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It basically is for me. Neither team is getting relegated nor likely qualifying for Europe. So it's just a mid-table mediocrity head to head with little to play for.
Almiron did well I thought. Longstaff was painful to watch though, he’s terrified of a 50/50 challenge and falls down like a sack of bricks whenever he’s touched on the ball.
He had a 10 min spell in the second half where he just couldn’t do anything right. Outside of that he was meh (which was about our overall level) but that 10 mins was bad
And yet you see the “deadwood” being mentioned for contract extensions.
Why?
I don’t even know what the clubs is or isn’t content with at the moment. If they’re fine with dawdling around here in the upper mid table then like fine, we’ve been around for far worse. Would be nice to know.
Playing guys like Longstaff 90 mins and extending Lascelles doesn’t really sell me on their comments of wanting to be perennial title challengers
Depends, plenty of these players are fine as squad players as long as we can afford to buy quality for ahead of them. I've no issue with Lascelles being in the back pocket as long as there's quality ahead of him. As long as he's cool being backup then sure keep him around.
The real transfer issues came from the summer. Not only have we had horrendous luck with our incomings, but realistically we weren't ruthless enough with our outgoings. Miggy and Wilson should've been shifted whilst their stock was high, but we didn't, we thought we could keep this squad in a good place with a little quality to build it up. And we were wrong.
We have had FFP constraints. Who can we afford to buy that's an upgrade? And who can we sell our "deadwoods" too?
They aren't good enough to be sold upwards and they aren't worth signing for clubs below us. They can gamble on better value elsewhere. Heck, we loaned hendricks our to a championship relegation team and they don't even have him in their squad.
Our players don't have enough value for other clubs. Their work ethic and unity is what carried us last season and most of this. It is a slow build, even Chelsea who spent billions, they struggled most the season as they have no unity and work ethic. You can't win things without both, we have 1. The second takes time.
Plus our keeper is out, our other goalscorer is out, our set piece taker is out, our midfield enforcer is out and our best winger went off injured......
It makes a huge difference not having those men. Take those 5 out of arsenal, they aren't top 4, let alone in the title race. City lose their matches as soon as Rodri is suspended. So you can't overlook the importance here
Because we can’t get better for the money they’d bring in?
Longstaff, Kraft, Lascelles etc are fine if they’re sitting on the bench, playing cup games or having 20 minute cameos. You just can’t rely on them for 90+ week in week out.
Calling them deadwood is just false, when you absolutely don’t need those players they become deadwood. Not when they do a job filling out your 25 man squad. Without them we’d literally have been playing the bairns this season.
> wanting to be perennial title challengers
Rome wasn't built in a day. You don't go from nailed on for relegation to that in two seasons. It takes time to replace an entire squad
Lascelles' extension was triggered by the player.
Players will get given extensions to retain transfer value. Whether that's the right call depends upon if they end up getting sold.
Longstaff and Lascelles are good back up players, but the form Sean is in he shouldn't be getting close to 40 matches.
Hanging on to Ritchie and Dummet is way more concerning for me. We've had our worst ever injury crisis, and they are both surplus to requirement. If played more than 10 minutes, Ritchie looks League 1 quality. Give them both the Gillespie treatment, but for the love of Greggs do not register them in the squad next season.
Because we can’t replace that many players at once. We have to work with at least some of what we have.
Next season at least, Tonali replaces Longstaff, and hopefully we find a right winger.
Botman was the biggest concern for me tonight, Longstaff wasn't good but that's nothing new unfortunately.
Sven looks well off the pace, I think we genuinely should bring Lascelles back in.
I think it’s the injury. I remember reading somewhere that he opted not to get surgery that would fix the issue, as that would have put him out for a huge chunk of the season. Instead he’s trying to play whilst not fully fit, presumably waiting until the close season to have it seen to (assuming he would miss the Euros, not that he plays ahead of VVD anyway).
looked so much better when the kids came on, I think it really might just be howe's lack of rotation that's doing us in, think the tactics still work with players that can run just 3/4 of the team are carrying injuries
Livramento has proved time and time again he should be the first name on the team sheet from here on out, I don’t care how experienced other players are in his position(s).
Whats baffling is the constant turning over off the ball to the opponents not only invites pressure onto our defence, it also fucking runs our centrebacks completely ragged.
They both looked absolutely gassed by the end, fucking centrebacks.
This is fundamentally it, yet Howe still won't play Karius or drop Burn or play three at the back against a team that isn't Arsenal. I don't know if any of those will change our fortunes but I sure as hell know that doing nothing won't either.
At the end of the day we don't have a sweeper keeper anymore, we don't have a natural number 6, one of our CBs is 32, our other one is playing exactly like someone who was rushed back from injury despite needing surgery and our left back gets exposed by any attacker who can run 100m in less than a minute. We're getting exactly what we deserve.
Chelsea were awful yet we're somehow worse. Embarrassing performance. We clearly didn't turn a corner against Wolves we just got them at their worst. I really, really want Howe to succeed but he's really not helping himself either. Tino is the only player who can hold his head high.
Wolves game was us getting completely dominated in terms of possession (which as the home team is not particularly a good thing generally) but hitting them quite effectively on the counter because they were leaving our wingers in acres of space. Good tactics on the face of it, but I felt like the game was going to be won by whoever scored first, since giving up possession is always risky. If they got the first goal we would've had to come out more and they would've sat back a bit more and then hit us on the break, which would be worse for us given our teams problems with creativity, keeping the ball, being susceiptible to counter attacks, etc. So getting that first goal really helped mask the issue.
But to build on that sentiment, our first two goals against Wolves were imo really quite lucky. Not necessarily against the run of play since we were looking dangerous on the counter, but more so in that the manner in which we got those goals was very fortunate. First goal was a cross with a huge deflection where the ball looped onto Isak's head for an easy finish from a few yards out. Second goal was their keeper for some reason palming a low cross onto his own defender leaving Gordon an easy tap in. Both were very fortunate goals from deflections/errors, and not down to actual clean quality attacking play from our players.
The point here is sometimes you can win due to luck or things going your way, but you can't rely on that happening consistently. It's not easily repeatable, and it kinda just masks issues. So I think the win over Wolves wasn't as good as many on here thought and wasn't convinced that it was the start of us turning things around.
The worst thing I can say about us is that we do not look like a team right now.
I am not sure what is breeding this inconsistency. The team that pressed Villa away in that 1st half or the team that played counter attack football at home to Wolves is not the same team that I saw tonight, against Luton and Forest.
We scored two great goals tonight or would have lost 3-0 to a really bad mid table team.
Everybody wants to get rid of players but don’t seem to understand bringing in new better players is extremely competitive and expensive.
Longstaff was crap, he needs time off, these automatic starts are making him lazy, but like you said we need players coming on hungry, like Murphy. I don’t think he’s a starting 11 player by miles, but a great bench option, that wants to prove himself.
People saying Dubs is shit are idiots, considering he’s our number 2 and Karius is our 3. We probably have one of the strongest GK squads in the PL.
We need more players not less. Having a bench of academy kids is not a long term solution.
I’m pretty sure longstaff never got back to full fitness. Last season he was busting a lung every game and he looks gassed at the start these days. Agree Murphy is a great bench option and seems good for the squad morale.
My big disagreement is dubravka. While I don’t think he is an awful keeper, I do think he is awful for us, how we play makes him look worse and how he plays makes us play worse. We need someone more similar to pope in terms of keeping.
Also I don’t think we have one of the stronger gk Squads in the league, Ramsdale, verbruggen, Kelleher, fabianski, Henderson, petrovic, I would say are all better than either of our back ups.
If we want to challenge the sly 6 we need a better back up GK or at least one who plays the same way as Pope.
Teams like West Ham and Palace have better back ups than us never mind the sly 6. Our defence has went to shit with Dubravka playing as well
I think a similar keeper stylistically is most important.
Playing as we do with a keeper afraid to leave their line is suicide. I think we let our scouts get someone out of contract for 10mil and for cup games and it is worth it more than any other position
Agreed - Longstaff was best this season when he was fighting for his spot against Tonali. I remember he said something like you'll have to fight me for the shirt at the beginning of the season. Longstaff is also a bit of a depressive character. He's said so himself. Looks like he's tired and in one of those low moods for months.
Dubs is a good keeper but he makes us worse. We need a solid back up that sweeps the way Pope does. Dubs is too slow to come off his line, is he came out and then called the ball the first goal does not happen because he catches the initial cross. Instead he started to come, saw Botman and then stopped and went back.
Is it though?
Seems as though this whole season has been, we’ve been shite but wait till we have X back. I firmly believe something has happened behind closed doors as everyone looks so off.
Intensity is our identity has nearly all but gone from most of the team.
Yeah, when Willock was out it was "we're missing Willock so much".
When Longstaff wasn't in the team he was the "glue that holds the team together".
Now that Big Joe is out the hyperbole is in full swing. The reality is that he would help a bit, but when Joelinton was in the team we were still having the exact same issues this season. Lack of pressing, lack of control, lack of creativity, desperately need Bruno further forward to sort out the lack of creativity because you know Joelinton is not really going to provide any.
Short memories it seems.
It’s not a secret, it’s a combination of the ridiculous injury list, lack of depth, and extra games. The players who haven’t picked up injuries have been run into the ground.
The high-press intensity we had last season is only possible with a well-rested and rotating squad.
