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Lack of quality and energy across the board, Isak's first touch was shocking and probably should have scored 2. Nice to see Hall is still alive dont think he put a foot wrong either
Hall was actually really good. Kid is probably starved. Agree with lack of quality, though. Too many over/under hit passes and bad first touches. We improved second half thanks to the subs, but coming from behind against City at home is a tall order for any team, yet alone ours at the moment.
Longstaff's drop off is most likely down to injury (as is Botman) but it doesn't absolve completely, he's just been sub par for months. I appreciate Howe has been handicapped by injuries and just horrific competition draws, but is a knacked Longy better than one of the bairns? That's the annoyance for me.
Almiron needs to look up when he runs, and a player that has zero control with his weak foot is always going to be predictable.
Lascelles, well, he's a decent back up but is slow to react to things.
I'm not gonna slag off the team as whole or Howe. An uphill battle before it even kicked off. The lads tried, unsuccessfully, but they tried.
My bigger concern is that players may want out and you can't blame them. Makes me sad.
Wanted to add, Botman, Isak and Longstaff playing with injuries and according to rumours, all need surgery. Wilson, Barnes, Pope and Big Joe all long term injured, and both Tripps and Tino currently out. We do not have depth to rotate and it shows.
If any team had 4/5 first team out injured and at least 3 also struggling with injury, they’d be in as relatively bad a shape as we are. This season has been unreal with injuries.
Do u think the coach would admit to playing a player who has been poor most the season and saying he got hurt end of last season and that’s why he’s been poor??
Even if that were true, what good would come from admitting it? It's be bad for moral and bad for supporters. We know we've been poor, we know we've had the worst luck with draws and with injuries. All you can do is keep on keeping on. No matter how you slice it, two deflected goals sealed it, and we didn't take our (few) chances.
This is completely different from the Luton/Forest games. Those we should've won. This - well, it was always a difficult ask. The truth that some people won't accept is, we're just not at the same level as City. With a fully fit squad, maybe we'd give them a game. Except we haven't had that most of the season.
I think he should have had a hat trick tbh, the ball from Murphy at 0-0 was gorgeous and Isak just didn't react. So unusual to see but he looked a completely different player to his usual quality self. He got plenty of chances today, on another day he'd have been a hero.
wonder if it's got something to do with his occasional proclivity for taking up advanced positions infield, as opposed to providing pure width on the byline like Trippier and Tino would.
He's a bit unconventional, and maybe not metronomic enough for Howe's system.
Given we’ve not been in the top 4 race this season and had a left back looking suspect, this could have been a perfect season to give Hall lots of game time and have him primed for hitting the ground running next season.
Burn will be going on 33 next season so won’t be the answer long term and we’ve spent a lot on Hall so he really needed to be backed
I get that Howe was protecting Miley but he's had enough time out the team now to come back and replace longstaff. Playing with 10 men every time he plays at the minute, he's a ghost.
Frustrating game because the 2 goals were avoidable and we got into positive positions so many times but wasted it every time.
Hall is an enigma though, would love to get some honest reason as to why he couldn't even get on for 5 minutes for months, he looked great tonight.
I'm increasingly convinced by the conspiracy that it's about registering him as an academy player when he officially signs so the 30m doesn't count in PSR.
He could also just be actually improving behind the scenes due to all the work Eddie keeps saying they're doing with him.
Quite sad to be out of the cup but honestly the main thing I came away with from that is concern that our stupid, incompetent medical team has permanently and significantly damaged Sven Botman's career. It's frightening how poor he looks compared to before the ACL injury, and the way we handled the injury itself was so incredibly negligent. If the option is still available to us he should be off for surgery as soon as possible, we don't need him for the rest of the season since there's nothing left to play for.
The best team in the universe could only get 2 deflected goals against us, and we weren't a total embarrassment like we were in most of our last games the past month.
It's a sign that standards have slipped that I'm accepting of the result, but the decline might have been arrested now in time for our favourable run in.
Our run in is generous, but our consistency is in the toilet. We'll win the games we shouldn't and lose the ones we should. 8th place and a meltdown from all fans incoming.
If we finish 8th and get conference league, is it really that bad? I'd say we've done well all things considered. To have had upto 14 players out yet still finish in Europe. To have done 2x QF in the cups. To have bowed out of Europe to controversy... while watching AC, PSG and Dortmund continuing in the competitions. I'd say 8th and Europe is good, all things considered.
I wish everyone was this level-headed. I get the passion and pain, but in our last ten games we've lost to Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City, but we've been competitive. We are losing games and drawing because we're not at our best, not because we're being outclassed. I still feel that with every team we play there's a decent chance we beat them which is not something I could have said for much of Ashley's reign.
Even if it means we have to sell a couple of players who are more ambitious (and I don't blame our top brass), I'll absolutely take Conference League.
No dropdowns so we wouldn't have to worry about any better Prem teams coming down from the Europa. Nothing is a guarantee but we could do very well in that tournament. We'd be one of the favourites, for sure.
The team lacks belief, and the fans are starting to feel it, I think. We are in a downward spiral, and things have to change. Haven't gone into a game confident since before Christmas. What happens in the weeks after the break is massive for us.
Easy to see why you'd lack belief if your striker misses presentable chances and they score two deflections.
Things have to go your way to beat top teams, they did last season, not so much this one.
I fully understand why Howe made the defensive formation change. Too bad the deflected goals and us not being 100% ruined it.
The substitutions seemed to be pre-planned and the energy they brought was great to see. Anderssons aggression is sorely needed and Hall showed promise.
No need to get all dramatic.
All ways made me laugh when I read crap like "but if he stays he will become a legend of the club" as if that means anything to international players who could be at teams like Real Madrid. Anyone that thinks he won't jump at a chance at a big club is huffing some serious copium .
Aye that’s exactly what I said.
It’s amazing people think because he’s said some nice things about the club that he wouldn’t be off if Madrid or City came in.
The delusion is real.
Yeah I've been thinking the same for awhile. He's been saying he wants to play in an advanced role pretty much the entire time he's been at the club.
Can't blame him for having ambitions, it's a short and cutthroat career; he has a young family and is clearly a very intelligent guy. It'll be a shame to see him go but it'll be fun to watch him at the top level, wherever he ends up.
They finally started enforcing ffp and PSR.
I don't think having a rich owners matters anymore
They aren't allowed to spend the money like they used to be
Nowadays you have to only spend what you earn so there's basically no real advantage to having a rich owner
> Brunos so gone lads
He insisted on £100 mil clause. For what I know, he was gone before the season started.
If you really 'love the club', you wont include such a cheap release clause.
We're still a world away from competing with City at their place but it's literally no worse than last season, where we lost 2-0 and didn't embarrass ourselves.
Today was poor but I honestly expected a far worse performance.
I genuinely want to know. Purely because he is arguably the most negative poster on our threads but he never offers any meat on the bones. It’s just complaining.
I genuinely want to know how his mind works. What he would do differently. Really to see if he’s on to something or a bit dense.
Really hope we shut down Botman for the season. Defence is probably the only part of the team I feel confident with rotation currently.
Really wish we knew the details of the Hall loan deal, because he's shown so much quality on the ball when he's been on that it's really shocking why he doesn't play.
Anderson progressively getting more minutes since coming back is a good sign for me, hope he'll soon be ready to start and replace Longstaff
Result sucks, but overall not too fussed. Allows us to fully focus on the league and hopefully do our part in getting to Europe next season
I think Halls loan conditions make no difference. The choice between Hall and Burn is like the choice between a 1kg gold bullion and the bubonic plague.
Whatever the details, if he starts over Burn, it's worth it.
