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57 minutes ago, Kanji said:

Dropout, the squad has over achieved in its current position of 4th. But we’re not there on sheer luck or lack of quality like you seem to refer a few posts above. To suggest that is incredibly offensive to the work and skills our team has displayed on the pitch. We’ve had tremendous amounts of quality to be where we are, we didn’t just graft to it. The quality to execute the plan is the essence of where we are. The lack of quality and depth since the World Cup has been the reason we’ve not picked up points. 
 

we need serious investment this summer if we are to play in Europe and the multiple domestic comps. I won’t argue with that. Serious investment is multiple starters (mid, attack) and multiple squad players capable of starting across the pitch. 

You’ve put words in my mouth then agreed with my actual points.  I hope you understand that. 

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Managed the game very well when we went down to 10 men. It was great to see us still trying to attack with 2 up top, it’s just a shame we couldn’t sneak a goal. 
 

However, still really confused why we didn’t start a cup tied Gordon. Also find it a wee bit worrying that Liverpool are the first side to comfortably work out a way to confuse our back 4 - and it was simply long balls and splitting the defence. Very old school and very simple, yet it worked. It’ll be very interesting to see how Eddie will look to change things up (if at all) moving forward. 

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1 minute ago, TheGuv said:

Managed the game very well when we went down to 10 men. It was great to see us still trying to attack with 2 up top, it’s just a shame we couldn’t sneak a goal. 
 

However, still really confused why we didn’t start a cup tied Gordon. Also find it a wee bit worrying that Liverpool are the first side to comfortably work out a way to confuse our back 4 - and it was simply long balls and splitting the defence. Very old school and very simple, yet it worked. It’ll be very interesting to see how Eddie will look to change things up (if at all) moving forward. 

 

If our pressing up field isn't spot on then the long ball over the top is always going to be a big risk given how slow the entire backline is. 

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2 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Btw unless we invest in some numbers in the summer. We may be on to a Pardew like 16th season next year. 

I think we will invest, but we are utter shit in depth. Absolute garbage. I think the clearest evidence was the Sheff Wed match. 

AS 've said in oher threads, still very disappointed with the January window. Think it'll come back to bite us this season.

Brilliant business re-couping £19m for Wood - by all means. But letting him and Shelvey leave, from a performance pov, might turn out to be a huge, huge mistake imo.

Rather have Wood and Shelvey in the 25-man squad than Krafth and Gillespie.

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3 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

 I’d like to see these tactics with a proper squad. I think a fall off was always inevitable with our lack of options and quality. Too much of the team picks itself. I’d like to see what he would do with Burn if he had legitimate alternatives. 
 

At the start of this season I thought this squads ceiling is 7/8

I think EH has done miracles to have us where we are with the squad at his disposal. We stagnated for years so he's got some catching up to do before, I suppose, he can even think about plan B. I've every confidence that'll come in time.

 

What I love about him is he hasn't bitcjes and moaned and thrown toys out of the pram - ala Gerrard or that angry dwarf at Southampton. He's encouraged, trained, and generally sought to inspire the shower of shite (as they were before he arrived) with confidence. Beyond that, he's inspired us, as fans. He's been a massive part of getting our club back and for that alone he's a legend.

 

I'm gutted about the result yesterday - fucking hate those twats - but the reality facing us is that we simply don't have the numbers and/or quality to keep up sustained pressure on the CL spots all season. Frustrating as fuck, but we are where we are as a result of the consistent neglect this club and squad had for over a decade prior to wor Eddie coming through the door.

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7 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I wish he put more public pressure on the board to make moves in January.  
 

Managers that don’t play those public games get left short in the transfer window. I think Klopp has been a victim of that.  He ends up sounding crazy defending Liverpools transfer policy. 

To be fair, that could come later, but the board are still only just over a year into sorting out an utter shell of a club they took on.

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16 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

I wish he put more public pressure on the board to make moves in January.  
 

Managers that don’t play those public games get left short in the transfer window. I think Klopp has been a victim of that.  He ends up sounding crazy defending Liverpools transfer policy. 

 

Fortunately Howe probably isn't as short-termistic as some of our fans and will know the players will arrive. We're never going to have the perfect squad, particularly when he arrived the likes of Hendrick, Clark, Hayden and Gayle were in his 25. 94/95 we got shot of Cole and went half a season with Paul Kitson as the only real out-and-out centre-forward. Short term it was probably the difference between 4th or 5th and getting into Europe, and us eventually ending up 6th and out of Europe. Look what happened that summer though.

 

 

Edited by Optimistic Nut

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18 hours ago, Cort said:

 

Absolutely not - we are among the top teams for all sorts of different stats, while that was so obviously a fluke which this bloke alludes to: 


I mean from memory, how many games did we actually dominate that year? West Brom away, Stoke home? Some good results in there away at Stoke and at home to Man Utd and Liverpool, but come on, it's not like we had some long term progressive style of play.

Thanks for posting that, that was interesting  :thup:

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We have eerred on the side of letting players go probably because in the long term getting wages of players not of new standards required as quickly as possible will help with financial fair play and bringing players in. No it is not ideal, yes the squad is too thin. I just can't bring myself to be overly upset, this is all because we have overperformed for first part of the season, we are ahead of schedule. If they'd started the season saying top 4 aim, then yes in that context looks a little foolish, but in context of, we are not going to rush into buying loads of players we are going to take time, build a squad piece by piece, only sign players we want and are good enough rather than just who is available or at an inflated premium then this approach still makes sense. 

 

Of course a little bit of me thinks we could have got top 4 had we maybe kept Shelvey but if we do finish 5th or 6th no guarantee Shelvey would have been the difference. Loaning out Dubravka looks more a mistake now sure but he was apparently very unhappy, what would the impact of an unhappy player on the bench have been, who knows?

 

Equally the dividends of everyone in the club knowing that Howe will respect their wishes, players coming in to a club with a reputation of treating players fairly are not going to be easy to quantify but they will be there. 

 

Anyway just to say maybe club got that a bit wrong, a bit daft in retrospect, but I can't get angry about it. I am dreading us finishing 6th and there being fury all round, when we all would have been delighted at season start. TOp 4 would be great, but City and Arsenal have been better than us for large parts of the season, Man U have a big head of steam and form and we have dropped off. Spurs may well implode at any moment so there is a chance to overtake them again. I do think Brighton and Liverpool are most likely other ones to overtake us which would be disappointing, but we will get form back. 

 

 

Edited by Tiresias

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If we'd kept Shelvey he'd have ended up triggering a clause and we'd be stuck with him another year. No guarantee a club like Forest would have wanted him in the summer when they have 2-3 months to sign someone. He'd also be taking up a squad place on £80k a week or loaned out with us paying a chunk of his wage. 

 

By all accounts we tried loaning someone but no one was playing ball with us (Gallagher, Berge...). If the long term solution was available in January I reckon the club would have done it, likelihood is the player or players we want will be more available in the summer. I don't want us going down the list and spending daft money on someone we don't particularly want long term for the sake of a couple of league positions this season and if we're left a bit short but are able to get rid of someone who won't be here long term, you can see why the club did it.

 

Can imagine Howe would be disappointed but I also think he's wise enough to understand we're not going to have the perfect squad just yet.

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