Big Jow

His end product isn’t good enough. His career high with us was 5 goals and 5 assists across a whole season, including cups. Final season he scored 1 goal. Incredibly exciting player to watch and he was also handicapped by us often not having finishers in the side but even still. For all the excitement, his return is only a smidge better than Miggy’s. He was a player we absolutely adored because he got us off our seat, the only player to do that since Ben Arfa but there isn’t any top PL clubs who would pay decent money for him due to the above. I’m sure some data nerd will come along to tell me his xG, xA or xZ was actually 30 goals and assists but the team let him down, but I don’t think anyone valued him like we did. I agree maybe £5m more would be reasonable though.

It’d be more typical NUFC if we beat Man City and then lose to Coventry in the semi.

HoweOut It didn’t catch on.

Well that’s the end of that then Was the last win we had their the Rolando Aarons masterclass? Would fancy us slightly at home but for whatever reason we never play there.

I didn’t understand why we moved Isak to the wing and put Gordon up top yesterday in the first half. Thinking about it, Isak has looked a shadow of himself since returning from his recent injury. But as others have pointed out here the midfield rarely get him into the game. Nail on the head regarding the midfield not functioning in either direction. Ultimately though we need a solution to that other than hoping the return of Willock and Anderson will solve it all.

There’s a post on this very thread that states people “hide” by saying they are in-between because they hate Howe and want him sacked. People like @The College Dropout and others put forward reasonable analysis and posts about the errors Howe has made and they get ridiculed or lambasted for it. Myself included in that. There is a small minority making bizarre comments (comparison to Bruce, being one example) but you also have people on the other end of the spectrum who act as if you’ve stolen their first born if you suggest Howe could’ve done better this season.

Yet they pay ‘coin’ for 46 games a season to achieve fuck all.

I loved Rafa but must agree, Howe is massively ahead of him. Can’t think of an NUFC manager since Sir Bobby I’ve enjoyed as much as Howe.

Maddison would have been fantastic in hindsight for our injury record.

Even those 3, 3 away ties in the cup against Championship and PL opposition is a lot harder than most have had. Coventry getting through with home ties against Maidstone, Oxford and Sheff Weds, as one immediate example. Or Man Utd with Newport, Wigan and Notts Forest.

He’s been useless every time we’ve had him. Couldn’t understand what the commentators were talking about when suggesting he should get the Final. Gave us some free kicks which I’m not sure have ever been fouls.

He’s out of form, but the whole defence is. I think the arrogance is actually frustration.

He was good today because that’s how he should be used, off the bench once the opposition has tired.

I say that as I expect Murphy drops out and Gordon takes his position with Barnes on the left.

Will benefit from a proper loan spell next season once we have everyone back. By proper I mean a top Championship team who play football, rather than a plodder Scottish 3rd division team or a random European team plucked out of a hat. Will be interesting to see how he develops. I think he’s been okay but he’s clearly way off PL quality at the moment.

He’d give Constitution Hill a race this season. Phenomenal. Part of me hopes Southgate is as thick as he looks to date and leaves him out the squad in the summer so he can rest every muscle and joint in his body.

He’s getting similar reviews as to what Gordon got after a couple of games. We know how that ended up. He’s been injured most of the season but has still been a handful in the majority of games he’s played. He’s a vast improvement on Murphy.

Really pleased for him. Not sure why but I have a real soft spot for him. If he keeps that form up we’ll be fine until Pope is back. Wish he was better off his line but he’s so assured at claiming corners/crosses.

I’ve never known a player to be unable to direct a header, particularly a professional player. The ball hits his head and it can literally go anywhere.

I’ll need to watch that again to try and make sense of it because I struggled to ascertain what the plan was. I think it was the semi-press approach of pressing in periods without fully committing to it and not across the whole match. It worked, to an extent. Besides that I saw a more conservative approach which I assume was to try and keep the goals out, Lascelles with an absolute brain fart preventing that from happening. It wasn’t pretty, it was a bit desperate at times but we got there in the end. Howe looked like, for the first time, to be feeling the pressure. He looked a bit desperate at times. The subs were still not my cup of tea, but at least it was an improvement on Saturday, although that is a very low bar to meet. A big test at the weekend. Not looking forward to Neto. Heres hoping we build on this and get a win. At this stage, with the players we now have back, a draw wouldn’t be good enough.

It’s okay, I accept your apology.

I think you’ve confused a small joke at posters like you who have excuses for everything, with an inaccurate statement which can be quickly disproven by several of my posts.

Send him back to Leicester to be made into a bag of Walkers crisps after that penalty.

You wait until we draw Liverpool.

Injuries, Blackburn’s new manager bounce, fatigue, fixture congestion, having to play harder cup games, the Horizon scandal and the fact it’s a leap year all to blame tonight.