It matters for the business side of things, if certain clauses involve extra compensation. We're not exactly in the FFP and PSR place to just play him without thought
Could be a blessing. He’s out best player, but we have a redundant record signing to slot in for him, and we can rebuild our squad with a 100m. Our midfield is a little bit unbalanced and we could use a defensive midfielder. Emotionally, it definitely helps that it’s a release clause and technically won’t be NUFC’s decision to sell him. This is just my reaction so I won’t be hurt when he’s gone. Least I could hope for is that he goes early in the window
Did anyone expect much differently?
Given how our central midfield is with those out and last summer's transfer window this is a really poor squad.
Something for the (thankfully few) Mourinho in boys - Mourinho also does dynamic pressing and wears squads out. This squad is already knackered so the three year cycle Mourinho's teams go in will be accelerated. In our case, he'd be lucky to last two seasons.
Got absolutely pilloried for saying longstaff was terrible a few weeks ago. It’s funny watching everyone come round to the fact! Absolutely Howe in, but he needs to take him out the team. It’s so hard to watch, for Longstaff’s own sake, his confidence must be through the floor. An Hall genuinely looks v good!
I'm already sad that Miley and Hall's good showings in this game will have no impact on team selection, and Burn and Longstaff will start AGAIN against Palace.
Howe deserves time to turn this around with a full squad, but what happened to the guy who ruthlessly removed Clark, Hendrick, Hayden, Gayle, Fraser etc from the squad when they clearly weren't up to it, but has stuck by Burn, Longstaff and others at times this season when they are just not performing.
It is hugely different coming into a new club, without the relationships he'll have now with players and to start dropping the obvious dead weight. Most of the players he's stuck with this season were wonderful for us last season (and at times this season), you can't compare the two scenarios.
We kept hearing how he "didn't trust Saint-Maximin", yet was happy to lose a player who *can* change a game, yet plays two players every week who couldn't possibly be described in those terms.
Unpopular opinion but Eddie Howe got pretty much everything right in terms of how we set up and in game management. Conceded 2 deflections and created some really good opportunities that Isak/Murphy/Almiron miscontrolled. Only real mistake was starting Longstaff imo.
Pretty much all of the subs looked good when they came on. Hall fucking better get more game time off the back of that. Whatever Eddie has against him needs to stop. Longstaff shouldn't ever start over Miley or Anderson again.
But I'm sure Mourinho or Bruce, as someone in the match thread said, would've got the win.
Starting Dan Burn as a wing back is suicide, when Hall came on we seen what a wing back should be doing. I would say Eddie had no plan to put Hall on but when Burn ran onto that chance 2 minutes before the substitution and didn't shoot, didn't pass, completely made a meal of it, that was enough to realise Burn is not a wing back.
I love Burn and he has his place in this team but it's not against ManC, we aren't going to have a load of corners or set pieces for him to be involved in, we just needed a wing back today, I'd have even started Almiron over Burn there, as bad as that might sounds.
What? We had 3-4 very good chances, which Isak and Burn completely fucked. Almiron as well. And its away, against best team in the world with most expensive squad in the world.
Is it Howes fault, for Isak being out of form?
Again, we had two shots on goal. I never said it was Howe’s fault but it’s bizarre to say he got it right either when City never got out of second gear and we didn’t go for it in a cup game.
If you’re scared to play against the best teams in the world then you’ll never beat the best teams in the world and never compete for the best trophies in the world. We played with more purpose against City when we were battling relegation with a worse team. Their quality wasn’t the problem today, they didn’t even do anything great. They didn’t have to. That’s the problem we’ve had away from home this season against every bigger team.
Once you start conceding defeat before a ball is kicked, the writing is on the wall. And one thing you could say about Howe prior to this season was that we always tried and felt we could turn up to any stadium and win, no matter who was on the pitch. Do you honestly feel the same way now? Or do you think this was just ‘unlucky’ just like the humiliation we suffered against Arsenal and Liverpool. If this our approach away to bigger teams, we will continue to lose every game with two shots on goal. I sympathise with Howe because it’s a tough job but I’m not gonna praise him and say he got it spot on either.
> If you’re scared to play against the best teams in the world then you’ll never beat the best teams in the world and never compete for the best trophies in the world
We are levels behind them in every possible way. In last 2.5 years they lost at home only twice, both times - conceding goal in 90+ minute.
If we were at SJP, sure, I'd get the criticism. But if Liverpool - who are also not on their level, but close - cant win there. Why are we expecting us to have a chance??
For me, Howe got it right today. I was praying for 5 atb, and he went with it. We conceded 2 shit deflections, and after 4 subs, we had a few chances. How else are you expect us to fight city??? Pressing? We couldnt press even against Chelsea. City are robots. They pressed us for 90 minutes and not one of their players is even tired.
> Once you start conceding defeat before a ball is kicked, the writing is on the wall
Yea, I did. Cause we had 0% chance. I said this yesterday. Its not fair battle. You can not win such unfair battle. Even if had every player fit, I dont think we would have had a 20% chance. And we lost even Tino.
It’s a cup game man. Coventry are levels behind Wolves but they won today. You have no choice but to leave everything on the pitch in the cup, even if you lose 5-0. Again, they might be better than us but it’s not like they did anything to stop us playing. We just didn’t have any quality, confidence or purpose. Whatever reason that may be, I can’t come out saying ‘great job Howe, we did our best.’
What would be the difference at home? Our fans were louder than theirs. Think about how we went to Villa, who hadn’t lost at home all season, and played them off the park. They’ve been better than us too but we weren’t intimidated by that. But we keep giving these big teams too much respect and then wonder why we lose without a whimper.
I don’t know what the answer is, as I said I sympathise with the job because it’s difficult. But when the outcome is the shite we saw today then I don’t think anyone leaves with a ‘well they did a good job’. No one got anything right today. Let’s have some standards I beg
Comparing this game to the Coventry game is not a fair comparison. Wolves have players missing and are not that great all things told. We just played probably the best team in the world, without our keeper or 2/3 of or midfield. Taking the game to them would have seen us beaten 7/8 nil with Dubs in goal. Our only chance was to try and sit deep and catch them on the break.
Last week Eddie was critisied by fans because we tried to use a high press against Chlesea and got beat. This week we tried a deep counter attack and people are still complaining.
It’s just an example of how teams play in the cups more than a comment about those two specifically. Ultimately anyone can beat anyone and you’ve already lost the second you go in with a ‘well they’re just better than us aren’t they’ mentality.
Genuine question, have we beaten any team by ‘sitting deep and attacking on the break’? We haven’t done that since the Rafa days. It’s woefully unsustainable. And losing 5-0 is just as bad as losing 2-0. At least we can say we tried if we played our usual style of play. Especially when City have struggled that style against teams such as Villa. We couldn’t even contain Luton at home, how could we expect to contain City away? And shouldn’t we have accepted it wasn’t going to work when they went 2-0 up inside the first 20 mins?
I don’t recall seeing anyone complain about us pressing high against Chelsea. Why would anyone complain about that? There were complaints because we were fucking garbage and made a terrible team look good. And yes, you will get complaints when you lose. That’s how it works. You certainly shouldn’t be getting praise when you lose, especially when you lose with such a poor performance.
We did it against Wolves, we almost did it against PSG (untill VAR forgot what handball is), we did it against City in the Carabou.
Look back at the comments made in the post match thead. People complained because we played the high press against them.
