Lucky

Not avoiding at all. It was Dr Jinx. Thats irrelevant to the topic though. He’s been inconsistent in every season, there have been reasons for that, the injuries in the last CL campaign season for example. Less excuses last year as the schedule wasn’t as horrific and arguably we had a better team. There were times of frustration but those weren’t as prolonged as this seasons decline. He headed recruitment this summer. All of those players were his picks, he should have known exactly how he was going to integrate them into the side. If the argument is that Woltemade breaks the press system. Why doesn’t he just play Elanga up front to hassle defenders?

Grand yeah, just ignore valid points that you can’t make a case against 👍

That’s total bollocks. I’ve said repeatedly I really like Eddie Howe and I would love dearly for him to succeed. Am just not seeing it though. The top managers are consistent in the league. Eddie Howe has been consistently inconsistent. And I have criticised him before and been made to eat my words when we go on a prolonged run of form, but then we’re right back in a shit spell again. How is that sustainable? This season feels different though. We’ve never played as badly as this under him. And to whoever is saying nobody has the balls to say he should be replaced, i have said this on this thread. I think he should be given the season as am sure we won’t be relegated. But approaching the summer we should look to bring in a top coach and try and kick on as a club from that point. Ross Wilson should be the one picking the players (if any) that we sign in January.

We shouldn’t be judging players on how they are currently being sent out to play. He looks lost because there is no plan. That goes for Elanga and Woltemade too.

He had 2 weeks to sort it out a month ago. We got worse. I commend the optimism about the City game, but really, you know what will happen, we’ll give them a great game for all of 25 mins, they score and we’ll just be chasing shadows. Then we play away. Is it really going to take losing the derby for some of you to realise this is a rot that’s started?

I think I’ve been consistent in my comments about him. I like Howe, I really do. I want him to be a success here as am sure all of you do too. The writing has been on the wall all season though, we’re in a decline. The European fixtures have been a nice distraction but I just think overall the PL is a tougher competition, aside from those elite teams. Something is amiss. Maybe it was the Isak situation and how the players felt about it privately. But something is different. Our output is way lower, the press isn’t there anymore which is basically his fucking identity as a manager. Has he just run them into the ground and this season is the burnout? All I read here is our strong home form.. really? We scraped a win against 2 point Wolves. A win against Ange and barely got the win against Fulham. It’s nowhere near as good as what people are saying. We do have a good squad here and it’s very much underachieving. If the players are just burnt out and jaded by the same tactics, why is it heresy to suggest that a change might do the club some good? At the end of the day, PIF will decide if they feel like their investment is in the wrong hands. We can’t continue on the growth path we are by sliding down the league and not getting Champions League next season, the repercussions are massive.

There’s been too much blame put on the defence. Botman in particular. Any back line where their midfield just lets players run right through them is going to be constantly under pressure and mistakes will be inevitable at some point in a game. We can point to Burn being a fish out of water but it worked just fine 2 seasons ago because as a whole the team was more compact. Younger too yes, but I don’t think that’s the issue, aside from maybe Trippier. It’s the setup and organisation of the team that’s totally disjointed. It’s making decent players look like shit. It’s not their fault. All roads lead to one place.

Where are the points in the league going to come from between now and Christmas?

Liverpool wouldn’t be in for him, not based off this season. And if Slot ever finds himself being shown the door, I reckon Klopp would go back. Man Utd would have been the main culprit before they sort of turned things around.

I feel bad for him at this point. He’s getting fuck all service. It’s unbelievable he’s scored as many as he has given how shite the team overall has been. He needs to start being more selfish.

No, not Mourinho. But someone like Ancelotti who’s at Brazil now. Just don’t think that’s a good fit and I can certainly see Madrid going back in for him if they have anything less than a spectacular year, so why not get in there first. He must have had 2 or 3 stints there at this point. Zidane is out of work. He’d have the draw to keep people like Tonali at the club even if we don’t qualify for Europe and would raise our profile globally. Mancini was apparently on a shortlist last year if Howe had been offered or taken the England job. There’s not many out there that would be a genuine upgrade, but they are out there.

I just watched his interviews on the various tv networks he was obliged to. He thought we were good in the first half. Thats seriously troubling. He’s either bullshitting the press which is something on its own or he genuinely does believe that which is far worse. At the end of the day, he’s built something and he’s going to be fiercely protective of it, which includes not taking constructive criticism. How many musicians or artists do you know who are open to the suggestion that they should change something they’ve worked on, it’s no different here.

The annoying thing is the rat will be looking at this and thinking he was keeping the team well above its station. I’m sure Howe would have played Wissa far more than Woltemade up to this point in the season, but how he’ll affect the team is purely guesswork at this point. Howe hasn’t even had a training session with him and I’m not expecting miracles from his first 5-10 games for us. That’s at least half the season over by then. Unless we really plummet down the table more, I don’t see a point in changing anything mid season but I have no faith in letting Howe spend money on his targets in January. I think we should go big on a world class manager to come in next summer. It would give the players a boost if we miss out on Europe and might give us a chance of holding onto certain players should we not be able to provide European competition.

Roberto Mancini was the first to win City the league and then they upgraded. Am sure the supporters think fondly of him but none of them look back and think that was a mistake. Its perfectly ok to take a club as far as you can.

He bought the players he wants, he trains the team, decides the tactics, picks the team and makes (or doesn’t make) the subs. Why is it mental to come to that conclusion?

Elanga. Ramsey.

It’s absolutely mental but use your eyes and let go of the sentimentality. He’d done an excellent job, but he’s fucked up this season. Personally I’d much prefer to make a call and change something that’s not working rather than stick with it for long enough that my opinion starts to change of him.

The players are doing what he’s telling them. By all accounts he’s not been able to have training sessions because of the schedule, but again, this is just an excuse, it’s not bothering other teams playing in Europe. The wheels have come off. Some of the players don’t look bothered. There’s something more to this. We’re playing in the Champions League and we can’t get the basics right against the likes of Brentford or West Ham. The way we’ve lost our shape and just been ragdolled in recent weeks is just not acceptable. I love Eddie, I really do, but I love the club more.

Hard to disagree with that. Now is Ross Wilson a stooge or does he have the clout to make a tough decision at some point?

Definition of madness trying the same thing week in week out away from home. Absolute dogshit today. Only one team looking like scoring.

Shit performance so far but good goal. Now let’s not crumble like last week.

No I’ve said I don’t think that right now, but tomorrow is huge as the next game against City is a big ask. It’s the optics of it. And then what if Wissa isn’t the magic wand we all think he will be? Being in the bottom 3 well into a season will affect any squad. Just stating the obvious but we need to sort it out. The squad is capable of doing much better than what we are.

The cunt lives in Widnes, it’s a shithole.

I don’t for a minute think right now we’ll be relegated but I’ve seen plenty of clubs sleepwalk into that situation, including us back in 2016. We had the players to be in the top half of the table that season. Just the wrong manager for the bulk of it. My concern is the effort into the cup competitions. It comes at a cost. Proof will be in the pudding tomorrow but if we have another performance similar to Brighton or West Ham then I’ll start getting worried. The league should always be the priority.

I said hopefully we can get a result and kick on. Plenty of optimism there but the reality is we could lose the next 2 and be in the relegation zone. That’s reality, sorry if it makes you uncomfortable.