Lucky

Rinse and repeat though. I think if we lose this next game he’ll be under all sorts of pressure if he isn’t already. I think he’s run out of steam and ideas with this squad. Said all this months ago so just repeating myself but nothing has changed really. Not sure if that pressure means he’ll be sacked but it won’t help with results. If the club decide to make a change, I’m in two minds. Wait until the summer and go for a manager that might be of a higher profile. Or, get someone in mid season and give them a chance to evaluate the squad before what will probably be a major overhaul of the squad where we could lose quite a few purples in the summer. Don’t have massive faith in Ross Wilson if he’s an Eddie pick. Can’t imagine the type of target will differ all that much.

Exceot our perceived control in midfield is just teams happy to sit back and let us do pretty much fuck all. I know the typical 4-4-2 is outdated but surely there has to be a braver system than packing the midfield with 5, isolating out striker and then trying to quickly transition to 4-3-3 when we have the ball further into an opponents half. It just doesn’t work.

The issue is the system we play, it’s changed slightly in that the intensity is gone. But it’s a system that doesn’t work anymore. We have new players and some existing who are essentially square pegs in a round hole within this system. Most are good players in their own right and would flourish if utilised better. We seem to be continually not playing our best players at the same time because of this rigidity in the system we play. Our 4-3-3 is actually mostly a 4-5-1 Why can’t we use a variant of a 4-4-2 system and play Wissa and Wolt together. Just play Gordon or Barnes as a typical winger and Murphy or Elanga same on the right. Either of our strikers could drop a little deeper to link play or pull out wide to make space. Just wish he’d be a little braver tactically and with personnel.

Didn’t think we were all that bad for much of the game, just that final pass was lacking.. then of course when they scored and especially second half, they used the drop deep tactics which any manager worth their salt knows works against us. We’re so poor with the ball now that we could have played another hour and not scored. The Burnley game is massive.

Will be a good atmosphere, they’ll be trying to win it which will play into our hands. Bookies have them as marginal favourites but it’s splitting hairs 6/4 v 13/8. If we can play like we did first half against Chelsea we’ll cause them problems. It’s how we hang on which will define it.

Comment like that reminds me of Championship Manager 02/03 where you could get sacked for putting in a stadium expansion request and giving an ultimatum if they turned it down ☺️

Ultimately sustained success on the pitch and genuine star players will determine the corporate demand. It’s been said plenty of times but to see some random kids in any corner of the earth in replica shirts we need someone to generate those sales. Before Qatar bought PSG, when did you ever see their shirts while on holidays? Can’t escape it now. Mbappe, Messi, Neymar etc. Might seem a reach but it does all link back to the corporate side. Home games need to be an event. And the average corporate type isn’t going to shell out large on seeing us play the likes of Wolves at home unless there’s some star power to come and see.

A fit Botman is our best defender technically. He’s not been doing it for a while but his passing, especially those cross field passes to Trippier were a thing of beauty. You can clearly see once he has a run of games clubs start getting interested in him because he is elite.. renew his contract on the same terms or close to. But if we got an offer of what we paid for him or a bit more I’d cash out. Someone available is more valuable to us right now.

I think we really need a specialist defensive midfielder we can bring on to shore things up. Yes Tonali can do that role just fine but he’s covering for 3 and it’s not quite working currently. We need more pace/strength in there, someone who can just play it simple and retain possession etc. Ultimately shoring up the midfield will give our defence a break and make their jobs easier. The GK position is also something that needs addressing, Ramsdale has messed up a few times, and Pope will never be able to kick properly. Can clearly see now why EH has favoured Pope, but it’s still a less than ideal situation.

Holding more resentment towards Liverpool doesn’t mean I’m not holding Isak accountable for his cuntish behaviour, but I do think he was put up to it by his agent based on conversations they would have had with the dippers. (ie you’ll get your 300k a week if you do xyz to force a move) The club didn’t have a strong hand as we were never going to match those wages but in retrospect I do think we did as best as we could given the circumstances. But getting back to accountability, do I think he deserved to have his leg badly broken? Absolutely not. Do I wish him well? Not really.. like I said earlier a season or so of bad form and not fitting in and the dippers wasting their money would have been enough for me. Just find the gloating comments toward the player a bit ugly is all. I understand it, just think our fanbase which we consider to be one of the best in the world should be better than that. Taking the absolute piss out of Liverpool for how this has all backfired on them is a completely different matter though! I hope this transfer sets them back years financially.

