Big Jow

Not directly no, but Liverpool were up against it until he made those substitutions and then they dominated the ET period, resulting in an eventual goal. The freshness of those players coming in, not necessarily their quality, made a huge difference.

The Isak conversation has been done to death but you could be totally sensationalist and argue any of those, including the keepers, would have contributed more than he was able to for the last 10 minutes or so. Any mobile player with lung capacity was worthwhile putting into his position as he could barely move. I’d have also swapped Tino for Hall. It’s all fairly irrelevant as we’ll never know what would have happened and the whole discussion is based on thoughts, feelings and guesswork. The very small overall point being made is that our approach on Saturday was dreadful and sadly it’s not the first, second or third time we’ve had to witness it this season - all without any success.

We would’ve beat Milan at home if we didn’t get that shocker at PSG, we only lost that game as we got more and more desperate. We were also unlucky vs. Dortmund at home, were worthy of a point. Suppose that’s football at the highest level though, fine margins.

The stats page I was looking at had possession at 50/50 interesting that they differ. You also don’t include key metrics like shots (them 15, to our 2). Or where that possession was on the pitch, a majority of the first half possession was defensively. We could have 95% possession but if we set up like he did, it is only going to achieve a draw at best unless we attempt to attack and/or have shots.

If you genuinely believe we set out to control the ball away at AC Milan, I’m not sure we’ll ever get to any sort of agreement. I’ve explained the difference in the tactical approaches. Villa was brilliant and it was also a very different tactical set up to Bournemouth, which was the same poor set up we have had in the other games listed. I’ve also said I don’t understand his change in approach either, the only explanation I can come to myself is that he’s changed it this season to try and manage fatigue with the extra fixtures. Which also doesn’t really make sense because he’s passed up multiple opportunities to manage fatigue with substitutes.

Thought he could do better with the 1st, 2nd and 4th. He was certainly better at sweeping up but his shot stopping is not as good as Dubs. They are two totally different keepers with totally different flaws though. That’s why they are 2nd and 3rd choice keepers. The quicker Pope is back, the better.

Not sure I’d start Isak or Willock for this. Granted our options are limited but we’re just asking for a problem if we do. I’d put Gordon up top, Almiron on the wing and then keep Miley in for Willock. It should still be more than good enough to beat Blackburn. Even if we’re struggling we can bring both off the bench.

I think you’ve misinterpreted the sarcasm in the response I was giving to the quoted post.

We “took the game to Milan” with an xG of 0.19, 1 shot on target compared to theirs of 2.05 and 8. We barely left our own half for large periods of that game. You surely can’t believe that. Disagree about your assumption of Villa. We were brilliant on the day and played about 30 yards further forward and onto them, the stats and the eye back that up. Same reason I didn’t include games like Wolves and West Ham in my post, despite not winning those we set up totally different tactically. I explained in my post the rationale for believing it was a tactical diversion is because we’ve played that way from the start of the season in ‘tough’ away games, despite any injury crisis. This also isn’t hindsight, I’ve thought it most of the season but haven’t been a member on here. If you’d like proof of that I’d happily forward you copies of various Whatsapp messages to friends/family discussing it. I think it was the Bournemouth away game where I first recognised this. Again directing you back to my post, I wasn’t asking anyone to “singlehandedly beat PSG’s back line”. I’d have bought Parkinson on for Isak with probably 10-15 minutes to go, he’d have been able to run, which Isak couldn’t. Every time we cleared the ball forward, it came straight back. Even if Parkinson did nothing other than win a foul, or hold the ball up for 5 seconds longer, it’d made the world of difference to the constant pressure we invited otherwise. I agree on your comment regarding 90% of managers. That’s often why they end up getting sacked though. Because it goes sour and they are too stubborn to change it.

He’s just really limited. He’s had a few great moments or good spells but he’s probably a lower PL/top Championship player. He’d be great to try and sell, for FFP as well as his limited ability. I doubt Howe would though.

Fuck me I hope he stays fit.

I just can’t can’t get my head around when he waited until we were 4-0 up against Palace at home and 5-0 away at Sheff Utd prior to making subs* Being obsessed with fatigue and knowing what our fixture list was going to look like, you’d have taken people off at HT in both those games. Loads of examples of it… Chelsea he waited until it was 4-1, Fulham at home he waited until it was 3-0** Across those games alone you could save the equivalent of 2 games in people’s legs. *not counting Barnes coming off with an injury. ** again discounting injury subs

The Wilson and Isak fiasco has been entirely on him. Both made out of hula hoops and he’s failed it manage that properly. See my comment earlier about playing Isak when he can’t even move. You can make a real case for injuries that seem completely random being a cause of fatigue. Players stretching further, chasing the game and opposition more. Also impossible to know if situations like Joelinton may have aggravated his injury coming back out for the second half at the mackems, for example. Not saying we wouldn’t have absences, of course we would, but he’s made the situation worse than it could’ve been. Fatigue is massively on him. We’ve had ample opportunities to rotate and failed to do so. Klopp played some kids in a cup final today… and won, with fresh legs, funnily enough.