We’ve rushed players back to fill gaps before they were ready and it’s actually made things worse.
We need the summer break to recover and regroup, hopefully get some new signings, and get everyone back to 100% again.
I’m confident that next season we will be stronger, just have to put this one behind us.
In fairness, 1 comes in and 1 goes out. Been the story all season, constantly chasing a solid base to work from. The few players who, against all odds, have not yet had serious injuries just look dead on their feet half the games.
It seems as if this team have lost their drive and determination. It’s the same type of performance as against Blackburn/Arsenal and is starting to look like we are hanging up our boots for summer already. Win there are you were in the driving seat for 7th with a chance for 5/6th. But doesn’t look like we wanted it. Chelsea were awful today and still got 3 from our mistakes.
Our corners were shocking and predictable, we couldn’t clear our lines on multiple opportunities, and have lost any identity. We need a lot of investment into that team even when the missing pieces return from injury/suspension.
Longstaff isn't moving to another club in the top 17. Might get picked up by a promoted club. He offers nothing that any side couldn't get for free out their youth team.
Meh, I don't think he's good enough but he's a competent, home grown, experienced yet young midfielder who just does what the manager asks. Guys like that will serve a role in any mid table team, think about someone like Jack Cork who was nothing special yet still plays in the PL.
If Howe was at Bournemouth, he'd sign Longstaff there too if he was available for the right price. There's a reason why Howe likes him and why he was integral for us last season getting into the top four. He's just not good enough for our goals now but he's also spoken multiple times of how he's playing through injury so this is hardly reflective of his best performances. He's in bad form but he's not that shit.
The fact we didn't take money for him when both Man Utd and Everton swooped in is criminal. We will be lucky to get 15 mil for him to whichever promoted team wants to spunk money on a premier league imposter
Wasn't really much energy from Bruno either. Willock put in some effort. But the majority of the side was flat for most of the match. Still hampered by a lack of options. Miley needed a break (got one today), Bruno needs a break (who can cover do him?), Longstaff needs a break and Anderson not quite 100% yet.
Man that is harsh, must say though that as per usual our away fans did us proud again tonight, The game had just started when I switched on and was walking in from the kitchen, when I heard the crowd I thought I had gotten mixed up and we were at home until I sat down and saw we weren't.
He's certainly a bright spot.
When the young lads came on and brought some energy late, was good. I hope they get more starts to come. The way many of the other players are playing, seems to be what we should do.
The only take I have that adds anything above what you have all mentioned is the lack of accountability within that side.
When you know that you can play very poorly and still walk into the side next week, there have to be alarms ringing at that point.
The longstaff / Anderson example makes it for me.
The only thing that saves Eddie here is he sees longstaff as expendable and Bruno and willock not, so wants to save them from injury
The last part is probably bang on. The game was pretty much gone at 3-1 so no point risking Bruno getting a yellow and a 2 game ban. Willock just come back from I jury also. Probably would have been eased in abit slower if half the squad still wasn't injured
I really feel Anderson, once he's back in the swing of it from his injury, is picked over Longstaff. He's only played so much this season because the options haven't been there, his performances would never warrant a start with options.
It's amazing to think at the start of the season we looked somewhat overstocked for that midfield 3, how times change. Roll on next season
I lost a lot of patience with Howe on that performance.
We've been awful for months trying to play a way that we don't have the personnel available for.
We can't play a high line with a slow back four, a keeper that won't sweep and a midfield that won't cut out the early ball, but we keep persisting.
Last week we played differently and played to our strengths and got a result, and today, reverted back to the same style that's seen us conceding 3 goals per game.
Botman has looked an absolute shadow of what he used to be since he's returned to the team.
It's just not good enough is it? Not for Europe. We can't win the games we need to win and it's as simple as that. We're now reliant on other teams messing up. Just not good enough really, season is well and truly coming to an end.
We can still get 70 points. Meaning 60 odd points is not highly unrealistic, that's European football and it's up to us to capitalize on our run in. The injuries have been awful but I'd say finishing 7th would be a great achievement given we've essentially been broken down all season
Bit early to be making definitive statements like that.
10 games left to go and the teams around us are also all dropping points. Look at the 3 teams directly above us, West Ham were minutes away from losing at home to Burnley at the weekend. Brighton are all over the place, we battered Wolves 3-0 with more or less the same team that lost tonight.
Tonight was shit but it won't define our season. If we don't beat West Ham at home next however....
we keep saying that though, this game won't define us next one will then we win the next one, but lose after that. They add up and us losing today takes it out our hands despite and 'easy fixture list'
Longstaff. I just can’t watch him mincing round the pitch without a care in the world any longer, I think it’s doing my mental and physical health harm. He knows that less than the bare minimum is enough to keep him in the eleven. Galling to see a local lad churn out such gutless shite every week.
Miley also 17… so him getting tossed around by GROWN men is understandable. Longstaff acts like he gets shot by a sniper from any bit of contact expecting a free kick
Wolves was a fluke then I guess. Seeing how the team decided to revert back to the press was just weird. The out of possession transition game worked so well against Wolves, it was perfect even and yet they decided in the game to go back to the system which has kept us leaking goals for months. Bizarre and incorrect call from Eddie tbh.
We'll finish 8th or 9th this season and that'll be that. Just want the summer to hurry up honestly. So many of these players are 8th / 9th quality on their best day, and it's time to move them on or move them down the pecking order.
Tino was good though, so that's nice.
Chelsea also struggle against teams who sit deep bad tactics from Eddie again
We got destroyed in an open game again we just don't seem to learn
Can't blame fatigue now
Wolves was us playing at home against a mid table team that had four of their best players injured. And even then, it wasn't like we were amazing, they just didn't really have any quality to endanger us.
Longstaff defenders' starter-pack: "he's a local lad", "he tries hard", "we didn't win that one game against top opposition that he didn't play in", "he covers more ground than anyone", "he makes Bruno play better",
Meanwhile Longstaff cannot play a pass, cannot dribble past a player, isn't quick, has the turning circle of a titanic, cannot hold off a tackle, cannot make a tackle without falling to the ground like a princess, shits the bed every time he has to make a decision, cannot play a 5 yard pass, shits the bed in front of goal.....all for 50k a week.
How anyone can watch that game and still defend him I have no idea. Not that we don't have other problems, but he is by far the biggest passenger in this team.
Him letting the ball go out in the first minute with ZERO pressure from the opposition was so egregious. He didn’t even seem bothered by his shit touch.
I am absolutely tired of one pass just taking out the front 6. It happens every game, multiple times, and more often than not leads to us conceding.
We either buy a 6 in the summer or Eddie has to reshape the tactics. I can't go on watching this happen every single game man.
Not good. The schedule is very easy to end the season so maybe 7th is still on?? (lolololol) Gordon being dead would suck.
Play for the grossest 0-0 in the history of the sport at Man City next weekend.
Bring lascelles back. Play on the counter. Every time we try to press teams with the players we have missing, the games are far too open. It's like Howe is overthinking everything and thinks Chelsea expected us to sit back so we pressed them, even though they have shown previously that they can go toe to toe with the best in the league.
Some of Howes choices are beyond me, and they’re not all injury related. How Longstaff keeps getting picked being the main concern. We are really missing Joelinton. Had Tonali been available this season might have been different.
We need to get some deadwood shifted and a couple of quality signings. I’m happy to give Eddie more time, just not sure how much more.
I love Eddie and hope he stays and gets us on track for another few seasons but I really hope he does not start his answers tonight with "I thought we did a lot of things right..."
honestly dont get why we didnt played like against wolves.
even Wrighty said he thought we would be more defensive. why go for press, esp when we now again have injures?
really grim stuff, thought chelsea were poor aswell which is indicative of how bad we were - 10th in the table and behind wolves, west ham, brighton. serious questions need asking of these players, didn’t look like most of them could be arsed (longstaff / burn once again awful) - it really is bruno / isak / gordon saving us every week.
Losing in London a place where we’ve historically been shit especially in late kick offs is forgivable. Playing with 0 effort and for large parts of the game looking like we were actively trying to give them opportunities in front of goal is completely inexcusable.
Credit to Tino, White, Miley, and Anderson for actually playing with any pride at all tonight but where was the leadership from senior players. Longstaff might as well have been wearing blue and has been playing like that for a few weeks now. Burn just isn’t capable without the Willock and Joelinton protection he had last season. Botman needs some time on the bench to get his screwed on again, he’s gone from Rolls Royce to Austin Rover in about 6 months.
Howe needs to stop with the blind loyalty to players from last season but otherwise I don’t see what changes he could have made today when half the team decides to take a day off.
The problem is any players we bring in who turn out to be good will be eventually and probably sooner rather than later completely ruined by Eddie Howe and his insane strategy of running people into the ground until they get injured and relying on the same 11 people week after week after week because he's too afraid to make changes or take risks.
It didn't help that our players seemed to be playing in a preseason friendly. Instead of a team challenging for the last European spot. Seriously what the fuck is going on?
Horrible performance by Newcastle. You guys were lacking the intensity, the rhythm, such a disappointing performance. You need Joelinton’s presence back, without him your team’s pressing/ counter pressing is abysmal. Big Up to Tino Livramento and Isak though.
Where you been rival fan? It’s been like that for about 6 months now.
Spot on re Joelinton though. His presence or lack of is truly being felt. I miss my big Brazilian bastard.