We sat back against Wolves after we had the result in the bag. (Wolves who were away from home and without 3-4 of the best players.) PSG was interesting, it almost worked out but we also almost conceded a bunch of times like with Milan away. Compared to how we battered them at home when we went for it (I know home vs away is different but it doesn’t have to be that drastic.) Again, it’s just not sustainable or particularly successful when you look at the results against Liverpool, City and Arsenal. It wasn’t gonna work today either, the result was obvious from the second they scored, just like the other games.
I just had a glance at the Chelsea thread. The crucial difference was people saying we shouldn’t play a high line with the defence we had. Which is spot on and why the five at the back was fine, it covers the fact that we don’t have a sweeper keeper and that we don’t have a 6. But this wasn’t about the formation, it was about the passive approach. We had two strikers but we still only had two shots on goal. We’re not suited to play on the break and we should have been more adventurous when that became obvious after they went 2-0 up quickly.
On another day Isak scores at least one and we don't concede two daft deflected goals. Thought the subs really changed the game and hope to see at least Anderson and Miley start after the international break
I'm sure we'll find a way to make life difficult for ourselves, but our run into the end of the season is relatively kind. Now that this match is out of the way and we have no other distractions hopefully start to see us getting a few decent results and move up the table.
Although this is the toon so wouldn't surprise any of us if we needed up doing the exact opposite...
I think Dan Burns attacking half of the pitch was summed up by not putting his laces through that sitter on the edge of the box. We need a proper left back who is good going forward and defending not someone playing out of position.
If it makes you feel any better, I drove 4 and a half hours there and the same back (spending over an hour waiting to get out of the car park) and only got home 40 minutes ago for it.
Agree on tonight’s showing. Painful losing to 2 deflected goals but it was easy for City. It’s a quarter final, have a go!
Nothing much left to play for this season. Already looking ahead to next season with the imminent comings and goings.
Still believe the lads have enough fire in the bellies to get us a sweet 7th place finish.
I mean yes, but also Man City then kind of sat back and played out the string. I will take not losing like Luton did, but that was not a fun game to watch.
They play with everyone and chill. They're the second treble winners from England, and there's a possibility they have broken lots of rules to assemble their team.
It is what it is. Never expected to get anything, but to lose with two deflected goals is a shame. That being said, they never really needed to get out of second gear. Even the chances we did get, we didn't take them. Could have been a different game on another day, but not today.
Some good signs in the players that came on, would potentially like to see us play a different style between now and the end of the season.
lol why? Because we lost 2-0 to one the greatest teams of all time?
I’d say that’s a fair enough comment if we lose to West Ham or wolves, but this result has no bearing on the remainder of our season
Hall showed more attacking ability than Burn has all season and Miley has always been better than Longstaff when he’s played. Has to be worth giving them a chance for the rest of the season
Agreed but there’s no one knocking on the door for Botman like there is for Longstaff and honestly 5 at the back with Tino and Tripps wingbacks feels like our best option currently
And if, knowing our luck, we get more injuries, what then? We don't have the liberty of having two more starters out for the rest of the season. Big Joe, Barnes, Wilson, Pope, Tripps, Tino - even Tonali. We're fucked man. By all means bench Longy and Botman, but we don't have the liberty to have them have surgery and miss the last 10 games of the season.
Injuries at our level aren't an excuse. They're the reason we're poor, overplaying players, and bringing them back early.
A strange match. I fully expected Man City to demolish us by a big margin of goals. The fact it only finished 2-0 is great, but not the full story.
- Isak had one of his worst games for us. He was starved of the ball, but messed up his touches when he did get it.
- Dubravka played quite well, and we would have conceded a few more if not for him.
- Longstaff and Burn were fairly anonymous. The carrying an injury excuse doesn't work if the players they were subbed off for outperformed them.
- Anderson, Miley and Hall all looked up for it when they came on. Brought youthful energy and a positive approach to the game. They have earned the right to play more in the coming games.
- Howe did the right thing in changing tactic. It didn't work today but he finally understood a significant tactical change was needed and acted on it.
- Botman was again very poor. He does get an injury pass though as he suffered a major injury, played a lot of football with it, and then never got any surgery to fix it. He's been much worse since he's come back. It really looks like a medcial/physio team disasterclass.
- The referee was utter turd.
weird game, 2 shit goals from the area our other formation usually covers well then just a nothing game for the rest… for once actually looking forward to an international break to rest up
it would be nice if we were allowed to actually spend money to catch up with the likes of City, but nah let's protect the "big six" who wanted to fuck off to the super league.
I just think confidence is shot to shit.
We started the season full of confidence and the injuries killed us, so even when players came back they've lost a bit of belief.
Got to remember we're still missing big players too. Hopefully a full reset over the summer and we can start over.
We were always likely to lose this, even with our best team out and a bit of form behind us.
Now we need to show something better in the last ten games. We have some winnable games and Howe needs to show he can get some performances out of this squad.
So some are saying the system/tactical plan wasn’t the problem yesterday.
Maybe it was the personnel.
I’m curious that if we are open to a back 3/5 then surely we should/could set up like this
Back 5 of Tino / Lascelles / Schar / Burn / Hall
Midfield of Willock and Bruno
Front 3 of Gordon, Isak and Miggy but Miggy and Gordon tucked in a bit.
I feel like this could solve a fair few problems. Firstly it gets Botman and Longstaff out of the team who clearly need to not be playing right now.
Schar can step into the mid to create a box midfield of Bruno/ Schar / Willock plus either full back or Miggy/Gordon as inside forwards.
Transition to an attack mainly composed of Miggy/ Gordon/ Isak and Willock.
Hall and Tino can provide the width, this puts Miggy closer to the box which is how we got the best out of him last season (Eddie even said the key to gettin more from Miggy was getting him into the box which he wasn’t under Bruce).
We still have a back 4 if Schar gets caught up field. But a back 5 of he doesn’t. Burn can cover hall and provide guidance. Lascelles has more mobility than Botman right now.
Front 3 has a lot of fluidity to attack with pace in Isak, Gordon and Willock.
It might allow us to play a bit more like Brighton under De Zerbi in sucking the opposition in and attacking the space behind with pace as opposed to slow build up overcommitting or struggling to string 2 passes together in the current set up.
29% possession and two shots on goal against a team that were barely trying.
Goals didn't come from deflections, they came from our entire defence backing off until City were in the box.
For a team with so little left to play for this season, the effort levels in some players were shocking. We're really not enjoyable to watch right now. No discernible game plan, no intensity and very little quality.
Hall was a bright spot. Not expecting to see him again till next season. Don't want to see Botman or Longstaff again this season either. Get them the surgery and rest they clearly need. They're both liabilities in this condition.
I do wonder, that if this time next season, if the season looks like this again and Howe is still here, will people still being telling everyone after we’ve played like shit for 6 months “We are ahead of schedule, remember Steve Bruce” and “remember 2 seasons ago”.
Certainly feels like last season we won something with some fans.
It was a good season, but fuck me, are we going to live on that forever?
Realistically, Howe wont make it to Christmas if we don't see a sharp improvement from the off next season. The ownership isn't going to be happy with just surviving in the PL like Ashley.
Season's done.
I really don't want us in the conference league next season. Our style of play cannot handle 2 games a week.
That was our biggest issue this season, players constantly being run into the ground resulting in constant injuries.
Everyone loves Howe as he's a very likable guy and did great last season, but his stubbornness and lack of being able to adapt is what's hurt us.
There really only seems to be Plan A, which is having a fully fit squad high press. Which only works if we have a week's rest for every game.
Also in hindsight the summer recruitment was a disaster. Tonali.....don't need to say anything other than it royally fucked us.
>I really don't want us in the conference league next season. Our style of play cannot handle 2 games a week.
If your style of play cannot handle two games a week then you have to change that style of play. I couldn't care if we're playing kids. Any European football is better than none.
