Seasons prospects

[bodacious benny]

We are so f***ed over the next month <negmas>

Fernandez ruled out for the festive season.

It's okay.

SpoilerShow

[ALF]

Fernandez ruled out for the festive season.

It's okay.

SpoilerShow

Concedes less penalties than Lascelles...

[Oval85]

What a trash team we have.

[bodacious benny]

Howe has done well to instil some belief and fell good factor amongst the squad and fans, despite our position and at home we do look like we'll take the game to more teams. But serious questions will be asked if he continues with Willock and Shelvey in a midfield two for the next 3 matches, with little to no cover we will get absolutely humiliated.

There's also a strong arguement for dropping ASM for 2 or 3 games, his early season good form has long gone and we'll need players who will track back and work hard in the next couple of games, he certainly doesn't fit that bill. One of the issues that Lewis has had whenever he's played for us is that ASM has always been in front of him and he gets absolutely no cover at all.

[Remember Colo]

Howe has done well to instil some belief and fell good factor amongst the squad and fans, despite our position and at home we do look like we'll take the game to more teams. But serious questions will be asked if he continues with Willock and Shelvey in a midfield two for the next 3 matches, with little to no cover we will get absolutely humiliated.

There's also a strong arguement for dropping ASM for 2 or 3 games, his early season good form has long gone and we'll need players who will track back and work hard in the next couple of games, he certainly doesn't fit that bill. One of the issues that Lewis has had whenever he's played for us is that ASM has always been in front of him and he gets absolutely no cover at all.

Don't completely disagree, but I also fear that we'll have even less possession without him in the side - even if he does turn it over more than whatever more risk-averse player would replace him.

[bodacious benny]

Howe has done well to instil some belief and fell good factor amongst the squad and fans, despite our position and at home we do look like we'll take the game to more teams. But serious questions will be asked if he continues with Willock and Shelvey in a midfield two for the next 3 matches, with little to no cover we will get absolutely humiliated.

There's also a strong arguement for dropping ASM for 2 or 3 games, his early season good form has long gone and we'll need players who will track back and work hard in the next couple of games, he certainly doesn't fit that bill. One of the issues that Lewis has had whenever he's played for us is that ASM has always been in front of him and he gets absolutely no cover at all.

Don't completely disagree, but I also fear that we'll have even less possession without him in the side - even if he does turn it over more than whatever more risk-averse player would replace him.

There are definitely pros/cons either way, but I wouldn't be shocked or outraged if he was benched tonight. Imagine TAA having the freedom of that side of the pitch to bomb forward.

[Colly]

I feel like ASM is starting to fall into the exact same issues HBA (bloody triple initial players...) had, where the issue is less his tracking back which I'm frankly not that arsed about, and more his positioning and decision making in the final third. It's all well and good racking up "completed dribbles" or whatever Opta say he's really good at, but if they're on the halfway line and he's giving the ball away straight after he's not helping us at all. If he goes at someone in the box he'll terrify them, but that's few and far between, and the fact he didn't go at Castagne despite him being on a booking for practically the whole game is criminal. Like Ben Arfa before him, one of the best 5 a side players I've seen at the club, but he needs to learn where he can do damage.

[seaside nipper]

Well appears that’s two in now, a class defender and a decent centre forward who is if nothing else a seasoned premier league player and a focal point.
So shape up and with some pace and width about us , some fluency and decent organisation, we can win this Saturday against Watford and it’s game on for the season saver.
Lose, well let’s not go there……,reputation would be shredded in terms of further signings this season.
Hangs in the balance folks, hopefully Saturday serves as a launch pad.
HTL

[Slim999]

Well appears that’s two in now, a class defender and a decent centre forward who is if nothing else a seasoned premier league player and a focal point.
So shape up and with some pace and width about us , some fluency and decent organisation, we can win this Saturday against Watford and it’s game on for the season saver.
Lose, well let’s not go there……,reputation would be shredded in terms of further signings this season.
Hangs in the balance folks, hopefully Saturday serves as a launch pad.
HTL

yep if we can sneak it over the line Vs Watford I will be more confident.

Let's hope Burnley go into a tailspin and beat us to the drop.

We have to have a real go Vs Watford. Balls into the box from Trippier/ Shelvey, Fraser, .....JL bossing midfield, and ASM / Longstaff/ JL getting up with Wood to get onto the end of any knock downs

With Wood , Lascelles, Clarke & JL in the box we could also improve at set pieces with a good delivery

I presume ASM will be fit .

Hope so

[gola]

yeh me too m8 gd points

[seaside nipper]

Desperately need a commanding centre back in.
Our central defence is a shambles.
Sadly I sense it may already be too late, acceptance of the almost inevitable relegation now seems to be growing.
A physically strong and organised one dimensional team bossed us today, says it all. Too much talent required in to improve is, not enough time.
The “process “ imo has just had a couple of years added to it

[gola]

i reckon im jus gonna ceept where down cos its much easier that way. better than waitin all week for hope and losin or drawin and this agony going on and on. and then lol if we stay up its a lovely surprise so yeh, were down. no way we stayin up

[TJR]

We have to beat Leeds next week to give us any hope but I reckon we're down now.

They need to decide of we're just going to accept the inevitable and rebuild from the Championship or give survival a go. If they want to try and stay up then they need to bring in two decent centre half's before the Leeds game whatever the price. If Lascelles and Schar (Lascelles especially) play another minute of football this season, we're down.

