I'm starting to think 7th/8th tbh. The only positive I see is we still have the 4 directly above us (and Chelsea just below us) to play and bar Tottenham everyone else is bottom half so it is still in our hands. Need to sort the defense out asap though as (bar Arsenal) we've scored 2+ goals in 8 of our last 9 games so we should be winning a lot more than we have been. Conceding 23 in our last 8 league games is not good enough however. I'd like to see Howe change it up to a 3 man defense, dropping Miley or Longstaff in CM for an extra CB and get Tino in at LWB until Willock is fully fit, even then I'd be tempted to go 3-5-2 with Gordon and Isak up top on the counter. Points win prizes and clean sheets guarantee points - conceding 3 goals a game is a recipe for disaster.
We desperately need to change but the issue we clearly have is our manager is so against change it’s never going to happen. He sticks with it hoping it comes good again. Until it doesn’t.
Trying to view it more positively. Our fixtures going forward are much better than Brightons and probably better than anyone elses in the league. We have none of the top 6 besides Man Utd to play. Plenty of points, and if we had beaten Bournemouth it would look much different and we were unlucky not to win since our GK slipping was the reason why they got anything from the game. Willock back and Isak back now. Lets see what happens. Lots can change. I'm going with 7th.
I get what you mean, our run is is by no means the most difficult out there. We've got Man U, Brighton, West Ham, Wolves and Spurs (all above us) and Chelsea, who could go above us if they win their game in hand. Six really tough games where we need to be winning them. Palace, Sheffield, Burnley, Brentford, Everton and Fulham are the other games and majority of those are very difficult as well. If we take the reverse fixtures from those 12 games - we'll get 23 points, 7 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses - that'll put us on 60 points and in the last 5 years that's been between 6th and 8th. But we'd need some very good results in there to do that - beating Man U, Chelsea for example. TBH with the form we are in I can't see that right now but you've gotta keep the faith right? Agree re the Bournemouth game though, just one of those tbh but the defence - which has been one of our strong points for the last 18 months or so - seems to have fallen apart since Xmas. I'd partly put that down to Pope being out but Dubravka and Karius aren't bad goalies, just teams seemed to have figured us out, so we need a change imo. Conceding an average of just shy of 3 goals a game across nearly a quarter of a season is a massive worry.
The good thing about it is we place west ham, wolves and brighton at home, which are 6pter games which gives us a big advantage. We can rely on Chelsea and brighton to be inconsistent. I mean look at Wolves they only scraped a win vs SHU. I think we are capable of putting a great run together. Like I said, if we hadn't have gotten unlucky, we'd have had a win vs Bournemouth and suddenly everything looks much better with Luton only being the really worrying and inexcusable result. Villa and Forest away were too very promising results. Regardless of competition we're scoring goals, and that's promising, it's just the defence we need sorting out and I think the addition of Willock in midfield to add more pressure to the opposition would really help. As much as I like Miley, he leaves a big defensive hole in our midfield. No pace, no defensive quality, but good technical ability. Willock will add pace, defensive cover and the odd goal and assist. Being without Willock and Joelinton has been a wake up call as to how thin we are and how much we rely on our midfield to cover the likes of Burn. I really would despite it if Burn starts against Wolves.
You are all slowly falling down the categories so why not just swallow your pride and join us in the last one.
Key point here, Howe seems oddly oblivious. Close down the desperately slow midfield, target left back, exploit the massive gap between midfield and centre forward, show Almiron/Gordon outside. We're unbelievably predictable.
I think Howe's plan works if you have the right players available. We often rely on trippier for right sided creativity but after 2 years it still kind of works. Just because you know what is coming doesn't mean you can stop but. But I agree we are predictable. We've recently benefited from Bruno being higher up the pitch I've realised. His inverted crosses are leading to a lot of chances.
I think the amount of pace we did have in midfield made up for the slow back line, but now we have no pace at the back or in midfield and we're being exposed. Without Tonali Willock or big joe we are far too static.
Howe does NOTHING... all he's done is avoid answering anything and just waited hoping for a better day... that's poor. I'm sorry but that won't be good enough.... when things get difficult you need someone with a bit more nouse.
You think you've got problems. Try having a manager who thinks playing with a high press whilst simultaneously playing with a low block is a good idea.