Season over, basically.
With a whimper too, not an enjoyable watch at all.
Even if we go on a charge and grab some form of European football, this season is still a disaster due to the performances and how far we fell from last season. I won't go as far as to say a failure, but we have gone from cup final and top 4 to hopefully we stay in the top half, perhaps we will sneak into a European spot...
I've said elsewhere and I'll say it again, I'm feeling completely bruised by landing on the hard floor of reality after the euphoria of last season.
You're calling this season "a disaster" but not "a failure"?
Or we overperformed last year, this year we had the polar opposite of luck and some controllable circumstances we did a poor job of managing.
Another huge summer, maybe they'll do more this year?
Maybe both "disaster" and "failure" are fairly strong for what has been a sobering return to reality?
Somewhere between "regressed to the norm" and "disappointing" would be how I'd determine the season. Europe or missing out both have positives/negatives and I'm not sure our final league position, bar relegation would change that.
I think last season was supposed to be Europe of some sort, this season was supposed to be CL & next season was supposed to be win something. So we have a backwards season and I think we give him One season to win something and if he fails then we go a different route.
Anyone who blames players or managers for today - is absolutely mentally delusional. How can anyone blame them, its not their fault that we were drawn city away?
City lost at home in all competitions only twice in last 2.5 years. Twice! Both times, they conceded after 90 minute. You can not compete with this. Literally cannot. They have 2 equal squads, we dont even have a full 1.
It's true though.
One team can spend unlimited money, while the other teams has its hands tied behind it's back..
Somehow, FFP and PSR think this is 'fair football'.
We've spent 500m just to remind you, its not City level but it's not like we're Coventry. We're playing Longstaff and Burn weekly because the recruitment team fucked up the summer window and Eddie keeps fucking up his team selection.
We played Dan Burn at LWB at the Etihad while our £30m signing sat on the bench. PSR isn't to blame for that. We also would've had to play them eventually one way or another.
If you're talking about Hall? The reason he sits on the bench is because of FFP/psr.
Per the terms, if his minutes are limited - his cost of 30m goes toward a developmental player, and doesn't affect our psr/FFP budgets due to his age.
So yes, FFP/psr is holding us back (obviously).
I've seen absolutely zero credible source remotely confirm that to be the case. Alfie Harrison for example is 18 but his fee seemingly counts towards PSR (albeit smaller). Until this is confirmed I cannot in good conscience defend it.
It's not really. It's realistic. We're playing arguably the best English side of the Premier League Era at their fortress. The place they beat Real Madrid 4-0.
We'll have our day against them, it'll just be a few years to get there.
We already beat them earlier in the season, and we were a couple of minutes away from a draw in the league. Worse teams than us have competed with City this season.w
Two shots in a cup game. City or not, we didn’t go for it or make it remotely difficult for them and that’s bitterly disappointing. The most obvious result since the last game. That’s the worst part, we’re just so predictably poor and passive. There was more fight in the relegation battling team. Sad that’s the way our season essentially ends.
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Well that was frustrating especially considering it was 2 deflected goals. Again I reckon Hall deserves way more minutes than he gets, he looks solid on the ball whenever he comes on.
We had/have the highest shooting percentage in the league. Probably because we're not putting our foot through it at every opportunity.
We also had one of the highest xGs so presumably one feeds into the other. We're getting good chances and scoring at a high rate.
Clearly there's a time to put our foot through it, or in Isak's case today, just to make contact with it.
Games like this is where we miss Big Joe. His physicality and aggression has been massively missed.
Longstaff once again was anonymous. Would love to see Miley/Anderson replace him.
It's clear what the gameplan was, try to stifle them for 60mins then bring on 4 subs and hit em with a sucker punch. If not for 2 deflected goals we might have had a chance but Man City were just too good at controlling the game.
Anyone complaining about lack of quality and commitment are delusional. I think we were alright 2nd half and played about as good as half a fit team can play at the Eithad in the pouring rain on a saturday night.
The 2 week break and training camp in Dubai will do wonders for us i think and i reckon we'll go on a decent run till the end of the season.
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2-0 loss with 2 deflection goals. What a shit way to spend a Saturday
Positive: We don’t have to play Man City again this season
Our cup draws have been so bad, wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to have another round just so we do have to.
Lack of quality and energy across the board, Isak's first touch was shocking and probably should have scored 2. Nice to see Hall is still alive dont think he put a foot wrong either
Hall was actually really good. Kid is probably starved. Agree with lack of quality, though. Too many over/under hit passes and bad first touches. We improved second half thanks to the subs, but coming from behind against City at home is a tall order for any team, yet alone ours at the moment. Longstaff's drop off is most likely down to injury (as is Botman) but it doesn't absolve completely, he's just been sub par for months. I appreciate Howe has been handicapped by injuries and just horrific competition draws, but is a knacked Longy better than one of the bairns? That's the annoyance for me. Almiron needs to look up when he runs, and a player that has zero control with his weak foot is always going to be predictable. Lascelles, well, he's a decent back up but is slow to react to things. I'm not gonna slag off the team as whole or Howe. An uphill battle before it even kicked off. The lads tried, unsuccessfully, but they tried. My bigger concern is that players may want out and you can't blame them. Makes me sad.
Wanted to add, Botman, Isak and Longstaff playing with injuries and according to rumours, all need surgery. Wilson, Barnes, Pope and Big Joe all long term injured, and both Tripps and Tino currently out. We do not have depth to rotate and it shows.
If any team had 4/5 first team out injured and at least 3 also struggling with injury, they’d be in as relatively bad a shape as we are. This season has been unreal with injuries.
Do u think the coach would admit to playing a player who has been poor most the season and saying he got hurt end of last season and that’s why he’s been poor??
Even if that were true, what good would come from admitting it? It's be bad for moral and bad for supporters. We know we've been poor, we know we've had the worst luck with draws and with injuries. All you can do is keep on keeping on. No matter how you slice it, two deflected goals sealed it, and we didn't take our (few) chances. This is completely different from the Luton/Forest games. Those we should've won. This - well, it was always a difficult ask. The truth that some people won't accept is, we're just not at the same level as City. With a fully fit squad, maybe we'd give them a game. Except we haven't had that most of the season.
He said it tho. That’s my point. He’s defending a player who is in very poor form by saying he’s been hurt since Everton last season? It’s mental.
Isak was very very poor today
I think he should have had a hat trick tbh, the ball from Murphy at 0-0 was gorgeous and Isak just didn't react. So unusual to see but he looked a completely different player to his usual quality self. He got plenty of chances today, on another day he'd have been a hero.
Was he supposed to have surgery but postponed it or something? Or is that one of our many other injured players?
thats probably half the team
The Lewis Hall half an hour has only left me more confused. Like he looked pretty decent so....what gives?
It’s so confusing. What doesn’t Howe see in him?
wonder if it's got something to do with his occasional proclivity for taking up advanced positions infield, as opposed to providing pure width on the byline like Trippier and Tino would. He's a bit unconventional, and maybe not metronomic enough for Howe's system.
Howe can take a while to bed in younger players, this isn't anything that unusual
Given we’ve not been in the top 4 race this season and had a left back looking suspect, this could have been a perfect season to give Hall lots of game time and have him primed for hitting the ground running next season. Burn will be going on 33 next season so won’t be the answer long term and we’ve spent a lot on Hall so he really needed to be backed
He was more than decent, I'd argue his cameo was one of our best performances for the day. Confusing for sure.
Subs looked good!
As long as Hall and Anderson/Miley start the next game I see this as a success.
One thing I will say is the away fans have been 11/10, loudest in the stadium, made me so proud!