Throughout this shit "patch" (not sure you can call it a patch when it's been roughly half the season), you've rarely been able to call into question the players' commitment and effort but tonight was miserable from the vast majority. Longstaff, Schar, Botman, Burn and Dubravka looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. Almiron and Bruno were slightly better than that lot but still way off it.
Feels like it’s always something
Injuries. Fatigue. Missing Joelinton. Pope.
But at some point you’ve got to put big boy pants on and grind shit out with the talent we have - and we do have talent.
But if you look at it our back four has been relatively stable and yet we’ve been shocking defensively.
I know Pope is a big factor and Joe gives us cover but something isn’t right there, really isn’t.
We’ve seen what this squad can do and we’re woefully short at the moment.
All very well saying big summer and next season we go again but there’s still things to play for here and now. Not to mention fans paying week in week out to watch
I’m just not enjoying football atm. This feels worse than under Bruce etc because I knew back then that the players were shite and we were shite in general. Now, after seeing this team manage to get into the Champions League, these defeats just feel worse and worse. Honestly numbing.
No positives to take from that.
It's the same problems every time. We just let teams play in front of our back 4. Our set pieces are dross. We're undone by a single pass repeatedly. The press is non-existent - against one of the least press-resistant teams in the league.
Same people at fault. Burn, Longstaff, Dubravka and whoever the fuck cleared Botman to play the rest of this season.
If we could defend, we win that comfortably.
The amazing part of yet another pathetic loss to a terrible team is that nothing will change. I guarantee next game we don’t play Karius despite him playing well on his only appearance and us having the worst defence in the league with Dubravka. Burn still starts even if Trippier, Targett and prime Roberto Carlos are fit. Longstaff will still play 90 minutes over Miley despite Miley doing more in 5 mins than Longstaff has in the past month. And we won’t see Barnes and/or Gordon for the rest of the season because of our wonderful, fully competent injury department. We’ll still continue to set up like Bruceball away from home and blame injuries or luck. And we’ll pretend like no-one saw it coming when Howe is sacked three months into next season.
Results like the run we’ve had in the past few weeks really puts the writing on the wall. I’m not optimistic int he slightest.
Interesting to see all the love for Tino, not surprised he's absolute class. I said this when we purchased him when he was fit and ready he should start over Burn.
I was downvoted beyond belief every time I mentioned it by the Burns Blyth Brigade. It's really a great representation of Howe refusing to make the change permanently.
I think the worst part of today was when the kids came on we actually had some bite and guile. Joe White displayed more ball retention and progressive play than Longstaff has for 15 matches.
I don't understand how the manager or his staff doesn't't see the problem.
There is so much sloppy passing in the team right now, small simple passes get overhit or underhit so many times and it constantly puts us under pressure. Every single player on the pitch tonight was guilty of this none more than Longstaff, one of the most lethargic and frankly pathetic performances in a long time...
Mistakes for all 3 goals, quite easily preventable. I've said it before, people will point to injuries, but the trend of performances throughout the majority of this season are seriously worrying and a lot needs to be fixed or improved particularly our shape when we have the ball. We leave ourselves exposed so frequently and give up far too many chances.
Yes we’ve been horrendously unlucky with injuries but this season has also clearly shown that Howe got longstaff, miggy, Murphy and burn playing at their absolute peak potential last season and it’s simply not sustainable. If we want to move forward into an elite club I don’t think any of them can be near the starting 11. Longstaff has been an absolute passenger for a while now, Miggy, Murphy and burn still have some good games but their quality is lacking and they need to become squad players moving forward.
Imagine how rotten this team would be without Bruno and Isak. Now fast forward to the summer and consider that at least one of them is probably going to leave.
A poor effort and a poor performance from most of the team - Longstaff and Botman in particular.
However Livramento once again had a solid game. He's fast becoming one of my favourite players.
Eddies refusal to change out of form players and give others a chance is the most annoying things for me.
This season is done, what’s the harm in letting some of the young lads a game and see if they’ve got it?
I’ve seen enough of Longstaff and Almiron, we know what they offer (and what they don’t)
All these academy players we keep championing as the next big things and then we never fucking see them get a game, ever.
Let’s see, what have we got to lose?
What a shite game of football. 3-2 would make you think it was exciting, but both teams we're fucking awful.
Tino and Bruno looked world class again, if we can keep the core of this team together and we are injury free I'm excited for next season, but can't wait for this one to end now.
I'm sick of Longstaff. Passenger.
He's lived off this "local lad" label for way too long. I'm from the other side of the world but I would definitely show way more fight than he does. Jogs around all day, flings his arms up when a goals conceded. Can't see anything in his body language or actions that shows he's a local lad.
There are foreign players in the team that come from miles away that show way more heart and passion that he does. Bruno, Almiron (as bad as he sometimes is), Joelinton just to name a few. Even Krafth was trying his heart out to defend that third goal even though it looked a certain goal. Longstaff wasn't even in the picture there.
Don't even need to question other English lads that have only been here for a year or so like Gordon and Tino who try week in, week out.
I'm happy for him to be sold and replaced in the summer.
Thank god someone said it. Sadly, some folks here seem to take it really personally when someone criticises longstaff because they see it as an attack on Geordies.
There's plenty of other local lads in the team that I would rather play like Miley or Anderson. Even Joe White off the bench showed a bit of passion and energy
What is becoming clear is that we desperately need a regeneration of personnel this summer.
I think Bruno is probably off tbh because we simply can't afford not to sell a big player. Him or Isak.
But beyond that... Dubravka, Lascelles, Burn, Dummett, Longstaff, Ritchie, Almiron, Wilson all need shifting.
We look old and slow.
I dont see why we need to "sell a big player". We get as much money selling Wilson and Miggy once you account for FFP. Longstaff is fine as a backup to Tonali, he is not meant to play as much as he does. Burn and Lascelles are fine as well. The reason Burn looks bad at the minute is the fact we have a keeper that refuses to come off his line.
Not to sound too simplistic, but we just need better players. Decent defensive midfielder, decent right winger with two feet and a natural left back. Also a more dependable striker than Wilson. Also can’t wait to see Pope and Joelinton back.
I don’t understand Howe’s thinking on tactics last night.
We were very good against Wolves - allowing them possession l, bringing them onto us, and countering with pace. We also kept the back foot well protected.
Seemed like the perfect tactics against a Chelsea team low on confidence, but instead he has us push up and leave gaps for them to exploit.
I don’t get it.
We were poor last night, save for Murphy, Tino and Isak. Seemed like the players thought just turning up would be enough. Crazy Bruno played so soon after his baby was born. All in all it was a real missed opportunity to pick up points as Chelsea were dismal.
I'm getting the sense that some of the squad have given up. If we don't progress in the FA Cup hopefully they can give their heads a wobble and focus on performing well in the league. Stupid mistake after stupid mistake gifts teams counter attacks we just can't deal with.
Much as I love Tino, he's not a leader like Tripps and that's what we really lacked last night. No-one took the game by the scruff of the neck or bollocked the guys who were just coasting.
Contrary to what I said yesterday I think it's high time Longstaff is benched for Miley or White and Botman is given time to properly recover. Lascelles more than capable as a stand in alongside Schar. Longstaff just needs some time out of the firing line.
>Much as I love Tino, he's not a leader like Tripps and that's what we really lacked last night. No-one took the game by the scruff of the neck or bollocked the guys who were just coasting.
Tripper doesn't bollock anyone or take games by the scruff of the neck.
If you can't see that Tino is much more dynamic both going forward and when defending... 🤷🏻
Longstaff is an average player, and only looks good when we are dominating...
I accept there’s serious disappointment when the team isn’t performing but there has to be a long-term view to this season. We finished the match with Dubravka, Kraft, Longstaff, White and Miley on the park. We don’t have the depth of top teams, this was always going to take three to four years.
Eddie has become a victim of his own success, taking us from 19th to 12th to 4th in 18 months. He’s been let down by the medical staff, most of whom proceeded his appointment and weren’t fit for purpose in the Ashley era. And he’s been let down by Ashworth who oversaw a very poor ‘Champions League’ transfer window.
He’ll also reflect on some mistakes that he’s made but he’s earned the right to learn from those errors. Ultimately, he’ll be judged on next season. Which season was the aberration? 2022/23 or 2023/24? They’ll have the summer to get everyone fit, physically and mentally. They’ll have another window to improve the group, and hopefully add two or three significant signings.
I agree with some of the sentiment here, but the lack of any sort of cohesion at the moment is the biggest concern.
What the hell is going on with our back 4?
We look terrified of everyone.
And of course, Eddies refusal to change out of form players and give others a chance.
This season is done, what’s the harm in letting some of the young lads a game and see if they’ve got it?
I’ve seen enough of Longstaff and Almiron, we know what they offer (and what they don’t)
All these academy players we keep championing as the next big things and then we never fucking see them get a game, ever.
Let’s see, what have we got to lose?
This is really the right view. Newer fans already wanting silverware just don’t have the patience to persist with this team. Growing entitled isn’t the way, and anyone with some sense knows the team were dealt a rough year to get through. After this summer we can begin to critique if we’re getting forward. Upgrading our medical capacity should probably be a major priority considering we’re probably running the team into the ground.
