The Footie Thread

[Jimaroid]

Happy to ignore next couple of games results and watch how the players respond.

Win both and we set ourselves up for a fall etc. I want to see how the players respond plus both new signings not available for Cup match, so there could be 2 different looking teams for both games.

Winning both feels a fantasy to me at the moment. Not saying I don’t want that but it just feels unlikely given where we are. So the question is which of the two do we need more and it’s definitely the Newcastle game. And I have t even thought about the scenario of the cup match bringing us more injury trouble yet. Oh god I feel sick.

 

[Deleted member 21784]

This was a real opportunity to improve the squad and push on......but not now....going into the 2nd half of a European season with such a slim squad and 1 recognised striker is nothing short of negligent. I think we can forget about 4th, going deep in Europe or even an FA Cup run now.

Also we have shown no ambition to our good young players....Rice, Bowen etc will be off in the Summer no doubt.

I mean our first team is brilliant

We can even push Bowen up top and have good replacements on his wing

However as shown over Xmas with 3/4 of the first choice back line out just hindered us. We were lucky to beat palace defo.

This summer just got even tougher aswell

Noble finally retires but that's the back up gone

Yarmeleko is going

Kral returns to his club so that's the back up back up gone

Antonio is 32. Cresswell 31

How do we replace half the squad plus rice if he leaves

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Winning both feels a fantasy to me at the moment. Not saying I don’t want that but it just feels unlikely given where we are. So the question is which of the two do we need more and it’s definitely the Newcastle game. And I have t even thought about the scenario of the cup match bringing us more injury trouble yet. Oh god I feel sick.

1 game at a time mate.

 

[Fade and Die]

I mean our first team is brilliant

We can even push Bowen up top and have good replacements on his wing

However as shown over Xmas with 3/4 of the first choice back line out just hindered us. We were lucky to beat palace defo.

This summer just got even tougher aswell

Noble finally retires but that's the back up gone

Yarmeleko is going

Kral returns to his club so that's the back up back up gone

Antonio is 32. Cresswell 31

How do we replace half the squad plus rice if he leaves

Add to that Areola will probably be off, which is a shame as I really rate him, Ogbonna may not come back and is also 33 and Fredericks and Masuaka are only just about squad players. We could do with about 12 new players.
As much as I hate Sullivan, reading reports today seems to suggest that there was funds available but “due diligence Dave” wasn’t happy with what was on offer so ended up with nowt! It’s the 3rd window now we have not been able to sign a striker.

If we go behind to Watford I can see the crowd getting vocal towards (k)GSB which would be a real shame not least because it’s supposed to be a tribute to Isla https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2022/january/25-january/tribute-isla-caton-west-ham-united

 

[Deleted member 21784]

Add to that Areola will probably be off, which is a shame as I really rate him, Ogbonna may not come back and is also 33 and Fredericks and Masuaka are only just about squad players. We could do with about 12 new players.
As much as I hate Sullivan, reading reports today seems to suggest that there was funds available but “due diligence Dave” wasn’t happy with what was on offer so ended up with nowt! It’s the 3rd window now we have not been able to sign a striker.

If we go behind to Watford I can see the crowd getting vocal towards (k)GSB which would be a real shame not least because it’s supposed to be a tribute to Isla https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2022/january/25-january/tribute-isla-caton-west-ham-united

I don't think his dithering was much to do with it...he wanted the defender they wouldn't pay

Those bids for Phillips and raphina everyone knew would never get accepted

Yeah hope they don't ruin the Tribute, poor girl

 

[Deleted member 1740]

Kevin Friend gets a rest after the Jota pen that he was told to change. Alledgely all officials have been told that if they're sent over to the monitor to review a decision, then they must change their decision.

Being dropped for this round of fixtures seems harsh.

I wonder if Tierney would've like to have seen the replay of the Kane yellow and Jota pen?

 

[Bdill93]

Haha! Yeah, Norwich fans don’t have much to cling on to this season, so I grab it where I can. I wondered about the last game, but I think Newcastle won theirs too, so can’t have been that.

Actually I think Norwich probably will go down. But great that we’ve given ourselves a shot after how our season started. I think had we had Smith for the whole season, we’d have 4 -6 points more than we do. We’ve got some players coming back from injury that we’ve really missed (Normann in particular), but I think ultimately we’ll just be a bit short of goals.

Cantwell has a very big ego, but he’s not as good as he thinks he is. He can only play one position, a semi-wide (not on the wing) attacking midfielder, he has limited vision, limited pace and he’s lightweight. He’s got a great touch, and really good feet, so he has moments of looking great, but all too often those are in very safe parts of the pitch. He’s got something like 18 goals and 15 assists in his entire career, whereas Buendia had 15 goals and 17 assists last season! You can’t teach vision for a pass, and where Buendia is an absolute wizard, Cantwell is not. When Buendia left, I think he hoped that the team would be built around him, but actually we switched to a different formation that he doesn’t feature in. Farke didn’t pick him, and Smith hasn’t picked him. The DoF isn’t a fan and none of his teammates are bothered he is leaving (according to a well established ITK on twitter).



