First point - they were bad today but we played a rampant City team, they were better than us all over the park. There are weaker links - ie Trippier. Second point - yes, Botman and another signing in the summer. As I said though, I worry about Botman's fitness, and so the back up becomes key.
Isn't this like Botmans third knee injury since joining us? Maybe a visit to that American blonde who dealt with Shearers knee?
Schar has been one of our most consistent perfomers since he arrived and is the only one of the old guard who is a first team player - Longstaff, Laecelles etc are way behind. Even if Botman was fit, Schar was still one of the first names on the team sheet. We need a new CB in the summer, but Schar has always done a serious job for us.
Which I agreed with, hence I said "yes". Although I only see us signing one CB, but at least we know that'll definitely happen in the summer.
No you didn't you said something about crackers, Trippier and other points. Anyway you agree so that's sorted.
I said holy crap on a cracker when you said we had the worst CB in the division. We don't, that's ludicrous. The Trippier point was me pointing out that I thought he was the weak link rather than Schar. Defence was supposed to be Botman and another signing, but due to Botman's injuries and the Guehi fiasco, this is where we are. We need a new signing, but they sure as **** ain't the worst in the division.
I'm not having a meltdown about today. City are still miles and miles ahead of us, understandably. They have been dreadful for a while but almost beat Madrid, who would beat us all day, every day, and twice on Sunday. My only take was I think Howe got suckered in by how City have been for a while, rather than go cautious. He decided - completely wrongly - to just go with plan a, the 4-3-3. To compound this stupidity, he also wrongly thought Trippier and Dubs were decent, when the reality is they have had their best game in two years and the form of their life, respecitvely. Then you have Willock who blows more hot and cold than a mixer tap, Murphy completely off it and the rest below par, likely a result of the Cup result. For me, I would've had us play very similar to the Arsenal match - solid shape, 5 at the back, hit on the counter, Hall as a falseback, etc., etc. It's noted that Howe was the one who created this weirdly effective tactic, so it's even more baffling why he abandoned it against a team we struggle so badly against, the current champions. Botman and Joelinton, the only 'units' we have, both out was a problem Howe could do nothing about. I think 7th is barely ok as a league season measure. The point about our winning run is somewhat valid, but imagine if we hadn't had that streak, we'd be as low as Spurs and Man U, having lost a large number of poor matches. The Cup final is excellent, but only if we win it. Losing that and finishing 7th or lower is going to be a bad season, and I'd venture the last one Howe oversees.
You're literally saying if we hadn't won matches we'd be lower down in the league. We played City and they're better than us, stop over analysing it. If we've lost the last 15 games at the Etihad, anyone expecting anything other than a defeat today was insane. We lost a game we were extremely likely to lose, we move on.
7th would be a good season I think and making a second cup final shows huge progress. Once the cbs are improved, and one or two other areas, we'll be finishing top 6 maybe and just be a little more consistent in general. I said this at the time, but finishing 4th fooled some people into thinking that's where the club was now, but it was just a good season and nothing more. The patience asked for and the fact they said 5 to 10 years just vanished out of some people's minds altogether when we landed 4th.
I mean put it like that, sure it sounds daft, but you get the point! That our season has been up and down and the purple patch hasn’t really been reflective of the poor start or some overall inconsistency. But end of the day it did happen and we are where we are. Which is 7th, and in my mind not good enough. Surely I’m “allowed” to analyse on a forum, right?
I think 7th scrapes by as “ok”, thanks to the cup final. In isolation I think it’s not good enough. However we have forest and Liverpool next so could well be even lower. We’ll see at the end of the season as always, but I think no Europe will see someone big go.
We're the 7th best revenue, so it's par for the course. It's not even a guarantee we'll finish 7th though at this point. Fulham Brighton and Bournemouth all look better sides just now.
Yes, I watched them recently and us and they look much better at this point in time... I said just now. We've lost 3 in 4 now and have just lost miserably.