I think I would feel actual pain if we lost to Liverpool on their route to winning it. The dramatisation of it with Klopp would be unbearable.

4 of those 5 reasons (injuries, tactical, game state, fatigue) are Howe’s responsibility.

Think they have every right to want him gone. Other than winning a competition which they were favourites for, beating European giants like AEK Larnaca and Silkeborg IF along the way. Any manager who hasn’t won a game in 2024 is likely to be under pressure. Especially when that includes a 6-0 drubbing at home and games against Bristol City, Sheff United, Bournemouth and Forest. His football is also dire as fuck.

The club will never win though no matter what they put in place. A system was needed following the farce of fake buys last year and selling them on for a point. Loyalty points are seen like a badge of honour and people are very precious over them. The irony being in many cases those loyalty points earned without loyalty.

That’s that then. Every time we play a team with a higher squad value or perceived quality, we should retreat onto our goal line and concede the game from the first whistle. Brest went to PSG and completely outplayed them in the second half, getting a draw from 2-0 down. Bologna at Milan too. We had less shots at Arsenal in the whole game than West Ham did in the first half, when they, also won. Burnley put up a bigger fight than we did. You can get results at these teams, granted you will ultimately need a bit of luck on your side and to have your team playing at 100%, but you’ll get neither of those setting up like we have.

It was shite until they turned it around on Friday tbf. I’ve no idea what is wrong with ours. I can only come up with a guess it’s expectations. Our best atmospheres (particularly at home) are when we feel aggrieved, our atmospheres under Ashley were also largely built on unified anger. Now people expect to turn up and see us win. When we don’t, they’re more flat.

I think the problem can be routed to the fact that after 5 transfer windows we are arguing if a CB or RB should be our starting LB.

He’s worth whatever he asks for at this stage. He’s our biggest injury loss. If we have people like Targett on 100k, I can see why he thinks he’s worth more.

Think we’ll react in this in a similar way Arsenal did to us yesterday after Porto. 4-1 win.

Which is scandalous if he isn’t considered for England.

The excuses of injuries, fatigue, suspensions, the schedule, the time our flight takes off are not actually as strong as people believed. They never have been. This crap performance yesterday wasn’t down to any of those things. Our away form all season has mainly been due to these bizarre tactics we’ve put in place away from home. It first appeared at AC Milan and I wonder if the fact Howe thinks it ‘worked’ (depending on whether you view clinging on for 90 minutes for a draw is a good result) has been the reason he has persisted with it. The reality is, it hasn’t worked, ever. We rode our luck in Milan and in other variations of it at Liverpool, Dortmund, PSG, Tottenham, Everton, Bournemouth have all shown it’s a disaster waiting to happen. You only need to look at the games we’ve been successful in away from home like Villa where we took the game to them to realise even more what a crap plan it is. Yes, we’ve had injuries and several other issues but we didn’t in Milan. This approach has been designed for us from the beginning. Today we had what? Tonali, Big Joe & Pope missing out of the first 11 (assuming the former two start ahead of Little Joe). Are we so depleted we had to play the whole first 45 minutes on our goal line? We’ve had much worse starting 11s against much better Arsenal 11s in this fixture before (with much worse managers too) without resorting to that and it was criminal to set up in the way we did. Howe was absolutely sensational last season and gave me some of my best memories as a Newcastle fan, last season his plan worked to some extent, although towards the end teams worked out how to play against us and we started to struggle. Refusing to change formation, refusing to change tactics, refusing to address the gigantic gap between defence and midfield, refusing to take Burn out the 11 until today, refusing to play Hall, refusing to bring others on to rest players towards the end of games have all played a significant factor in terms of how this season have panned out. That said a lot of ‘elite’ managers are stubborn. People continue to say “but what else can he do”, all of the above is the answer, because time and time again this season, what he has done hasn’t worked so he should maybe consider something else. PSG for example, hoofing balls up to Isak for the last 45 minutes when he could barely walk, I don’t care if we had Riviere on the bench, bring him on for the last 10-15 minutes as he’ll at least be able to run and potentially keep hold of the ball. The only thing that I can’t work out, is if he’s as stubborn as above, why have we had a total U-turn this season with tactics from last? I can only assume he did this to try and conserve energy with the extra games. We’re a dream to play against. The opposing manager and teams know exactly who will be playing and how we’ll set up. The best situation is Howe reacts and changes, because I’d love for him to progress as we do, as he’s earned it. But sadly, this has striking similarities as to why he got relegated with Bournemouth, he was too stubborn to change. Not that we’ll get relegated, but we’ll be inconsistent and finish 8-12th every year under him imo. I’d love to be wrong though. We’ll not improve this season by sacking Howe at this stage, he also has credit in the bank, but no idea if I’d look to replace him this summer or let him have one final crack at the whip with a blank sheet next year. We’re all in on the FA Cup this season and he needs to get that right.