On the point of his post match comments. I also hate to see players defended after a bad performance, but lots of managers subscribe to keeping the criticism private and in the dressing room. If confidence is shot that could be a factor in that. I still hate to see it though.
They are mostly a bunch of new age snowflakes. Half of them are robbing a living and need a good smacking if I am honest. None so than Shelvey and ASM who are meant to be our senior better players. One thing I hope you can agree with me here is Shelvey is a stain we can’t seem to get rid of.
Not 100% sure what anyone was expecting Howe to do. We only had 2 strikers and both are out. Yes he could have thrown in Stephenson, and I'm for this, but considering how some of our fans reacted to Alnwick then to Woodman I'm not surprised he hasn't been thrown in. No manager should openly criticise the players. He's walking a tight rope at the moment. At any given moment one of those players will be replaced. (Please god let it be Shelvey). I keep mentioning that it took Bruce 18 months to undo Rafa's discipline so how the **** is Howe going to undo Bruce's **** up in less than a few months? People need to chill. Have a drink. Have an early night and get a good kip.
Shelvey should have been out the door at least two or three seasons ago., along with quite a few others. There are plenty who have been poor, but Shelvey combines that with appearing not to try. I can forgive players for being crap and doing their best (though I'd still want them replaced). I can't forgive players for not leaving everything on the pitch.
Just home so thoughts on the game. I thought we were the better team, we were not outplayed and humiliated. We couldn't get a player in the positions Wilson would have found or Gayle would have found hence we couldn't score. We ****ed-about on the edges of the area either centrally with nobody finding space or on the wings with no one centrally. If ASM was meant to be the striker then this should have been explained at half time and this falls on Howe's shoulders. Joelinton - as much as he has been great recently is terrified to shoot and delays too much when offered the option in a more advanced role. Longstaff is ****ing gash, he is the worst one in midfield - I don't care what the haters say about Shelvey, Longstaff is total toss and I'd let him join Everton for nowt. Kraft was bullied and pushed off the ball from their number 9 who I thought was great for them effort wise. Trippier looked good, yes there was the occasional misunderstanding with Fraser on the right for one two's but that happens when you've not trained or played together. Dubz - Did what was required of him mostly but he is now dropping clangers regularly and rather than owning them he feigns injuries - That's ****ing pathetic and cowardly. We were thoroughly devoid of any intelligence positionally in the striking department and this was the downfall today. Well done Cambridge, I hope they had a great time, thought their fans were good. Hope our club donates all the gate receipts to them - if they don't refund us that endured that ****e today. The reason this is worse than Hereford is when we played Hereford, Stevenage etc - We were not the richest club in the world. The media will feast on this result for years to come.
What was Bruce’s record like this time last season? Bruces wins this season? 0 Howe 1 Awful team selection today and very bad result. Still has a lot to prove and with new signings will be hard to judge but until today he had us playing better than Bruce, this season. We’ll probably never get a chance for a straight comparison but frankly I saw nothing great under Bruce. Howe deserves time. We need to get behind him. He’s given the dross a chance and let them hang themselves. Wait and see what happens before overreacting, Pep couldn’t do much with this squad.
I don't agree that it was an awful team selection - it was the exact opposite. It was a strong team selection with the absence of a striker. Anyone know why Gayle wasn't on the bench - not his biggest fan but his awareness and positional sense was required today to poach a goal. Regardless - that team should have beat Mackem level opposition. No excuses.
It was pretty much the strongest we had available, but too many square pegs in round holes. Play your best team not your best (apparently) players.
That has been the general problem for years. Ever since Ashley discovered that he could borrow players rather than buy players whilst selling players.
Actually yes you’re right, the team selection was largely dictated by injury/covid. As for Stephenson, is he training with the first team? If not he may be in a different bubble so not considered because of that.
If he was on the match programme as I think someone had said then maybe he was lined up to play and became unavailable?
