TheEntertainer

Isak on strike versus current Wissa is probably about the same output

Bruno and Joe are 28 and 29, still absolutely at their peak so their age has nothing to do with it, I agree Trippier has declined with age, but it's not like we didn't know he was going to get older. Pope has just turned 34 so I guess age could be a problem for him as well, but that doesn't seem past it for a goalkeeper. We've lost one player. Claiming we've lost the spine of the team is a massive over-exaggeration. The under-performance shouldn't be due to age for most of these players and other than Isak and Trippier we haven't needed to replace a first team player (although for whatever reason it's become clear that Pope isn't it as well now). We have Tino at RB who on paper is as good as Trippier and I would imagine was the succession plan though he's obviously made of glass (you do lose some leadership though I guess). I just really don't like the argument the players aren't good enough, this team is so much stronger than the one Howe inherited when he came in and he got a tune from them. In my opinion the teams still good enough, they are just massively under-performing for whatever reason.

That doesn't make sense to me, we have more or less the same team that finished 4th, 7th and 5th. The players who have left have all been dead wood or bit part players other than Isak and we've brought in more players to replace them who at worst should be able to be squad players like the leavers were (though we all hoped for more). There's a glaring problem at CF atm but that doesn't explain why everyone else who has previously been a top 5 players is suddenly playing like they 'simply aren't good enough'.

Another close game with defeat to a late sucker punch as is tradition. 1-2

Haha! Fair enough

Here's the Premier league form table, Forest and West Ham are down the bottom of the league, but they aren't playing like it

Yeah next games really important for me, I'm firmly Howe out currently, but if we show something in the next game (and make ourselves completely safe from relegation) then that would temper my thinking somewhat. If we then went on a run and actually looked decent in the last few then that would probably make me second guess whether changing was the right thing or not. My current thinking is we look poor, uninterested, nervous and without any proactive or quickly reactive coaching, we just try the same thing that isn't working over and over and so I think things aren't going to get better under the current coach. If things did actually get better and we won our remaining games that would pretty firmly prove me wrong and I'd think maybe he does actually deserve another season to properly fix things. On the flip side we should also have a plan in place if we are equally as bad as we have been in the next game.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c33l3y52nm5o BBC seem to think it's possible. (I don't think we go down because Spurs exist, but I do think it's worth talking about)

I'd guess a fair few people don't bother updating so some of the old poll will have been people's views from a couple of months back or whenever it was put up

We can’t possibly still be talking about Isak leaving at this point in the season. Players come and go, it’s up to the manager to manage that.

I think the point in all of this is it’s possible however unlikely and the team need to wake up and realise that and stop sleepwalking to the end of the season.

Do you know what sanctimonious means? Because you’re being it and he’s not. Sure you could claim he’s being a bit condescending (although I enjoyed it) but I’m not seeing the sanctimony.

We are and technically that’s possible as well but even less likely than us finishing 18th. Football is all about momentum, we have none, all the teams below us have loads (other than Spurs). I’d not even be thinking of being worried about an 8 point gap if we looked vaguely like we could win a game.

Those are their points from their last 4 games, not what I expect them to get going forwards, they only need 3 more than us between now and the end of the season to catch us. Spurs getting 8 more than us is the unlikely event. Given Forests form and the form of the teams they are playing 7 points would be reasonable from those fixtures if I was to guess now, but who knows. I'd not be suprised if we got 0, but on paper none of our games are awful so I'd expect us to pick up something. Like I say I don't think we're going down but I do expect Forest and Leeds to both finish above us and it's not an impossibility if Spurs somehow pull out a very unlikely run. We have 2 relegation 6 pointers coming up, playing Forest and West Ham, hopefully we can get up for those.

There's definitely a chance now, I think Spurs are too bad for us to realistically be worried, but I'd not be suprised by us finishing 16th or 17th. 4 games to go and from the last 4, Spurs have 4 pts, West Ham have 7, Forest have 10, Leeds have 8 and we have 0. We're 8 points ahead of Spurs, 6 of West Ham, 3 of Forest and 2 of Leeds.

The Poch sacking was fair at the time for Spurs, they'd finished 2nd and got to a Champions League final and were 14th the next season, obviously they've got even worse since then, but I don't think the Poch sacking was unreasonable and they've just made a series of increasingly poor appointments after that, which is always the risk when you twist obviously. The Poch sacking at Chelsea was clearly mental mind but other than him they've had a series of poor managers in recent years after Tuchel. You can make the same argument the other way, what about Man Utd they stuck with Ten Hag for ages when he was clearly not good enough, then Amorim for too long despite him clearly being awful and now they're flying high under Carrick. Change is always a risk, but if the current encumbant is massively underperforming, chances are you get better. Maybe you don't and if you fuck up the appointment obviously you don't but we aren't actually completely safe from relegation with all the shitters winning this weekend. That's an absolutely horrific season for Newcastle since the buyout so this season has been a collosal underperformance. We even have the example of Eddie at Bournemouth, they stuck with him for too long because of what he'd done for them previously and he took them down. It's a risk either way, but in my opinion given this season, twisting is the lower risk.

As has been said now is the perfect time to try and fit Wolte into the team though, probably with a bit of a change of formation or style. He's clearly a good player and clearly not right for the current way of playing. We're playing terribly at the minute and more or less have nothing to play for now so now would seem the perfect time. Though I guess Eddie is probably worried about potentially losing his job if we lose all of our remaining games so in Eddies mind there is a lot at stake still so he probably doesn't want to take anything that he sees as a risk.

BBC has an article with him where he says: Which sounds like he kind of regrets the decision (Without him actually coming out and saying it) The BBC also has him linked with Villa today though.

He left to join Burnley because he wasn't getting a game right? He's closer to the team now so I guess that might change his thinking, I imagine it doesn't massively though.

World class is a bit of a stretch, but yeah he's very good and an improvement on what we have.

I'd give that time to percolate before we call it an Infantino win, everything I've seen of him and of Trump would suggest as unbelievable as this seems, it's possible.

Yeah I 100% think there's a chance they just implode, very hard to call either way honestly but if I just look at the games one at a time that's what I get.

I'd be interested to see how well a team around us, say Palace or Fulham, would get on in the Champions league given how well the 18th best team in the prem did this year (not that we're likely to see that). We can all agree Spurs have been beyond terrible this season, but they finished 4th in the league phase and were only knocked out by 2 goals to the team who have now knocked out the team who beat us by 5 (and actually beat them in one of the legs)

On form we are light years worse than Bournemouth at the minute. I really wish we weren't and we shouldn't be, but we are. They've also just beaten us, with us home to hammer that point in even further. Leeds are unbeaten in 5 in the league so are actually on pretty good form unlike us and still only just scraped a draw versus Bournemouth with a 97th minute equaliser in a game where they were second best. I broadly agree just about anyone in the league can beat anyone else on their day, but it's about the likelyhood of that and us beating anyone other than the bottom 3 at St James on current form feels pretty unlikely.

Bournemouth are currently on the best unbeaten run in all of Europe's top 5 leagues (14 games), we've lost our last 3 games to Sunderland, Crystal Palace and then Bournemouth so at least one of them were a good team.