Sir Joel Inton

Good deal that for Palace. Feel like he’ll do well away from the toxic cesspit that is Tottenham.

If you also factor in Howe’s spending habits were similar at Bournemouth, it’s not too difficult to line the dots and realise it’s a Howe preference/policy. The policy Howe has had has worked up to this stage, but we have to be much more versatile and savvy in the market from here. We do not pay enough/have the pulling power to get the “best of the rest” from other PL clubs (see Mbeumo, Cunha, Semenyo, etc.) so we end up fishing in a pool that brings out the Ramseys, Elangas. These players will solidify our position in the top 10 rather than the top 6. We need to be in the market to find the next Semenyo before they become what they are in this league. Our squad is large enough with quality now to take the punts abroad and allow them the “Howe time” to settle in.

Maybe I focus on him more but he seems to be the one remonstrating with his teammates when they fail to pass to him in a good position, or play a poor ball to him. I saw similar with Isak. He gives off vibes as a player who thinks he is better than his teammates and gets annoyed at the fact. His form has always been patchy, it was with Everton before us.

Never been keen on him. Heard he’s a bit of a tit.

What was the last game Yasir attended? May just be me not being aware of his attendance but feels like he’s nowhere near as regular recently. The training ground and academy delays are frustrating but cannot pretend I know a thing about how quickly or complicated that could be. I do not understand why our commercial deals continue to be so poorly maximised though. Man Utd have a wine sponsor, a chocolate sponsor, a skincare sponsor, a Wi-Fi Network Solutions Provider, a Global Mattress and Pillow Partner… yet we cannot find someone to sponsor our training kit?

I’ve never had the boredom in my life to research this properly, but it always feels like the amount of focus and replays Sky show for an incident is dependent on whether it’s for or against a Sky 6 team. I have no idea if that was a foul or not as they failed to show even one replay of the incident itself.

But he is the one who has had a 38 game league season and 3 cups to play out a successful season. If he makes a decision to focus on one cup, rather than the league then it’s a decision he will have to stand up to if one of the small margins of error along the way go against us.

Well, yes. As the alternative would be finishing 12th with no silverware. Is that a good season for us? Would that have been a good season for us pre-Ashley? If we were competitive and finished 6th, qualifying for Europe but went out of all cups early, I’d be okay with that too.

Well that is a fair assessment. If he put our entire season onto a one off game due to his failings in the league, his performance will undoubtedly be reviewed on that outcome. It’s a bit like saying if Aston Villa score the goal last season, people would have had different opinions on whether the season was a Grade A or B success due to CL qualification. Of course they would, as the outcome determines the performance. He also wouldn’t have done the exact same job in both cases with your example as one would be qualification for Europe and the other wouldn’t. The very point I explained is my barometer for success with us at the moment.

Internally it was very much accepted that Isak would leave. But regardless, you can’t not have a Plan B as a PL/elite manager. You cannot write off a whole season because one player was sold who was actively pushing for a move since the end of last season.

I think that’s fairly clear it’s a pointless discussion, if you openly accept your view is a closed one unwilling to accept or learn from what is playing out in front of you.

Fwiw if we won a cup (FA or Carabao) and finished deep into the CL, I would probably accept finishing midtable. The key issue for me is European qualification year on year. A year in the Europa League would not be too bad and consistent European football will help us grow. We’d also make up the loss in PL prize money through CL progression. Conference League is a bit of a nightmare as it doesn’t offer a route into the CL but it does offer a realistic chance of a European trophy. However, I’ve got zero confidence we could put all our eggs into this basket as Spurs did last season. We used to thrive off big games, but when you look at how we turned up (or didn’t) at Sunderland and others, I have little confidence we would turn up at Wembley.

If Howe wasn’t planning for Isak to go long before he did, he’s failed himself. Howay I did have some issue with Howe’s methods when we were successful. I think his limitations we see now were present there too. What would cause you to change your position on Howe? I saw one ridiculous comment that someone would be okay if he relegated us. At what point this season does Howe take the blame rather than the summer?

How does that impact solely our away form? Do the players care more about who the DoF is when they get on a coach? Does Howe make nonsensical substitutions on Boxing Day because Isak asked to leave in June? This excuse is as laughable as Liverpool fans claiming Isak’s poor form was due to his lack of pre-season. Our 11 yesterday was more than good enough to turn up and put 3 or 4 past an extremely poor Man Utd/Sunderland/West Ham/Brentford side. We didn’t due to the poor team selection, tactics and apparently low morale/confidence in the squad - all sits firmly with the manager.

Out of interest, what are the mitigating circumstances?

If that was true, which I do not believe it to be, why would Howe continually pick a player that ignores his tactical instructions and only plays for himself?

Blaming our performances on Boxing Day on the summer transfer saga is as laughable as Liverpool fans blaming Isak’s form on his lack of pre-season. If you laugh at the latter you cannot use the other to pacify comments on Howe’s poor form.

We should focus on buying one top quality player in the Bruno, Tonali, Isak bracket to improve the 11 per window. If budget allows that should be complimented with young players with potential to grow (into top players for us or FFP sales). This summer we basically padded out the squad with similar ability players to who we already had. Ramsdale ~ Dubravka Ramsey ~ Willock Elanga ~ Murphy Thiaw ~ Botman Wissa and Woltemade the exception as we were forced into those through the rat’s behaviour. Although their combined ability is probably par with Isak and Wilson as a two. We’ve stood still, despite spending millions, whilst our rivals strengthened. I assume the plan was to enable a good go with CL and PL using similar quality players despite rotation but the reality is our starting 11 is weaker as a result. If we spent all of the combined Ramsdale, Ramsey and Elanga money (wages, transfer, agent fees etc) on 1 top quality RW or GK, would the absence of the other 2 left us any worse off? I suspect not. If the thought process was those players were an upgrade, I’m worried who thought that.

Ironically, they did once, against Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52072985

Easy to forget how young he is. He looks like an established PL player.

It’s not his fault he keeps getting picked but he really doesn’t help himself with his performances. I don’t know why but his on pitch personality is the one I struggle to gel most with.

A team that cannot come from behind or hold onto a lead is on a hiding to nothing.

The only positive from this is it makes Amorim look like a tactical genius and will keep him in a job. This version of Man Utd is fantastic. Never in my lifetime did I expect to see them defend a 1-0 lead at home against us for 45 minutes with a flat back 6.

It’s also really strange that whichever wingers play with Wolte, they appear to have an instruction to stay deep and as wide as possible. He ends up isolated with no support or we end up with all 3 attacking players trying to play football on the halfway line.

I feel like we play the wrong wingers with the wrong striker. Wolte should play with Barnes and Elanga and Wissa with Gordon and Murphy. Wolte to have the link up to get Barnes and Elanga in behind, Wissa to get onto the end of the build up play of Gordon and Murphy. Ideally I’d like them both on the pitch at the same time but in the absence of that we need a solution to get the forward line working.