[bodacious benny]

We’ve had loads of “we need to beat X” and we don’t (other than Burnley).

We’ve failed to beat Norwich, Watford, Southampton, Leeds (and not even the Leeds of last season), Brentford etc. at home and have failed miserably. We fully deserve to go down. A few wins can change that, but we clearly have a group of players that haven’t had the winning mentality or desire for so long that they can’t find it when needed.

[seaside nipper]

We have to beat Leeds next week to give us any hope but I reckon we're down now.

They need to decide of we're just going to accept the inevitable and rebuild from the Championship or give survival a go. If they want to try and stay up then they need to bring in two decent centre half's before the Leeds game whatever the price. If Lascelles and Schar (Lascelles especially) play another minute of football this season, we're down.

^^^^ This^^^^ Spot on.

For me yesterdays result killed any optimism I had around our survival. The reality of our plight is now glaringly obvious, coupled with the latest EH stats of one from ten. He ain’t the messiah.
The premier league is imo this season the strongest ever and unfortunately we have found ourselves with too much to do after the years of Ashley ‘s ownership eroding our competitive position in real terms. We were exposed by a strong physical and organised Watford. From what I saw of yesterdays game we looked like a championship team against Watford
I think it’s a root and branch overhaul for the richest club in the world that’s required. Our defence is a complete embarrassment.
It’s a blow as for me it looks like this “process” is gonna to involve the delay and disruption that goes with falling out the top League
C’est la vie

[Remember Colo]

We have to beat Leeds next week to give us any hope but I reckon we're down now.

They need to decide of we're just going to accept the inevitable and rebuild from the Championship or give survival a go. If they want to try and stay up then they need to bring in two decent centre half's before the Leeds game whatever the price. If Lascelles and Schar (Lascelles especially) play another minute of football this season, we're down.

^^^^ This^^^^ Spot on.

For me yesterdays result killed any optimism I had around our survival. The reality of our plight is now glaringly obvious, coupled with the latest EH stats of one from ten. He ain’t the messiah.
The premier league is imo this season the strongest ever and unfortunately we have found ourselves with too much to do after the years of Ashley ‘s ownership eroding our competitive position in real terms. We were exposed by a strong physical and organised Watford. From what I saw of yesterdays game we looked like a championship team against Watford
I think it’s a root and branch overhaul for the richest club in the world that’s required. Our defence is a complete embarrassment.
It’s a blow as for me it looks like this “process” is gonna to involve the delay and disruption that goes with falling out the top League
C’est la vie

The sad thing was, we actually dominated play for much of the match and hardly gave away a chance. But you can be sure irrespective of who we play, and how we play for 88 minutes of the match, we'll always make a couple calamitous errors and concede a goal or few. It's hard for a manager to prevent those with a new system when some players are just that poor and error-prone.

[Colly]

Dominated play is a hell of a stretch, I don't think we did anywhere near enough to deserve a win. One shot on target, and Watford had a few chances before they scored, it never ever felt comfortable.

We need to improve our play all over the pitch, and it needs to happen quickly. A new CB will help (and Fernandez apparently coming back to fitness is a bonus if Howe has the balls), but without a creative midfielder I really worry.

[bodacious benny]

I didn't see, and didn't bother watching the 'highlights' but listening to a couple of podcasts it sounded like we didn't do anything to try to play to Wood's strength (i.e. get early crosses into the box), we were slow in the build-up taking extra touches, and when we went ahead didn't really have a plan/clue and it was mainly Watford who looked inevitable to score.

Lacking leadership was also spoken about, if we don't have that (which we don't) then we've got no chance (combined with players who don't have a winning mentality / desire).

[seaside nipper]

I’m of the opinion that given the new ownership is now in place and got a sense of what lies ahead, part of that price is gonna be a relegation and a wholesale recalibration of the team and governance structure.
If offered that as part of the condition of sale I would have embraced that as we were never ever going to do anything with that pariah Ashley, at the helm. Just glad he’s finally away along with his spiv chav branding.

Given the vandalism Ashley’s wrecking ball did to the club, it looks like an impossible task to save the season. Miracles do happen but tend to take longer.
I can live with that now given the reality of our current position. Imo we have too high a mountain to climb in too short a time.

Long term mind set now engaged.

[bodacious benny]

I’m of the opinion that given the new ownership is now in place and got a sense of what lies ahead, part of that price is gonna be a relegation and a wholesale recalibration of the team and governance structure.
If offered that as part of the condition of sale I would have embraced that as we were never ever going to do anything with that pariah Ashley, at the helm. Just glad he’s finally away along with his spiv chav branding.

Given the vandalism Ashley’s wrecking ball did to the club, it looks like an impossible task to save the season. Miracles do happen but tend to take longer.
I can live with that now given the reality of our current position. Imo we have too high a mountain to climb in too short a time.

Long term mind set now engaged.

I'm with you on that, if the trade off for getting rid of Ashley is a season in the Championship then I'd have taken that every single time.

This is the price of 14 years of neglect / negligence under him, everything is rotten to the core.

People say how tough the Championship is, but we would invest in what is needed to have a very strong team, and I don't look at the likes of Fulham and Bournemouth thinking they're particularly amazing teams and both doing well.