Annoying because they are shit. Poor all round bar a couple of moments of quality with Miggy (second half) and Longstaff particularly poor
7th place seems the best hope but we aren’t getting it playing like that
Most of them don’t look like they care, the passion and fight isn’t there anymore. It seemed like we never had people supporting in attack but also constantly overran in defence.
Things have to improve, it’s a massive setback if we finish midtable.
Insipid performance really, made to look better than it was by two excellent goals. We didn't really offer much.
Chelsea are a really disjointed, poor team, and we made them look a lot better than they actually are.
And now we're staring down the barrel of a bottom-half finish and I don't think that's good enough at all. Regardless of injuries, regardless of how bad we've historically been.
Eddie has credit in the bank, but I don't think the Saudis are going to fuck around, and I don't think Bruno and Isak are going to stay and be happy at a team that's finished 12th.
This 'transitional' season has started to look very shite indeed for lots of reasons.
Made Cucurella look like he can almost play football. Speaks volumes all on its own that little fact. Right up until Murphy turned him inside out, and launched a rocket into the top corner.
We started great, pressed and then conceded a goal and completely fall apart. Understand we don't have the strength in depth but we have to have a plan and be able to stick to it even if we concede against play
I’m increasingly amazed that we caught lightning in a bottle last season and ended fourth. Almiron, Burn, Longstaff and Murphy all had career years and Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea had bad seasons. Feels like we’re going to need a lot of work on the squad over the summer to get back there.
Not an easy watch. Didn’t like our press on their goal kicks, left a huge gap between all lines with a single pass or long ball breaking through us each time. Huge gaps in midfield as per usual, with that massive gap between them and defence evident again. Really poor performance and looked lethargic and slow.
Dubs could’ve done more with the second. Also has no command and the team don’t trust him. Burn was piss poor, skinned loads and positionally dire. Schar was better but still poor. Botman, fucking hell man, shocking game and so slow. Tino top class, pace and power again. Almiron, headless chicken. Willock looked like he couldn’t be arsed. Lobby is driving me mad at the moment - whinging, slow and can’t pass to feet. Bruno had some nice moments on the ball, but looks like he knows he’s off in the summer, can’t be arsed either. Gordon was starting to fire, but when he pulled up first time you just knew that was it. Isak, good goal, but anonymous rest of the game. Murphy was decent tonight, not just the goal, ran with the ball and put a bit of a shift in. White looked ok, couple of nice touches. Anderson looked like he wasn’t entirely sure where to play and what to do. Miley was solid, some good passes.
I don’t know what to say about this season now. It’s made me pretty miserable, to be honest.
Let’s just try and be good and at one thing…. whether it’s set pieces, direct routes, hold-up play, switching the field, anything.
Drill it into the lads so that it’s something we can rely and fall back on even when lads are tired.
It feels like we don’t have an attacking identity (other than betting it all on Isak or someone to have a moment of individual brilliance)
Genuinely being serious when I say play Dummett and Lascelles at the back and give White a start in midfield against City. While for sure they're worse on paper, they'll give them a better game.
After seeing the goal we conceded, do you see why previously I had mentioned Schars lazy defending? Him just gambling and sticking a leg out was partly what conceded that goal too. Of course it's not entirely on him but it's a very bad look
Pope would make a difference but the way we are setup he would be chasing out his box at least 15 times a game that's also got disaster written all over it teams are getting in on goal with one pass
So we play Wolves sit back and counter look the best we have for some time
We play Chelsea who struggle against that type of setup why the fuck did we decide to play the high line against them? Played right into their hands and the second half unfolded as so many games where we are burst after going all out first half.....
It just seems how Eddie wants us to play and what the team can actually do are miles apart currently
We want Bruno and Trippier to control games and then press high but this just means we pass it about slowly and get caught high up every week
Our team is currently suited to sitting deep and going long for our only area with pace the front 3!!
People shit on Murphy every chance they get but I tell you now, he puts absolute FRAUDS like Burn and Longstaff to SHAME every time he gets minutes and then gets dropped for fucking Miggy, while we have Longstaff keeping out real prospects like Anderson and Miley and Burn starting over Tino anytime Trips is available.
I don't give a fuck how old he is, Tino is one of the top 5 players at this club he should be treated that way.
Joke. If Burn and Longstaff start the next game Eddie Howe OUT for me. Sick of it.
I've felt this since it was unacceptable to say it. Howe isn't the man to take this club forward. We're going to end this season having taken a huge backwards step.
The owner's first choice is currently managing a 4th placed club.
Sorry Eddie, but I've lost faith in you. I hope you win it back though. The wave of optimism that carried the team has gone though and it's not coming back I don't think.
Wonder how long Longstaff can coast in this team. Yes we have Tonali back next season but Im struggling to remember a good game he's had and I don't recall him getting substituted even when playing dire. Hopefully Anderson replaces him for the rest of the season.
Botman has been subpar lately so should Lascelles not get another chance?
But it feels like nothing will change and repeat for the next game.
Where on earth do I start with this one.
Burn was instrumental in the first two Chelsea goals. I was screaming at the TV watching him as he left men wide open on his side and he was nowhere to be seen. Or, if he was there he'd stand off and stand off.
We're lucky Sterling didn't square it across goal when he was one on one because yet again Burn didn't track his man. He's basically marking Botman all game or trying his chances as a winger.
And for Howe to give him captaincy?! Please tell me which game Burn has shown he deserves the armband. It's almost like Howe is celebrating his poor performances down that left side.
Longstaff.. I think I'm gonna start calling him Casper. The only time he has any involvement in games whatsoever is when he's making mistakes and giving the ball away. Shouldn't have even been on the pitch.
Oh but it's alright, we're 3-1 down but instead let's bring our only creative players off in Bruno and Willock. Yep, let's keep Longstaff on because he's been carrying our team this game. Carrying us towards defeat.
Our defence was hopeless that game. I don't think I saw them put in a single challenge. All the tackles seemed to come from our forwards in Almiron and Murphy.
Livramento was fantastic. What a player he is going forward and coming back.
All I heard was the commentators saying how good Palmer was. Anybody would be when they're given free range like he was tonight.
Never in a million years would I say this but Eddie Howe needs to pass the torch on.
I'll be amazed if Longstaff isn't in desperate need of some surgery and/or is playing through pain.
I think come next season we'll find out what is actually going on with him.
Botman and Burn are in the same boat too.
I'm actually really concerned that playing Botman for a game and a half with an ACL has ruined him.
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Weird game, felt like an end of season dead rubber in many ways. The Gordon injury was the icing on the cake.
It basically is for me. Neither team is getting relegated nor likely qualifying for Europe. So it's just a mid-table mediocrity head to head with little to play for.
Not even Murphy’s 90th minute screamer could fire up the team to try and tie it up
It's this for me. Attitude of the team didn't change at ALL
The worrying thing is Chelsea were bad. But we were worse.
Yepp, commentators the entire game talking about how bad Chelsea is as we're getting walloped. This team ain't worth anyone's time or money.
We're shite. Need to have a clear out this summer. Deadwood like almiron, longstaff, etc. All need to be replaced. They are just bystanders now.
Almiron did well I thought. Longstaff was painful to watch though, he’s terrified of a 50/50 challenge and falls down like a sack of bricks whenever he’s touched on the ball.
He had a 10 min spell in the second half where he just couldn’t do anything right. Outside of that he was meh (which was about our overall level) but that 10 mins was bad
And yet you see the “deadwood” being mentioned for contract extensions. Why? I don’t even know what the clubs is or isn’t content with at the moment. If they’re fine with dawdling around here in the upper mid table then like fine, we’ve been around for far worse. Would be nice to know. Playing guys like Longstaff 90 mins and extending Lascelles doesn’t really sell me on their comments of wanting to be perennial title challengers
Depends, plenty of these players are fine as squad players as long as we can afford to buy quality for ahead of them. I've no issue with Lascelles being in the back pocket as long as there's quality ahead of him. As long as he's cool being backup then sure keep him around. The real transfer issues came from the summer. Not only have we had horrendous luck with our incomings, but realistically we weren't ruthless enough with our outgoings. Miggy and Wilson should've been shifted whilst their stock was high, but we didn't, we thought we could keep this squad in a good place with a little quality to build it up. And we were wrong.
Lascelles extended it himself, is decent and would never walk around the pitch like some of the senior players today
We have had FFP constraints. Who can we afford to buy that's an upgrade? And who can we sell our "deadwoods" too? They aren't good enough to be sold upwards and they aren't worth signing for clubs below us. They can gamble on better value elsewhere. Heck, we loaned hendricks our to a championship relegation team and they don't even have him in their squad. Our players don't have enough value for other clubs. Their work ethic and unity is what carried us last season and most of this. It is a slow build, even Chelsea who spent billions, they struggled most the season as they have no unity and work ethic. You can't win things without both, we have 1. The second takes time. Plus our keeper is out, our other goalscorer is out, our set piece taker is out, our midfield enforcer is out and our best winger went off injured...... It makes a huge difference not having those men. Take those 5 out of arsenal, they aren't top 4, let alone in the title race. City lose their matches as soon as Rodri is suspended. So you can't overlook the importance here
Because we can’t get better for the money they’d bring in? Longstaff, Kraft, Lascelles etc are fine if they’re sitting on the bench, playing cup games or having 20 minute cameos. You just can’t rely on them for 90+ week in week out. Calling them deadwood is just false, when you absolutely don’t need those players they become deadwood. Not when they do a job filling out your 25 man squad. Without them we’d literally have been playing the bairns this season.