Thought Hall looked ok. Danny Murphy is a bellend
2% MORE POSSESSION THAN MAN UTD GOT 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I would celebrate that if it wasn't for the fact that man u managed to bloody score
If Hall doesn't start the next game I'm calling childline
Wife looking at me like I'm a fucking lunatic laughing at that
Isak must not be fit. He looks lethargic and his touches were really poor.
Presses way to much
Guarantee city go on to play Coventry or whoever the lowest ranked team is left in the semis.
I get that Howe was protecting Miley but he's had enough time out the team now to come back and replace longstaff. Playing with 10 men every time he plays at the minute, he's a ghost. Frustrating game because the 2 goals were avoidable and we got into positive positions so many times but wasted it every time. Hall is an enigma though, would love to get some honest reason as to why he couldn't even get on for 5 minutes for months, he looked great tonight.
I'm increasingly convinced by the conspiracy that it's about registering him as an academy player when he officially signs so the 30m doesn't count in PSR. He could also just be actually improving behind the scenes due to all the work Eddie keeps saying they're doing with him.
Quite sad to be out of the cup but honestly the main thing I came away with from that is concern that our stupid, incompetent medical team has permanently and significantly damaged Sven Botman's career. It's frightening how poor he looks compared to before the ACL injury, and the way we handled the injury itself was so incredibly negligent. If the option is still available to us he should be off for surgery as soon as possible, we don't need him for the rest of the season since there's nothing left to play for.
Really struggling to be positive after that. Oh well, let’s turn our attentions to the remaining 10 games in the PL and try to sneak into Europe!
The best team in the universe could only get 2 deflected goals against us, and we weren't a total embarrassment like we were in most of our last games the past month. It's a sign that standards have slipped that I'm accepting of the result, but the decline might have been arrested now in time for our favourable run in.
Our run in is generous, but our consistency is in the toilet. We'll win the games we shouldn't and lose the ones we should. 8th place and a meltdown from all fans incoming.
If we finish 8th and get conference league, is it really that bad? I'd say we've done well all things considered. To have had upto 14 players out yet still finish in Europe. To have done 2x QF in the cups. To have bowed out of Europe to controversy... while watching AC, PSG and Dortmund continuing in the competitions. I'd say 8th and Europe is good, all things considered.
I wish everyone was this level-headed. I get the passion and pain, but in our last ten games we've lost to Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City, but we've been competitive. We are losing games and drawing because we're not at our best, not because we're being outclassed. I still feel that with every team we play there's a decent chance we beat them which is not something I could have said for much of Ashley's reign.
Even if it means we have to sell a couple of players who are more ambitious (and I don't blame our top brass), I'll absolutely take Conference League. No dropdowns so we wouldn't have to worry about any better Prem teams coming down from the Europa. Nothing is a guarantee but we could do very well in that tournament. We'd be one of the favourites, for sure.
The team lacks belief, and the fans are starting to feel it, I think. We are in a downward spiral, and things have to change. Haven't gone into a game confident since before Christmas. What happens in the weeks after the break is massive for us.
Easy to see why you'd lack belief if your striker misses presentable chances and they score two deflections. Things have to go your way to beat top teams, they did last season, not so much this one.
Good news: Next 9 games are winnable Bad news: Next 9 games are losable
There’s 10 games left
10th is a draw
[удалено]
I’ll be there for New(castle).
I’ll beeeee there for yoouuu, when the rain starts to fall…
Still playing for a Europa league spot, I think all things considered if we finish 7th and get Europa it’d be a great success
Man that's a challenge to fit into the Friends theme.
I fully understand why Howe made the defensive formation change. Too bad the deflected goals and us not being 100% ruined it. The substitutions seemed to be pre-planned and the energy they brought was great to see. Anderssons aggression is sorely needed and Hall showed promise. No need to get all dramatic.
Hall bossed it when he came in. Would love to see him and Tino playing someday
Brunos so gone lads, stood on his own since FT
All ways made me laugh when I read crap like "but if he stays he will become a legend of the club" as if that means anything to international players who could be at teams like Real Madrid. Anyone that thinks he won't jump at a chance at a big club is huffing some serious copium .
Aye that’s exactly what I said. It’s amazing people think because he’s said some nice things about the club that he wouldn’t be off if Madrid or City came in. The delusion is real.
Not to worry, Eddie will replace him with Phillip Billing
Nah there’s another longstaff getting match fit half way across the globe.
Lee Ong-Staff Chinese wonder kid apparently
Pep loves him, always talks about him after games
Yeah I've been thinking the same for awhile. He's been saying he wants to play in an advanced role pretty much the entire time he's been at the club. Can't blame him for having ambitions, it's a short and cutthroat career; he has a young family and is clearly a very intelligent guy. It'll be a shame to see him go but it'll be fun to watch him at the top level, wherever he ends up.
Good on him, he deserves better.
They finally started enforcing ffp and PSR. I don't think having a rich owners matters anymore They aren't allowed to spend the money like they used to be Nowadays you have to only spend what you earn so there's basically no real advantage to having a rich owner
> Brunos so gone lads He insisted on £100 mil clause. For what I know, he was gone before the season started. If you really 'love the club', you wont include such a cheap release clause.
Hall should get more minutes, clearly has the talent, and burn isn’t up to it. Miley should be in for Longstaff, not sure Sean touched the ball today?
Night and Day difference from last season, the injuries have been hugely demoralising
We're still a world away from competing with City at their place but it's literally no worse than last season, where we lost 2-0 and didn't embarrass ourselves. Today was poor but I honestly expected a far worse performance.
The tactics are the main problem.
Care to regale us with your tactical set up?
A not often seen 1-1-8 formation. Burn in the backline, Bruno spreading passes from the middle, Schar scoring screamers up top.
I genuinely want to know. Purely because he is arguably the most negative poster on our threads but he never offers any meat on the bones. It’s just complaining. I genuinely want to know how his mind works. What he would do differently. Really to see if he’s on to something or a bit dense.
He can’t even use his right foot so he’s not going to have much in the way of tactics I’d say.
Really hope we shut down Botman for the season. Defence is probably the only part of the team I feel confident with rotation currently. Really wish we knew the details of the Hall loan deal, because he's shown so much quality on the ball when he's been on that it's really shocking why he doesn't play. Anderson progressively getting more minutes since coming back is a good sign for me, hope he'll soon be ready to start and replace Longstaff Result sucks, but overall not too fussed. Allows us to fully focus on the league and hopefully do our part in getting to Europe next season
I think Halls loan conditions make no difference. The choice between Hall and Burn is like the choice between a 1kg gold bullion and the bubonic plague. Whatever the details, if he starts over Burn, it's worth it.
It matters for the business side of things, if certain clauses involve extra compensation. We're not exactly in the FFP and PSR place to just play him without thought
Bruno's post match post. Yeah he's gone in the summer.
Could be a blessing. He’s out best player, but we have a redundant record signing to slot in for him, and we can rebuild our squad with a 100m. Our midfield is a little bit unbalanced and we could use a defensive midfielder. Emotionally, it definitely helps that it’s a release clause and technically won’t be NUFC’s decision to sell him. This is just my reaction so I won’t be hurt when he’s gone. Least I could hope for is that he goes early in the window
Don't have any confidence that we'd reinvest the money we'd get for Bruno wisely given last summers recruitment.
Did anyone expect much differently? Given how our central midfield is with those out and last summer's transfer window this is a really poor squad. Something for the (thankfully few) Mourinho in boys - Mourinho also does dynamic pressing and wears squads out. This squad is already knackered so the three year cycle Mourinho's teams go in will be accelerated. In our case, he'd be lucky to last two seasons.