That may be the case but the form of Ekitike would have made a serious run of form difficult. He’s acted like an absolute cunt but I wouldn’t wish a leg break on any player. Don’t feel sorry for him mind you, I just don’t like the gloating from a sizeable chunk of our support. We should be better than that. Laughing at Liverpool’s misfortune is another thing. At the end of the day, they were behind it all, poisoning what was a good thing while he was here. If his road back seeps into next season, he’s pretty much going to miss out on what should have been his best years because of the way that cunt of a club behaved towards ours.

I think I’d rather have just seen him play shit for the season and their fans turning on him. Suppose karma is a thing but it doesn’t sit too comfortably seeing a majority of supporters rejoicing at a player who won us a trophy breaking their leg. Doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven him for acting the absolute cunt this summer but my hatred is more for Liverpool now than the player. The karma bit is more for them.

Unlike Elanga, at least he’s shown some technical ability on the ball and doesn’t lose possession nearly as much. Needs a few games in the side now to see if he can kick on. I’d like to see him play more central a more advanced. Like the 1 in a 4-2-1-3?

We ain’t getting a shiny new stadium!

We’re playing like the away team.

I do think it’s an indication that our away from this calendar year has in the majority been worse than it has been good. And that’s not just this season.

49 games: 27W – 6D – 16L Goals: 89 scored, 59 conceded (+30 GD) Home vs away: Home: 26 games, 18W-1D-7L (57–28) Away: 23 games, 9W-5D-9L (32–31)

At the end of the day every manager is fighting for their jobs on a consistent basis, Howe is no different and his sound bytes will reflect that degree of self preservation. Don’t think Bruno will be happy though. He didn’t overreact with those comments.

Would Forest take him back? Part player swap?

I’ve criticised the manager for many things but being a coward isn’t one of them. Cautious yes, but that’s where we are because of the other elements. The mackems game, they were taking the play to us and we were hoping to catch them on the counter which we as a team are still well capable of doing but once the goal went in they sat back and they were the ones looking to counter then. That’s always been this teams weak spot, unlocking a low block. We just don’t have the patterns of play to do it and we never have. I can’t see where he’s going to suddenly find that and ultimately why I feel a change is probably for the best.

Fully agree on what he’s done since. But just like certain players, managers will suit certain clubs and not others. He should never have gone to China. There were enough envious eyes on Amorim going to Man Utd at the time, and on that current form a lot of clubs were interested, but it’s not worked out that way. But then it’s probably also true that second time is never as good. KK coming back didn’t create any major waves other than the happiness that he had actually returned.

Not really. There was an outcry when he left. And it’s not been all that long ago. The league hasn’t changed that much.

Would anyone take Rafa back? I often wonder what he’d have been able to do with a better squad. He really worked wonders with the shit he had and he was excellent in terms of identifying why the squad needed with his little database of players.

We’ve got a good squad. It’s massively underperforming. Yes a few duds but they are firmly on the manager. Bruno, Tonali, Gordon, Thiaw, Tino, Hall, Pope and Woltemade would probably get into many of the top 6 sides. Thy have a deeper squad but on first 11, it can and has competed.

Some on here would argue that Howe is a better manager than Arteta, and have done. So we had this excuse that the amount of games leaves little time for actual training. Yet it doesn’t affect Arsenal. They have as many games as us and their effectiveness as a team is far superior. So then the counter arguments, they have better players and a bigger squad. Perhaps. But honestly, if you dropped Rice or Saka into this team, I don’t think we’d be doing much better. The patterns of play are just not there. For Eddie, I think it’s fair to say he massively overachieved with less and has underachieved with more. If as a club the plan is to be more, how can we confidently say he’s the one to take us forward?