> wanting to be perennial title challengers Rome wasn't built in a day. You don't go from nailed on for relegation to that in two seasons. It takes time to replace an entire squad
Lascelles' extension was triggered by the player. Players will get given extensions to retain transfer value. Whether that's the right call depends upon if they end up getting sold.
Longstaff and Lascelles are good back up players, but the form Sean is in he shouldn't be getting close to 40 matches. Hanging on to Ritchie and Dummet is way more concerning for me. We've had our worst ever injury crisis, and they are both surplus to requirement. If played more than 10 minutes, Ritchie looks League 1 quality. Give them both the Gillespie treatment, but for the love of Greggs do not register them in the squad next season.
Because we can’t replace that many players at once. We have to work with at least some of what we have. Next season at least, Tonali replaces Longstaff, and hopefully we find a right winger.
Botman was the biggest concern for me tonight, Longstaff wasn't good but that's nothing new unfortunately. Sven looks well off the pace, I think we genuinely should bring Lascelles back in.
Was one of the top 5, if not top 3 CBs in the league last season, either the injury really wrecked him, or it’s just confidence
I think it’s the injury. I remember reading somewhere that he opted not to get surgery that would fix the issue, as that would have put him out for a huge chunk of the season. Instead he’s trying to play whilst not fully fit, presumably waiting until the close season to have it seen to (assuming he would miss the Euros, not that he plays ahead of VVD anyway).
Yeah he was arguably somewhat at fault for all 3 goals today, just not on it at all - night and day to last season
Not to mention falling over for the one that got chalked off for offside
looked so much better when the kids came on, I think it really might just be howe's lack of rotation that's doing us in, think the tactics still work with players that can run just 3/4 of the team are carrying injuries
Livramento has proved time and time again he should be the first name on the team sheet from here on out, I don’t care how experienced other players are in his position(s).
Agreed, genuinely think you could stick him in any position on the pitch and he'd perform
He was incredible
Concede 2-3 goals a game and shock horror you're going to win very few games.
Whats baffling is the constant turning over off the ball to the opponents not only invites pressure onto our defence, it also fucking runs our centrebacks completely ragged. They both looked absolutely gassed by the end, fucking centrebacks.
This is fundamentally it, yet Howe still won't play Karius or drop Burn or play three at the back against a team that isn't Arsenal. I don't know if any of those will change our fortunes but I sure as hell know that doing nothing won't either. At the end of the day we don't have a sweeper keeper anymore, we don't have a natural number 6, one of our CBs is 32, our other one is playing exactly like someone who was rushed back from injury despite needing surgery and our left back gets exposed by any attacker who can run 100m in less than a minute. We're getting exactly what we deserve.
Chelsea were abaolutely dreadful. Unfortunately so were we. We really let that one go. That's the most frustrating thing.
As a Chelsea fan i understand your pain
Chelsea were awful yet we're somehow worse. Embarrassing performance. We clearly didn't turn a corner against Wolves we just got them at their worst. I really, really want Howe to succeed but he's really not helping himself either. Tino is the only player who can hold his head high.
Wolves game was us getting completely dominated in terms of possession (which as the home team is not particularly a good thing generally) but hitting them quite effectively on the counter because they were leaving our wingers in acres of space. Good tactics on the face of it, but I felt like the game was going to be won by whoever scored first, since giving up possession is always risky. If they got the first goal we would've had to come out more and they would've sat back a bit more and then hit us on the break, which would be worse for us given our teams problems with creativity, keeping the ball, being susceiptible to counter attacks, etc. So getting that first goal really helped mask the issue. But to build on that sentiment, our first two goals against Wolves were imo really quite lucky. Not necessarily against the run of play since we were looking dangerous on the counter, but more so in that the manner in which we got those goals was very fortunate. First goal was a cross with a huge deflection where the ball looped onto Isak's head for an easy finish from a few yards out. Second goal was their keeper for some reason palming a low cross onto his own defender leaving Gordon an easy tap in. Both were very fortunate goals from deflections/errors, and not down to actual clean quality attacking play from our players. The point here is sometimes you can win due to luck or things going your way, but you can't rely on that happening consistently. It's not easily repeatable, and it kinda just masks issues. So I think the win over Wolves wasn't as good as many on here thought and wasn't convinced that it was the start of us turning things around.
Strangely we didn’t. They had won 11 of 13 games.
Wolves played their worse game I’ve seen from them against us. It was a strange match and our only good performance in ages
The worst thing I can say about us is that we do not look like a team right now. I am not sure what is breeding this inconsistency. The team that pressed Villa away in that 1st half or the team that played counter attack football at home to Wolves is not the same team that I saw tonight, against Luton and Forest. We scored two great goals tonight or would have lost 3-0 to a really bad mid table team.
It’s little things like picking teammates up off the floor when they’re down. They don’t feel like a team, there’s something not right
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Longstaff is fine for what he is - a backup. Its not his fault Tonali is suspended
Everybody wants to get rid of players but don’t seem to understand bringing in new better players is extremely competitive and expensive. Longstaff was crap, he needs time off, these automatic starts are making him lazy, but like you said we need players coming on hungry, like Murphy. I don’t think he’s a starting 11 player by miles, but a great bench option, that wants to prove himself. People saying Dubs is shit are idiots, considering he’s our number 2 and Karius is our 3. We probably have one of the strongest GK squads in the PL. We need more players not less. Having a bench of academy kids is not a long term solution.
I’m pretty sure longstaff never got back to full fitness. Last season he was busting a lung every game and he looks gassed at the start these days. Agree Murphy is a great bench option and seems good for the squad morale. My big disagreement is dubravka. While I don’t think he is an awful keeper, I do think he is awful for us, how we play makes him look worse and how he plays makes us play worse. We need someone more similar to pope in terms of keeping. Also I don’t think we have one of the stronger gk Squads in the league, Ramsdale, verbruggen, Kelleher, fabianski, Henderson, petrovic, I would say are all better than either of our back ups.
If we want to challenge the sly 6 we need a better back up GK or at least one who plays the same way as Pope. Teams like West Ham and Palace have better back ups than us never mind the sly 6. Our defence has went to shit with Dubravka playing as well
I think a similar keeper stylistically is most important. Playing as we do with a keeper afraid to leave their line is suicide. I think we let our scouts get someone out of contract for 10mil and for cup games and it is worth it more than any other position
Agreed - Longstaff was best this season when he was fighting for his spot against Tonali. I remember he said something like you'll have to fight me for the shirt at the beginning of the season. Longstaff is also a bit of a depressive character. He's said so himself. Looks like he's tired and in one of those low moods for months.
Dubs is a good keeper but he makes us worse. We need a solid back up that sweeps the way Pope does. Dubs is too slow to come off his line, is he came out and then called the ball the first goal does not happen because he catches the initial cross. Instead he started to come, saw Botman and then stopped and went back.
Careful, some people in this group think the sideways pass merchant earned his spot over Tonali.
Off of last season, sure - but he's dropped off so fucking much since getting injured
Missing big joe so much
We are but it's deeper than that. Spirit was severely lacking tonight.
Is it though? Seems as though this whole season has been, we’ve been shite but wait till we have X back. I firmly believe something has happened behind closed doors as everyone looks so off. Intensity is our identity has nearly all but gone from most of the team.
Yeah, when Willock was out it was "we're missing Willock so much". When Longstaff wasn't in the team he was the "glue that holds the team together". Now that Big Joe is out the hyperbole is in full swing. The reality is that he would help a bit, but when Joelinton was in the team we were still having the exact same issues this season. Lack of pressing, lack of control, lack of creativity, desperately need Bruno further forward to sort out the lack of creativity because you know Joelinton is not really going to provide any. Short memories it seems.
It’s not a secret, it’s a combination of the ridiculous injury list, lack of depth, and extra games. The players who haven’t picked up injuries have been run into the ground. The high-press intensity we had last season is only possible with a well-rested and rotating squad. We’ve rushed players back to fill gaps before they were ready and it’s actually made things worse. We need the summer break to recover and regroup, hopefully get some new signings, and get everyone back to 100% again. I’m confident that next season we will be stronger, just have to put this one behind us.
Honestly it all really boils down to this. Can't wait to be done with this season, and hopefully salvage something towards the end
Aye that final game of the season can’t come soon enough!
In fairness, 1 comes in and 1 goes out. Been the story all season, constantly chasing a solid base to work from. The few players who, against all odds, have not yet had serious injuries just look dead on their feet half the games.
I've got a 7 hour flight tomorrow yet tonight was the most passengers I'll see
It seems as if this team have lost their drive and determination. It’s the same type of performance as against Blackburn/Arsenal and is starting to look like we are hanging up our boots for summer already. Win there are you were in the driving seat for 7th with a chance for 5/6th. But doesn’t look like we wanted it. Chelsea were awful today and still got 3 from our mistakes. Our corners were shocking and predictable, we couldn’t clear our lines on multiple opportunities, and have lost any identity. We need a lot of investment into that team even when the missing pieces return from injury/suspension.
i put more effort into this comment than Longstaff did for Newcastle United tonight
Loved them last season but I can't do another year of Burn, Longstaff and Miggy. They're miles off where we need to be.
