In his defence he was sighting various reasons behind a poor performance, but the fact the performance was significantly worse after his changes was never acknowledged.
Last winters window we spent money? On who? Last window very very little but you know that. Previous to that he had money but had to boost up a very bad squad which you well know. Some are still here which you remind us of regularly ad nauseum. Of course other teams haven’t spent in that time either have they.
The performance got worse at half time and didn’t get better. Half time being before the subs who included Gordon and Tonali that everyone would have brought on. Tonali was awful.
Newcastle are the 5th highest spenders in the league under Howe and currently have the 9th most expensive side in the world. He's been backed massively
What position did he start from compared to the others in the PL? The world is irrelevant we play in the richest league.
So perhaps the right metric is how expensive this side is, how high our salaries are and where we sit in this league? Would that be a fair comparison? I dunno, it bemuses me as to why we have to keep creating arguments for a manager who is just getting worse. Why is there this bizarre loyalty for the bloke, what is it he’s done that needs such unwavering favouritism?
Fact is all 4 goals conceded were bad defending by individuals and giving the ball away. That’s on those players no the manager, tactics or training. Isak fluffed a golden opportunity, nothing to do with the manager. Murphy and Tonali both fluffed headers where the could have scored. That’s nothing to do with the manager. Longstaff, Bruno and Almiron among others all failed to hit the target with good opportunities. That’s not down to the manager. The team let down the fans today.
There’s so much more to it than that. Protection for a creaking defence, tweaks to the system, then the legacy stuff of not buying stupidly, like Barnes. It all leads to where we are - flapping around with inconsistencies in our play, a struggle to define the identity, a lack of balance,
Defend properly which they can and hit the target and we win that game. Simple stuff and nothing to do with identity, balance or anything else. It’s on the players today.
Argue all you like but 2 wins in 11 and a team that can only play on the counter is just a continuation from last season. We are stale and in fact we are in danger of regression. Howe needs to change his approach, try something different but I just dont think he can. I hope that we spend in January but I hope its Mitchell that is making the decisions and not Howe as I dont think Howe will be the manager after this season.