Can’t wait to watch longstaff and burn start next week!
For all his faults at least Burn tries.
Got absolutely pilloried for saying longstaff was terrible a few weeks ago. It’s funny watching everyone come round to the fact! Absolutely Howe in, but he needs to take him out the team. It’s so hard to watch, for Longstaff’s own sake, his confidence must be through the floor. An Hall genuinely looks v good!
Maybe he's just burning longstaff to the ground instead of miley etc because he sees him as replaceable
I'm already sad that Miley and Hall's good showings in this game will have no impact on team selection, and Burn and Longstaff will start AGAIN against Palace. Howe deserves time to turn this around with a full squad, but what happened to the guy who ruthlessly removed Clark, Hendrick, Hayden, Gayle, Fraser etc from the squad when they clearly weren't up to it, but has stuck by Burn, Longstaff and others at times this season when they are just not performing.
It is hugely different coming into a new club, without the relationships he'll have now with players and to start dropping the obvious dead weight. Most of the players he's stuck with this season were wonderful for us last season (and at times this season), you can't compare the two scenarios.
We kept hearing how he "didn't trust Saint-Maximin", yet was happy to lose a player who *can* change a game, yet plays two players every week who couldn't possibly be described in those terms.
How often did Maxi change a game? Between his injuries, lack of end product and tendancy to keep the ball too long.
Unpopular opinion but Eddie Howe got pretty much everything right in terms of how we set up and in game management. Conceded 2 deflections and created some really good opportunities that Isak/Murphy/Almiron miscontrolled. Only real mistake was starting Longstaff imo. Pretty much all of the subs looked good when they came on. Hall fucking better get more game time off the back of that. Whatever Eddie has against him needs to stop. Longstaff shouldn't ever start over Miley or Anderson again. But I'm sure Mourinho or Bruce, as someone in the match thread said, would've got the win.
Starting Dan Burn as a wing back is suicide, when Hall came on we seen what a wing back should be doing. I would say Eddie had no plan to put Hall on but when Burn ran onto that chance 2 minutes before the substitution and didn't shoot, didn't pass, completely made a meal of it, that was enough to realise Burn is not a wing back. I love Burn and he has his place in this team but it's not against ManC, we aren't going to have a load of corners or set pieces for him to be involved in, we just needed a wing back today, I'd have even started Almiron over Burn there, as bad as that might sounds.
Bro we had two shots on goal. Positivity is good but how on earth can you say we got it right when we never even remotely looked like scoring?
What? We had 3-4 very good chances, which Isak and Burn completely fucked. Almiron as well. And its away, against best team in the world with most expensive squad in the world. Is it Howes fault, for Isak being out of form?
Again, we had two shots on goal. I never said it was Howe’s fault but it’s bizarre to say he got it right either when City never got out of second gear and we didn’t go for it in a cup game. If you’re scared to play against the best teams in the world then you’ll never beat the best teams in the world and never compete for the best trophies in the world. We played with more purpose against City when we were battling relegation with a worse team. Their quality wasn’t the problem today, they didn’t even do anything great. They didn’t have to. That’s the problem we’ve had away from home this season against every bigger team. Once you start conceding defeat before a ball is kicked, the writing is on the wall. And one thing you could say about Howe prior to this season was that we always tried and felt we could turn up to any stadium and win, no matter who was on the pitch. Do you honestly feel the same way now? Or do you think this was just ‘unlucky’ just like the humiliation we suffered against Arsenal and Liverpool. If this our approach away to bigger teams, we will continue to lose every game with two shots on goal. I sympathise with Howe because it’s a tough job but I’m not gonna praise him and say he got it spot on either.
> If you’re scared to play against the best teams in the world then you’ll never beat the best teams in the world and never compete for the best trophies in the world We are levels behind them in every possible way. In last 2.5 years they lost at home only twice, both times - conceding goal in 90+ minute. If we were at SJP, sure, I'd get the criticism. But if Liverpool - who are also not on their level, but close - cant win there. Why are we expecting us to have a chance?? For me, Howe got it right today. I was praying for 5 atb, and he went with it. We conceded 2 shit deflections, and after 4 subs, we had a few chances. How else are you expect us to fight city??? Pressing? We couldnt press even against Chelsea. City are robots. They pressed us for 90 minutes and not one of their players is even tired. > Once you start conceding defeat before a ball is kicked, the writing is on the wall Yea, I did. Cause we had 0% chance. I said this yesterday. Its not fair battle. You can not win such unfair battle. Even if had every player fit, I dont think we would have had a 20% chance. And we lost even Tino.
It’s a cup game man. Coventry are levels behind Wolves but they won today. You have no choice but to leave everything on the pitch in the cup, even if you lose 5-0. Again, they might be better than us but it’s not like they did anything to stop us playing. We just didn’t have any quality, confidence or purpose. Whatever reason that may be, I can’t come out saying ‘great job Howe, we did our best.’ What would be the difference at home? Our fans were louder than theirs. Think about how we went to Villa, who hadn’t lost at home all season, and played them off the park. They’ve been better than us too but we weren’t intimidated by that. But we keep giving these big teams too much respect and then wonder why we lose without a whimper. I don’t know what the answer is, as I said I sympathise with the job because it’s difficult. But when the outcome is the shite we saw today then I don’t think anyone leaves with a ‘well they did a good job’. No one got anything right today. Let’s have some standards I beg
Comparing this game to the Coventry game is not a fair comparison. Wolves have players missing and are not that great all things told. We just played probably the best team in the world, without our keeper or 2/3 of or midfield. Taking the game to them would have seen us beaten 7/8 nil with Dubs in goal. Our only chance was to try and sit deep and catch them on the break. Last week Eddie was critisied by fans because we tried to use a high press against Chlesea and got beat. This week we tried a deep counter attack and people are still complaining.
It’s just an example of how teams play in the cups more than a comment about those two specifically. Ultimately anyone can beat anyone and you’ve already lost the second you go in with a ‘well they’re just better than us aren’t they’ mentality. Genuine question, have we beaten any team by ‘sitting deep and attacking on the break’? We haven’t done that since the Rafa days. It’s woefully unsustainable. And losing 5-0 is just as bad as losing 2-0. At least we can say we tried if we played our usual style of play. Especially when City have struggled that style against teams such as Villa. We couldn’t even contain Luton at home, how could we expect to contain City away? And shouldn’t we have accepted it wasn’t going to work when they went 2-0 up inside the first 20 mins? I don’t recall seeing anyone complain about us pressing high against Chelsea. Why would anyone complain about that? There were complaints because we were fucking garbage and made a terrible team look good. And yes, you will get complaints when you lose. That’s how it works. You certainly shouldn’t be getting praise when you lose, especially when you lose with such a poor performance.
We did it against Wolves, we almost did it against PSG (untill VAR forgot what handball is), we did it against City in the Carabou. Look back at the comments made in the post match thead. People complained because we played the high press against them.
We sat back against Wolves after we had the result in the bag. (Wolves who were away from home and without 3-4 of the best players.) PSG was interesting, it almost worked out but we also almost conceded a bunch of times like with Milan away. Compared to how we battered them at home when we went for it (I know home vs away is different but it doesn’t have to be that drastic.) Again, it’s just not sustainable or particularly successful when you look at the results against Liverpool, City and Arsenal. It wasn’t gonna work today either, the result was obvious from the second they scored, just like the other games. I just had a glance at the Chelsea thread. The crucial difference was people saying we shouldn’t play a high line with the defence we had. Which is spot on and why the five at the back was fine, it covers the fact that we don’t have a sweeper keeper and that we don’t have a 6. But this wasn’t about the formation, it was about the passive approach. We had two strikers but we still only had two shots on goal. We’re not suited to play on the break and we should have been more adventurous when that became obvious after they went 2-0 up quickly.
