Bournemouth due to Man City being the following game in league cup. January in general is a brutal month that proper makes our breaks us. 4 competitions and 9 games. Any new signing will have little time to come in and train. Probably want them in before FA Cup game so they can at least start that game and get going.

Thy have helped us improve by doing what a club of our size should be doing as a minimum, and haven’t interfered by letting the manager do his thing (which has helped us win our first cup), but it does feel like Stavaley was the driver for PIF vested interest. We’re now at a level where we should’ve been years back, but how far will we move from here I’m not sure about.

Even better than for Villa.

Villa run is great fun for their fans. Will collapse because all the underlying stats says so, but they have positioned themselves to get UCL which is the main aim. Giving the age of their squad and the work needed, that’s massive for them. Just need to ensure Monchi doesn’t blow it.

He’s also been largely very average at best for his whole Chelsea career.

Really need Leeds to win tomorrow to keep 7th to 14th tight.

Think there was some chat in summer we should go for him over Wissa.

Elanga / Ramsey being rough diamonds is utter tripe. You don’t spend £40m+ on players that have been in prem for 4+ seasons as rough diamonds They’re nothing like transfers such as Gordon who essentially had 18 months of prem football before joining. Like take Isak joining for big money. We didn’t pay big bucks for him to eventually come good. We paid big money for him to come in straight away and deliver, and he did and it increased over time.

That says how poor Liverpool have been. Once others have played 28, are we much better than mid table? Eye test on pitch says no, and it’s backed up by that table.

Whole of team at Ipswich was out of depth. Said it at the time, the time to sign him was when he moved for £20m to Ipswich because the potential was there. £37.5m was moving towards high risk gamble which I’m happy with passing up on, but Hutchinson is a good player. Just Elanga being so shit makes it quite hard to take.

Mount being forced off at HT, then every change Amorim made was a conscious choice to sit off more helped. It was better, granted, but look at the XI that ended that game, Christ. Take the name Man Utd out, that XI was honestly bottom 5 stuff.

Training ground myth needs to get in the bin. It was mentioned last season, and the times we had more time between games, produced some of our poorer performances (same season before). There was no solid evidence that more time = better performances. It was up and down as it is this season. The only thing the breaks between games have at our best, was being able to roll out same XI and play the same high octane football. But as shown again last night, teams are happy to just sit off, concede all possession and know we will struggle to break them down. Opposition are happy to play different for one game, even if it’s not pretty, because they know it’s effective against us.

Is the structure change really that much different to Isak / Wilson first season? I don’t think we will see both play together unless injuries/suspension dictate things (Barnes and Gordon both out). Howe wanted two strikers, and with Wolte being an unknown, it was desperation that drove the Wissa deal, with it being someone that knows the league and associated demands. Didn’t want only one striker, otherwise Osula would’ve been accepted as 2nd choice.

Liverpool and Chelsea IMO should be taking top 5. Then Man Utd should really end up 6th because of one game a week. In which case our aim has to be 7th and it being Europe (which it should giving League Cup winners will be either us or Europe already, and co-efficient will see us get another spot). Which means looking at the table, your Sunderland and Palaces are what we need to finish above. It’s not even some small time thing when I say our aim now is to finish above Sunderland, because for aforementioned reason, they are likely so far the side other teams need to finish ahead to get 7th. As bad as we have been, that has to be the aim and despite the poor away form, giving the money we’ve spent, can spend in January, we should be finishing 7th behind all the usual big sides. That’s what Spurs will be aiming for too in second half of season.

3-0 win to us. Can’t get excited by it though because of it not really being a change in fortunes, but will be nice to not need to moan after an away game for only the third time this season.

Wissa IMO has to play LW if we are playing Murphy RW, with Wolte through middle (in games/situations where we will have most of the ball). Take that Murphy cross first half that was insanely on the money. Wissa would be crashing in at back post to score it, unlike Gordon, because he has that natural strikers instinct. And if he’s not doing that, then it’s concerning. But for me, that’s what I’d like to see moving forward.

We will, but people are putting their head in the sand IMO if they believe £55m for a 29 year old will represent value for money, especially when they’re competing for one position alongside a £65m signing. It’s Man City 2009-10 type of business and signing Roque Santa Cruz.

We don’t help him and so we are worse for it. Like how hard is it to have one of the wingers sit more central and make inside runs, so there’s someone for him to play off? Likewise one of the CMs pushing up further, instead of remaining a flat three. We’ve not properly tweaked things to support him consistently, despite having him since September. Mentioned few months back, but people are going to be shocked when form doesn’t improve if we go with Wissa upfront. Issues all around will remain, and whilst he will have better movement inside the box, we’ll then lose the link up when dropping off which Wolte gives (and Isak offered too).

They also have two proper superstars in Foden / Haaland, but more importantly signed players that have no Pep input. Vianna has took them in a different direction, and its meant Pep’s had to evolve the squad. Like Cherki / Rjiendeers are not Pep players. But they’re talented so Pep has been giving tools and needed to make them work.

It’s nothing close to a massive game for me. It’s against a side that’s poor, 2nd bottom and comfortably the 2nd worse side in league. If we win 2-1, it’s just a shrug of the shoulders. Doesn’t say anything about changing a corner etc. Last night was the massive one, to get ahead of a side we have to finish above, and we once again fumbled an open goal and now 6 points behind with a very hard away run still to come in 2026. League is effectively done for me, just need to ensure we hook up some form so we go into cup games not completely off the boil.