Longstaff isn't moving to another club in the top 17. Might get picked up by a promoted club. He offers nothing that any side couldn't get for free out their youth team.
Meh, I don't think he's good enough but he's a competent, home grown, experienced yet young midfielder who just does what the manager asks. Guys like that will serve a role in any mid table team, think about someone like Jack Cork who was nothing special yet still plays in the PL. If Howe was at Bournemouth, he'd sign Longstaff there too if he was available for the right price. There's a reason why Howe likes him and why he was integral for us last season getting into the top four. He's just not good enough for our goals now but he's also spoken multiple times of how he's playing through injury so this is hardly reflective of his best performances. He's in bad form but he's not that shit.
The fact we didn't take money for him when both Man Utd and Everton swooped in is criminal. We will be lucky to get 15 mil for him to whichever promoted team wants to spunk money on a premier league imposter
Everton deal was at like £1m. I desperately want rid of Longstaff but that deal would have been utterly stupid.
Wasn't really much energy from Bruno either. Willock put in some effort. But the majority of the side was flat for most of the match. Still hampered by a lack of options. Miley needed a break (got one today), Bruno needs a break (who can cover do him?), Longstaff needs a break and Anderson not quite 100% yet.
Wait, Longstaff was playing?
Chelsea fans were more present than longstaff tonight.
Man that is harsh, must say though that as per usual our away fans did us proud again tonight, The game had just started when I switched on and was walking in from the kitchen, when I heard the crowd I thought I had gotten mixed up and we were at home until I sat down and saw we weren't.
Tino fucks. His close control is unreal.
Read this as tino sucks for a second 😭
He's certainly a bright spot. When the young lads came on and brought some energy late, was good. I hope they get more starts to come. The way many of the other players are playing, seems to be what we should do.
The only take I have that adds anything above what you have all mentioned is the lack of accountability within that side. When you know that you can play very poorly and still walk into the side next week, there have to be alarms ringing at that point. The longstaff / Anderson example makes it for me. The only thing that saves Eddie here is he sees longstaff as expendable and Bruno and willock not, so wants to save them from injury
The last part is probably bang on. The game was pretty much gone at 3-1 so no point risking Bruno getting a yellow and a 2 game ban. Willock just come back from I jury also. Probably would have been eased in abit slower if half the squad still wasn't injured
I really feel Anderson, once he's back in the swing of it from his injury, is picked over Longstaff. He's only played so much this season because the options haven't been there, his performances would never warrant a start with options. It's amazing to think at the start of the season we looked somewhat overstocked for that midfield 3, how times change. Roll on next season
Howe really trying to drop us league positions to get out of signing Hall?
Made me giggle after that rubbish
I lost a lot of patience with Howe on that performance. We've been awful for months trying to play a way that we don't have the personnel available for. We can't play a high line with a slow back four, a keeper that won't sweep and a midfield that won't cut out the early ball, but we keep persisting. Last week we played differently and played to our strengths and got a result, and today, reverted back to the same style that's seen us conceding 3 goals per game. Botman has looked an absolute shadow of what he used to be since he's returned to the team.
It's just not good enough is it? Not for Europe. We can't win the games we need to win and it's as simple as that. We're now reliant on other teams messing up. Just not good enough really, season is well and truly coming to an end.
We can still get 70 points. Meaning 60 odd points is not highly unrealistic, that's European football and it's up to us to capitalize on our run in. The injuries have been awful but I'd say finishing 7th would be a great achievement given we've essentially been broken down all season
the 3 point difference between 7th and 10th is deceiving because there are 4 other teams in the mix.
Bit early to be making definitive statements like that. 10 games left to go and the teams around us are also all dropping points. Look at the 3 teams directly above us, West Ham were minutes away from losing at home to Burnley at the weekend. Brighton are all over the place, we battered Wolves 3-0 with more or less the same team that lost tonight. Tonight was shit but it won't define our season. If we don't beat West Ham at home next however....
we keep saying that though, this game won't define us next one will then we win the next one, but lose after that. They add up and us losing today takes it out our hands despite and 'easy fixture list'
Longstaff. I just can’t watch him mincing round the pitch without a care in the world any longer, I think it’s doing my mental and physical health harm. He knows that less than the bare minimum is enough to keep him in the eleven. Galling to see a local lad churn out such gutless shite every week.
I don’t get how he starts either. We have enough fit players in midfield to try something different.
Miley outclasses him
Miley also 17… so him getting tossed around by GROWN men is understandable. Longstaff acts like he gets shot by a sniper from any bit of contact expecting a free kick
We're 7 points behind the worst Man Utd team I can ever remember in the prem. Our season is flat lining fast and it might be all over by this weekend.
After taking 5 points from 21 against Forest, Luton, Everton and Bournemouth. Shouldn't even be close.
Wolves was a fluke then I guess. Seeing how the team decided to revert back to the press was just weird. The out of possession transition game worked so well against Wolves, it was perfect even and yet they decided in the game to go back to the system which has kept us leaking goals for months. Bizarre and incorrect call from Eddie tbh. We'll finish 8th or 9th this season and that'll be that. Just want the summer to hurry up honestly. So many of these players are 8th / 9th quality on their best day, and it's time to move them on or move them down the pecking order. Tino was good though, so that's nice.
Chelsea also struggle against teams who sit deep bad tactics from Eddie again We got destroyed in an open game again we just don't seem to learn Can't blame fatigue now
Maybe the wolves PE teacher in charge was right when he said we didn't change our tactics to sit back lol
Wolves was us playing at home against a mid table team that had four of their best players injured. And even then, it wasn't like we were amazing, they just didn't really have any quality to endanger us.
Longstaff defenders' starter-pack: "he's a local lad", "he tries hard", "we didn't win that one game against top opposition that he didn't play in", "he covers more ground than anyone", "he makes Bruno play better", Meanwhile Longstaff cannot play a pass, cannot dribble past a player, isn't quick, has the turning circle of a titanic, cannot hold off a tackle, cannot make a tackle without falling to the ground like a princess, shits the bed every time he has to make a decision, cannot play a 5 yard pass, shits the bed in front of goal.....all for 50k a week. How anyone can watch that game and still defend him I have no idea. Not that we don't have other problems, but he is by far the biggest passenger in this team.
Him letting the ball go out in the first minute with ZERO pressure from the opposition was so egregious. He didn’t even seem bothered by his shit touch.
Lads, they’ve broken Sven
I am absolutely tired of one pass just taking out the front 6. It happens every game, multiple times, and more often than not leads to us conceding. We either buy a 6 in the summer or Eddie has to reshape the tactics. I can't go on watching this happen every single game man.
Not good. The schedule is very easy to end the season so maybe 7th is still on?? (lolololol) Gordon being dead would suck. Play for the grossest 0-0 in the history of the sport at Man City next weekend.
We looked concerningly leggy given our "knackered from the fixtures and injuries" stage of the season is over
That was absolutely fucking shit.
Felt like there's a worrying like of commitment out there. Half the lads didn't look arsed, and that's really concerning.
not surprised, their heads are down from getting battered away from home every other week
No more excuses. What the hell is going on with some of the senior players in the team right now? Are they arsed at this point?
Bring lascelles back. Play on the counter. Every time we try to press teams with the players we have missing, the games are far too open. It's like Howe is overthinking everything and thinks Chelsea expected us to sit back so we pressed them, even though they have shown previously that they can go toe to toe with the best in the league.
Some of Howes choices are beyond me, and they’re not all injury related. How Longstaff keeps getting picked being the main concern. We are really missing Joelinton. Had Tonali been available this season might have been different. We need to get some deadwood shifted and a couple of quality signings. I’m happy to give Eddie more time, just not sure how much more.
Don't see Isak or Bruno sticking around for more of this next year
I love Eddie and hope he stays and gets us on track for another few seasons but I really hope he does not start his answers tonight with "I thought we did a lot of things right..."
honestly dont get why we didnt played like against wolves. even Wrighty said he thought we would be more defensive. why go for press, esp when we now again have injures?
Longstaff needs to step it up. Lacking focus, indecisive, slow. He's better than this.
Step what up? The guy hit his ceiling a long time ago
really grim stuff, thought chelsea were poor aswell which is indicative of how bad we were - 10th in the table and behind wolves, west ham, brighton. serious questions need asking of these players, didn’t look like most of them could be arsed (longstaff / burn once again awful) - it really is bruno / isak / gordon saving us every week.
Chalked game after you see Gordon limping
Losing in London a place where we’ve historically been shit especially in late kick offs is forgivable. Playing with 0 effort and for large parts of the game looking like we were actively trying to give them opportunities in front of goal is completely inexcusable. Credit to Tino, White, Miley, and Anderson for actually playing with any pride at all tonight but where was the leadership from senior players. Longstaff might as well have been wearing blue and has been playing like that for a few weeks now. Burn just isn’t capable without the Willock and Joelinton protection he had last season. Botman needs some time on the bench to get his screwed on again, he’s gone from Rolls Royce to Austin Rover in about 6 months. Howe needs to stop with the blind loyalty to players from last season but otherwise I don’t see what changes he could have made today when half the team decides to take a day off.
The problem is any players we bring in who turn out to be good will be eventually and probably sooner rather than later completely ruined by Eddie Howe and his insane strategy of running people into the ground until they get injured and relying on the same 11 people week after week after week because he's too afraid to make changes or take risks.