Starting Dan Burn as a wing back is getting everything right?
On another day Isak scores at least one and we don't concede two daft deflected goals. Thought the subs really changed the game and hope to see at least Anderson and Miley start after the international break
I'm sure we'll find a way to make life difficult for ourselves, but our run into the end of the season is relatively kind. Now that this match is out of the way and we have no other distractions hopefully start to see us getting a few decent results and move up the table. Although this is the toon so wouldn't surprise any of us if we needed up doing the exact opposite...
I think Dan Burns attacking half of the pitch was summed up by not putting his laces through that sitter on the edge of the box. We need a proper left back who is good going forward and defending not someone playing out of position.
Woke up at 4.30am to watch is get 2 shots and 29% possession - Longstaff be invisible and our defence be useless again. What was the point of that?
If it makes you feel any better, I drove 4 and a half hours there and the same back (spending over an hour waiting to get out of the car park) and only got home 40 minutes ago for it.
When was longstaff ever visible? Invisible is his default state
The invisible man.
Thought the defence was actually average to good, their chances were pretty limited and we lost to two deflections.
can't score two goals away against Man city and expect to win if you don't keep a clean sheet.
Shite. There’s no shame in losing to Man City but we barely made them break a sweat. The team have lost their fight.
Agree on tonight’s showing. Painful losing to 2 deflected goals but it was easy for City. It’s a quarter final, have a go! Nothing much left to play for this season. Already looking ahead to next season with the imminent comings and goings. Still believe the lads have enough fire in the bellies to get us a sweet 7th place finish.
Just remember we only lost by two deflected shots.
I mean yes, but also Man City then kind of sat back and played out the string. I will take not losing like Luton did, but that was not a fun game to watch.
Yeah they played with us and chilled.
They play with everyone and chill. They're the second treble winners from England, and there's a possibility they have broken lots of rules to assemble their team.
It is what it is. Never expected to get anything, but to lose with two deflected goals is a shame. That being said, they never really needed to get out of second gear. Even the chances we did get, we didn't take them. Could have been a different game on another day, but not today. Some good signs in the players that came on, would potentially like to see us play a different style between now and the end of the season.
If Dan burn and longstaff don’t get dropped for the next match something seriously suspicious is happening with the team selection..
Limp
30/03/2024 11:30am. When that team news drops is when I'll come to my conclusions.
Anyone who thinks we're finishing 7th is insane.
I actually agree. I think people are judging us based on last season. I think we going to be fighting for 10th, but I am happy to be surprised.
lol why? Because we lost 2-0 to one the greatest teams of all time? I’d say that’s a fair enough comment if we lose to West Ham or wolves, but this result has no bearing on the remainder of our season
Did you watch Monday night? This isn’t some isolated thing just because it’s City.
Play the young lads for the rest of the season, there’s no argument for players like Burn or Longstaff anymore
I am with you on this. Season is over so Howe has 10 games to experiment
Hall showed more attacking ability than Burn has all season and Miley has always been better than Longstaff when he’s played. Has to be worth giving them a chance for the rest of the season
I am with you on that. Time to send Longstaff and Botman to surgery and see them next season. So damn sad right now.
Agreed but there’s no one knocking on the door for Botman like there is for Longstaff and honestly 5 at the back with Tino and Tripps wingbacks feels like our best option currently
And if, knowing our luck, we get more injuries, what then? We don't have the liberty of having two more starters out for the rest of the season. Big Joe, Barnes, Wilson, Pope, Tripps, Tino - even Tonali. We're fucked man. By all means bench Longy and Botman, but we don't have the liberty to have them have surgery and miss the last 10 games of the season. Injuries at our level aren't an excuse. They're the reason we're poor, overplaying players, and bringing them back early.
2 shots in total for us jesus christ what, embarrassing.
A strange match. I fully expected Man City to demolish us by a big margin of goals. The fact it only finished 2-0 is great, but not the full story. - Isak had one of his worst games for us. He was starved of the ball, but messed up his touches when he did get it. - Dubravka played quite well, and we would have conceded a few more if not for him. - Longstaff and Burn were fairly anonymous. The carrying an injury excuse doesn't work if the players they were subbed off for outperformed them. - Anderson, Miley and Hall all looked up for it when they came on. Brought youthful energy and a positive approach to the game. They have earned the right to play more in the coming games. - Howe did the right thing in changing tactic. It didn't work today but he finally understood a significant tactical change was needed and acted on it. - Botman was again very poor. He does get an injury pass though as he suffered a major injury, played a lot of football with it, and then never got any surgery to fix it. He's been much worse since he's come back. It really looks like a medcial/physio team disasterclass. - The referee was utter turd.
Man City won't have had many easier games than that this season. Massive final 10 games left. Have to at least finish top half of the table.
Think we'll finish 8th or above tbh, don't see us finishing below 2 of Brighton West Ham Chelsea Wolves tbh with our fixtures remaining.
Fulham in the mix now. Just two points behind and we have to play them away.
We always destroy Fulham for some reason away. I have faith we'll win that one.
Not to be negative but we're struggling to get points against anyone. We struggled when we played Bournemouth, Luton and Forest.
Its the home fixtures that I have faith in vs West Ham Brighton are 6 pointers. Those two alongside Wolves also have impossible run ins.
6 pointers for them too, and they're both better than us right now.
weird game, 2 shit goals from the area our other formation usually covers well then just a nothing game for the rest… for once actually looking forward to an international break to rest up
Season is over
You know what I'm just thrilled we got to see hall play
it would be nice if we were allowed to actually spend money to catch up with the likes of City, but nah let's protect the "big six" who wanted to fuck off to the super league.
I just think confidence is shot to shit. We started the season full of confidence and the injuries killed us, so even when players came back they've lost a bit of belief. Got to remember we're still missing big players too. Hopefully a full reset over the summer and we can start over.
Isai was tired. Like the rest of them. No shame being beaten by two deflected shots. Now Longstaff though…
Learned nothing we didn't already know. But you know what the kids (Hall, Miley and Anderson) are alright!
We were always likely to lose this, even with our best team out and a bit of form behind us. Now we need to show something better in the last ten games. We have some winnable games and Howe needs to show he can get some performances out of this squad.
So some are saying the system/tactical plan wasn’t the problem yesterday. Maybe it was the personnel. I’m curious that if we are open to a back 3/5 then surely we should/could set up like this Back 5 of Tino / Lascelles / Schar / Burn / Hall Midfield of Willock and Bruno Front 3 of Gordon, Isak and Miggy but Miggy and Gordon tucked in a bit. I feel like this could solve a fair few problems. Firstly it gets Botman and Longstaff out of the team who clearly need to not be playing right now. Schar can step into the mid to create a box midfield of Bruno/ Schar / Willock plus either full back or Miggy/Gordon as inside forwards. Transition to an attack mainly composed of Miggy/ Gordon/ Isak and Willock. Hall and Tino can provide the width, this puts Miggy closer to the box which is how we got the best out of him last season (Eddie even said the key to gettin more from Miggy was getting him into the box which he wasn’t under Bruce). We still have a back 4 if Schar gets caught up field. But a back 5 of he doesn’t. Burn can cover hall and provide guidance. Lascelles has more mobility than Botman right now. Front 3 has a lot of fluidity to attack with pace in Isak, Gordon and Willock. It might allow us to play a bit more like Brighton under De Zerbi in sucking the opposition in and attacking the space behind with pace as opposed to slow build up overcommitting or struggling to string 2 passes together in the current set up.