Buendia is a class player. We were very lucky to have Maddison and then having sold him for big bucks acquire Buendia for £1.5m, who is actually every bit as good - not as good at scoring long range goals, but has an eye for a pass like I’ve never seen before at Norwich. Others might mock, but I reckon it’s him and De Bruyne as the best two in the league at the disguised threaded ball that just destroys defences. Once your attackers are on the same wavelength he’ll create chance after chance after chance.

Saw some stats the other day that Buendia has had the highest progressive passes in the league this season by a country mile - so I think you are right! Just not quite hit those levels yet, if he does for us it sounds awesome ?

Fingers crossed this second half of the season we start playing some serious football

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Kevin Friend gets a rest after the Jota pen that he was told to change. Alledgely all officials have been told that if they're sent over to the monitor to review a decision, then they must change their decision.

Being dropped for this round of fixtures seems harsh.

I wonder if Tierney would've like to have seen the replay of the Kane yellow and Jota pen?

That's appalling if correct. Pointless them going to look if the decision has already effectively been taken.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

That's appalling if correct. Pointless them going to look if the decision has already effectively been taken.

None of the 49 pitchside referrals have been upheld this season.

Now on the balance of probability you’d expect a small amount of decisions to be upheld.

 

[Orikoru]

I disagree, Howe did a fantastic job at Bournemouth with a very limited budget. I think he’s quite an astute manager and definitely the right choice.
Even if The Toon do get relegated, and I’m not so sure now, he’ll get them straight up.

Howe was massively overrated there. Got them up and they played some nice football at times, but in however many years it was he never addressed the defensive problems. Every year they conceded 60 odd goals! You can't do that in the Premier League, it catches up with you. And what Newcastle needed was someone to come in and sort their defence out for one thing, and he's absolutely not the man for that job. If he's going to keep them up by trying to outscore every team, it'll be fun to watch, I'm just not sure they have the firepower to do it.

 

[hairball_89]

I disagree, Howe did a fantastic job at Bournemouth with a very limited budget. I think he’s quite an astute manager and definitely the right choice.
Even if The Toon do get relegated, and I’m not so sure now, he’ll get them straight up.

Fantastic? Really? I'm with @Orikoru here. He got them up and they played some nice football in the first few seasons. But they got consistently worse each season, there was no long term vision and nothing to suggest he had any idea how to do anything different to what got them into the premier league. Their relegation was purely a matter of time - the defence as Orikoru mentioned, started out like a sieve and the holes just got bigger.

That said, will they go down? No idea. As long as Burnley go down, I don't really care which 2 they take with them!

 

[rudebhoy]

I think it’s to get him in the shop window, apparently he was on 400k a week at Juventus…
Great signing for Rangers and Scottish football in my opinion.

Word is Rangers have paid a 2m loan fee and will be paying 40k a week of his 400k wages. Very good player on his day, but has hardly played this season and Juve desperate to punt him. He may do well, but it's far from certain. You do have to wonder why no EPL club wanted him.

 

[Slime]

Word is Rangers have paid a 2m loan fee and will be paying 40k a week of his 400k wages. Very good player on his day, but has hardly played this season and Juve desperate to punt him. He may do well, but it's far from certain. You do have to wonder why no EPL club wanted him.

Apparently they did, Arsenal included, but he turned them down in favour of Rangers.
Maybe he just realised that Rangers was the easy option and it's a club where he should find it easy to win things.

 

[rudebhoy]

Apparently they did, Arsenal included, but he turned them down in favour of Rangers.
Maybe he just realised that Rangers was the easy option and it's a club where he should find it easy to win things.

Its one thing the gossip columns linking a player with a club, but is there any proof of a concrete offer from an EPL club? As for winning stuff, he's only at Rangers for 4 months, and there is a good chance they won't be winning anything. Ideal move for him would have been somewhere like Newcastle, help save them from relegation and a lucrative free transfer in the summer.

 

[Cherry13]

Fantastic? Really? I'm with @Orikoru here. He got them up and they played some nice football in the first few seasons. But they got consistently worse each season, there was no long term vision and nothing to suggest he had any idea how to do anything different to what got them into the premier league. Their relegation was purely a matter of time - the defence as Orikoru mentioned, started out like a sieve and the holes just got bigger.

That said, will they go down? No idea. As long as Burnley go down, I don't really care which 2 they take with them!

He is a whole lot better than what we had, and has already greatly reduced the goals conceded per game ratio, including two results against Liverpool and city. Under Howe we‘ve also, and more importantly, had 2 clean sheets against relegation rivals, and if we do survive that’s where it’s going to matter. To be honest at this point I don’t care if he conceded 60 most seasons, only conceding 60 would be an achievement This season. We need to beat those around us and then get the odd result against the other 12 teams hopefully to survive.

if we do stay up, he then has the opportunity of a lifetime to build a club, and if he drags us into a scrap I’ve no doubt he’ll get sacked. Realistically I don’t see one manager taking us from where we are now, to where we want to be. But hopefully he does and he proves along the way that he’s learnt from his Bournemouth experience and can successfully build a club.