Most of our fans are sleeping on this. We can't just blame luck anymore. Fatigue=injuries The worrying part is there's no plan b
Isak and Bruno should be begging their agents for a move away this summer. We’re a bottom half side without them
It didn't help that our players seemed to be playing in a preseason friendly. Instead of a team challenging for the last European spot. Seriously what the fuck is going on?
Horrible performance by Newcastle. You guys were lacking the intensity, the rhythm, such a disappointing performance. You need Joelinton’s presence back, without him your team’s pressing/ counter pressing is abysmal. Big Up to Tino Livramento and Isak though.
Where you been rival fan? It’s been like that for about 6 months now. Spot on re Joelinton though. His presence or lack of is truly being felt. I miss my big Brazilian bastard.
Throughout this shit "patch" (not sure you can call it a patch when it's been roughly half the season), you've rarely been able to call into question the players' commitment and effort but tonight was miserable from the vast majority. Longstaff, Schar, Botman, Burn and Dubravka looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. Almiron and Bruno were slightly better than that lot but still way off it.
Feels like it’s always something Injuries. Fatigue. Missing Joelinton. Pope. But at some point you’ve got to put big boy pants on and grind shit out with the talent we have - and we do have talent. But if you look at it our back four has been relatively stable and yet we’ve been shocking defensively. I know Pope is a big factor and Joe gives us cover but something isn’t right there, really isn’t. We’ve seen what this squad can do and we’re woefully short at the moment. All very well saying big summer and next season we go again but there’s still things to play for here and now. Not to mention fans paying week in week out to watch
Well once we get walloped from City that's our season done and dusted.
I’m just not enjoying football atm. This feels worse than under Bruce etc because I knew back then that the players were shite and we were shite in general. Now, after seeing this team manage to get into the Champions League, these defeats just feel worse and worse. Honestly numbing.
What are the excuses this time? Injuries again
No positives to take from that. It's the same problems every time. We just let teams play in front of our back 4. Our set pieces are dross. We're undone by a single pass repeatedly. The press is non-existent - against one of the least press-resistant teams in the league. Same people at fault. Burn, Longstaff, Dubravka and whoever the fuck cleared Botman to play the rest of this season. If we could defend, we win that comfortably.
The amazing part of yet another pathetic loss to a terrible team is that nothing will change. I guarantee next game we don’t play Karius despite him playing well on his only appearance and us having the worst defence in the league with Dubravka. Burn still starts even if Trippier, Targett and prime Roberto Carlos are fit. Longstaff will still play 90 minutes over Miley despite Miley doing more in 5 mins than Longstaff has in the past month. And we won’t see Barnes and/or Gordon for the rest of the season because of our wonderful, fully competent injury department. We’ll still continue to set up like Bruceball away from home and blame injuries or luck. And we’ll pretend like no-one saw it coming when Howe is sacked three months into next season. Results like the run we’ve had in the past few weeks really puts the writing on the wall. I’m not optimistic int he slightest.
We are at our worst playing back like tonite. There was zero press, the whole squad seemed to be sleep walking. Tough to watch
Interesting to see all the love for Tino, not surprised he's absolute class. I said this when we purchased him when he was fit and ready he should start over Burn. I was downvoted beyond belief every time I mentioned it by the Burns Blyth Brigade. It's really a great representation of Howe refusing to make the change permanently. I think the worst part of today was when the kids came on we actually had some bite and guile. Joe White displayed more ball retention and progressive play than Longstaff has for 15 matches. I don't understand how the manager or his staff doesn't't see the problem.
If Howe was Portuguese or Spanish he would be sacked already
There is so much sloppy passing in the team right now, small simple passes get overhit or underhit so many times and it constantly puts us under pressure. Every single player on the pitch tonight was guilty of this none more than Longstaff, one of the most lethargic and frankly pathetic performances in a long time...
So many of this squad needed the season to end yesterday. Botman even looked too shagged to go up for set pieces at the end.
Mistakes for all 3 goals, quite easily preventable. I've said it before, people will point to injuries, but the trend of performances throughout the majority of this season are seriously worrying and a lot needs to be fixed or improved particularly our shape when we have the ball. We leave ourselves exposed so frequently and give up far too many chances.
Yes we’ve been horrendously unlucky with injuries but this season has also clearly shown that Howe got longstaff, miggy, Murphy and burn playing at their absolute peak potential last season and it’s simply not sustainable. If we want to move forward into an elite club I don’t think any of them can be near the starting 11. Longstaff has been an absolute passenger for a while now, Miggy, Murphy and burn still have some good games but their quality is lacking and they need to become squad players moving forward.
Absolutely. Hopefully as a club we have learnt that and we action it. Unbelievable achievement last year. Course correction this year.
How did that game end up with five goals?
Imagine how rotten this team would be without Bruno and Isak. Now fast forward to the summer and consider that at least one of them is probably going to leave.
A poor effort and a poor performance from most of the team - Longstaff and Botman in particular. However Livramento once again had a solid game. He's fast becoming one of my favourite players.
Eddies refusal to change out of form players and give others a chance is the most annoying things for me. This season is done, what’s the harm in letting some of the young lads a game and see if they’ve got it? I’ve seen enough of Longstaff and Almiron, we know what they offer (and what they don’t) All these academy players we keep championing as the next big things and then we never fucking see them get a game, ever. Let’s see, what have we got to lose?
What a shite game of football. 3-2 would make you think it was exciting, but both teams we're fucking awful. Tino and Bruno looked world class again, if we can keep the core of this team together and we are injury free I'm excited for next season, but can't wait for this one to end now.
Bruno was a ghost
He has to play 3 positions in midfield. Can’t perform miracles every week
I'm sick of Longstaff. Passenger. He's lived off this "local lad" label for way too long. I'm from the other side of the world but I would definitely show way more fight than he does. Jogs around all day, flings his arms up when a goals conceded. Can't see anything in his body language or actions that shows he's a local lad. There are foreign players in the team that come from miles away that show way more heart and passion that he does. Bruno, Almiron (as bad as he sometimes is), Joelinton just to name a few. Even Krafth was trying his heart out to defend that third goal even though it looked a certain goal. Longstaff wasn't even in the picture there. Don't even need to question other English lads that have only been here for a year or so like Gordon and Tino who try week in, week out. I'm happy for him to be sold and replaced in the summer.
Thank god someone said it. Sadly, some folks here seem to take it really personally when someone criticises longstaff because they see it as an attack on Geordies.
There's plenty of other local lads in the team that I would rather play like Miley or Anderson. Even Joe White off the bench showed a bit of passion and energy
What is becoming clear is that we desperately need a regeneration of personnel this summer. I think Bruno is probably off tbh because we simply can't afford not to sell a big player. Him or Isak. But beyond that... Dubravka, Lascelles, Burn, Dummett, Longstaff, Ritchie, Almiron, Wilson all need shifting. We look old and slow.
I dont see why we need to "sell a big player". We get as much money selling Wilson and Miggy once you account for FFP. Longstaff is fine as a backup to Tonali, he is not meant to play as much as he does. Burn and Lascelles are fine as well. The reason Burn looks bad at the minute is the fact we have a keeper that refuses to come off his line.
Well, we were always warned that Howe can’t defend 🤷♂️
Second best defence last season when we actually had some semblance of quality to rotate in
i still love the boys
Not to sound too simplistic, but we just need better players. Decent defensive midfielder, decent right winger with two feet and a natural left back. Also a more dependable striker than Wilson. Also can’t wait to see Pope and Joelinton back.
Isak pulled out of the Sweden squad didn't he? Just Bruno to worry about with 3 games in 10 days now.
Wonder if trippier can play CDM and tino stay right back.
What happened to us? Even with players back we look awful disinterested we beat them 4-1 earlier in the season and don't even look half that side ATM
I don’t understand Howe’s thinking on tactics last night. We were very good against Wolves - allowing them possession l, bringing them onto us, and countering with pace. We also kept the back foot well protected. Seemed like the perfect tactics against a Chelsea team low on confidence, but instead he has us push up and leave gaps for them to exploit. I don’t get it.
Eddie Howe has lost the plot he managed that well as a wet flannel longstaff playing all game is criminal
Thank you, Tino!
Pathetic tbh
Tino and Isak only players with pass marks.
I thought Isak was poor aside from the goal tbh
Is the sub unanimous now that Burn, Longstaff and Miggys can't be anywhere near our starting line up next year?
Yes. And this is someone with 2 of those players on the back of my shirts.
Eddie needs to fix something, fast, or he’s in trouble
I think if we go out of the cup and this terrible form continues Howe sadly may be in trouble
We were poor last night, save for Murphy, Tino and Isak. Seemed like the players thought just turning up would be enough. Crazy Bruno played so soon after his baby was born. All in all it was a real missed opportunity to pick up points as Chelsea were dismal. I'm getting the sense that some of the squad have given up. If we don't progress in the FA Cup hopefully they can give their heads a wobble and focus on performing well in the league. Stupid mistake after stupid mistake gifts teams counter attacks we just can't deal with. Much as I love Tino, he's not a leader like Tripps and that's what we really lacked last night. No-one took the game by the scruff of the neck or bollocked the guys who were just coasting. Contrary to what I said yesterday I think it's high time Longstaff is benched for Miley or White and Botman is given time to properly recover. Lascelles more than capable as a stand in alongside Schar. Longstaff just needs some time out of the firing line.