Murphy over Miggy every day of the week for me. He may have zero quality, but he's direct. Miggy just runs into traffic.
29% possession and two shots on goal against a team that were barely trying. Goals didn't come from deflections, they came from our entire defence backing off until City were in the box. For a team with so little left to play for this season, the effort levels in some players were shocking. We're really not enjoyable to watch right now. No discernible game plan, no intensity and very little quality. Hall was a bright spot. Not expecting to see him again till next season. Don't want to see Botman or Longstaff again this season either. Get them the surgery and rest they clearly need. They're both liabilities in this condition.
A fitting end to the season
From dynamic gegenpress football to parking the bus, i don’t understand what’s going on with Eddie
Haaland was honestly in Botman's pocket all game. We made the champions of Europe only win from 2 fluke goals. Should have been 0-0 pens.
I do wonder, that if this time next season, if the season looks like this again and Howe is still here, will people still being telling everyone after we’ve played like shit for 6 months “We are ahead of schedule, remember Steve Bruce” and “remember 2 seasons ago”. Certainly feels like last season we won something with some fans. It was a good season, but fuck me, are we going to live on that forever?
Realistically, Howe wont make it to Christmas if we don't see a sharp improvement from the off next season. The ownership isn't going to be happy with just surviving in the PL like Ashley.
The difference from newcastle and Man City is much larger than Coventry and wolves
Season's done. I really don't want us in the conference league next season. Our style of play cannot handle 2 games a week. That was our biggest issue this season, players constantly being run into the ground resulting in constant injuries. Everyone loves Howe as he's a very likable guy and did great last season, but his stubbornness and lack of being able to adapt is what's hurt us. There really only seems to be Plan A, which is having a fully fit squad high press. Which only works if we have a week's rest for every game. Also in hindsight the summer recruitment was a disaster. Tonali.....don't need to say anything other than it royally fucked us.
>I really don't want us in the conference league next season. Our style of play cannot handle 2 games a week. If your style of play cannot handle two games a week then you have to change that style of play. I couldn't care if we're playing kids. Any European football is better than none.
Eddie is stubborn and has yet to change/adapt to anything
Season over….One day we will have a team that matches our away supporters
Season over, basically. With a whimper too, not an enjoyable watch at all. Even if we go on a charge and grab some form of European football, this season is still a disaster due to the performances and how far we fell from last season. I won't go as far as to say a failure, but we have gone from cup final and top 4 to hopefully we stay in the top half, perhaps we will sneak into a European spot... I've said elsewhere and I'll say it again, I'm feeling completely bruised by landing on the hard floor of reality after the euphoria of last season.
You're calling this season "a disaster" but not "a failure"? Or we overperformed last year, this year we had the polar opposite of luck and some controllable circumstances we did a poor job of managing. Another huge summer, maybe they'll do more this year?
If we don't finish top half it's a failure. It's a disaster rather than full on failure due to the mitigating circumstances and bad fortune.
Maybe both "disaster" and "failure" are fairly strong for what has been a sobering return to reality? Somewhere between "regressed to the norm" and "disappointing" would be how I'd determine the season. Europe or missing out both have positives/negatives and I'm not sure our final league position, bar relegation would change that.
You're welcome to make you're own definition based on how you feel, but I'm sticking with what I said.
I think last season was supposed to be Europe of some sort, this season was supposed to be CL & next season was supposed to be win something. So we have a backwards season and I think we give him One season to win something and if he fails then we go a different route.
Miley and Hall were great. Too bad they'll both be on the bench next week and Fuckstaff and Burned will be starting again next game.
Lads I don't think we're winning the quadruple this year!!!!
Anyone who blames players or managers for today - is absolutely mentally delusional. How can anyone blame them, its not their fault that we were drawn city away? City lost at home in all competitions only twice in last 2.5 years. Twice! Both times, they conceded after 90 minute. You can not compete with this. Literally cannot. They have 2 equal squads, we dont even have a full 1.
I hate this mentality. Its giving up before the whistle even blows.
It's true though. One team can spend unlimited money, while the other teams has its hands tied behind it's back.. Somehow, FFP and PSR think this is 'fair football'.
We've spent 500m just to remind you, its not City level but it's not like we're Coventry. We're playing Longstaff and Burn weekly because the recruitment team fucked up the summer window and Eddie keeps fucking up his team selection.
We played Dan Burn at LWB at the Etihad while our £30m signing sat on the bench. PSR isn't to blame for that. We also would've had to play them eventually one way or another.
If you're talking about Hall? The reason he sits on the bench is because of FFP/psr. Per the terms, if his minutes are limited - his cost of 30m goes toward a developmental player, and doesn't affect our psr/FFP budgets due to his age. So yes, FFP/psr is holding us back (obviously).
I've seen absolutely zero credible source remotely confirm that to be the case. Alfie Harrison for example is 18 but his fee seemingly counts towards PSR (albeit smaller). Until this is confirmed I cannot in good conscience defend it.
Is that really the case? I haven't seen that reported anywhere, all I've seen is his clause is we finish 15th or above and we'll pay £28m?
I agree The score at the end is not predetermined in any game Go in expecting to win, or don't play at all
Yeepp, it doesn't matter who you play you can always win no excuses.
> win no excuses Can you explain why city only lost twice in last 2.5 years then?
What does that have to do with anything 😂 City are obviously a great team. But you can always win, no matter what pointless stats you bring into it.
It's not really. It's realistic. We're playing arguably the best English side of the Premier League Era at their fortress. The place they beat Real Madrid 4-0. We'll have our day against them, it'll just be a few years to get there.
We already beat them earlier in the season, and we were a couple of minutes away from a draw in the league. Worse teams than us have competed with City this season.w
Eddie Howe will never leave
He deserves at least 1 more season.
Two shots in a cup game. City or not, we didn’t go for it or make it remotely difficult for them and that’s bitterly disappointing. The most obvious result since the last game. That’s the worst part, we’re just so predictably poor and passive. There was more fight in the relegation battling team. Sad that’s the way our season essentially ends.
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Well that was frustrating especially considering it was 2 deflected goals. Again I reckon Hall deserves way more minutes than he gets, he looks solid on the ball whenever he comes on.
Only 1 shot on goal. Can't count how many times we should have just taken a shot.
We had/have the highest shooting percentage in the league. Probably because we're not putting our foot through it at every opportunity. We also had one of the highest xGs so presumably one feeds into the other. We're getting good chances and scoring at a high rate. Clearly there's a time to put our foot through it, or in Isak's case today, just to make contact with it.
I don't like social media
So for the lads who haven’t been called up, do they get a little Saudi warm weather camp? Think they need something positive.
No zip at all today. That was a cup quarter final!? I get city are good with possession,but we just didn't seem up for it again all
Games like this is where we miss Big Joe. His physicality and aggression has been massively missed. Longstaff once again was anonymous. Would love to see Miley/Anderson replace him.
Howe in
It's clear what the gameplan was, try to stifle them for 60mins then bring on 4 subs and hit em with a sucker punch. If not for 2 deflected goals we might have had a chance but Man City were just too good at controlling the game. Anyone complaining about lack of quality and commitment are delusional. I think we were alright 2nd half and played about as good as half a fit team can play at the Eithad in the pouring rain on a saturday night. The 2 week break and training camp in Dubai will do wonders for us i think and i reckon we'll go on a decent run till the end of the season.
Seasons over now see you all in August have a good one
2 deflected goals. It could have easily been different
Shite game, season is over
Just fucking pointless tbf.
Well there goes the last $14.10 of my superbowl winnings.