Just from a personal point of view, the most depressing game of football I’ve ever watched was Newcastle AT HOME to man city. They beat us 1-0, now at face value that doesn’t sound too bad. We had 20% possession and sat with two banks of 5 in our own box. It was awful turgid football, it achieved the aim of not having a huge impact on goal difference, but when your aim for the season is to ‘gain an extra point‘ in goal difference across the season, thats a pretty poor place to be. Im not saying or proposing that we should go back to the keegan days, but at least some progressive attacking football would be nice, and if the odd spanking comes along as a result of that, well so be it.

 

[Swango1980]

He is a whole lot better than what we had, and has already greatly reduced the goals conceded per game ratio, including two results against Liverpool and city. Under Howe we‘ve also, and more importantly, had 2 clean sheets against relegation rivals, and if we do survive that’s where it’s going to matter. To be honest at this point I don’t care if he conceded 60 most seasons, only conceding 60 would be an achievement This season. We need to beat those around us and then get the odd result against the other 12 teams hopefully to survive.

if we do stay up, he then has the opportunity of a lifetime to build a club, and if he drags us into a scrap I’ve no doubt he’ll get sacked. Realistically I don’t see one manager taking us from where we are now, to where we want to be. But hopefully he does and he proves along the way that he’s learnt from his Bournemouth experience and can successfully build a club.

Just from a personal point of view, the most depressing game of football I’ve ever watched was Newcastle AT HOME to man city. They beat us 1-0, now at face value that doesn’t sound too bad. We had 20% possession and sat with two banks of 5 in our own box. It was awful turgid football, it achieved the aim of not having a huge impact on goal difference, but when your aim for the season is to ‘gain an extra point‘ in goal difference across the season, thats a pretty poor place to be. Im not saying or proposing that we should go back to the keegan days, but at least some progressive attacking football would be nice, and if the odd spanking comes along as a result of that, well so be it.

You could be a Man Utd fan talking about their performance against City

 

[fundy]

Apparently they did, Arsenal included, but he turned them down in favour of Rangers.
Maybe he just realised that Rangers was the easy option and it's a club where he should find it easy to win things.

lol if you believe the papers Arsenal were turned down by 116 players this January, 2nd only to the window 2 years ago

 

[GreiginFife]

lol if you believe the papers Arsenal were turned down by 116 players this January, 2nd only to the window 2 years ago

Which, of course, is total rubbish.

116 is way too low… ?

 

[Bdill93]

He is a whole lot better than what we had, and has already greatly reduced the goals conceded per game ratio, including two results against Liverpool and city. Under Howe we‘ve also, and more importantly, had 2 clean sheets against relegation rivals, and if we do survive that’s where it’s going to matter. To be honest at this point I don’t care if he conceded 60 most seasons, only conceding 60 would be an achievement This season. We need to beat those around us and then get the odd result against the other 12 teams hopefully to survive.

if we do stay up, he then has the opportunity of a lifetime to build a club, and if he drags us into a scrap I’ve no doubt he’ll get sacked. Realistically I don’t see one manager taking us from where we are now, to where we want to be. But hopefully he does and he proves along the way that he’s learnt from his Bournemouth experience and can successfully build a club.

Just from a personal point of view, the most depressing game of football I’ve ever watched was Newcastle AT HOME to man city. They beat us 1-0, now at face value that doesn’t sound too bad. We had 20% possession and sat with two banks of 5 in our own box. It was awful turgid football, it achieved the aim of not having a huge impact on goal difference, but when your aim for the season is to ‘gain an extra point‘ in goal difference across the season, thats a pretty poor place to be. Im not saying or proposing that we should go back to the keegan days, but at least some progressive attacking football would be nice, and if the odd spanking comes along as a result of that, well so be it.

Someone had to be the first manager and the market for managers isn't exactly bursting at the seams at the moment. The best already have great clubs to manage.

Its a great opportunity for Howe - probably the best he could ever ask for in his career, but we all know from here on out you will follow a similar model to what both City and Chelsea did following serious investment. Managers will come and go until you hit the big time. So long as you hire a world class Director of football who has long term vision in regards to player transfers and style of football, you'll slowly build to be the powerhouse we all expect.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

I’m not for one minute saying they are or will be the greatest English Managers ever, but, it was not long ago on here posters were moaning about the same old managers on the Club merry go round, ie, Bruce, Allardyce, Pardew, Hodgson etc and asking why Clubs weren’t giving younger guys a chance, and now we’ve got Potter, Howe, Gerrard and Lampard, people are picking them to bits and saying how they are not good enough.

I can’t think of one great manager who didn’t have to prove themselves at lower levels before making it at the top.

And still some of them, Pep, Jose, Klopp etc aren’t rated by everyone.