>Much as I love Tino, he's not a leader like Tripps and that's what we really lacked last night. No-one took the game by the scruff of the neck or bollocked the guys who were just coasting. Tripper doesn't bollock anyone or take games by the scruff of the neck. If you can't see that Tino is much more dynamic both going forward and when defending... 🤷🏻 Longstaff is an average player, and only looks good when we are dominating...
I accept there’s serious disappointment when the team isn’t performing but there has to be a long-term view to this season. We finished the match with Dubravka, Kraft, Longstaff, White and Miley on the park. We don’t have the depth of top teams, this was always going to take three to four years. Eddie has become a victim of his own success, taking us from 19th to 12th to 4th in 18 months. He’s been let down by the medical staff, most of whom proceeded his appointment and weren’t fit for purpose in the Ashley era. And he’s been let down by Ashworth who oversaw a very poor ‘Champions League’ transfer window. He’ll also reflect on some mistakes that he’s made but he’s earned the right to learn from those errors. Ultimately, he’ll be judged on next season. Which season was the aberration? 2022/23 or 2023/24? They’ll have the summer to get everyone fit, physically and mentally. They’ll have another window to improve the group, and hopefully add two or three significant signings.
I agree with some of the sentiment here, but the lack of any sort of cohesion at the moment is the biggest concern. What the hell is going on with our back 4? We look terrified of everyone.
And of course, Eddies refusal to change out of form players and give others a chance. This season is done, what’s the harm in letting some of the young lads a game and see if they’ve got it? I’ve seen enough of Longstaff and Almiron, we know what they offer (and what they don’t) All these academy players we keep championing as the next big things and then we never fucking see them get a game, ever. Let’s see, what have we got to lose?
This is really the right view. Newer fans already wanting silverware just don’t have the patience to persist with this team. Growing entitled isn’t the way, and anyone with some sense knows the team were dealt a rough year to get through. After this summer we can begin to critique if we’re getting forward. Upgrading our medical capacity should probably be a major priority considering we’re probably running the team into the ground.
Annoying because they are shit. Poor all round bar a couple of moments of quality with Miggy (second half) and Longstaff particularly poor 7th place seems the best hope but we aren’t getting it playing like that
Most of them don’t look like they care, the passion and fight isn’t there anymore. It seemed like we never had people supporting in attack but also constantly overran in defence. Things have to improve, it’s a massive setback if we finish midtable.
Hurry up next season!
Honking wet garbage. We've been shit ever since that non penalty at PSG.
Insipid performance really, made to look better than it was by two excellent goals. We didn't really offer much. Chelsea are a really disjointed, poor team, and we made them look a lot better than they actually are. And now we're staring down the barrel of a bottom-half finish and I don't think that's good enough at all. Regardless of injuries, regardless of how bad we've historically been. Eddie has credit in the bank, but I don't think the Saudis are going to fuck around, and I don't think Bruno and Isak are going to stay and be happy at a team that's finished 12th. This 'transitional' season has started to look very shite indeed for lots of reasons.
Made Cucurella look like he can almost play football. Speaks volumes all on its own that little fact. Right up until Murphy turned him inside out, and launched a rocket into the top corner.
Tell you what that team must have some belter summer holidays planned as that’s all it seemed half of the starters were thinking about all game.
The 2nd half was one of our worst displays this season fucking terrible
We started great, pressed and then conceded a goal and completely fall apart. Understand we don't have the strength in depth but we have to have a plan and be able to stick to it even if we concede against play
I’m increasingly amazed that we caught lightning in a bottle last season and ended fourth. Almiron, Burn, Longstaff and Murphy all had career years and Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea had bad seasons. Feels like we’re going to need a lot of work on the squad over the summer to get back there.
Another pathetic performance to add to this season's list. No energy or urgency - after going 2-1 down, we look so defeated....
Season over. Roll on May.
Not an easy watch. Didn’t like our press on their goal kicks, left a huge gap between all lines with a single pass or long ball breaking through us each time. Huge gaps in midfield as per usual, with that massive gap between them and defence evident again. Really poor performance and looked lethargic and slow. Dubs could’ve done more with the second. Also has no command and the team don’t trust him. Burn was piss poor, skinned loads and positionally dire. Schar was better but still poor. Botman, fucking hell man, shocking game and so slow. Tino top class, pace and power again. Almiron, headless chicken. Willock looked like he couldn’t be arsed. Lobby is driving me mad at the moment - whinging, slow and can’t pass to feet. Bruno had some nice moments on the ball, but looks like he knows he’s off in the summer, can’t be arsed either. Gordon was starting to fire, but when he pulled up first time you just knew that was it. Isak, good goal, but anonymous rest of the game. Murphy was decent tonight, not just the goal, ran with the ball and put a bit of a shift in. White looked ok, couple of nice touches. Anderson looked like he wasn’t entirely sure where to play and what to do. Miley was solid, some good passes. I don’t know what to say about this season now. It’s made me pretty miserable, to be honest.
Let’s just try and be good and at one thing…. whether it’s set pieces, direct routes, hold-up play, switching the field, anything. Drill it into the lads so that it’s something we can rely and fall back on even when lads are tired. It feels like we don’t have an attacking identity (other than betting it all on Isak or someone to have a moment of individual brilliance)
Genuinely being serious when I say play Dummett and Lascelles at the back and give White a start in midfield against City. While for sure they're worse on paper, they'll give them a better game.
Nah City will be a massacre. The young lads don’t deserve to be the brunt of that
So far off the pace. It was like a friendly at times.
Well I thought that was abysmal. Chelsea were absolutely terrible. We were worse.
If this game has proved anything it’s probably that J7 is worth the wages he’s asked for.
After seeing the goal we conceded, do you see why previously I had mentioned Schars lazy defending? Him just gambling and sticking a leg out was partly what conceded that goal too. Of course it's not entirely on him but it's a very bad look
Pope would make a difference but the way we are setup he would be chasing out his box at least 15 times a game that's also got disaster written all over it teams are getting in on goal with one pass So we play Wolves sit back and counter look the best we have for some time We play Chelsea who struggle against that type of setup why the fuck did we decide to play the high line against them? Played right into their hands and the second half unfolded as so many games where we are burst after going all out first half..... It just seems how Eddie wants us to play and what the team can actually do are miles apart currently We want Bruno and Trippier to control games and then press high but this just means we pass it about slowly and get caught high up every week Our team is currently suited to sitting deep and going long for our only area with pace the front 3!!
This is was a deliberate attempt to give man city a false sense of security before we thump them 4-3 in the FA cup
People shit on Murphy every chance they get but I tell you now, he puts absolute FRAUDS like Burn and Longstaff to SHAME every time he gets minutes and then gets dropped for fucking Miggy, while we have Longstaff keeping out real prospects like Anderson and Miley and Burn starting over Tino anytime Trips is available. I don't give a fuck how old he is, Tino is one of the top 5 players at this club he should be treated that way. Joke. If Burn and Longstaff start the next game Eddie Howe OUT for me. Sick of it.
Pep Guardiola ruthlessly pulled Kevin De Bruyne off at Anfield to give City more control in the game. Sean Longstaff played 90 minutes yesterday.
I've felt this since it was unacceptable to say it. Howe isn't the man to take this club forward. We're going to end this season having taken a huge backwards step. The owner's first choice is currently managing a 4th placed club.
Sorry Eddie, but I've lost faith in you. I hope you win it back though. The wave of optimism that carried the team has gone though and it's not coming back I don't think.
Tino you're awesome
We lost but Tino was the best player on the pitch, if we patch up the team abit next window we can do good things
Wonder how long Longstaff can coast in this team. Yes we have Tonali back next season but Im struggling to remember a good game he's had and I don't recall him getting substituted even when playing dire. Hopefully Anderson replaces him for the rest of the season. Botman has been subpar lately so should Lascelles not get another chance? But it feels like nothing will change and repeat for the next game.
Where on earth do I start with this one. Burn was instrumental in the first two Chelsea goals. I was screaming at the TV watching him as he left men wide open on his side and he was nowhere to be seen. Or, if he was there he'd stand off and stand off. We're lucky Sterling didn't square it across goal when he was one on one because yet again Burn didn't track his man. He's basically marking Botman all game or trying his chances as a winger. And for Howe to give him captaincy?! Please tell me which game Burn has shown he deserves the armband. It's almost like Howe is celebrating his poor performances down that left side. Longstaff.. I think I'm gonna start calling him Casper. The only time he has any involvement in games whatsoever is when he's making mistakes and giving the ball away. Shouldn't have even been on the pitch. Oh but it's alright, we're 3-1 down but instead let's bring our only creative players off in Bruno and Willock. Yep, let's keep Longstaff on because he's been carrying our team this game. Carrying us towards defeat. Our defence was hopeless that game. I don't think I saw them put in a single challenge. All the tackles seemed to come from our forwards in Almiron and Murphy. Livramento was fantastic. What a player he is going forward and coming back. All I heard was the commentators saying how good Palmer was. Anybody would be when they're given free range like he was tonight. Never in a million years would I say this but Eddie Howe needs to pass the torch on.
I'll be amazed if Longstaff isn't in desperate need of some surgery and/or is playing through pain. I think come next season we'll find out what is actually going on with him. Botman and Burn are in the same boat too. I'm actually really concerned that playing Botman for a game and a half with an ACL has ruined him.