For me this stuff will always happen under a manager like Howe. I know that sounds like the more ridiculous and unnecessary criticism, but it just feels like some people have an aura and he isn’t one. The odds always stack up against us, but I wonder how much has been genuinely avoidable. I don’t think Botman was managed even remotely correctly and maybe never gets back to where he was. Hall was/is a risk we can’t take, and certainly not if it means Trippier vs Diaz. Did we really need Gordon starting the cup match?
I completely get it’s absurd pinning little things on Howe but it’s more just this stuff seems to keep happening. So I apologise for another anti-Howe sentiment and nothing would make me happier than for me to eat this hat, humble pie and for us to win a pot against all odds.
Thing for me is how small minded we still seem, the Eales interview was all jolly sound bites and yet more distant promises. Keegan was wheeled out by local press saying we should stick with the manager because Eddie “gets it” - was that Liverpools pre-requisite for Klopp or Slot, or City’s for Guardiola? Why do we have to stick by a bloke who seems to never be able to have the best XI players on the pitch, ever, let alone threaten to win anything? I’d be genuinely amazed if we get into Europe let alone win anything. It really hits me Villa getting all the things right at just the right time, yet we whimpered out of more or less every major and important match we’ve had in the last three years, with PSG and Arsenal being the exceptions rather than the rule.
Anyway, let’s see - stranger things have happened. Probably.